Mercy Above Enemy Lines

American bombers over Europe in World War II suffered a catastrophic “loss rate of 51 percent, the highest casualty rate of any of the Commonwealth’s armed forces in the war.”[1] And Ye Olde Pub, piloted by Second Lieutenant Charles Brown, was about to be among them. With half the crew injured (a tail gunner dead), the crippled B-17 staggered, barely, through hostile territory. Whatever far-fetched hope the crew embraced about survival collapsed when a lone German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter appeared in the sky. But instead of shooting them down, the fighter pilot guided the bomber past German antiaircraft guns and out to sea, saluted the crew, and disappeared from their lives.

Marrying, raising a family, living the American dream, Charles Brown never stopped wondering: Who risked so much (if caught, the fighter pilot, with little fanfare, would have been shot) in order to save his enemies?Finally, in 1989, Brown put an ad in a newsletter for former Luftwaffe pilots, asking for help identifying the pilot.

The next year he got a letter from Vancouver, Canada, which began: “All these years I wondered what happened to the B-17; did she make it or not?”[2] Franz Stigler claimed to have been that pilot. Instead of writing back, Charles dialed Vancouver information, got a number, and called. Someone picked up.

“Is this Mr. Franz Stigler?” Charlie asked.

“Ja,” Franz replied. “This is he.”

“The Franz Stigler who flew in World War II?” Charlie asked.

“Ja,” Franz replied, sounding confused.

“Franz, I think we go way back. This is Charlie Brown.”[3]

After getting answers to questions that only the Messerschmitt pilot could have gotten correct, Charlie Brown knew that he had found his man. Though having already lost a brother in the war, when Franz Stigler, who subsequently built a life in Canada, had encountered the helpless B-17, he just couldn’t shoot it down. It would have been, he thought, murder. Instead, he guided it to safety.

Loving Jesus is easy because Jesus is lovable. Real Christianity is loving Judas.

Enemies once sworn to kill each other, Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler became friends and traveled together telling their story. But it wasn’t just theirs. After the two met in an airplane hangar, two other men approached.

An excerpt from a book about them:

“ ‘Franz, there’s two gentlemen who would like to meet you,’ Charlie said, fighting a grin. He steered Franz out from under the wing and into the light. The first veteran to reach Franz was Charlie’s old ball turret gunner, Sam ‘Blackie’ . . . [who] started crying as he shook Franz’s hand vigorously, refusing to stop. The other veteran was Charlie’s radio operator, Dick Pechout . . . [who] looped his arms over Franz and Blackie, hugging them. Blackie broke down. Through sobs, he thanked Franz for sparing his life and said that because Franz had not pulled the trigger on him, his children and grandchildren were able to experience life. Pechout draped his arms silently around Franz and the others as the four huddled.”[4]

What can one say? “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10). While we were enemies, in rebellion, estranged and alienated from our Maker—Christ died for us anyway. Ellen White wrote that because of our evil, the unfallen worlds, and Satan, thought that God would sweep us away. “But instead of destroying the world, God sent His Son to save it.”[5]

Pastor Randy Roberts of the Loma Linda University church preached that loving Jesus is easy because “Jesus is lovable.” Real Christianity, he said, is “loving Judas.” It’s not easy, is it? I had a friend who became not only anti-Semitic but a Holocaust denier, the vilest kind of anti-Semite. Though I don’t hate him, I can’t say that I love him, not even close.

Yet with stories like the one above, but especially with the image of Jesus dying for His enemies, such love is an ideal to pray for and strive after, however elusive.

[1] Donald L. Miller, Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany, p. 471 (Function), Kindle Edition.

[2] Adam Makos and Larry Alexander, A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II (Penguin Publishing Group, 2012), p. 359, Kindle Edition.

[3] Ibid., p. 361.

[4] Ibid., p. 367.

[5] Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1898, 1940), p. 37.