Friendly fire WWII

[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

[Troy White]

Correction to my previous posting:

All of the 359th FG pilots were from the 369th FS except for Capt. Cranfill who was from the 368th FS.

Troy

[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

[Frank Olynyk]

Cranfill is the only pilot from the 368th FS. All the others are from the 369th FS.

None of these claims against Russian aircraft are included in the pilots scores. As far as I know they never prepared Personal Encounter Reports (=combat reports).

Cranfill had four victories as of this date. His fifth, and last, victory was against a Me 262 on March 19, 1945.

Cox had four victories as of this date. He is credited with a FW 190 on this date at 1135, at Joachimsthal. The claims against Russian aircraft were made at Zackerick A/F, N of Kustrin. I do not know where Joachimsthal is with respect to Zackerick or Kustrin.

FO Harley E Berndt claimed a Me-109 damaged at 1130 at Joachimsthal. Gaines claimed a Me-109 at 1135 at Joachimsthal.

It is of course possible that the claims for Me-109s are for Yaks, and the FW-190 claimed could be a La-5 or -7. But the 109 and 190 claims were officially confirmed.

My information on the claims against the Russians comes from the book Mustangs and Unicorns, and I would love to know where the author got that information. Does anyone know?

Enjoy!

Frank.