Franz stigler1/22/2024 ![]() ![]() He could now see that there was dried blood caked across the gunner’s forehead and arms. The words tormented him again.įranz snapped himself back to the present and stared straight into the eyes of the gunner in the B-17 bomber just ahead of him. The pangs of anger he had felt over his brother’s death were warring with a sense of compassion. Yet that hadn’t stopped him from throwing up after his first “successful” mission.Īnd it wasn’t stopping him from hesitating now. He remembered the maxim that he had been taught: “You shoot at the machine, not the man.” He had heard many such phrases dehumanizing the enemy. In fighter training, the first successful mission meant the first enemy plane shot down-the first kill. In his mind, the enemy was to blame for August’s demise.įranz’s mind flitted back to his first successful mission. He had determined to leave teaching and become a fighter pilot to avenge his brother. Anger had burned within Franz’s soul-anger at himself and anger with the war that caused his brother’s death. All that training-his silence-and he still hadn’t been able to save him. ![]() He refused to be responsible for causing his brother harm.Īnd then had come the news: August had died in a bombing raid. Yet Franz was well aware of the dangers of coming forward with dissenting opinions-so he told August to be quiet. They were told that no one died in concentration camps-but Franz and August both knew better as the war progressed. The German people were told that Poland had provoked war-not that Hitler had invaded. Throughout the training, August became more and more uneasy about Hitler’s leadership. He had trained his brother more rigorously than anyone else-he knew August’s life depended on it. One of the fighter pilots Franz had instructed was his own brother, August. (In reality, there were very few fighter pilots in Hitler’s air force who were actually Nazi party members.) It was his duty, and there would be consequences for declining. But he had been brought up on a code of honor and love for his country-so when war broke out in 1939 and he was drafted as an instructor for the air force, he knew he didn’t have a choice. He had grown to become an instructor pilot in the German Luftwaffe, the air force that Hitler illegally began building when he came to power.įranz’s family had not voted for Hitler’s Nazi Party, and Franz was well aware that his father did not think too highly of Hitler. His father had been a fighter pilot in wwi, and Franz had begun flying at the young age of 12, along with his older brother August. For a moment, his mind drifted back to all that had led to this moment.įranz Stigler had been born and raised in Germany. ![]() And yet he still couldn’t bring himself to do it. Why? His brow furrowed in concentration.Īll he had to do was press the button. The B-17 could be shooting at him-but it wasn’t. These and worse words spun wildly through Franz Stigler’s mind as he stared at the American B-17 flying ahead of him.Īs a German Ace fighter pilot during wwii, there was nothing for Stigler to do but take down the American bomber-he had a clear shot. ![]()
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