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Originally Posted by Franek Grabowski
Unfortunatelly there is no Kitty flown by any Scherger listed. Interestingly I have a Wirraway lost due to FF on 5 July 1943. Wondering if it is an error. Still a tip of iceberg I think! 49 FG had a lot of such incidents.
Best wishes
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Compared to the ETO, not many planes were involved in friendly fire mistakes in the Pacific. Some incidents involving the Australians:
USAAF P-40E (41-5551) was shot down by Australian AA fire at Darwin, April 4th, 1942. Lt. Grover Gardner bailed out.
RAAF Beaufort (A9-225) mistakenly attacked a US Navy PB4Y Liberator, and the Beaufort was subsequently shot down by return fire from the Liberator, July 12th, 1943. (This has been corrected: originally, I wrote the wrong serial number of A9-224).
RNZAF P-40M (NZ3084) crashed after it was hit by a falling bomb dropped by a B-24 Liberator on August 30th, 1943. (This type of accident was fairly common, especially over Europe. Falling drop tanks was another hazard).
RAAF P-40N (A-29-688) was shot down by friendly fire (apparently hit by rockets from unidentified source) on October 13th, 1944, which killed the pilot F/O Peter Parkinson.
RAAF Beaufighter (A8-85) was shot down by the blast from its own rockets, and the pilot also misidentified the target. They sank a private yacht owned by the Rajah of Sarawak, but it was claimed as a Japanese Oil Tanker, August 7th, 1945. The crew survived the crash.
When RAAF P-40s first arrived overhead their new base in Port Moresby, Australian airfield defense units opened fire on them as they came in for a landing. Four Kittyhawks were damaged by AA fire, but I don't know the serials. In March 1944, RAAF P-40s from 78 Squadron and an RAAF Beaufighter from 30 Squadron attacked two US Navy patrol boats off New Britain -- PT 121 and PT 353 both exploded and sank. Eight men were killed.
In Europe, there were too many friendly fire accidents to count. During the Battle of Britain, at least thirty-six British aircraft were shot down in error by the RAF or by British anti-aircraft batteries. The Luftwaffe may have lost a higher total during Operation Bodenplatte.