Friendly fire incidents

[Maxrobot1]

In Martin Caidin's book on the P-38, he says a priority delivery of dive brakes for Lightnings was attempted by a C-54 only to have the plane shot down by a Spitfire. I think the first European loss of a P-61 was to a Mosquito and I recently saw that the first Hurricanes shot down in the Battle of France were downed by Spitfires.
anybody have any other such anecdotes?

 

[SaparotRob]

Not in quite the same league but I found the Battle of Palmdale interesting.

 

[Simon Thomas]

The RAAF in SW Pacific having to change the national markings of the entire air force to remove any red, as the US kept shooting down anything with any red paint.
Came to a head when a bunch of RAAF blokes made their way to a US air base, and painted an RAAF roundel on the plane of one of the culprits.

 

[EwenS]

One of the worst friendly fire incidents of WW2 that I can immediately recall, and is little known of, happened on 27 Aug 1944 off Normandy. Due to communications cock up, RAF Typhoons were ordered to strike "enemy" ships. These turned out to be the 4 Halcyon class minesweepers of the 1st MSF and an accompanying danlaying trawler.

Outcome? 2 ships sunk, another irreparably damaged (stern blown off) and others damaged. 86 dead & 124 wounded.

SINKING OF HMS BRITOMART AND HMS HUSSAR BY FRIENDLY FIRE

 

[special ed]

Reading the thread & links about torch, an RAF Hudson went missing from Gibralter while recon near Torch. Appears USN thought it an Leo 451. There was one other friendly fire there which I have already forgotten. It seems the Brits should not look in as the USN pilots did not build models enough.

 

[GreenKnight121]

The RAAF in SW Pacific having to change the national markings of the entire air force to remove any red, as the US kept shooting down anything with any red paint.
Came to a head when a bunch of RAAF blokes made their way to a US air base, and painted an RAAF roundel on the plane of one of the culprits.

The US had to remove the red dot from the center of the US Insignia on its planes as ground AA gunners kept thinking they were Japanese and shot at them.

pre-war:

 

[EwenS]

The US had to remove the red dot from the center of the US Insignia on its planes as ground AA gunners kept thinking they were Japanese and shot at them.

pre-war:

View attachment 728687

Same thing happened with the RAF in the Far East.

As early as April-July 1943 Air HQ India and HQ Bengal were receiving reports that the intense sunlight in the was causing fading of camouflage and markings especially on upper surfaces. Particularly badly affected were the upper wing Type B roundels, where the blue faded and merged into the faded camouflage leaving only the red spot prominent so resembling Japanese markings. At that point blue/white markings as already adopted by the RAAF were agreed to.

Then it was found that the white compromised the camouflage so it was replaced with a light blue (4 parts white and one part blue). Thereafter all sorts of unusual markings appeared as roundels shrank in size or had the white/light blue centres reduced in size.

The final step was the adoption of blue/white markings with bars for the BPF.

 

[SaparotRob]

The US had to remove the red dot from the center of the US Insignia on its planes as ground AA gunners kept thinking they were Japanese and shot at them.

pre-war:

View attachment 728687

Great picture!

 

[Maxrobot1]

Not air-to air but pretty bad..."The friendly fire incident at Sicily was the worst for American forces in World War II. Of 144 transport planes, 23 were destroyed and 37 heavily damaged; 88 Americans were killed in action, 162 wounded, and 69 missing in action." The night of July 9-10 1943.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/friendly-fire-airborne-assault-sicily.html

 

[Barrett]

Seems ab-so-lute-ly amazing that anybody thought GERMAN SHIPS were operating off Normandy seven weeks after D-Day. But there it is...

For an early-war example, check "The Battle of Barking Creek."

 

[CBSKY]

Goodness, and I thought the German AAA firing on the Bodenplatte attack force was bad.

 

[rochie]

it is now thought by some that Douglas Bader was shot down by "Buck Casson" and did not collide with a Bf 109.

BADER’S LAST FIGHT An in-Depth Investigation of a Great WWII Mystery - Naval & Military Press

www.naval-military-press.com

 

[Capt. Vick]

Uh oh...

 

[Capt. Vick]

This one in Vietnam.

 

[GTX]

View attachment 730212

This one in Vietnam.

Crash of a De Havilland C-7B Caribou in Duc Phô: 3 killed | Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives

www.baaa-acro.com

 

[pbehn]

In Martin Caidin's book on the P-38, he says a priority delivery of dive brakes for Lightnings was attempted by a C-54 only to have the plane shot down by a Spitfire. I think the first European loss of a P-61 was to a Mosquito and I recently saw that the first Hurricanes shot down in the Battle of France were downed by Spitfires.
anybody have any other such anecdotes?

There were no Spitfires in the Battle of France until Dunkerque. Maybe you mean the Battle of Barking Creek, which is a bit more than an anecdote. Battle of Barking Creek - Wikipedia.

 

[EwenS]

There were no fighter Spitfires in the Battle of France until Dunkerque. Maybe you mean the Battle of Barking Creek, which is a bit more than an anecdote. Battle of Barking Creek - Wikipedia.

I've corrected it for you.

Some of the very earliest PR Spitfires operated from French soil from Nov 1939.

The RAF Recce Spitfires of WWII

At low level or higher altitudes, reconnaissance Supermarine Spitfires were vital to Britain’s war effort. Malcolm V Lowe examines this oft-forgotten aspect of the type’s illustrious career

www.key.aero

 

[Jabberwocky]

A number of early Hawker Typhoon losses and damageds were due to Spitfires. I believe the first two 'combat' losses were to Spitfires.

The profile of the Typhoon was similar enough to the FW 190 that patrolling Spitfires bounced them on multiple occasions. Even in late 1943, they were still being mistaken for Jabo flights. This was part of the reason for the invasion stripes.

The main method of evasion was to open the throttle and enter a shallow dive away. The Tiffie's speed advantage over the Spitfire (particularly the Mk V) was enough that it could simply walk away below about 12,000 ft.

 

[Sabrejet]

My wife's great-grandfather was killed on 9 May 1915 by his own creeping barrage falling short.

 

[pbehn]

My uncle was in the RAF and later the ROC. During D-Day operations he was on a US flak ship guarding the fleet. His job was to call friend or foe to the captain/ senior gunner. Each flak ship had 2 ROC observers, this solved the problem of friendly fire from flak ships, but not from the rest of the fleet which would open up on anything. Generally allied pilots kept well away and P-38s were used close to the fleet. This was because the P-38 was supposedly more recognisable, but to me, if you can tell the difference between a P-38 and a Bf 110 from a head on view, you are a better man than I.