Shadowing Practice: When a Bf-109 spared a stricken B-17 - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
It was December 20th 1943 and in the freezing air high above Germany,
2
2nd Lieutenant Charles Charlie Brown struggled to keep his mortally damaged American bomber on course.
3
Brown had been wounded in the shoulder, his tail gunner Sergeant Hugh Ecke Eckenrode was dead and several other members of the crew were wounded, some severely.
4
Their aircraft, B-17 Ye Olde Pub, had been hit twice by flak as it approached its target, the Focke-Wulf plant in the German city of Bremen,
5
forcing the crew to shut down one of the engines and throttle back on another.
6
This had left it lagging behind the main formation of aircraft from the 379th Bombardment Group, and groups of German fighters had closed in like sharks, sensing blood in the water.
7
Up to 15 fighters had attacked the bomber, and the whole tail section was shot to pieces.
8
The nose cone was missing.
9
The electrical, hydraulic and oxygen systems were damaged.
10
The radio was out and the entrails of the crippled bomber flapped in the slipstream through gaping wrecks in the fuselage.
11
But B-17s are tough old birds and this one somehow kept on flying despite the damage.
12
Brown blacked out for a short time due to pain, loss of blood and a lack of oxygen, and the bomber spiraled towards the ground.
13
Brown came to and realized that the B-17 was only a few hundred feet above the ground.
14
He somehow managed to get it back under control and turned west towards England in safety, 250 miles away.
15
Brown wasn't able to coax the B-17 much above 1,000 feet, and he was vaguely aware that he had passed close to the perimeter of a German airfield.
16
Soon after he realized that a German Messerschmitt Bf 109 was flying in close formation beside him.
17
It was so close that Brown could see the German pilot as he gestured towards the ground, telling Brown to set the bomber down.
18
Most of the B-17's gunners were wounded.
19
Only a few guns were still working and none were able to shoot at the enemy fighter alongside.
20
Brown could only look on at the German pilot and shake his head.
21
For a short time the Messerschmitt flew beside the bomber.
22
Then it slid away above and behind.
23
Brown waited for the gunfire that must mean the end of the old pub. But nothing happened.
24
He realized to his astonishment that the German fighter was flying escort on the B-17.
25
As they crossed the coastline and flew out over the North Sea, the fighter remained on station.
26
Only when they were well out from the German coast did the fighter slide in again close to the bomber.
27
Brown looked across and the German pilot looked back at him, raised a gloved hand in salute and then swung his aircraft away back towards the east.
28
Brown managed to put Ye Olde Pub on the ground, not at their home base in Cambridgeshire, but at an air base of the 448th Bomb Group near Norfolk and East Anglia.
29
He and all his crew, other than the tail gunner, survived.
30
At debriefing, Brown told his story about the German fighter which escorted him.
31
It was decided that this should be kept secret.
32
The notion of an honorable German pilot choosing not to shoot
33
down a damaged American bomber just didn't fit with the message that the US Air Force wanted to give out.
34
Charlie Brown survived the war, went home to go to college and then rejoined the Air Force in 1949.
35
He served until 1965 when he retired as a colonel.
36
It wasn't until much later, in 1986, at a meeting of retired combat pilots called gathering of the Eagles, that he first spoke about what had happened.
37
The response was strong, though some questioned whether the whole incident really happened.
38
Even Brown began to wonder.
39
His memories of that day in 1943 were hazy due to his injuries, exhaustion and the stress of combat.
40
Could he be remembering it all wrong?
41
Brown decided that he was going to find the German pilot involved, if only to prove that he hadn't imagined the whole thing.
42
It took four years, But in 1990, Brown finally received a letter from a man named Stigler, who was living in Canada.
43
Stigler explained that he had been the pilot of the German fighter who had escorted Ye Olde Pub.
44
On December 20, 1943, Franz Stigler had been a 27-kill veteran pilot.
45
He had flown against American bombers in his Messerschmitt Bf 109 G6 that morning, and he was refueling on the ground when Ye Olde Pub passed close by.
46
He took off intending to shoot down the American bomber.
47
However, as he closed with the limping aircraft, he could see just how badly it had been hit.
48
He would later say that he had never seen a more severely damaged aircraft still flying.
49
Stigler's commander had told his pilots never to fire an enemy who was descending on a parachute.
50
While the crew of the old pub hadn't bailed out, they were clearly no longer capable of fighting and Stigler decided that he could not bring himself to attack.
51
Instead he flew alongside and gestured to Brown to land.
52
He just simply couldn't imagine that the crippled aircraft could possibly make it back to England.
53
When Brown refused, Stigler made an extraordinary decision.
54
Instead of shooting it down, he flew close formation with the B-17, hoping that this would deter flak batteries on the coast from firing at it.
55
He flew with the bomber well out over the North Sea until it was clear of German airspace
56
and then left it to continue towards England.
57
Stigler never told anyone about what had happened.
