Code of Honor

In 1943, 21 year old Charlie Brown flew his first mission in a B-17 bomber over Bremen, Germany.

Although he was able to drop his bombs, his plane was crippled and quickly fell behind the formation. The anti-aircraft fire knocked out one engine, damaged another, wounded three men and killed a gunner.

Franz Stigler was a Luftwaffe ace at the time with 22 confirmed kills, had shot down two planes in the same encounter, and was a kill away from a coveted medal. He later said he'd never seen a plane with that amount of damage and still in the air. Stigler drew close and lined the plane up in his sights.

"I felt absolute helplessness...you know, totally subject to his whim'.

"Do you remember Charlie's face?"
"Ja, I remember his face."
"What did you see in that face?"
"Horror."

Stigler had a commanding officer who told him he would personally shoot any pilots he heard bringing down parachutes. Stigler said Charlie's crippled bomber was like a man in a parachute. He did not fire. Instead, he escorted Charlie to the coast, where Charlie made an attempt to cross the Channel into England.

"What do you owe Franz Stigler?"
"My life."

Charlie began looking for Franz in 1986, and found him living in Canada in 1990. Franz learned about the 25 descendants of the men he had spared, who would not have been born if he had shot. Franz and Charlie became close friends until their deaths, months apart, in 2008.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54gwls9E0Ug
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRKQvmT3Xhs

FP Edit: I hadn't seen this story on imgur yet, and thought it was too good not to share. Stay classy, you awesome people you.