![]() Charlie twisted and weaved while the 109s continued to attack, but the pilot's maneuvers threw them off. Only three of the bomber's eleven guns were now operational. "Charlie threw the bomber into a bank," and bullets from the 109s "ricocheted off the bomber's frozen belly and clanged against Blackie's turret, cracking its glass but not penetrating." More guns froze, welded shut by ice. Then Blackie's guns in the ball turret froze. Five 109s headed for the tail of The Pub, but Ecky's guns in the tail jammed. The controls for T he Pub's third engine was shot out, and the engine froze at half power. The Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler incident occurred on 20 December 1943, when, after a successful bomb run on Bremen, 2nd Lt Charles 'Charlie' Browns B-17 Flying Fortress (named 'Ye Olde Pub') was severely damaged by German fighters. ![]() Messerschmitt Bf 109G-10 at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. T he other fighter scored hits on The Pub, but Doc fired at its belly and scored another win. Frenchy opened up and hammered one of the 190s before it could break away, putting it out of the fight. The painting of the B-17 is of the Carol Dawn flown by Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown, Franz Stigler and the artist Ernie Boyette. At your service Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette. Thank you for your time and please tell your friends about my endeavors. Two enemy fighters dove straight for the cockpit of The Pub, so Charlie, the pilot, climbed directly up and into their path. The story of Franz Stigler and Charlie Brown will be told in full in this last volume. Five German 109s leaped from below, and eight German 190s trailed ahead, blocking the path to the North Sea. Franz Stigler died on 22 March 2008 Charles ‘Charlie’ Brown died a few months later, on 25 November 2008. The men became firm friends, visiting each other frequently and appearing together before Canadian and American military audiences. The bomber fell back as the rest of the 8th Air Force passed overhead and left The Pub behind. That proved to Brown that he had found the right German pilot. One of The Pub's right engines began to run wild, and Pinky cut power and restarted the engine. The bomber group didn't know it yet, but their fighter cover had already departed for England because they feared running out of fuel. The Pub reached the target area and released twelve five-hundred-pound bombs on the Focke-Wulf aircraft plant five miles below and turned north to escape Germany as quickly as possible. A shell passed through one of the wings, leaving a large hole. One of the engines on the left began to smoke and pinky, the co-pilot, shut it down. After four separate explosions just ahead of The Pub, Andy, the navigator, and Doc, the bombardier, reported a big hole in the Plexiglas nose of their plane. ![]() Three and a half hours into their flight, the bandits attacked and flak from the ground soon followed. The bomber group flew twenty-seven thousand feet above the icy sea. Courtesy of American Air Museum in Britain.
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