A German pilot spared the lives of an American pilot and his crew during WWII
Soldiers are trained to go after their enemies without hesitation during times of war, but compassion can sometimes be more potent than training. In 1943, American pilot Charles Brown’s plane was heavily damaged by enemy fire. A passing German pilot, Franz Stigler, saw it and ended up escorting it back to safety.
More than 40 years later, Brown began looking for the German pilot that had saved his and his crew’s lives. One day, he received a letter from Stiegler telling him he had been the one to escort them to safety. They met up in 1990 and remained friends until they both died in 2008.