On December 20, 1943, the paths of Stigler and Brown cross. Brown ends up flying a B-17 named Ye Old Pub between England and Germany in 1943. Brown was also encouraged by his father to become a pilot and has a dicey incident while flying over his West Virginia hometown during a training mission. Next, Makos introduces American Charlie Brown, who has no resemblance to the later Charles Schultz Peanuts character except his name. Ultimately, he becomes an ace fighter pilot, close to attaining the Knight’s Cross, the highest honor for German pilots, while flying his Messerschmidt 109. He graduates to fly professionally and then enters the Luftwaffe early in World War II. The book first focuses on the German Franz Stigler, who learns to fly gliders in his youth, encouraged by his father. Makos also illustrates these pilots on both sides had a lot in common.

It changed the author’s perspective about the enemy. This was later met with some resistance, especially regarding the German pilot who fought for Nazi Germany and risked severe punishment for his actions. Makos aims to prove there were good men on both sides of the conflict. The book reads like a novel, with well-paced narratives that build the background stories and interactions of the protagonists. The narrative follows two parallel paths of pilots on the opposite sides of the conflict in the European theater in World War II, whose lives are forever connected by an instance of grace at an unexpected moment. New York: Berkley Caliber, 2014.Īdam Makos’s book A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II is an amazing tale of unlikely friendship realized despite almost impossible odds.

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

A higher call book