War Stories

JeremyClarkson

JeremyClarkson

Active member
This one is pretty crazy. Its a true story that took place in WW2.

2ND Lt. Charlie Brown was a B-17F Flying Fortress pilot with the 379th

Bomber Group at Kimbolton, England. His B-17F was called “Ye Olde 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. Most of the tail & half of the stabilizer were gone.

After flying over an enemy airfield, a pilot named Franz Stigler

was ordered to take off and shoot down the B-17F. 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 2nd Lt. Charlie Brown, Lt. Brown was scared and

struggling to control his damaged and bloodstained 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 C.O. that the plane had been shot

down over the sea, and never told the truth to anybody. Charlie Brown and

the remainder 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 postwar

reunions.

They met in the USA at a 379th Bomber Group reunion, together

with 25 people who are alive now - all because Franz never fired his guns

that day.

Research shows that 2nd Lt. Charlie Brown lived in Seattle and Franz

Stigler had moved to Vancouver, BC after the war. When they finally met,

they discovered they had lived less than 200 miles apart for the past 50

years!
 
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If you think thats crazy, read "Half a Wing, Three Engines and A Prayer". Pretty much over the B-17 squadrons that flew missions over Germany. Has tons of stories in there about how many B-17s that made it back barely flyable.
 
you needed balls of steel to be in the air force. specially the american because they flew during the day. the 8th air force death rate was crazy high.
 
because the north american hand signal for stop is the middle eastern equivalent for 'come here i want to talk to you'
 
I did a project on the Medal of Honor in High School and some of the stories I found never ceased to amaze me. It's a long story so I understand if you don't want to read it but stories like these made me gain an unbelievable amount of respect for some of those who fight for our country.

Medal of Honor Recipient Michael E. Thornton.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while participating in a daring operation against enemy forces. PO Thornton, as Assistant U.S. Navy Officer, along with a U.S. Navy lieutenant serving as Senior Officer, accompanied a 3-man Vietnamese Navy SEAL patrol on an intelligence gathering and prisoner capture operation against an enemy-occupied naval river base.

Launched from a Vietnamese Navy junk in a rubber boat, the patrol reached land and was continuing on foot toward its objective when it suddenly came under heavy fire from a numerically superior force. The patrol called in naval gunfire support and then engaged the enemy in a fierce firefight, accounting for many enemy casualties before moving back to the waterline to prevent encirclement. Upon learning that his Senior Officer had been hit by enemy fire and was believed to be dead, PO Thornton ran 500 yards through a hail of gunfire to the lieutenant's last position and quickly disposed of 2 enemy soldiers standing directly over the officer, about to finish him. He lifted Lt Norris over his shoulder and carried the severely wounded and unconscious Senior Naval officer all the way back to the water's edge.

He then inflated the lieutenant's lifejacket and swam him seaward for 2 hours until they were both picked up by support craft. By his extraordinary courage and perseverance, PO Thornton was directly responsible for saving the life of his superior officer and enabling the safe extraction of all patrol members, thereby upholding the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
 
i guess if you don't really care about seeing a visual reenactment of what happened to him, but prefer to live vicariously through his stories.
 
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its about a japanese POW.

He was a B-29 superfortress pilot. Also, my grandpas co pilot. up until my grandpa was transferred back stateside right before the mission they were shot down on.

Very eye opening to the Japanese brutality, what the allied soldiers went through, and a very detailed account of his survival through the POW camps..

 
I have the story in some file somewhere in my house, but I will try and recite a short version. My grandfather was on the front lines all the way through the Ardennes. On Christmas Eve the Germans announced they were going to cross the Americans lines at night and slit their throats just like George Washington did to the Hessians at Trenton. So my grandpa was assigned to check his mine field. During his check he heard the Germans coming so he just hit the deck and hid. Soon the Germans are hitting mines, the Americans are firing back, Artillery is getting called in, and my grandpa is straight up caught in the middle. From his account he got back to his line and they fought the Germans into the night. Not a big battle just a cool Christmas story.
 
Soldier from the RCR (Royal Canadian Regiment) came to my school a few years ago and talked to us abut his experience. He started off by saying "im not here to glorify war or tell you what battles I was in or what I won, im just hear to describe what war is like". He then proceeded in great detail about how him and his platoon had to advance through a bombed out village taking heavy German mortar and artillery fire for a week straight. It was a down pour for 7 days, with no shelter, freezing and sleeping on rubble.

He then said on the seventh day they finally took refuge in the last remaining semi-intact house in the village and it was the greatest moment of his life.

Another soldier for the 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade told us about how his M4 Sherman went up against a Panzer. The whole crew knew they were fucked because Shermans were unbelievably inferior to the Panzer.

They figured the only chance they had was to hit the Panzer in a surprise attack from the side. Luckily they spoted the Panzer before it saw them and were able to get one shot off which pinged off its side. Their loading mechanism then proceeded to jam... He (the tank commander) noticed and heard the whine of the Panzer's turret slowly fixing on his position all the while their loading mechanism is still jammed. He kicked the tank in reverse and was screaming at his men to load another shell in or else they will all be dead. At the last minute it un-jammed and they hit the Panzer right before it was going to fire back. The second shot pierced the armour and exploded the Panzer tank

I have also had the privilege of talking to two holocaust survivors, they had the most insane stories of survivor of all
 
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