Friendly fire WWII

[Six Nifty .50s]

Just read In the Ruins of Empire by Ronald Spector which notes a very unusual case on Java, dated 20 November 1945.

The war officially ended but not for British and Japanese troops who, ironically, became allies in the violent guerrilla warfare brewing in the Dutch East Indies. On this date six RAF Thunderbolts were called in to bomb and strafe Indonesian guerrillas at Semarang, and during the course of this action the planes also attacked British and Japanese units. The number of casualties is unclear.

To briefly summarize the backstory; part of the British 23rd Division was landed to help restore civil order and disarm the Japanese occupation forces. Realizing they had stepped in a hornet's nest, the local British commanders asked the Japanese for military assistance in fighting the insurgents. (A similar deal was brokered by the British 20th Division in Saigon, for the same reason.)

Before they were hit by the fighter-bombers, a British battalion was cut in half following counterattacks by the guerrillas at Semarang. Major Kido Shinishiro was summoned to bring up a Japanese battalion, which performed "magnificently", and he was also recommended for a DSO!

[Brian]

Nice to hear from you again Six-Nifty .50s

Yes, a most unusual incident. I will research further. Many thanks

Cheers
Brian

[Dave Wallace]

My father's crew had a friendly fire incident on the approach to Rostock when they were shot up by the Stirling just in front of them, wounding the Pilot in the leg. The Flight Engineer flew the aircraft while my father (the Navigator) who had left medical school for the RCAF, patched up the Pilot who was able to land the aircraft at their home station at RAF Chedburgh. He recalled the incident in a letter to his Pilot, Geoff Shattock, in the 1980's.
"" It was on April 20, and we took off at 21:57 on `N for nuts'. Weather was very good and we could get a landfall as we crossed the coast somewhere around Cromer . Got good Gee fixes for a while then took some Polaris shots when we ran out of Gee range. We were routed a long way north, and crossed the Danish coast pretty well on track at nearly 56 degrees N., at the south end of Rinkabing Fjord. There was some flak, and by this time you had come right down to treetop height. From there on it got quite exciting, probably one of the most exciting times of my life. Having got a good pinpoint at the coast and having no further nav aids, I came up and sat with you prepared to map read us the rest of the way. We could see the tank defences along the coast (mainly big sort of angle iron contraptions). The trees went by in an alarming way, and we could see doors being flung open and even people standing in the light of their homes. Dickie remarked that we could almost tell people we'd been in Denmark rather than over it. We crossed Denmark fairly fast (Jutland , that is), and crossed Fyn, Langland and Lolland. These are what they are called now but I'm not sure they were that on my chart. At one point there was a lot of light flak around and some of it was coming right at us. I should recall that the term `light flak ` refers to the type (Bofors with tracer) rather than to the severity! Hunt was in the front turret and started yelling "Those sons of bitches!", and opened fire on them . Tommy and Dickie joined in and I'm not sure whether we shut them up or just drew attention to ourselves. As we reached the open Baltic Sea, you climbed to about 3000 ft., and all was clear as day. I could see all the land marks and we turned on about 200 T. to Rostock, soon in sight. However, as we drew closer, it was obvious that Jerry had put up a massive smoke screen over the whole area; in fact, the "Bomber Command War Diaries", a remarkable publication, states that as a result, the bombing was scattered. This was no town blitz- we were after the Heinkel Works. As we started our target run as best we could, I saw a Stirling weaving a bit ahead of us. Then there was a rather unpleasant bang, and you said something like "Oh, Jesus Christ!" Then you said `take that!', referring to the control stick. Then you called "Hunt, come up here quick!" As the only even remotely qualified second pilot, he let the bombs go and came up and took over the controls. I gave Hunt a course to steer. I told him to steer 015M for 10 minutes and then turn on 315. Then I went and found a flashlight and got your flying boot off. It was full of blood and there was a hole through your leg below the knee. I got the medical kit and put a shell dressing on it, but didn't try any fancy hemostasis because I was sure it would quit bleeding O.K. All this messing around in the dark took a while, about 20-25 minutes, and when I got back up with Hunt he was still steering 015 - either he hadn't heard me or didn't have a watch. I looked out and could see clearly the Copenhagen area right ahead. So we turned on about 270 and headed for home. In answer to your recent comment, I can't imagine that anyone even remotely thought of bailing out. The trip back was pretty uneventful. You described the amount of pain you had as about equal to a severe toothache. You soon took over the controls and declined any more help. I offered to shoot some codeine into you with some very neat little gadgets in the medical kit, but you were obviously scared it might destroy your razor-sharp awareness. Smitty radioed ahead something like: Pilot wounded; all O.K. When we got to base the Waaf on Flying Control asked: "What is the nature of your wounds?" and you answered that you had a bullet in the calf of your leg. You set it down perfectly and were whisked away to the hospital. Next day the ground crew found that ONE bullet had cut off the cockpit lighting, cut out the hydraulic exactor control of one port engine, gone through your leg, mangled some of my charts, and still had enough zip to make a dent in the armour plating beside my navigation table. It was a bad night for 3 Group (20/04/1943) - we lost 8 of 80 planes and didn't do a good job. Also a lot of people who got back were shot up with some killed including one gunner from 214." (Benjamin Oldroyd, 22, rear gunner in Sgt. Gray's crew - shot in head). They were flying Stirling III BK659 coded "BU-N" of 214 Squadron.
Regards
Dave Wallace

