In December 1943, German ace Franz Stigler intercepted a crippled American B-17 over Germany for an easy kill. Looking through the shredded fuselage, he saw the wounded crew inside and could not fire. Instead, he escorted the bomber past German anti-aircraft guns and out over the North Sea, risking execution if discovered. Forty-seven years later, the American pilot tracked him down through a veterans' newsletter. Stigler replied: "I was the one." They were close friends until they died months apart in 2008.