Friendly fire WWII

[SteveB]

Brian

This thread is very interesting but for this "bear of little brain" it is becoming quite confusing now. I don't think you have had responses on the following. Not the complete story I am afraid.

28/10/44 Mustang I AM153/T was with 430(RCAF) Sqdn based at B.78 Eindhoven. According to Shores and Thomas in 2TAF V2 the a/c was flown by F/Lt J L McMahon who was attacked by a Spitfire at 1650 apparently the pilot bailed out “near B.78”. No details on attacking a/c.

17/1/45: This incident involves Mustang II from 268Sqdn based at B.77 Gilze-Rijen although two a/c were involved only one was lost. The following info is derived from research by Colin Ford the 268Sqdn historian:

F/O A T ‘Arthur’ Lord in FR918/U and F/L K O ‘Ken’ Jenkins in FR930/W took off at 1324 hrs to conduct a Tac/R covering the area Arnhem – Borculo – Bocholt – Kranenburg. The sortie proceeded without incident until they were near Bocholt at reference E8780 (about one and a half miles west of Doesburg) when they were ‘bounced’ by a flight of Spitfires. Initially the two pilots were relieved at seeing that their ‘attackers’ were friendly Spitfires from 83 Group, but this quickly turned to disbelief and shock as the Spitfires opened fire at close range. The Mustang of Jenkins was seen to go down over enemy territory, obviously badly damaged. Lord escaped the attentions of the Spitfires, and returned to base. Jenkins was initially posted as missing but confirmation was soon received that he had been killed either as the result of wounds received in the attack by the Spitfires or in the crash of his Mustang behind enemy lines. F/Lt K O Jenkins is buried at Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetary. No details on attacking a/c.

14/2/45 Mustang III KH542 64 Sqn shot down by friendly fire. Does your info allow for the possibility of "ground fire"? This incident took place during an escort to bombers attacking rail targets at Bielefeld and Altenbecken. It is not clear but it appears that on the outward leg West of Enschede F/Lt G A ‘Richie’ Richards had engine trouble in KH542 and turned back with P/Off A O Lloyd as escort. Richards steadily lost height down to 600ft when Lloyd left him to investigate two Spitfires that appeared to be attempting to bounce them. Lloyd lost Richards as a result but made contact with him by radio Richards reported that he was still at 600ft with an IAS of 150mph. It is thought that they were over friendly territory by this time. Lloyd landed at Antwerp but nothing further was heard from Richards. The mission was airborne at 0930 so it would seem likely that this incident occurred fairly soon into the mission. Richards does not seem to appear on the CWGC. No details on attacking a/c.

Steve