I sent Brian Cull a copy of the complete report from the Combined Chiefs of Staff file at the National Archives, College Park, Maryland regarding the shootdown of Soviet fighters mentioned in this thread. I previously listed this file number on this web site in answer to Cull's request for information on friendly fire.

Apparently, the 359 FG tried to hide the incident from HQ 8th AF and denied any involvement. But later in the CCS file, information appears that the 359 FG pilots did indeed shoot down the Soviet aircraft.

And yes, the USAAF pilots were trigger happy and would shoot down anything that flew. Aircraft identification was not the forte of every USAAF pilot. P-38s of the 10th Recon Group were constantly being jumped and attacked by 9th AF P-47s during later stages of the war over the continent.

How could a USAAF pilot confuse a P-38 from any Luftwaffe aircraft?

Norman Malayney