Free A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II by Adam Makos Page B

pants.” *
    Roedel laughed and slapped Franz on the shoulder “You aren’t the first one that’s happened to!”
    Franz opened the flap to his tent. A blast of heat hit his face. He flopped onto his cot, closed his eyes, and fell into an instant sleep. In the evening he went to the mess tent. He passed through the line and saw that dinner was the same as lunch—a tin of Italian beef his comrades called “Mussolini’s Ass.” Back home Franz had been picky and would tell his mother, “I’ll pass on anything that flies or swims.” Little did he know how he would come to regret those words.
    Franz sheepishly sat apart from Roedel and the others. Before every bite, he tried to swat the flies from his food. Sneaking a glimpse at the other pilots, he saw that they ate without brushing away the flies, swallowing a few with each gulp of the tough, sticky meat.
    Franz was only a few clean bites into his meal when Roedel stood and announced, “Fire Free!”
    Franz looked at Roedel, aghast, his fork frozen in midair.
    Roedel saw Franz’s wide eyes and full plate, then shouted a line he would use at every meal after that, needed or not: “Fire free—except for Stigler!”
    The other pilots laughed. A few whacked Franz on the back with friendly slaps as they departed. With relief, Franz finished his dinner in solitude but knowing he was no longer alone.
    The P-40 that Roedel had downed was the only German victory in Africa that day, but the rudder of Roedel’s 109 remained unmarked.
----
    * This was due to a German tradition called
Überparteilichkeit
, or “impartiality,” the separation of military from politics.
    * There was logic behind Roedel’s warning. When a pilot spared a defenseless enemy in a parachute, as was the unspoken practice in the Battle of Britain, if the enemy pilot returned to combat he would be more apt to repeat the gesture. It was for this same reason that the British tried to treat captured German airmen well, housing them in P.O.W. castles and manors. The Germans would write home and tell of their good treatment and hopefully the treatment of British P.O.W.s would improve in turn.
    * “Many times pilots came home, myself included, and we had to change our pants,” Franz would remember, “and not just when we were new to combat.”



5

THE DESERT
AMUSEMENT PARK
     
    NINE DAYS LATER, APRIL 18, 1942
     
    T HE SUN BLAZED through the canvas of Franz’s tent. His watch read just after 4 P.M. Franz lay on his cot trying to read the only book he had brought to the desert besides his Bible. It was about the lives of the Catholic saints, the heroes of the church. Sweat fell from his forehead and onto the pages. Franz mopped his brow frequently. The flies bothered him more than the heat. They buzzed around his head no matter how hard he swatted them. The more he read, the more Franz was bothered by the hypocrisy of the war he had joined, of people who believed in the same God fighting one another.
    A persistent sound outside his tent distracted Franz. I Group’s squadrons 1, 2, and 3 were throwing a party in their tent cities to celebrate the one-year anniversary of their time in the desert. Franz had no intention of going to the party, although I Group had invited all the other squadrons and anyone who served at Martuba.
    A tap on the fabric of Franz’s tent interrupted his self-pity. Franz looked up as Lieutenant Ferdinand Voegl thrust his face inside, hisdark, narrow eyes scanning the room and his thin lips curled in a mischievous smile.
    They called Voegl “the Birdman” because
vogel
means “bird” in German. Shrewd yet likeable, Voegl was an Austrian and one of Squadron 4’s top flight leaders. Voegl was also the squadron’s black sheep because he had black hair, black eyes, and a tendency to be dark-minded and quirky.
    Franz had yet to fly with Voegl, but he snapped upward on his cot as the officer entered. After seven months in the desert Voegl had scored two kills, on top of his four