The pilots slept in 6-foot holes they'd dug in the desert for protection from British air attacks. A highly decorated young ace fighter pilot told Franz that once a person enjoyed killing, he would be a lost man.įranz's squadron followed Rommel east into Egypt 'far from their ports and supply lines while pushing the British closer to theirs.' The German pilots and their fighters were worn to the bone. Franz's commanding officers taught him to fight with honor - not to shoot a defenseless enemy in his parachute, not to count 'kills' but count victories, to shoot at a machine and not a man. The British pilots outnumbered the German's five to one. Franz flew a Messerschmitt Bf109 against the P-40s of the British Desert Air Force. In 1942, Franz was sent to North Africa to backup General Erwin Rommel and the German Wehrmacht as they fought to capture the Suez Canal from the British. Franz resigned as an instructor and volunteered to be a fighter pilot. Upon learning of his brother's death, 'Franz's grief chilled into hate.' He had believed Hitler's lies that Germany had invaded Poland in self-defense, and now Franz blamed the British for enlarging the conflict into a world war. In 1940, after Germany had occupied most of Europe, and the Luftwaffe was bombing English cities at night, Franz's brother's plane crashed at takeoff in France. Franz's family was anti-Nazi, but German young men weren't given the option to avoid the military, not unless they wanted to end up in a concentration camp. Franz did everything in his power to prepare his new student for war because it was obvious that Germany was preparing for one. One day Franz's older brother surprised him by showing up for flight training. In 1937, two years before WWII started, Franz received orders from the new German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, to train pilots how to fly long distances using instruments. The German government provided his training, and Lufthansa, Europe's largest airline, hired him when he was only eighteen years old. By the time Franz was seventeen, he knew he wanted to fly every day for the rest of his life. Several months later, with a sandbag tied around his waist, he successfully launched and landed the rebuilt glider. Because he didn't weigh enough, the plane crashed, and Franz sustained minor injuries. At the age of twelve, Franz soloed in a home-built glider. His father, a former WWI pilot, instilled a love of flying in his sons. This is their story.įranz Stigler was born and raised in Bavaria, southern Germany. World War II is full of many miraculous acts of bravery and survival, but the encounter of Franz Stigler and Charlie Brown over the skies of Germany in 1943 is one of the most profound. Restored B-17 Bomber - Creative Commons via Wikipedia - Author Airwolfhound

Franz stigler e charlie brown