Adam Makos: "A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story Of Combat And Chivalry In The War-Torn Skies Of World War II"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-12-20/adam-makos-higher-call-incredible-true-story-combat-and-chivalry-war-torn-skies-wor
![The crew of "Ye Olde Pub." Kneeling L-R: Charlie Brown, Spencer Luke, Al Sadok, and Robert Andrews. Standing L-R: "Frenchy" Coulombe, Alex Yelesanko, Richard Pechout, Lloyd Jennings, Hugh Eckenrode, and Sam Blackford.
- Photo courtesy Adam Makos](http://thedianerehmshow.org/sites/thedianerehmshow.org/files/imagecache/620xH/images/headline/121219_ahighercall.jpg "The crew of "Ye Olde Pub." Kneeling L-R: Charlie Brown, Spencer Luke, Al Sadok, and Robert Andrews. Standing L-R: "Frenchy" Coulombe, Alex Yelesanko, Richard Pechout, Lloyd Jennings, Hugh Eckenrode, and Sam Blackford.
- Photo courtesy Adam Makos")
The crew of "Ye Olde Pub." Kneeling L-R: Charlie Brown, Spencer Luke, Al Sadok, and Robert Andrews. Standing L-R: "Frenchy" Coulombe, Alex Yelesanko, Richard Pechout, Lloyd Jennings, Hugh Eckenrode, and Sam Blackford.
Photo courtesy Adam Makos
On Dec. 20, 1943, a young American named Charlie Brown was on his first World War II mission. Flying in the German skies, Brown’s B-17 bomber was shot and badly damaged. As Brown and his men desperately tried to escape enemy territory back to England, a German fighter plane pulled up to their tail. It seemed certain death. Instead of shooting the plane down, however, the German pilot, Franz Stigler, escorted the Americans to safety. In his new book, “A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II”, author Adam Makos describes the fateful wartime encounter, and how the two men found each other nearly 50 years later.
Guests
Adam Makos
author of "A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II."
Related Items
Related Video
Four days before Christmas 1943, in the darkest hours of WWII, a miracle took place. Two enemies—an American bomber pilot and a German fighter ace—met in combat over Germany and did the unexpected: They decided not to kill one another. Even more incredibly, as old men, they found one another and became best friends.
Read An Excerpt
Excerpt from "A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II" by Adam Makos. Copyright 2012 by Adam Makos. Reprinted here by permission of Berkley Hardcover. All rights reserved.
Comments
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What an amazing story! Can't think of a better time than the week before Christmas to share it. Really made my day :)
Can not wait to read your book. I have spent the last five years in different nursing homes that my WWII father has spent time in. Have been hearing his WWII stories as well as literally at least 30 other WWII and Koran war Vets that I have spent time talking with about their service. What is it with these amazing guys that gives them enormous depth, enormous commitment and courage and enormous humility? Just makes me tear up thinking about the stories these Vets share with me
Wow. What a wonderful story. Reminds me of the Christmas Truce in WW1.
Thanks.
If a British pilot let a German bomber escape to Germany after dropping bombs on London would he still be considered a hero?
Your story brought tears to my eyes. Cannot wait to read this. I was born during the war and am amazed at all the stories there are still to tell. Bruce Kantor, Charlotte, NC
THANK YOU DIANE FOR HAVING A BALM FOR THE HEART AT THIS DISMAL TIME IN OUR (HUGE) VILLAGE'S HISTORY.
THESE ARE THE STORIES WE NEED TO SEE ON CHANNELS LIKE TLC, NOT HONEY BOO BOO!
My father was a B-17 pilot at age 20. He is now 89 and suffers from Parkinson's Disease and dementia. On the walls of his nursing home room are a picture of the B-17 and his crew. He responds to very little but he perks up when asked about those pictures. He didn't talk about his service till I was going to college and he pulled out his locker for me to take to college. As he cleaned it out I realized that it still held his flight maps of Germany. I didn't I realized how his service had effected him for all these years. Many years later my daughter was studying in Germany and brought home a German friend for the holidays...my father pulled me aside and said "I hope he doesn't ask me what I did during the war." It was obvious my father felt the way the men in your story did.
Thank you for sharing their story.
Diane, THANK YOU for bringing this holy story to our attention. THANK YOU to Adam Makos for witting the book. THANK YOU to Charlie for making the connection & Lastly but mostly THANK YOU to Hanz for listening to his Angels speaking to him & doing the right thing: this wonderful thing he did, during a war.
Thank you Diane for this beautiful story. Adam's work illustrates the most important message of this time of year - it calls upon us to recall and connect with our higher selves, and unites us all as brothers and sisters in our humanity.
Thank you for a wonderful story. It brought tears to my eyes and could not be more fitting for the Christmas season. Just bought the book, can't wait to read it!
