A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II

At Munich-Riem airfield on 5 April 1945, Jagdverband 44’s 20 pilots wait in an improvised alert shack while radar and spotters track a thousand American bombers and six hundred escorts. Only seven Me 262s are flyable, so Operations Officer Johannes Steinhoff selects five—including Stigler, Walter “Count” Krupinski, and two younger flyers—for the first interception; Adolf Galland intends to launch any remaining jets afterward. Before take-off Galland warns that Allied fighters now strafe German pilots in their parachutes and on the ground, citing the previous day’s attack on ace Rudi Sinner.

The flight roars aloft, skimming Bavaria and climbing to 32,000 feet. They sight a small formation of B-17s but immediately confront more than a 100 diving P-51 Mustangs. The jets scatter; Lieutenant Fährmann is shot down. Diving to escape, Stigler exceeds the 262’s red-line speed, the controls lock, and he only recovers by kicking the rudder yards above the ground.

Four days later, P-51s and a 200-plane B-17 force locate Riem, strafing and bombing the field, destroying aircraft and killing six personnel. Digging foxholes beside their parked jets, the exhausted “outcasts and condemned” of JV-44 vow to continue despite mounting losses.