Friendly fire WWII

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Originally Posted by Brian

9 August 1943: B-26 41-31634 555BS/386BG was shot down by an RAF Spitfire. Has anyone identities and fate of crew? Identity/squadron of Spitfire pilot? I have just 'discovered' that 1/Lt Dick A Tucker and his crew were killed.

Hi, Brian,

for this day I have the following six airmen of 555th BS who died this day:
Staff Sergeant Allen J. Crosswell, buried Netherlands
Second Lieutenant Patrick J. Kelly, MIA
Technical Sergeant John P. Ryan, MIA
First Lieutenant Paul E. Scharding, MIA
First Lieutenant Dick A. Tucker, MIA
Staff Sergeant Bernard T. Zukosky, MIA.
I don't know any more loss for 555th BS this day so these 6 men were probably the crew of this bomber. But I have no definitive proof.

[Brian]

Many thanks Laurent. I wonder who the Spitfire pilot was?

On 27/6/44 an L-4 of 87th Field Artillery was shot down - does anyone know identity and fate of crew. Also, two more L-4s were shot down in July 1944. Any details? I have found some more details: The L-4 shot down on 27/6/44 was flown by 2/Lts Robert R. McAnninch and Chales R. Wood Jr, both US Army, who were killed; on 31/7/44 L-4 was shot down although both Lt Robert C. Campbell and 2/Lt John T. Maguire, both US Army, survived unhurt; on 27/3/45 L-4 shot down although Lt Campbell and Lt John R. Berry survived. On all three occasions it is believed that the L-4s were hit by shells fired by 87th Field Artillery. Can anyone confirm these details, and also provide serial numbers of the L-4s? Did other US Army Artillery units that had L-4s attached lose aircraft in this manner?

On 6/10/44 the 335thFS/4thFG shot down a Me410 near Heligoland at 1100. Who was the claimant? PS: I now have this information!

Cheers
Brian

[Six Nifty .50s]

Originally Posted by Brian

16/11/44 two Beaufighters of 211 Squadron were shot down by P-38s from 459thFS flown by 1/Lts Vern L. Flanders and Walter H. Patton. Two crew were killed in one machine, the pilot survived from the second machine but his navigator died of wounds.

I found some more details:

" ... One of the first operations [from Chiringa], flown by Pilot Officer Trigwell and his navigator, Pilot Officer Chippendale, leading Flight Sergeant McDowall and Sergeant Cooper, ended in most unusual circumstances. They had been briefed to attack road transport on the Taungup Pass, between Taungup and Prome. Without warning they were attacked over the target area by two USAAF Lockheed P-38 Lightnings. Neither Beaufighter survived the attack, although Trigwell, after hitting a mangrove tree, was able to crash land his aircraft in about four feet of water. Triggy was uninjured, but Chips was badly wounded in the back by cannon shells and was unable to move. With much difficulty, Triggy was able to get Chips out. He recovered what he could of the medical supplies, including a few tubes of morphine and, by cutting up a parachute he was able to bandage the eight perforations in his navigator's back. That night, he bought a boat, but either he was betrayed by the Burmese or the Japanese had been able to locate the crashed aircraft, for they were taken prisoner just after dark. Chips died four days later whilst they were being transferred from the mangrove swamps to Taungup, and Triggy finally arrived in Rangoon as a prisoner of war on Christmas Eve 1944 ...
Triggy's camp had 1300 prisoners, 600 of whom were British, American and Dutch, and the rest Chinese and Indian. On 25th April, five months after becoming a prisoner of war, he was one of 400 whom the Japanese selected to be dressed in Japanese clothing and then marched north from Rangoon. On the fifth day when they were north of Pegu, the senior Allied prisoner of war, Brigadier Hobbs, informed the group that the Japanese commandant had left a letter with him saying that they were being freed and that 'they would meet us on the battlefield later'. The prisoners were now on their own and had the job of making contact with the advancing 14th Army, and their main problem being that they were dressed in Japanese clothing.
Over the five previous days they had been subject to considerable harassment by way of bombings and cannon strafing by RAF Mosquitos but suffered no casualties. Eventually, when they reached suitable terrain, they made from their clothing a large Union Jack and a message: '400 BRITISH POWS HERE PLEASE DROP RADIO'. In due course, they decided that RAF aircraft had spotted the signs but, much to their surprise, they suddenly found themselves being attacked by three Hurricanes with bombs and machine-guns with one unfortunate killing, that of Brigadier Hobbs ... "

See p.106-107, Innes, David. Beaufighters Over Burma: No. 27 Squadron, RAF, 1942-45. Blandford Press, 1985.

