German fighter pilot Franz Stigler spared B-17 pilot Charlie Brown’s life by not shooting down his crippled plane during World War Two. Charlie Brown was wounded twice in completing 29 bomber combat missions out of 31 attempts as a B-17 pilot/aircraft commander with the famed 379th Bomb Group. Franz Stigler was a German Ace credited with 28 confirmed victories and over thirty probable victories. He flew 487 combat missions, was wounded four times, was shot down seventeen times, and he lived to tell about it!