The Cockpit

Disgraced pilot escorts bomber carrying Nazi bomb despite sweetheart's plea to destroy it

Captain Erhardt Von Rheindars, a German fighter pilot disgraced for abandoning his Fw 190 after wingman Lt. Erich Hartmann was shot down by three enemy Spitfires during a night recon mission, is assigned to escort a captured American B-17 bomber. The aircraft carries his childhood sweetheart, her scientist father, and a Nazi atom bomb. Given a prototype Ta 152 following complaints about his Fw 190's high altitude performance, Rheindars faces a moral crisis the night before the mission when his sweetheart begs him to let enemy planes destroy the bomber to prevent humanity from selling its soul. The next day, after shooting down two of three RAF attackers with the Ta 152, he allows the third Spitfire to destroy the bomber, then eliminates the final attacker before declaring himself the man who did not sell his soul to the devil.

Sonic Boom Squadron