Corgi Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress & Messerschmitt BF 109G-6

The Corgi Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Messercschmitt BF 109G-6 available in 1/72 was released in November. With a retail price of £169.99 the models are very much sought after with most places now being out of stock including Corgi itself. Luckily for the readers of Diecast Collector we have managed to get our hands on one so you could be in with a chance of winning it! These two World War planes also come with an amazing story...

On the 20th December 1943, 2nd Lt. Charlie Brown embarked upon his first mission over enemy territory, the bombing of the Focke-Wulf factory at Bremen. While the route to the target was relatively routine, once over it the mission ran into problems. Accurate flak smashed the Plexiglas nose, knocked out the number two engine and damaged engine number four. Brown was forced to slow the bomber, dropping out of formation and becoming a straggler, a very vulnerable position for the aircraft.

The bomber then came under sustained enemy fighter attacks, number three engine was damaged along with the internal oxygen, hydraulic and electrical systems and only the dorsal turret and one nose gun were still serviceable. Of the crew, most were injured, Brown had been shot in the shoulder and the tail gunner had been killed.

The final fighter to intercept the plane was flown by Franz Stigler, who, upon seeing the damage to the B17 and the wounded crew visible through the holes, decided not to shoot them down. Instead, after failing to persuade them to land, he escorted them to the coast, at which point Stigler saluted and flew home. Brown landed safely but was told to tell no one of the German's actions. Both Stigler and Brown survived the war and, in the late 1980's. Brown tracked down Stigler discovering that he lived just a few hundred miles from him, having moved to Vancouver after the war. They met in late 1990 and remained friends until their deaths just a few months apart in 1998.

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