58
Sparing an American bomber would likely have led to punishment and perhaps even execution, but he often wondered if it had made it back to base.
59
Stigler continued flying fighters throughout the war.
60
In 1953 he emigrated from Germany to Canada where he started a successful business.
61
When he heard from Charlie Brown in 1990, Stigler confirmed every aspect of his story.
62
Franz Stigler and Charlie Brown were astonished to discover
63
that they had been living less than 200 miles apart for much of the time since the war.
64
Stigler had settled in Vancouver, British Columbia, while Brown was in Seattle, Washington.
65
In the latter years, the two men remained close friends, often visiting and talking to other flyers about their shared experiences.
66
Thank you.
📺 Same Channel
B2M26 Pershing vs T34-85
University StudentsWorking Adults
B24
Wake Island: The Last Stand That Stunned Japan
High School StudentsUniversity Students
B21
When Only One B-17 Came Home
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B13
Trailer: Shermans vs Panthers: Four Days of Hell
B25
When the Desert Fox Hunted Desert Rats
University StudentsWorking Adults
B24
When Two B-17s Piggybacked
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B21
When Cockroaches Hunted Panzers
High School StudentsUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
When an Axeman Fought a Tank
Daily ConversationHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
B21
When M1 Abrams Fought T-72s
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B2The Shoemaker that Stopped the Tank Ace
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
✨ Recommend Video
B21
236 sentences
Extended interview: Benjamin Netanyahu discusses alleged pilot stabbing on flight to Israel
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B22
143 sentences
The Man Who Survived Both Atomic Bombs
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
116 sentences
Ben-Hur (1959): 8 Untold Facts You Never Knew
University StudentsWorking Adults
B21
17 sentences
"I guess I just miss my friend" - The Shawshank Redemption (HD)
University StudentsWorking Adults
B22
121 sentences
Aviation English Photo Description: Runway Excursion
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
151 sentences
where fear ends, freedom begins
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
151 sentences
How did ONE missing letter crash this plane? | Dan Air 1008
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B22
319 sentences
This 'Ugly' Jet Could Strike in Any Weather – And Nothing Could Replace It
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B23
78 sentences
Tony: A Soldier’s Journey
University StudentsWorking Adults
B2660 sentences
World's Most Dangerous Paper Route | Full Documentary
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “When a Bf-109 spared a stricken B-17”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Brown, German, bomber, Stigler, fighter. This video has 66 sentences and 1070 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:51. The speaker talks fast, about 183 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| bomber noun | /ˈbɑmɚ/ | A military aircraft designed to carry and drop bombs. |
| gunner noun | /ˈɡʌn.ɚ/ | An artillery soldier, especially one who holds private rank. |
| escort noun | /ˈɛs.kɔɹt/ | A group of people or vehicles, generally armed, who go with a person or people of importance to safeguard them on a journey or mission. |
| flak noun | /flæk/ | Ground-based anti-aircraft guns firing explosive shells. |
| gesture noun | /ˈd͡ʒɛs.t͡ʃɚ/ | A motion of the limbs or body, especially one made to emphasize speech. |
| retire verb | /ɹəˈtaɪɹ/ | To stop working on a permanent basis, usually because of old age or illness. |
| severely adverb | In a severe manner; with severity. | |
| beside | /bɪˈsaɪd/ | Next to; at the side of. |
| airfield noun | An open field designated for the taking off and landing of aircraft, but which, unlike an airport, does not necessarily have terminals or paved runways. | |
| airspace noun | A specified portion of the atmosphere, especially that under the technical aviation control and/or jurisdiction of a particular state over which territory (and… | |
| astonish verb | /əˈstɑnɪʃ/ | To surprise greatly. |
| astonishment noun | /əˈstɑːnɪʃmənt/ | The feeling or experience of being astonished; great surprise. |
| debrief verb | /diːˈbɹiːf/ | To question someone after a military mission in order to obtain information (especially intelligence). |
| emigrate verb | /ˈɛmɪɡɹeɪt/ | To leave the country in which one lives, especially one's native country, in order to reside elsewhere. |
| exhaustion noun | /ɪɡˈzɔːs.t͡ʃən/ | The point of complete depletion, of the state of being used up. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| bail out verb | To secure the release of an arrested person by providing bail money. |
| give out verb | To utter, publish; to announce, proclaim, report. |
| shut down verb | To close, terminate, or end; to stop operating, either permanently or temporarily. |
| take off verb | To remove. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 6 contractions and reduced forms, such as hadn't, wasn't, couldn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: astonish /əˈstɑnɪʃ/, astonishment /əˈstɑːnɪʃmənt/, fuselage /ˈfjuːzəˌlɑːʒ/, parachute /ˈpæɹəʃut/, notion /ˈnoʊʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: astonishment /əˈstɑːnɪʃmənt/, perimeter /pɪˈɹɪm.ɪ.tə/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like bomber, gunner, escort.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.