While surfing through NPR, I found myself listening to a narration of a WW2 incident that sounded familiar to me. I suddenly realized I'd heard it before and right from the horse's mouth. It was a sunny Miami day when Col. Charlie Brown walked into the office of my auto repair shop. The purpose of his visit was to test a gadget he had either invented or was marketing which when inserted into a venicle's fuel line, was supposed to significantly improve gas mileage. He had chosen my shop because it had a chassis dynamometor and he wanted to document before and aftter horsepower readings. When he saw my radio controlled model plane and he discovered my interest in history and aviation, his story came out in it's entirety. He finished by gifting me with a tape of his and Franz'z reunion which was attended by 250 decendant's of his surviving crew. Charlie made subsequent visits to my shop and surprised me down to my socks when he brought Franz with him on one of these vivits and introduced him to me. One of the best day's of my life. Tom Brokaw could have used either one as his model for his greatest generation.
Makos' comment about young Charlie Brown having the lives of nine men in his hands is true, but incomplete. He also had the lives of untold and uncounted people on the ground in his hands. My twin then 3-year old sisters were burned to death by an Allied raid on Hamburg in 1943. The probability that the bombs that killed them came from Browns' plane is diminishingly small; however, they very likely came from a plane and crew very similar to Browns’. I can fully sympathize with the young girl who wanted her future husband to keep fighting until the bombs stop and Franz’s decision to do that.
I strongly recommend, as a companion to this book of wartime chivalry, Joerg Friedrich’s “The Fire,” which chronicles the air war over Germany, to include the conscious, deliberate strategic decision by the allies to attack civilian populations.
Further, the stated premise, that there are good men on all sides of even a bad war, is a banality. Given the number of participants, it was inevitable that there were good and evil men involved on all sides. Furthermore, I am hard pressed to sign up for the implication that there is a good war (been there, done that in Viet Nam).
Nevertheless, it is a very good thing that the Germany under Hitler was so soundly defeated, however horrible the process may have been. And it is also a very good thing that, even in those horrible circumstances, the decency Makos describes can still shine through and offer us a ray of hope for humanity.
I also recommend that Makos have his book translated and published in Germany.
Hello, This great story has been reported and done on the Military History Channel with interviews with both gentlemen for the past few years.
As an avid World War 2 aviation history buff, this story was known by me for years but never to the extent that I know it now. The courage shown by the flyers is almost unbelievable and while most combat aviators were "enemies" they were more like opposing sport teams who respected and admired each other. I put this book on my Christmas wish list and if it's not in my stocking it will be on my birthday wish list in February! Thank you Mr Makos for bringing this story in clarity to the world!
Story aside:
"On Dec. 20, 1943, a young American fighter pilot named Charlie Brown was on his first World War II mission. Flying in the German skies, Brown’s B-17 bomber was shot and badly damaged."
What was a fighter pilot doing in a B-17?
Do you employ editors?
An astute observation Freebie, and agree an editor's error. Think about it though, the time...was before jet fighter planes. This was a war where we were all fighters. Whether dropping bombs from a B-17, pounding the ground as infantry, or Rosie the riveter in Cleveland, Ohio. A moot point Freebie, and highly unappreciative of the greatest generation. I must also add, that this story is inspiring for the fact that there is good in the human soul, no matter what side you may be on during the horrors of war. A great lesson of hope to all people.
Churchill would have made the fighter pilot accompany him on his visits to the bombed out areas after a blitz. Probably dig some graves too. He wouldn't have made him sit it out too long though. Fighter pilots were precious and their life span was short.
I do lots of driving and would love to get a audio version of this book done by Adam Makos.
Mine was a "journalistic jab" at an organization with higher standards in what passes for journalism these days. The caption was corrected accordingly - and mootly?. Thank you for a most inspirational reponse. I might point out that of the several Rosies, whether song inspiration, poster subjects, or war bond participants - I'm unaware of yours from Cleveland (Michigan, New York, etc. yes). BUt I shall not as it would be labelled as unappreciative of the greatest generation. I also missed that jets were in any way relevant to the story or discussion.
A must-read for me, purchased my copy today. As I read "A Higher Call", childhood memories of my father telling me in terms I could understand of how cold it was flying inside a B-17 in those times will come to mind. My father was a belly (ball turret) gunner on an 8th Air Force B-17G flying out of England during WWII. He never spoke much of what he encountered other than how cold it was inside the ball turret. As an adult, I returned from my tour in Vietnam and my father opened up to reveal how the scars on his body resulted from an attack by a German BF109G on a mission over Germany. He never spoke in anger of the German fighters, but of respect that they too were defending what they believed was right. Bill Daley, SMSgt. (RET), USAF.
As I finished reading this book --- I cannot even explain the emotions that ran through me!! I could not put this book down and the way that Adam wrote it --- made me see and touch it as if the story was right in front of me. You did these men a great service and i thank you for that and also that all of the world can see and read about these [2] great men whose lives were torn by the war . I still feel emotional just thinking about it and also just viewing the interview with both men -- this will be one of the great books I will have in my library!! thankyou!!