Friendly fire WWII

[Brian]

Many thanks Troy and George - I have to admit that I have most of this information but you have added a little more, Troy. Keep searching!

I haven't established a date for the incident you recount, George, but have made a note.

Great stuff

Brian

Originally Posted by Troy White

Last night while I was looking for something completely different I stumbled upon the following “friendly” fire information. Funny how that works.

On 18 March 1945 the 352nd FG, 353rd FG, 357th FG & 359th FG all had contact with Soviet fighters in the Berlin area.

A P-51 from the 353rd and one from the 352nd crash landed behind Soviet lines as a result of engagements with the Soviets.

Several flights of 352nd FG mixed it up with Yak-9s but combat was broken off when proper recognition was established. However, Lt. Albert Peterson of the 487th FS got into a turning contest with four Yaks and got himself shot down. Peterson eventually made his way back to his base on 1 May 1945. I couldn’t find anything more on the 353rd FG or the 357th FG.

But the big story was what happened with the 359th FG over the airfields at Zackerick and Joachimsthal. Mustangs of the 368th FS and 369th FS shot down a total of nine and damaged one of the Russians in a good sized fracas with no losses. They also destroyed two more on the ground as they were taxiing to take off. The 359th initially mistook the La-5s for Fw 190s and the Yak-9s for Bf 109s. The Americans broke off combat when they figured out their mistake but in some cases the Soviets wanted to keep fighting so the Americans obliged and shot them down. The stats show that it was not much of a contest.

High scorers that day were Capt. Ralph Cox who shot down three La-5s and Maj. Niven Cranfill who flamed two Yak-9s. Both became aces with those victories.

Here are confirmed victories for the 359th FG on 18 March 1945:

Cranfill, 368th FS: 2 Yak-9s
Cox 368th FS: 3 La-5s
Burtner, 368th FS: 1 Yak-9
Burtner, 368th FS: 2 Yak-9s (ground)
McCormack, 368th FS: 1 Yak-9
Gaines, 368th FS: 1 Yak-9
McIntosh, 368th FS: 1 Yak-9
Berndt, 368th FS: 1 Yak-9 (damaged)

After the incident Lt. McIntosh was court marshaled and sent back to the USA because his was the only gun camera film evidence of the incident that survived.

On the Russian side Joseph Stalin had the surviving Russian pilots executed and expected the USA to do the same with the 359th pilots which of course never happened.
Cheers--

Troy

Are you proud of these "victories" of the allies? It is astounding, "aces" with such "victories". In the USSR did not boasted of such. They are not included in the statistics of victories.
Ivan Kozhedub (best ace of allies, with 62 victories over the Germans) on La-7:
- April 17, 1945: has been attacked by fighter escort of the 332 th Fighter Group... and shot down two P-51, оne exploded in the air, and the second landed in the location of Soviet troops, said that knocked down in a fight with FW-190))



- late April - beginning of May 1945: shot down three B-17s in the Soviet occupation zone.

[Laurent Rizzotti]

A new air-to-ground case

26 January 1944
A bomb from one of our planes dropped by mistake damaged the southern breakwater and the building containing the Port Commander's offices at Kerch. One 2 cm AA gun was put out of action, three men were killed.

Source: War Diary German Naval Staff Operations Division for January 1944

[mars]

Originally Posted by jetaca

Are you proud of these "victories" of the allies? It is astounding, "aces" with such "victories". In the USSR did not boasted of such. They are not included in the statistics of victories.
Ivan Kozhedub (best ace of allies, with 62 victories over the Germans) on La-7:
- April 17, 1945: has been attacked by fighter escort of the 332 th Fighter Group... and shot down two P-51, оne exploded in the air, and the second landed in the location of Soviet troops, said that knocked down in a fight with FW-190))



- late April - beginning of May 1945: shot down three B-17s in the Soviet occupation zone.

These clashes between Soviet and Western Allied air forces around the end of the war were actually more common than we used to thought, though we had no evidence that either side did it intentionally, it was rather caused by misidentification, you flew to enemy space, you met an aircraft did not look like belong to your side, so you shot immediately. As far as I know, neither side included these into their official scores.
Besides, just want to ask Mr Troy, what is his source about "On the Russian side Joseph Stalin had the surviving Russian pilots executed ", this claims sound suspicious, more like a cold war propaganda, I know quite a few these friendly fir cases between VVS and USAAF over Hungary and Czech, none of the Soviet pilots involved were executed

[Josh Osborne]

Originally Posted by Troy White

There were so many incidents, I am sure you are going to have fun compiling them all. Here are a few more for you:

10 Sept 43 Lt. Pryblo 307th FS 31st FG-- Own Flak
22 May 44 Nick "Cowboy" Megura 334th FS-- 4th FG Shot down by P-38
6 June 44 Uffz. Winter 6./JG 26-- Own Flak
25 December Lt. Bouchier-- Own Flak
25 December Capt. Don Emmerson 336 FS 4th FG-- Own Flak
1 Jan 45 An RAF Typhoon or Tempest was shot down and the pilot KIA while in the landing pattern by a pilot from the 328th FS 352nd FG at Y-29 in Belgium.
1 Jan 45 out of about 300 aircraft lost by the Luftwaffe during Operation Bodenplatte about 100 were shot down by their own flak.

