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

Returning to Kimbolton on December 22, Charlie Brown and his exhausted crew discover that base clerks had already emptied their foot-lockers, assuming them dead. A replacement navigator even claims Charlie’s bunk; the worn-out pilot forces the newcomer out at gun-point before collapsing into sleep. Across the Channel, Franz Stigler spends Christmas Eve drinking with his squadron in Wiesbaden, quietly resolving never again to seek the Knight’s Cross after sparing an American bomber.

Back in England the “Quiet Ones” endure a fortnight of scrubbed launches and mechanical aborts that leave them jumpy and “flak-happy.” On 5 January a fog-bound take-off sequence turns lethal: three B-17s crash, including that of Charlie’s friend Lt. Dale Killion, whose burning wreckage Brown sees in the clouds. Later, while an orderly clears Killion’s belongings, Charlie realizes the cost of quitting and rediscovers pride in the bomber fraternity. He has Blackie paint unit insignia, swastika victories and a bomb marked “Bremen” on their jackets.

Two days later, the crew flies again—this time without mishap—and they will ultimately finish their tour together, though Charlie continues to wonder about the German who once escorted them to safety.

In March 1944, Stigler, now twenty-nine and newly promoted to lead JG-27’s 12th Staffel, arrives at Graz with two green wingmen, Heinz Mellman and Gerhard Sonntag. Having lost his close friend Willi a few weeks earlier and indifferent to further decorations, Stigler measures success by whether his rookies survive. On 19 March a small, unescorted stream of U.S. B-24s appears from Italy; the designated group commander circles hesitantly, refusing to attack. Fearing for Graz, Stigler radios base for help, then defies orders, dives through the Liberators and sparks a larger assault led by his mentor, Oberstleutnant Gustav Roedel.

In 30 minutes, JG-27 claims 20 bombers—four of them to Stigler—yet Graz is still struck after the first wave slips past. Afterwards Stigler assigns two of his kills to Mellman and Sonntag to build their confidence. A town banquet celebrates the pilots; there Stigler meets the vivacious student Eva, whose name he later has painted on his Messerschmitt’s nose. Days later, a telegram reports his father’s death in a horse accident, deepening Stigler’s resolve to protect his young flyers amid mounting personal loss.

By late-October 1944 Hauptmann Franz Stigler, now commanding 11./JG 27 (the 11th Squadron of Fighter Wing 27) near Dresden, is flying three sorties a day with exhausted veterans and barely trained teenagers. He writes routine condolence letters, drinks to numb himself, and watches rookies fall asleep in their cockpits. During one mission a B-17 round shatters his windscreen and dents his skull; though he lands, a doctor orders him permanently grounded and sends him to the Luftwaffe rest home “Florida.” Before reporting he travels through bomb-scarred Berlin to secure his late father’s unpaid pension, staying with bureaucrat Otto Greisse and his 13-year-old daughter “Hiya,” whose nightly dash to the shelters epitomizes civilian suffering; the visit rekindles Stigler’s sense of duty.

Parallel political crisis follows. Fighter commanders Günther Lützow, Johannes Steinhoff, Gustav Roedel, Hannes Trautloft and Friedrich Neumann secretly convene, then confront Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring on 19 January 1945 at Berlin’s Haus der Flieger. They demand Galland’s reinstatement and the release of Me 262 jets for defense, condemning Göring’s leadership. Göring erupts, labels them traitors, threatens executions and has the “mutineers” reassigned or placed under surveillance while Galland is confined, effectively ending organized resistance within the Luftwaffe’s senior ranks.

Grounded by his head wound yet unwilling to retire, Franz Stigler secures a place on the Me 262 conversion course at Lechfeld. Training proves slow—mostly wooden mock-ups and twin-engine refreshers—while the revolutionary jet roars past outside. News breaks that Göring has dismissed General Adolf Galland on fabricated “health” grounds; facing Gestapo charges, Galland nearly commits suicide until Hitler orders Göring to placate him with an independent Me 262 squadron.

Galland accepts, planning to gather veteran “mutineers” into Jagdverband 44 (JV-44). Stigler is expelled from jet school after denouncing Party spies but phones Galland, who invites him—on condition he bring an aircraft. At bomb-damaged Leipheim works, Stigler bluffs a foreman into releasing a factory-fresh 262 and flies it to Brandenburg, joining a rag-tag flight line run by ace Major Erich Höhagen. Galland and Johannes Steinhoff relocate the unit to Munich’s shattered airport, recruit other outcasts (including 195-victory ace Walter “Count” Krupinski) and scavenge engines, rockets and fuel. Living in an abandoned orphanage and calling themselves “the Flying Sanatorium,” twenty worn-out but elite pilots prepare to defend southern Germany against overwhelming Allied air power, determined to fight for comrades rather than the collapsing Reich.