[Nikita Egorov]

Originally Posted by Nokose

12July43
Lt Gomolko of the 240 IAP was returning from a mission in his La-5 (#2952) in the Priznannogiy region. Had the misfortune of approaching one of his own Il-2 Shturmovik's head-on. He was blasted from the sky. The list doesn't give his fate.

Michael,

Actually he was tasked to escort this group of Il-2s. Arriving in the appointment area, Gomolko, as leader of escort group, tried to warn Il-2s formation leader that escort is on the way. His La-5s was misidentified as attacking Fw-190 and he was killed in burning plane.
Crash site is s-e of Priznannoje.

Brian,

Please note the signifficant thing regarding FF accidents on the Eastern front. Starting from the battle Kuban (april-may 1943), when 4 Yak-1s of 291 IAP landed by mistake in Taganrog, instead of Rostov, lots of Soviet combat reports are full with Soviet planes mentioned as used by Germans. Results of critical research for this cases say that the majority of them can be regarded as FF. But split them from the real cases of German flying the captured planes, are very difficult.

And two more fresh cases of FF, recently extracted from documents:

1. 29.01.1944, 12.35-13.35, area of Cap Tarkhan, Yak-1 of 42 GIAP was shot down by rapid attack of Aircobra. Mladshiy Leitenant Flerov was killed. On the other side Mladshiy Leitenant Andrijevskiy, 66 IAP, flying Aircobra, was credited with one Me-109 at the same area and time as Flerov was killed.

2. 1.02.1944, 16.45, area of Kingisepp-Narva, group of P-40, 191 IAP, on the routine patrol was attacked by a pair of Yak-9s. As result one P-40 was shot down and his pilot Mladshiy Leitenant Shijanov bailed out. Further investigation did not reveal the identity and unit of attacking Yak-9s.

[Brian]

Hi Nik

Thanks for the latest incidents and explanation.

Do please keep them coming whenever you find them!

Best
Brian

[Bruce Dennis]

501 posts and no end in sight! What a thread!

Bruce

[Brian]

Thanks Bruce

But not quite so - Volume I should appear by the end of the year!

Having said that, I currently have three other books with different publishers awaiting their respective appearances! Apparently the resession is biting!

Cheers
Brian

[crolick]

Brian,

for September 1939 I have:
Hs.126 (P2+MK) from 2.(H)/21 downed on 1 IX 1939 by 2 Bf.110 from I./ZG 1 near Warszkowo. Crew (Olt. Rehdanz WIA and Lt. Schmidt) was taken POW by Polish ground units.

If anyone can trace down both German pilots whom downed Hs.126 it would be greatly appreciated!!


Andrzej

[Brian]

Hi Andrzej

Many thanks. I had details of the incident but not the names of the crew.
Excellent!

Cheers
Brian

[Fighterbeau]

I'm researching the death of Sgt Pilot Wright, who died after being hit by anti aircraft fire near Winchester in October 1942. RAF Museum very helpful, but does anyone have other information?

Mike