[VtwinVince]

I also knew Franz and Hiya well, as a matter of fact my uncle was 'Abschussoffizier' at JG 27 when the scandal took place. As for the B-17 story, I heard it from Franz and Charlie over dinner years ago, and it is clear that they did have a combat. As for Franz 'letting him go', I find this quite unlikely, given that the civilian population was getting massacred by carpet bombing, and a Luftwaffe fighter pilot's duty was to shoot them down, regardless of the circumstances, not to mention that the Luftwaffe high command would have taken a dim view of this sort of thing, had they found out. Perhaps Franz was out of ammo? In any event, there were vested interests in this story from many quarters, and a lot of mileage was gained from it, which automatically makes me suspicious. One thing is certain, Franz was a very brave man, as evidenced by the bullet hole in the middle of his forehead, courtesy of a .50 round.