I also recall an incident where USAAF P-38s shot down a few Soviet fighters I believe in the Balkans near the end of the war.

And of course there was St. Lo...

That is just what I found in my notes and the very few books in my library.

I look forward to seeing how you present all of this stuff. I am sure some people will think this is a touchy subject but there are so many ways to get killed during a war. I used to live in Florida and during WWII there was an average of 1.25 military planes a day that crashed between Pearl Harbour and V-J Day and nobody was was shooting at them.

Cheers--

Troy

From the extremely well researched "Bodenplatte" by John Mahrno and Ron Putz, Luftwaffe losses from friendly fire during the Bodenplatte operation were only ~15% of losses, not the 33% reported in some other sources.

[Franek Grabowski]

A C-46 cargo transport was misidentified by a Spitfire pilot as a FW-200 "Condor" and shot down near Ireland during WWII (it was carrying 300 P-38 speed flaps modifications. The next P-38 shipment came by ship and it was sunk by a u-boat!)

Never heard of it.

[Juha]

Brian
there were some Finnish plane losses to own ground fire, for ex. HC-459 (Hurricane Mk I) on 2 July 41, Finnish AA hit it but it got back to base but catch fire during landing and was written-off and on 11 June 44 DN-56 or -61 (Do-17Z), cannot remember which was shot down by Finns and which by Soviets, in both cases pilot and observer KIA and gunner and W/O survived.
There are also other cases for example the second FAF pilot KIA was shot down by own AA near Viipuri/Wyborg on 1 Dec. 1939 in FR-77 (Fokker D.XXI).

[Brian]

Hi Franek and Juha

Thanks for the latest gems - I am not aware of any of these so please provide more info if possible.

Thanks
Brian

[Juha]

Hello Brian
I'm rather busy now but I'll try to write down a few cases now and then.

So a bit more on the 1. Dec 39 case
Unit: Lentolaivue 24, the main fighter laivue/Gruppe of FAF at that time.
Pilot: kersantti( Sergeant ie 3 chervons) Matti Ensio Kukkonen *8 Nov. 1917 in Lahti
Kukkonen had scrambled with his leader vänrikki (the lowest officer rank) Puhakka (later one of FAF's top aces) from Immola at 14:00. Cloud base was at 300m and visibility was poor but the pair had succeeded to open fire several times towards SBs (Soviet twin engine bomber a bit like Blenheim). Because they were running short of fuel Puhakka decided to land nearer Suurmerijoki base. When they descented through clouds near Viipuri, Finnish AA opened suddenly fire and got a direct hit to FR-77 which plunged onto ice at Ronkaanlahti. The plane was crushed and Kukkonen died instantly. Crash-time 15:20.

The Winter War had began a day earlier and Finnish troops were nervous at that day, hitting 5 own planes on that day, one other pilot was wounded, kersantti Rimminen, but IIRC Rimminen was only lightly wounded.


On 17 May 1942 Kapteeni/Captain Antti Olavi Naakka * 21 Aug 1913 in Viipuri from Lentolaivue 30 was leading 6 Fokker D.XXIs in FR-164 to cover military funerals in Kotka (an important port in SE Finland).
After flying over Kotka the formation continued southwards and then turned left almost through 180 degree and so approached Kirkonmaansaari (an island on which there was IIRC a coastal artillery fort) from South. Suddenly Finnish 40mm AAA opened fire hitting FR-164 at rear fuselage and the Fokker crashed on the island and burned. Naakka died. Crash-time 12:15.

When the accident was investigated it appeared that the AAA troop had not got info on the flight but even so Fokker D.XXI was easy to recognize with its fixed landing gear.


Source: Jaakko Hyvönen's Kohtalokkaat lennot 1939-1944 Toinen painos (1st reprint) Hämeenlinna 2001 ISBN 952-5026-21-3

HTH
Juha

[Brian]

Many thanks indeed, Juha - excellent material. Completely new to me and an overlooked area of conflict on my part.

I appreciate the problem with finding time, but please don't forget!!

Best wishes
Brian