B-17 "Ye Olde Pub" Tumbler, 32oz (950ml)

Did you know that on 20 December 1943 a Luftwaffe Fighter pilot chose NOT to shoot down a crippled B-17 bomber? This incident was subsequently known as the "The Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler incident"

The Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler incident occurred on 20 December 1943, when, after a successful bomb run on Bremen, 2nd Lt Charles "Charlie" Brown's B-17 Flying Fortress (named "Ye Olde Pub") was severely damaged by German fighters. Luftwaffe pilot Franz Stigler flying a Messerschmitt Bf-109 had the opportunity to shoot down the crippled bomber, however once close enough he could see through the damaged bomber's airframe injured and incapacitated crew. To the American pilot's surprise, Stigler did not open fire on the crippled bomber. Stigler recalled the words of one of his commanding officers from Jagdgeschwader 27, “If I ever see or hear of you shooting at a man in a parachute, I will shoot you myself." Stigler later commented, "To me, it was just like they were in a parachute. I saw them and I couldn't shoot them down."

Twice Stigler tried to get Brown to land his plane at a German airfield and surrender, or divert to nearby neutral Sweden, where he and his crew would receive medical treatment and be interned the remainder of the war. Brown and the crew of the B-17 didn't understand what Stigler was trying to mouth and gesture to them and so flew on. He then flew near Brown's plane in a formation on the bomber's port side wing, so German antiaircraft units would not target it; he then escorted the damaged B-17 over the coast until they reached open water. Brown, unsure of Stigler's intentions at the time, ordered his dorsal turret gunner to point at Stigler but not open fire in order to warn him off. Understanding the message and certain that the bomber was out of German airspace, Stigler departed with a salute.

Years later in 1986 the then-retired Lt. Col. Brown decided he should try to find the unknown German pilot. Over 4 years later after an extensive search by Brown, the two pilots finally met each other and developed a friendship that lasted until Stigler's death in March 2008.