Posted on 05/25/2015 6:15:48 AM PDT by TurboZamboni
Sunday night, Les Schrenk will watch a war story on TV -- about himself. The documentary "Mortal Enemies" will tell the tale of the act of mercy that haunted him for 68 years. Schrenk, 91, is alive today because a German pilot mysteriously spared his life during World War II. And he is at peace today because he finally found out why -- after an odyssey spanning seven decades of dogged research. Schrenk said that when he finally met the pilot, he called it a "reunion," as if they were long-lost friends. The meeting would be full of answers for Schrenk, which he found satisfying. "This has finally come full circle. It's kind of the closure of everything," said Schrenk, who will be watching the documentary in his retirement home in Bloomington. The following account of Schrenk's saga comes from the TV documentary, interviews, and military documents from World War II:
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
thanks for posting...worth the read.
Great story. One of my favorite episodes of NCIS has Gibbs’ father dragging Gibbs to a hospice to meet the man, a former German soldier, who showed him the way home and saved his life. Very moving. I wonder whether it was inspired by this story.
Great story. Thanks for posting it.
Saving the life of an enemy soldier is not an unusual thing.
I was on a coastal patrol aboard a Vietnamese boat when we were asked to investigate something up a small slip of a canal. A few hundred yards in and we took fire from bushes along the shore. We returned fire and when the shooting stopped, we went to check the damage. There were several dead VC and one young woman in her early 20s with 3 rounds in her chest. I took her AK47 from her hand, slowed the flow of blood and we got a medevac helicopter to get her to a hospital. Five or six weeks later, my C.O. received a note from the womens’ POW camp, It was a thank you note from her for saving her life.
From the comments:
Honor.
Difficult to convey in a movie, books; you have to read them.
Honor, a lesson not from the TV, lost to many.
Very touching
Thank you for posting the link to this excellent true story.
Wow
A great story for the morning of Memorial Day. Thank you!
Most people in this country simply do not have a clue.
I like this story. The German pilot get A sudden and unexplained ping of conscience and this crew makes it to land.
I had a friend who was a rifleman in the 91st Infantry Division. He was a gentle soul; his war stories were not bursts of ego, but, rather, solid reports of what happened.
This story reminded me of one of his: A few days before V-E Day, his battalion was strung out marching along a road in northern Italy - right out in the open. Suddenly, for the first time in weeks, the sound of a German fighter was heard approaching. The destruction of the Luftwaffe had made them a bit sloppy.
The fighter lined up for a low pass parallel to the road and GIs scattered for cover. Jim said he looked up to see when the plane would open fire. Instead he saw the pilot waggle his wings, give a wave, and pull up. He always wondered if that pilot survived.
As Fewer Americans Serve, Growing Gap Is Found Between Civilians and Military
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/25/us/civilian-military-gap-grows-as-fewer-americans-serve.html?_r=0
bump
A similar story is the subject of the book, “A Higher Call” by Adam Makos. Highly recommended.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.