A Higher Call

Adam Makos, Larry Alexander 2013 Bvtn 940.5443

• Franz Stigler, German fighter ace from Bavaria, later to Vancouver BC
• Charlie Brown, 8th Air Force B17F captain from West Virginia

Mostly about Stigler

• Catholic, brother August anti-Hitler, who died flying a Ju-88 bomber in 1940
• 1927 flew in homebuilt glider as adolescent p25 "The eagles know where the good air is - follow them"
• 1936 Lufthansa pilot
• 1938 "drafted" as He-72 flight instructor for Luftwaffe
• April to September 1942 Flying Messerschmitt BF-109s in North Africa
• April to August 1943 Sicily, then Germany

Charlie Brown

• p150 error during crew training in 1943 Texas: "Pechout ... would have preferred to stay in the barracks examining its (radio) tubes and transistor chips rather than go hell-raising ..." no transistors before the 1950s

• p154 Dec 20 1943 379th Bomb Group at Kimbolton north of London. 10 man crew on Ye Olde Pub

• p174 error "The aluminum (skin) ... was only a few centimeters thick ..." millimeters?

• p180 engine failure after raid on Bremen, FW190 fighter attack, p185 "slowly dismembered"

• p190 Stigler ME109 From Jever, p200 finds Pub

• p202 This will be no victory for me. Franz decided. I will not have this on my conscience for the rest of my life.

• Stigler first tries to get them to land as POW, then point them east toward Sweden, then peels off after less than 10 minutes
• p214 landed at Seething 448th Bomb Group

Stigler

• 1945 Adolf Galland Me-262 jet training at Lechfeld in southern Germany, 900 km/h ("575 miles per hour", 925 km/h)
• Mar 1945 Stigler joins "Galland's Circus" at Brandenburg Airfield

• Apr 28 1945 Stigler flies jet to Salzberg Austria, drives kettenrad motorbike halftrack, then walks to Berchtesgaden to surrender to the Americans

• 1947 in Straubing, making sewing machines, marries Eva
• 1953 Canada, logging camp in the Queen Charlotte Islands, divorced Eva in 1954
• 1956, marries Hiya
• 1980 retired, flew in air shows with an Me 108 4 seat transport painted like an Me 109
• 1995 Boeing 50th anniversary for B17
• Jan 18, 1990 Letter with details from Stigler to Charles Brown
• June 21 1990 Meet in Seattle