[Brian]

Hi guys

I am not familiar with MACR reports. How does one go about obtaining a copy? I need to look at MACR 8340 which, I believe, covers the loss of a U-61 43-14844 (on 23/8/44) attached to the 27thFBG. Please advise me where to apply (by e-mail or letter?). Many thanks

Brian

[Franek Grabowski]

Brian
I will try to drop you a line later today or tomorrow in this regard.

[Brian]

Many thanks Franek - I have received the details.

Two more friendly fire incidents that I hope someone will be able to confirm and provide further details:

17/4/41 Ju88C (2123) R4+BM of 4/NJG2 believed shot down by Ju88C flown by Ltn Heinz Volkner of 3/NJG2 over UK

24/7/41 Ju88C (8054) R4+LM of 4/NJG2 believed shot down by Ju88C of I/NJG2 over UK

Cheers
Brian

[sveahk]

Hello,
Just finished Rick Atkinson’s „An Army at Dawn”, the war in North Africa, 1942-1943, where there are a few references to “friendly fire” from that time and area. I thought this one quite interesting:
“On the rare occasions when Allied planes dominated the skies, fratricide added to the ground troops’ torment. Word soon spread of an incident near Medjez-el-Bab, where a company of American tank destroyers was helping secure the town on thanksgiving morning (Thursday, November 26, 1942) when eleven U.S. P.38 Lightnings flew over. Jubilant at the unexpected help from friendly fighters, the tank destroyer crews raced across the open terrain, waving and smiling. Built with distinctive twin fuselages, the P.38s languidly circled until the sun was behind them, then dropped to fifty feet and executed five textbook strafing runs in three minutes.
The attack all but destroyed the shocked company, which fired not a single retaliatory shot. Five men were killed – including the unit’s only World War I veteran – and sixteen wounded; nearly every vehicle and antitank weapon was destroyed or damaged. One outraged company commander in the 1st Armored Division ordered his men to shoot any airborne object larger than a goose. And another bromide circulated among American soldiers: “if it flies, it dies”. Allied pilots grew so accustomed to being fired upon by their own troops that the formula for recognizing enemy aircraft from the ground, “WEFT” - check the Wings, Engines, Fuselage, Tails – was said to mean “Wrong every fucking time.”

Friendly greetings
Hans Krensler

[Brian]

Many thanks for the extract, Hans, much appreciated.

TonyK - thanks also for the offer. I have written to Maxwell and requested a copy of the MACR in which I am interested, so hopefully something may turn up soon! Thanks all the same.

Cheers
Brian

[Brian]

Hi

Another friendly fire incident has come my way:

On the night of 23/24 July 1944 a USAAF A-20J (43-9440) was shot down by a British or American aircraft and two crew killed. Has anyone further information, please?

Cheers
Brian

[Tony Kambic]

In today's Washington Post newspaper (12/8/05) is an Obituary for Lt. Gen. William Yarborough (92 years old) and it comments that he was a battilion commander who encountered one of war's grimmest task, friendly fire. During the invasion of Sicily on the night of July 10, 1943 at least 23 Air Transport planes (C-47s) loaded with airborne troops were shot down by US Navy ships and land AA fire who had been firing at retreating Lutftwaffe aircraft. I've done a little research and seen varying reports of up to 37 total Allied aircraft downed that night by friendly fire, with up to 400 troops as casaulties. Some of the previous posts in this thread do have an individual aircraft being taken down that night by friendly fire, but I've never heard of this many at once.