For those curious- Franz Stigler was a German WW2 fighter pilot. His commander and mentor had been explicit that he didn’t want his men shooting down pilots etc. who were parachuting (that’s generally bad form in war as they are “out” of combat and generally not a direct threat or even able to defend or evade.)
Franz had shot down several allied bombers one day and was setting up to down another which was badly damaged when he noticed the tail gun wasn’t tracking him. He flew along side to see that the plane was badly damaged and inside he could see most of the cree were tending to their wounded mates. Franz had the thought that shooting this plane down was no better a shooting a man in a parachute. He escorted the plane back to the edge of German controlled airspace which prevented Anti aircraft fire from shooting at it as they recognized his fighter was German.
The bomber crew reported the incident back at base and it was sort of covered up, glossed over let’s say- most likely because they didn’t want their fliers to count on friendly and merciful Germans and/or because they didn’t want to create sympathy for the enemy.
Franz didn’t say anything when he got back because he figured they may court martial and/or kill him for it. After the war Franz was alive and left Germany. Nearly 40 years later the story became known and Franz and one of the aircrew were reunited and became friends for the rest of their lives.
So that’s the reference here if anyone wasn’t aware or didn’t want to look it up. I will not get into the nuances of politics in the meme itself etc. I merely come to state the facts.
Franz had shot down several allied bombers one day and was setting up to down another which was badly damaged when he noticed the tail gun wasn’t tracking him. He flew along side to see that the plane was badly damaged and inside he could see most of the cree were tending to their wounded mates. Franz had the thought that shooting this plane down was no better a shooting a man in a parachute. He escorted the plane back to the edge of German controlled airspace which prevented Anti aircraft fire from shooting at it as they recognized his fighter was German.
Franz didn’t say anything when he got back because he figured they may court martial and/or kill him for it. After the war Franz was alive and left Germany. Nearly 40 years later the story became known and Franz and one of the aircrew were reunited and became friends for the rest of their lives.