The story continued mostly about Franz and the difficulty of his next two years under the failing German fighting. he continued half-hearted and witnessed the hell that the people were going through due to the greed of Hitler and Goering. Goering in one part showed his absolute evil in refusing to give the Air Force the newly minted Jet fighters and kept them for the bombers as the Air force went on with younger and less trained pilots in older and worse planes. Anyone who follows WW-II flying is widely aware that we must look past the governments they had to serve to judge the man and his actions. This book stands apart as a shining example of the humanity of warriors and the healing of wounds with time. Franz was credited with 28 confirmed victories and over thirty probables. He flew 487 combat missions, was wounded four times, and was shot down seventeen times, four by enemy fighters, four by ground fire, and nine times by gunners on American bombers. He bailed out six times and rode his damaged aircraft down eleven times. His other works include Voices of the Pacific (2013), based on a collection of oral histories of marines and seamen who served in the Pacific during the Second World War.

I just finished reading A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World While ace records keepers might wonder where his score would be today since he claimed hardly any kills for years after sparing this one crew - that's the point! He clearly was in the company of ace 'giants' whose actual scores were public. For Mr. Stigler, such things were a shameful burden he avoided, and he refocused his job on keeping the rookies alive and competent for their own sakes, and the illusory glory of war was lost to his earlier overachieving self. Captain Charlie Brown of the U.S. Army’s 8th Air Force and his B-17 crew are vividly portrayed in the book as well. That unit lost “more men in the war than the U.S. Marine Corps.” They fought in intolerable conditions, with below freezing temperatures causing frostbite if you weren’t careful, sitting in seats as a pilot for seven or eight hours a mission, and having to use oxygen because of the thin air at 25,000 feet.There are the personal moral dilemmas in any war. And morality comes into conflict with the immorality of war, taking its toll on the conscience and the dedication to duty and honor, a code of honor certainly not practiced by the despicable Gestapo but expressed by many in the German air force. Nazis were a rarity in that air armada. Once you were accepted, you couldn’t join the Nazi Party. Stigler’s commander early on had this to say about honor and decency in war: “Every single time you go up, you’ll be outnumbered. Those odds may make a man want to fight dirty to survive. But let what I’m about to say to you act as a warning. Honor is everything here. What will you do…for instance if you find your enemy floating in a parachute? If I ever see or hear of you shooting at a man in a parachute, I will shoot you down myself. You follow the rules of war for you, not for your enemy. You fight by rules to keep your humanity.” What happened next would defy imagination and later be called “the most incredible encounter between enemies in World War II.”

Adam Makos was brought up on the outskirts of Williamsport, Pennsylvania. [1] He completed his early education from Montoursville Area High School. [2] At the age of 15 years, while in high school, he started to write military history and was one of the founding members of Ghost Wings, a forerunner to Valor, a magazine depicting veterans' stories. [3] [4] He was a member of the school's French club and was signed up for a trip to Paris until opting to go to Walt Disney World with his family. [2] The clubs flight to Paris was the fatal TWA Flight 800, which has been a major life changing event for him. [3] In 2003 he graduated from Lycoming College. [3] [5] Career [ edit ] I found the part about Franz's service in LuftWaffe including the conflict between LuftWaffe's aces and it's Nazi high commander Hermann Goring especially interesting. December, 1943: A badly damaged American bomber struggles to fly over wartime Germany. At the controls is twenty-one-year-old Second Lieutenant Charlie Brown. Half his crew lay wounded or dead on this, their first mission. Suddenly, a Messerschmitt fighter pulls up on the bomber’s tail. The pilot is German ace Franz Stigler—and he can destroy the young American crew with the squeeze of a trigger… a b c Steward, Marcia Reyes (December 2014). "A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II". The Army Lawyer. 20: 20. Adam Makos, the author of this remarkably poignant book, asks a question in the beginning: “Can good men be found on both sides of a bad war?” By “bad war” he says he means an “imprudent” one, one that’s impractical with no sense attached to it. I would have asked the question without the “bad” attached to the word war. All wars are imprudent and senseless in their violence and cruelty. That modified question, however, is answered through the encounter of two flyers, Franz Stigler and Charlie Brown, who fought in World War II and whose lives and connection are perceptively and compellingly chronicled in this book.

