大象传媒

I heard this story from a german journalist, around the 60th anniversary of D Day,and I would be very pleased if I could learn more of it.
I lack the exact location, the date and both names, mainly the great English pilot's one.

A young german pilot was shot down over the Mediterranean during an air battle. He managed to use his parachute, reached the sea surface and grabbed one airplane wheel floating not far from where he was. From this ankward situation, he could see, after the battle, an English plane flying around in seach for possible English air crews at sea. He thought that this plane was his only chance of survival . The only problem was to find a way so as to bring the English pilot's attention to him. He had only with him his gun, and one flare cartridge, but without the pistol to fire it. So he took the cartridge between two fingers, and when he saw the plane coming to him, he fired the cartidge's cap with his gun. And it worked; The plane spotted him , called for an ASR speedboat, and began to circle around him. But, after a while, the english pilot realized that he would not have enought fuel to keep circling around and wait safely for the boat, though he worried at the same time that if he left, the survivor, as a tiny spot on the wide sea, would be definitly lost. He understood also, that the man was not an English one, nor an ally. Anyway, that was an human being, and his job was saving lives.So he decided to stay there. When , at last, the boat came around, the plane had not enough fuel to reach the coast. The pilot landed close to the boat, whose crew picked him up, then they went and saved the german airman, who was, of course, kept as a prisonner until the end of the war. The English pilot could not forget somenone saved in such circumstances. Maybe he imagined that the yong man survived by some miracle he could perhaps had deserved in some way. So he manage to get some news at times from this german guy and, when the war was over, both met again, in a peaceful way, and became close friends for life.

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