Home › Bestsellers › A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II

A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II

by Adam Makos

A wartime encounter between enemies

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Awards & Recognition

  • Bestseller

    New York Times bestseller

    The metadata describes the book as a New York Times bestseller.

AlbakiReads Editorial

A wartime encounter between enemies

Set during the air war over Germany in December 1943, Adam Makos’s account centers on a damaged American bomber crew and the German fighter pilot who intercepts it. The encounter links two servicemen on opposing sides, then carries their story beyond the immediate danger: the description traces its long secrecy and the men’s later search for one another, decades after the war. The book brings together combat history and a personal connection formed across enemy lines, placing an individual episode within the wider setting of World War II.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in personal accounts of World War II combat aviation.
  • Readers drawn to stories of encounters across opposing sides in wartime.
  • Readers seeking military history focused on a specific episode and the people involved.

Themes

World War II air combatOpposing sides and human connectionSecrecy and remembrance

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER: "Beautifully told."--CNN - "A remarkable story...worth retelling and celebrating."--USA Today - "Oh, it's a good one!"--Fox News

A "beautiful story of a brotherhood between enemies" emerges from the horrors of World War II in this New York Times bestseller by the author of Devotion, now a Major Motion Picture.

December, 1943 A badly damaged American bomber struggles to fly over wartime Germany. At the controls is twenty-one-year-old Second Lieutenant Charlie Brown. Half his crew lay wounded or dead on this, their first mission. Suddenly, a Messerschmitt fighter pulls up on the bomber's tail. The pilot is German ace Franz Stigler--and he can destroy the young American crew with the squeeze of a trigger...

What happened next would defy imagination and later be called "the most incredible encounter between enemies in World War II."

The U.S. 8th Air Force would later classify what happened between them as "top secret." It was an act that Franz could never mention for fear of facing a firing squad. It was the encounter that would haunt both Charlie and Franz for forty years until, as old men, they would search the world for each other, a last mission that could change their lives forever.
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