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Re: Friendly fire WWII
I came across this information back in 2010 but never got around to posting it because life has gotten in the way of visiting the forums.
According to the author, the 747th Tank Battalion was working with the 175th Infantry Regiment on 8th June 1944 when RAF Typhoons misidentified their column and attacked, with tragic results. Lieutenant Homer Wilkes, a tank platoon commander, remembered:
" … The column formed up at Vierville in terrain curiously free of hedgerows. We started out in column on the road with Company C leading. I know not what the others thought, but I thought we were marching to the front. This impression was corrected minutes later by the appearance of an infantry skirmish line. Although it was my first taste of battle, I knew what that meant ... One strong point was Osmanville. And there on a clear day this village was attacked by a dozen British fighter-bombers. The Company C platoon leader of the advance guard was killed trying to display his identification panel. Other officers threw out smoke grenades. But the strike was pressed home until the pilots had dropped all their bombs and expended all ammunition. As a result, thirty-two infantrymen were slain, plus our officer, and Company C lost an entire platoon of tanks … "
See p.149
Yeide, Harry. The Infantry's Armor: The U.S. Army's Separate Tank Battalions in World War II (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2010).
There was a similar incident noted by Joe Balkoski when he wrote Beyond The Beachhead which is possibly connected to this one.
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On 10th November 1942,
RAF Hudson V9253 (53 Squadron) was shot down by flying debris from its own depth charges; one of which scored a direct hit on the German submarine U-505 that was surfaced at the time. The U-boat was heavily damaged but returned to base at Lorient. The four-man RAF aircrew was lost along with one U.S. Navy passenger, including: Flight Sergeant R. R. Sillcock, RAAF; Sergeant P. G. Nelson, RNZAF; Sergeant W. Skinner, RAF; Sergeant T. R. Millar, RAF; and Seaman 1st Class H. L. Brew, USN.
(Source: U-Boat vs. Aircraft by Franks/Zimmerman, p.15)
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