Once Enemies, Always Brothers

[Smudger]

Two enemies discover a "higher call" in battle - CNN

The pilot glanced outside his cockpit and froze. He blinked hard and looked again, hoping it was just a mirage. But his co-pilot stared at the same horrible vision.

"My God, this is a nightmare," the co-pilot said.


"He's going to destroy us," the pilot agreed.


The men were looking at a gray German Messerschmitt fighter hovering just three feet off their wingtip. It was five days before Christmas 1943, and the fighter had closed in on their crippled American B-17 bomber for the kill.
The B-17 pilot, Charles Brown, was a 21-year-old West Virginia farm boy on his first combat mission. His bomber had been shot to pieces by swarming fighters, and his plane was alone in the skies above Germany. Half his crew was wounded, and the tail gunner was dead, his blood frozen in icicles over the machine guns.


But when Brown and his co-pilot, Spencer "Pinky" Luke, looked at the fighter pilot again, something odd happened. The German didn't pull the trigger. He nodded at Brown instead. What happened next was one of the most remarkable acts of chivalry recorded during World War II. Years later, Brown would track down his would-be executioner for a reunion that reduced both men to tears.

Pretty good read on an American Bomber Crew spared certain destruction by a Luftwaffe fighter pilot. The two pilots re-united years later & became very close friends. I've read a few different accounts of similar situations & reunions years later as well, especially with German & British Pilots.

Actually read about one of an American pilot who had ejected his burning plane & while parachuting down was spared....by a Japanese fighter pilot, who gave him a salute no less. That story was far more remarkable given the utterly ruthless manner in which the Japanese fought. They routinely shot at stranded parachuting pilots (Many times more than was necessary) & especially while they were in the water. I would be lying if I said we didn't engage in that same behavior however. Anyways, those two pilots actually re-united years later as well.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/09/living/higher-call-military-chivalry/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

 

[scooter1369]

Two enemies discover a "higher call" in battle - CNN



Pretty good read on an American Bomber Crew spared certain destruction by a Luftwaffe fighter pilot. The two pilots re-united years later & became very close friends. I've read a few different accounts of similar situations & reunions years later as well, especially with German & British Pilots.

Actually read about one of an American pilot who had ejected his burning plane & while parachuting down was spared....by a Japanese fighter pilot, who gave him a salute no less. That story was far more remarkable given the utterly ruthless manner in which the Japanese fought. They routinely shot at stranded parachuting pilots (Many times more than was necessary) & especially while they were in the water. I would be lying if I said we didn't engage in that same behavior however. Anyways, those two pilots actually re-united years later as well.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/09/living/higher-call-military-chivalry/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Stories of patrols encountering enemy patrols in the Ardennes near Christmas time have been circulating for decades. Germans and Americans, cold and weary, pointmen see each other, nervously nod to the other and peel off in opposite directions.

Sometimes its easy to foget that the guy wearing the other uniform is a human too. He has a family back home that doesn't want to receive a flag next week.

 

[Smudger]

Stories of patrols encountering enemy patrols in the Ardennes near Christmas time have been circulating for decades. Germans and Americans, cold and weary, pointmen see each other, nervously nod to the other and peel off in opposite directions.

Sometimes its easy to foget that the guy wearing the other uniform is a human too. He has a family back home that doesn't want to receive a flag next week.

I'm sure there are a few stories like this from the Western Front in both the air & on the ground. While at the same time, there were also instances where both sides were completely ruthless to each other. There was at least some semblance of respect for the enemy on that front compared to the others where that line was smashed into oblivion & virtually non-existent. The article briefly mentions an instance like this would've been virtually impossible on the Eastern Front & in the Pacific Theater.

 

[Muck]

The Pacific Theater vets that I know to a man have a severe dislike for the Japanese to this day.

 

[AKAK]

My Grandfather was a B-17 flight engineer in the early part of the 8th Air Force's involvement. He was later active in the Confederate/Comemerative Airforce. One of their members was a Focke-Wulf 190 pilot, who, tangled on occasion with B-17's around the same time. At any rate, aside from thier mutaul like for aircraft of thier "vintage" they became close friends, of all things because they liked to paint. (Its one of my Grandmothers great laments that she made my Grandfather take watercolor classes with her and he apparently had natural ability, she did not.)

At any rate, the Luftwaffe pilot wasn't too bad of an artist and shortly follwign my grandfather's death, he presented my Grandmother with a portrait of my Grandfather with a B-17 flying into the sunset in the background.

 

[Apache]

What a documentary, what a historical human piece, what a book this would/could be! Humanity in the midst of the most inhumane pieces of human history. If I had the time and the talent what a life's work this could become.

Semper Fidelis & Semper Frateres