Look carefully at the B-17 and note how shot up it is - one engine dead, tail, horizontal stabilizer and nose shot up. It was ready to fall out of the sky. Then realize that there is a German ME-109 fighter flying next to it. Now read the story below. I think you'll be surprised.....


Charlie Brown was a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot with the 379th Bomber Group at Kimbolton , England . His B-17 was called 'Ye Old Pub' and was in a terrible state, having been hit by flak and fighters. The compass was damaged and they were flying deeper over enemy territory instead of heading home to Kimbolton.
After flying over an enemy airfield, a German pilot named Franz Steigler was ordered to take off and shoot down the B-17. When he got near the B-17, he could not believe his eyes. In his words, he 'had never seen a plane in such a bad state'. The tail and rear section was severely damaged, and the tail gunner wounded. The top gunner was all over the top of the fuselage. The nose was smashed and there were holes everywhere.

Despite having ammunition, Franz flew to the side of the B-17 and looked at Charlie Brown, the pilot.. Brown was scared and struggling to control his damaged and blood-stained plane.

Aware that they had no idea where they were going, Franz waved at Charlie to turn 180 degrees. Franz escorted and guided the stricken plane to, and slightly over the North Sea towards England . He then saluted Charlie Brown and turned away, back to Europe .
When Franz landed he told the CO that the plane had been shot down over the sea, and never told the truth to anybody. Charlie Brown and the remains of his crew told all at their briefing, but were ordered never to talk about it.
More than 40 years later, Charlie Brown wanted to find the Luftwaffe pilot who saved the crew. After years of research, Franz was found. He had never talked about the incident, not even at post-war reunions.

Th ey met in the US at a 379th Bomber Group reunion, together with 25 people who are alive now - all because Franz never fired his guns that day .

Pretty cool!

Id guess the picture at the top is just a painting and not a actual photo?

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to turn 180 degrees

How did he manage to make the 180 degree turn with all those control surfaces shot away?

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How did he manage to make the 180 degree turn with all those control surfaces shot away?

Very carefully!!

Who took the picture?

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Originally posted by D Humbarger:

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to turn 180 degrees

How did he manage to make the 180 degree turn with all those control surfaces shot away?

He probably just used the natural tendency of the plane to circle with an engine out.

Some peoples hearts are in the correct place, regardless of the situation.

I could be wrong but that looks like a painting. As for the story, that is awesome!!!

Yea, id say it has to be a visual recreation painting, otherwise who the heck took the photo

Did a little more reading -- One version of this amazing story of chivalry has it that the oxygen system on "ye old pub" was damaged while at 25,000 ft. Witnesses said the plane spiraled down. The crew blacked out. Charlie Brown awoke at less than 1000 ft and found the plane flying level. It then passed over a German airfield where Franz Stigler was reloading his guns. Stigler went up to finish off the B-17 but evidently decided not to shoot it down after seeing how shot up it and the crew was. Twice he tried to force Charlie Brown to land but he would not.

Stigler recalled his commander in North Africa telling him that if he ever shot a pilot in a parachute he (the commander) would shoot Stigler. The compass system on ye old pub was damaged and Stigler then guided the B-17 to a heading over the North Sea.

It was 21 yr. old Charlie Browns first mission. He was wounded in the arm. Seven out of ten of his crew were wounded. He retired a lt. Col. and died last year.

Stigler lived to 92 years. He began as a German pilot at age 12 and made 28 allied kills. Stigler was shot down 17 times and was one of approximately 1,200 pilots out of Germanys approximately 30,000 pilots to survive the war. He moved to Canada after the war.

Charlie Brown was assigned to "Carol Dawn" and completed his tour in that B-17. Carol Dawn completed 125 missions despite being shot down twice.

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Originally posted by SR4759:

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Originally posted by D Humbarger:

quote:

to turn 180 degrees

How did he manage to make the 180 degree turn with all those control surfaces shot away?

He probably just used the natural tendency of the plane to circle with an engine out.

Multiengined aircraft turn very nicely by throttle manipulation...

Remember the DC10 into SouixCity Iowa?

throttles were all he had.

AD

http://aviationartstore.com/charles_brown_2.htm

If the account in the above link is accurate he ended up with 3 out of 4 engines not operating. What is interesting to me is not how he turned it but how he flew it straight. One leg must have been a little tired by the time he got back to England.

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How did he manage to make the 180 degree turn with all those control surfaces shot away?

With God, all things are possible...

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Originally posted by Palmer:
http://aviationartstore.com/charles_brown_2.htm

If the account in the above link is accurate he ended up with 3 out of 4 engines not operating. What is interesting to me is not how he turned it but how he flew it straight. One leg must have been a little tired by the time he got back to England.

Yeah, doesn't look like he has any rudder trim left. Amazing incident. Miraculous, actually.

I know that it was not uncommon for abandoned "ghost" bombers to glide in and crash land nearly intact in England, Scotland and even Ireland after their crews bailed out over Holland or Germany while already on the return leg of a bombing mission

Remember that these returning bombers have already delivered their payloads and burned more than half of their fuel, if an 8-10man crew also bails out that makes the aircraft even lighter....
allowing one of these "ghost" bombers to glide for amazing distances...

there are ways other than rudder to control an aircraft that wants to turn because of a power assymetry....

Adverse yaw comes to mind...

the trick is finding and maintaining a cooperative bank angle.... I suggest that a man desperate to get home will show determination and ingenuity beyond what we can think up sitting at the comfort of our computer chairs...

another way would be if you had two dead engines on one side and both had feathered props, intentionally let the dead engine on the side with the still running engine windmill (particularly if the dead engine on that side
was an outboard) to create counter-balancing drag...

You'd have a greater sink rate, but it could be worse... you could have no attitude control at all... or you could be watching the aircraft fall out of the sky while you dangled from a parachute comtemplating the next few years in a POW camp.... presuming you acted quickly enough to egress the aircraft before getting trapped inside it...

Lastly remember that the picture shown is a artist's rendering and the dammage is likely exaggerated
as I've seen pics and film sequences of B17s with less
control dammage gyrating like an Olympic figuire skater
on their way... six miles DOWN, to "lawn-dart" into some part of the european countryside.

With what looks like the entire starboard side horizontal stabilizer gone why isn't that aircraft pitched down at >35degrees?

Apparently an unloaded B-17 could be managed with half of the horizontal missing.

This damage came from a collision with an enemy fighter.





Rocket damage




1000 lb bomb knocked off the horizontal on one side.




flak hit


Cause of damage unknown

Just goes to show you that, Professional Soldiers, even your enemy, can be Honorable Men.

However in this "Modern Era" it seems that Honor is in short supply.