P-38 'friendly fire' incident, Normandy 1944
 

I'm looking for any information people may have on an incident witnessed by a relative in 1944. (we were recently helped out with a query on the Luftwaffe forum, so he's come back with another question...)

The incident happened 3-5 weeks after D-Day (sorry can't be more specific), over the beach at la Brèche, Hermanville, Normandy.

He witnessed 6 or 7 Lightnings coming in low over the sea towards the beach.

The British bofors guns opened up on the fighters. He thinks 3 were hit - one came down about a mile away, one had an engine hit, which was smoking, and a third also appeared to be damaged.

Apparently the gunners were always given one of two orders: "Shoot at everything" or "Shoot at nothing", so presumably these aircraft weren't expected to be in the area at that time.

He was wondering if this was a documented incident, and if there is any information out there as to how it happened, (and no, he wasn't manning the guns.....)

I searched through the "Friendly fire WWII" thread without success!

Thanks

Phil

Re: P-38 'friendly fire' incident, Normandy 1944
 

Hi Phil,

The P-38s you speak of were invariably 9th AF which means they were from either the 367th, 370th or 474th FGs. I can tell you that these losses were definitely NOT from the 474th. The 367th FG had 21 losses in the late Jun to late Jul 44 timeframe. The 370th FG had 24 losses during this same timeframe. It is likely the loss you seek is in one of these groups. I will do some further research to see if I can narrow it down for you.

Cheers, Gary Koch (474th FG Historian)

Re: P-38 'friendly fire' incident, Normandy 1944
 

Phil,

I searched the 9th AF losses from late June to the end of July 1944 and could not find any P-38 losses from the 367th or 370th FGs in the area of la Brèche, Hermanville. It would really help if you had a more specific date.

I assumed that this incident involved 9th AF P-38s because you mentioned they had come in low over the sea towards the beach. This was the bailiwick of the 9th AF fighter-bombers. It is possible that these P-38s may have been from the 8th AF as four groups were still flying P-38s around this time. They were the 364th FG (until Aug 44), 479th FG (until Sep 44), 20th FG (until mid-Jul 44), and the 55th FG (until late Jul 44).

Unfortunately, I don't have much on the 8th AF as most of my records concern the 9th AF. Perhaps someone else on the forum might have more information.

Cheers, Gary Koch

Re: P-38 'friendly fire' incident, Normandy 1944
 

Phil -
www.armyairforces.com Forum has online Combat Chronology
for each day of War.
May be worth checking.
Mike