PREY FOR MERCY - Framed Collector's Piece

Having somehow managed to wrestle his B-17 ‘Ye Olde Pub’ out of its death-dive, pilot Charlie Brown had unknowingly levelled out above a Luftwaffe fighter base, home to Bf109 Ace Franz Stigler. The Germans watched in amazement as this seemingly easy prey limped overhead and Stigler’s recently re-armed fighter was soon in hot pursuit.

Upon catching the Americans, Stigler saw the fear on the faces of the helpless B-17 crew. A sense of honor overrode his military duty, and at the risk of his own execution, he escorted the wounded plane to the coast, saluting Brown and his astonished crew. Half a century later the two pilots would meet, and the former enemies would develop a friendship so close that Stigler would come to consider Brown to be as the brother he’d lost at the start of the war.

In tribute to the acts of chivalry shown in the skies over Europe during WWII, this stunning print has been expertly framed to include the original autographs of four highly-regarded veterans representing both sides of the dramatic aerial conflict – two legendary Luftwaffe Bf109 Aces and two famous B-17 pilots: