51 pages • 1-hour read
A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II
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Background
Authorial Context: Telling Veterans’ Stories with Empathy and Detail
Adam Makos was born in 1981 and began publishing Valor as a teenager. He later expanded Valor into a full publishing company, Valor Studios, and authored several acclaimed works, including Devotion (2015), which was adapted into a 2022 film, and Spearhead (2019). Both works share A Higher Call’s emphasis on empathy and showcase Makos’s immersive research and novelistic technique.
Makos developed his storytelling style by interviewing hundreds of veterans, exploring military archives, and even flying in vintage aircraft to understand what these men experienced. His authorial approach is driven by a personal mission to preserve these stories before they vanish, treating even enemy characters not as caricatures but as complicated human beings. His nonfiction draws comparisons to works like Unbroken by like Laura Hillenbrand and Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose. Both works similarly combine popular history and literary nonfiction.
Makos spent eight years researching A Higher Call, interviewing Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler, and tracking down records across three continents to reconstruct their encounter. His collaboration with journalist Larry Alexander, who specializes in military biographies, adds further detail and stylistic immediacy.
Makos’s authorial narrator doesn’t take sides: He acknowledges the evils of the Nazi regime without demonizing individual soldiers who made human choices within that system. Neither does Makos make his characters heroes; rather, A Higher Call presents a nuanced portrait of a complex time and lets readers judge events for themselves.
Historical Context: Total War, Aerial Combat, and the Ethics of Bombing
The historical context of World War II’s aerial campaigns and the concept of total war shape the events and experiences in A Higher Call. The term “total war” is a concept popularized by 19th-century strategist Carl von Clausewitz and later applied to modern conflict by historians like Richard Overy (Why the Allies Won). It describes the all-encompassing nature of modern warfare—where entire societies, not just armies, become targets. By 1943, the Allies and Axis powers had embraced strategies that deliberately targeted not just enemy militaries but also industrial and civilian targets. The U.S. Army Air Forces’ daylight bombing strategy exemplified these tactics: B-17 crews like Charlie Brown’s faced catastrophic casualty rates as they tried to cripple German war production while braving fighter attacks. Average casualty rates for B-17 crews flying over Germany reached nearly 25% in some campaigns (“Air Force Historical Research Agency.” dafhistory.af.mil), making it one of the deadliest duties of the war.
The war forced the once-dominant Luftwaffe to fight on multiple fronts, leading to increasingly desperate defensive tactics. Fighter aces like Franz Stigler were celebrated in Nazi propaganda, expected to rack up kills, and offered rewards like the Knight’s Cross to incentivize lethal aggression. As Germany’s strategic position crumbled, Luftwaffe pilots faced equipment shortages and deteriorating morale, culminating in the “mutiny” against Göring by senior officers, who objected to flying suicidal missions and following questionable leadership.
A Higher Call situates its central act of mercy—a German ace sparing a crippled American bomber—within this grim reality. Stigler’s decision is radical because it defies the military culture of total destruction, hero worship, and orders that demand enemy annihilation. By recreating the tactical details of air combat, the book immerses readers in the physical and psychological terror of these missions while also interrogating the ethical landscape of WWII’s air war.
Cultural Context: Remembering World War II and Humanizing the Enemy
A Higher Call belongs to a larger cultural conversation about how World War II is remembered, particularly in American and German contexts. In postwar American culture, the airmen of the “Greatest Generation” were often celebrated as liberators and heroes, but this veneration tended to dehumanize the enemy. German pilots, like Stigler, were often reduced to faceless villains, echoing America’s wartime propaganda.
Makos’s book challenges this narrative by insisting on the men’s shared humanity, regardless of national origin. By giving equal weight to Stigler and Brown’s perspectives, A Higher Call refuses to simplify the moral landscape into good versus evil. Stigler’s experiences—training with older World War I veterans, mentoring young pilots, losing friends, and rejecting Nazi propaganda—show that individual soldiers can hold personal codes of honor even when serving a criminal regime. Likewise, Brown’s crew is depicted not as invincible heroes but as vulnerable young men confronting terror, trauma, and loss.
This humanizing approach extends to Germany’s own postwar reckoning with its past. While Stigler experiences rejection in his home country, his eventual emigration to Canada and reunion with Brown reflect the possibility of reconciliation across once-bitter divides. By emphasizing their decades-long friendship and public speaking tours, A Higher Call joins a cultural tradition that values memory not as celebration or condemnation of history, but as an opportunity for reflection and learning.
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