THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER: “Beautifully told.”—CNN • “A remarkable story…worth retelling and celebrating.”—USA Today • “Oh, it’s a good one!”—Fox News A “beautiful story of a brotherhood between enemies” emerges from the horrors of World War II in this New York Times bestseller by the author of Spearhead. December, 1943: A badly damaged American bomber struggles to fly over wartime Germany. … Spearhead.
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…
What happened next would defy imagination and later be called “the most incredible encounter between enemies in World War II.”
The U.S. 8th Air Force would later classify what happened between them as “top secret.” It was an act that Franz could never mention for fear of facing a firing squad. It was the encounter that would haunt both Charlie and Franz for forty years until, as old men, they would search the world for each other, a last mission that could change their lives forever.
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I enjoyed it very much. I was hard to put it down.
Heartwarming.
Well written style,very informative novel of WW2 from the point of view of a German and a British Pilot. Loved it
An amazing tale.
A remarkable story well written.
Good book.
It changed my perception of the German people during WWII.
This book shows the altruistic side of human beings in war. A page turner. Should be read by everyone.
An inspiring true story.
Peter Bernhardt, Author: The Stasi File, 2011 ABNA Quarter Finalist; Kiss of the Shaman’s Daughter [sequel]; Red Romeo;
http://tinyurl.com/a7rnpql – http://sedonaauthor.com – https://tinyurl.com/ycyvps3b
A true story depicting how war can divide yet can bring enemies together in admiration to each other.
This was one of the bests books my husband and I have ever read!!!!! It presented a new aspect of the German perspective of the war for me and I can’t recommend it highly enough. I think this would be a wonderful read for high school students who are studying WWII. Great characters, great writing, great concept of honor conveyed.
Amazing true story
This book provides a look at WWII from both the American and the German side.
This is a fantastic book. I couldn’t put it down. Character development was excellent. It was scary, sad, funny, tragic and inspirational. One of my favorite reDs. Anyone who loves WWII HISTORY is guaranteed to thoroughly enjoy this book
Excellent and well researched book about an American bomber pilot and a German fighter pilot whose lives collided in World War II and how they miraculously came back together again 46 years later. It is a must read and a real page turner.
This book was both an inspirational and historically informative book. The story highlights a German pilot, Franz Stigler who elected to spare a badly damaged B-17F Flying Fortress, flown by Lt. Charlie Brown U.S. Army Air Force, who’s crew contained several badly wounded men, one of whom was already dead. Although this is the climatic event of the book, it focuses on the lives of the participants, mainly Franz Stigler whose military career reads like an outline of the history of the Luftwaffe. Stigler, an ace himself knew most of the Luftwaffe top aces, and was a member of Adolf Galland’s Jet fighter squadron, flying the ME-262 at the end of the war. I have read many airwar histories, but I learned things that I didn’t know from this book. As a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), I have flown in a B-17G, a visited the crewstations, both on the ground and during flight, (except the tail and ballturrets, they’re to small to allow most people in them.) so I was able to visualize the scenes taking place in the B-17, a personally moving experience for me. This book concludes with Stigler and Brown’s search for each other after the war, finding each other, meeting and becoming, not friends but brothers.
It was very inspirational, particularly the description of a German pilots life in WW2, which one seldom gets that opportunity.
It was wonderful to see the good in people come out when faced with choices. The families that were created by lives that were saved when the bomber was spared.
While knowledge of aviation would be useful in reading this book, it isn’t necessary to understand and appreciate the incredible story. The author does an excellent job of bringing the WWII story to life in addition to relating the modern-day story.
I learned a lot of behind-the-scenes WWII air war information. Great historical content. Many twists and turns with a final conclusion which was not the norm.