pilot humphrey and his crew were returning from a bombing run on the east's factories, the b17 was heavily damaged two engines were destroyed one was barely operational the other was mostly fine, the tail was in pieces and barely functional, the wings were full of holes so was the body, the cockpit window was destroyed blowing cold air inside the plane freezing the tail gun and crew, the only gun operational was the ball turret on the belly of the plane,the crew was badly injured they lost a crew member who was decapitated by a flak shell that went though the plane and exploded above them the other crew members were injured from shrapnel, it was a miracle that the plane was still flying, they were flying low trying to get to the coast and fly home but the east's best AA gunners were on the coast
soon the b17 flew over an enemy airfield were fighter ace garth was refueling and rearming, he spotted the b17 knowing that he would be given a medal for shooting it down, but as he approached he noticed many things, there was nobody on any of the guns, the plane was somehow managing to fly, he could see into the plane and he saw the fear on the faces of the crew, he could not bring himself to shoot them down, garth flew next to the cockpit window... or well whats left of it and waited for the pilot to notice him
humphrey so was focused on getting to the coast that it took him a minute to see the enemy pilot on his right and saw the pilot was trying to tell him something
garth was pointing at the ground and mouthing words to the other pilot trying to get them to land and surrender, when he saw that they weren't going to land he stayed with them, soon they flew over the coast and no AA guns fired at them or him since he could be considered a traitor and be executed, garth stayed with them for a little longer before giving the enemy pilot a salute and flying off
forty years later the two pilots met in person and became best friends, and garth said in an interveiw that he was told by an ace before his first mission that "if i ever see or hear of you shooting at a man in a parachute i will shoot you myself" and he felt like that bomber crew was like a man in a parachute, he could not bring himself to shoot them down
story name - real name - country
garth - Franz stigler - Germany
humphrey - Charlie brown - America
i wrote this story in memory of these two pilots and the act of chivalry the German pilot displayed
there is a song about this event, the song is called 'no bullets fly' by sabaton