This book is written so well and the characters centered in and around this story portrayed so richly, that at the end I felt like I knew each and every one of them. I felt like I experienced everything with them. And I have to applaude Adam Makos for executing this heroic and awe inspiring story so well. Do the two men meet years later to discuss that amazing day? For that, you’ll have to read the story. This is the true story of the two pilots whose lives collided in the skies that day—the American—2nd Lieutenant Charlie Brown, a former farm boy from West Virginia who came to captain a B-17—and the German—2nd Lieutenant Franz Stigler, a former airline pilot from Bavaria who sought to avoid fighting in World War II. War II. I was a little skeptical about the use of the word "incredible" in the title. I discovered that the author chose it for the best of reasons- it's totally accurate. This is an incredible book to read and experience from a personal and historical point of view; plus the story it weaves about two pilots from opposing sides is truly incredible! It is difficult to write this review without sounding sappy or as if I am gushing...it is that good.

What happened next would defy imagination and later be called "the most incredible encounter between enemies in World War II."On one hand, there is an account of an American bomber crew who survived at both the mercy, grace, and self-sacrificing chivalry of their opponent. But theirs is the highlight side story tale, which brought this bio to life. An absolutely brilliant work! I cannot say enough of this true World War Two account of Franz Stigler and Charlie Brown. I’ve read many accounts where soldiers from both sides would come to meet one another during a lull in the action. There are countless stories of this occurring in World War I and II. Many of them occur around Christmas when it’s “Good will towards men.” This is an incredibly emotional story that was both informative, intriguing, and easily visualized. It's not often true stories can hold a readers attention so well, but this one far surpassed what I expected. The moment between Franz and Charlie is brief compared to the extent of the rest of the book, but I wasn't bored in the least. You get to see both Franz and Charlie's life before and after which gave me so much information about the Air Force, lifestyle and thinking of that day.

I realized while reading this how easy it is to come up with a pre-judged idea of one side during a war. I learned so much about the German Air Force that I never knew...they were NOT joined with the SS and one place said many of the German pilots feared Goering more than the Allied pilots. That just barely scratches the service of the details given that I know I will be referencing in the future. Franz Stigler started flying gliders at age 12 and soloed in a bi-plane in 1933. He joined Lufthansa, becoming an Airline Captain, before joining the Luftwaffe in 1940. There, he became an instructor pilot, with one of his students being Gerhard Barkhorn, who would later become the second highest scoring Ace in history with over 300 victories. Adam's coverage of the German fighter pilot's side was the most complete I have ever read and it provided new insight into a side of things I never thought I'd be able to read. And American B-17 bomber pilot Charley Brown's insistance that Adam focus on German figher pilot Franz Stigler's side as the real story turned it from an interesting story to a poignant personal story of how things really were. Thank God that Charley Brown knew where the real story was and pushed for it to be told from that point of view. That turned the book from just a very good book into an amazing read. The story is well told. Adam Makos presents the lives and fates of the American and the German pilots in parallel, as a joint fictionalized memoir, in third person narration. He spent some 8 years on interviewing the protagonists, researching, and finally writing the book.Anyone who has professes to have a genuine interest in the human side of war, especially if you are willing to think about the War in Europe from the perspective of either side, represented by German ace Franz Stigler, and the American side, represented by B-17 pilot Charlie Brown; this book is a must read for you. I was deeply moved while reading many parts of this book-several times to tears, such that I closed it up for a while to let the visual pictures in my head reside there, quietly. Makos is editor of a military history magazine, Valor. [4] He writes regularly about the Second World War and as in the book, he relates some of his work to his own life changing experiences. [5] He describes the book title as "one man's humanity over his nationality". [6] Summary [ edit ] I have to say this book is mainly about the German pilot who according to his amarican counterpart was the ‘hero of this story’.