New information on the Experte Schwarm

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Regarding the 20 December 1943 incident, I found the story dubious when the presented proof was that Stigler remembered the name of the attacked bomber. Aircraft names were certainly not easy to read for a foreign pilot that has something else to do, not to speak of remembering an odd English expression for 45 years.

On the other hand, the discussion as reported in this thread by Bryan seems to me a far more serious base for the story.

As for FOTD, all that I have to say is that I still use it as one of my sources 40 years later. Apart from personal testimonies, it is the oldest book I use. I will still try to confirm and validate what is written inside it, and add data from other available sources, but I do the same for books written today.

[harrison987]

Originally Posted by Laurent Rizzotti

Regarding the 20 December 1943 incident, I found the story dubious when the presented proof was that Stigler remembered the name of the attacked bomber. Aircraft names were certainly not easy to read for a foreign pilot that has something else to do, not to speak of remembering an odd English expression for 45 years.
.

If I recall correctly, Stigler already spoke English at this time...and he flew next to the B-17 for an extended peiod of time - quite long enough to see the name. Regardless, if you were involved in such am incident, I "guarantee" you would remember the name of the aircraft...regardless of what language you spoke - "Ye Old Pub" is not exactly a hard name to remember, even if one had no concept of English.