THE VOICE WITHIN

Is it possible to have compassion for a stricken adversary, to be merciful to an enemy who had come as an attacker in the first place? Coach Muller shares this true story ‘Showing Mercy in the Midst of War’ that unfolded during World War II in the skies over Europe.

Charlie Brown was a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot with the 379th Bomber Group at Kimbolton, England. His B-17, called ‘Ye Old Pub’, was in a terrible state, having been hit by flak and fighters. The compass was damaged and they were flying deeper and deeper into enemy territory instead of heading home to Kimbolton.

After flying the B-17 over an enemy airfield, a German pilot Franz Steigler was ordered to take off and shoot down the intruder.

When he got closer to the B-17, Steigler 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, the tail gunner was wounded and the top gunner was all over the top of the fuselage. The nose of the plane was smashed and there were holes everywhere.

Despite having ammunition, Franz flew to the side of the B-17 and looked at the English pilot. He saw that Charlie 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 around 180 degrees, escorting and guiding the stricken plane back to the North Sea and to England. He then saluted Charlie Brown, turned away and headed back towards Europe.

When Franz landed, he told his commanding officer that he had shot down the B-17 over the sea. He never told the truth to anyone.

Meanwhile, back in England, Charlie Brown and the remains of his crew told everyone at their briefing what had happened, but were then ordered never to talk about it.

More than 40 years later, Charlie Brown wanted to find the German Luftwaffe pilot who had saved his crew. After years of research, Franz was finally found. He had never talked about the incident, not even at post-war reunions.

The two pilots met in America at the 379th Bomber Group reunion, together with 25 people who are now alive — all because Franz showed mercy and compassion and never fired his guns that day.

When asked why he didn’t shoot them down, Stigler later said, “I didn’t have the heart to finish off those brave men. I flew beside them for a long time. They were desperately trying to get home and I was going to let them do that. I could not have shot at them. It would have been the same as shooting a man in a parachute.”

Muller has a question for readers: “How many of us have ever been in a situation that we could actually take out our hate and anger on our enemy, and then decided to show mercy and do the honorable thing — take the high road and help them?”

Having compassion and mercy for our enemies is not for the faint-hearted, for those who would rather take the easy way out in the heat of battle. Which is why Muller ends with the words of the Dalai Lama — “Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength”.

— the harbinger