Friendly fire WWII

[Ruy Horta]

Brian,

Too lazy to do a check first, but have you looked at Moelders as a potential friendly fire case?

[Brian Bines]

Brian,

I have a note that on 30-1-44 Mag. Borgogno baled out of his ANR Macchi C205 after being shot down by a Bf109 of JG77, and on 29-4-44 two ANR pilots were killed when JG77 mistook their C205's for Spitfires,

Regards

Brian Bines

[Brian]

Thanks Brian

I do have that information - but your post did make me re-chack!

Cheers
Brian

[Bruce Dennis]

At 20:00 on September 5th 1939, with the war against Germany two days old, Anson K8845 of 233 Squadron was patrolling out of Leuchars. The crew of two had been aloft for four hours, and were unaware that they had drifted considerably south of their estimated position. Below, they saw a submarine on the surface. The position was 56o 40.5’N, 01o 04’W.

HMS/M Seahorse was zigzagging at 11y knots, returning to her base at Dundee. Her captain, Lt DS Massey-Dawson RN was below deck as Seahorse moved along her predetermined route, 25 miles south of the air patrol line. Like several other of His Majesty’s submarines, they had been at sea when war was declared on the 3rd, patrolling preset areas. Twice earlier in the day they had dived after sighting patrolling aircraft, but had been left unmolested. At 20:07 another aircraft was sighted to the south, which turned toward the submarine. The Officer of the Watch couldn’t identify the twin-engined plane, and considered whether to fire recognition signals, which would take time, before leaving the bridge. He elected not to delay the dive by the few seconds this would take, and again the submarine dived.

Aboard the Anson, P/O Yorke went for the attack. As he watched his target begin to dive, he opened fire with his machine gun despite the extreme range. The two craft were in a race, with the Anson accelerating in a dive and the submarine forcing it’s way beneath the waves to safety. Seahorse won by a narrow margin. Yorke's two 100lb bombs hit the water near the sub as it disappeared. Both bombs bounced off the water and exploded underneath the Anson, peppering the aircraft with splinters. Yorke and Muir were satisfied that they had damaged a U-boat.

The crew of Seahorse heard the two explosions above them. As they attempted to level off at 75 feet, the aft hydroplanes jammed in the maximum angle. Yellow smoke candles were released in case the aircraft was friendly, but the submarine was now out of control. The bows broke the surface and those aboard believed more charges were dropped on them. The crew got partial control of the hydroplanes and the captain ordered the boat down. They hit the bottom at 220 ft, wrecking the A/S listening gear. Massey-Dawson stopped the Seahorse there and assessed the damage. He waited until 22:15, in the dark gap between sunset and moonrise, and surfaced. The boat resumed a zigzag course for Dundee.


Anson K8845 was leaking fuel. Yorke had set course back to Leuchars, but the wing tanks had sustained too much shrapnel damage from the bouncing bombs and he had to ditch at the River Eden Estuary, off Shelly Point. Both Yorke and Sgt DT Muir made it into their dinghy, were rescued unharmed and returned to Leuchars. They made their reports of sighting, attacking and damaging a U-boat and were celebrating in the mess when the word came through about the real identity of their ‘U-boat’. The Admiralty had confirmed that the Anson’s target had been HMS/M Seahorse, and that the submarine had received ‘…no appreciable damage…’, although it appears the Admiralty decided to keep quiet about the grounding.


Seahorse entered harbour at 04:00 next morning and carried out further inspections, then made course for Rosyth later the same day for repairs to her damaged listening gear and hydrophones.

On the 6th, Rear Admiral (Submarines) Watson reminded all Commanding Officers of the need to fire recognition signals when encountering aircraft thought to be friendly, and arranged a demonstration so the aircrews of 18 Group would know what they were looking for.

Seahorse started her next patrol on Saturday 16th September.

[Brian]

Thanks once again Bruce for your great effort.

I do have record of this incident but not in as much detail, so I am very grateful to you for taking teh time.

Thanks to all who have assisted me over the years - hopefully Volume I will appear before the end of the year!

Cheers
Brian

[dahiot daniel]

Brian,

Here are three examples known to me.
05/08/1944. Lysander V9748. Shot taken by mistake for a Henschel 126.

http://www.absa39-45.asso.fr/5%20aou...k_anglais.html

08/08/1944. Albemarle P1501. Shot dead in error by 604 Sqn (Mosquito). mistaken for a Do 217.
http://www.absa39-45.asso.fr/9%20aout%2044/aout44.html

P-47 D-5 RE, serial 42-8491. Strafed the HQ of General Patton in Mayenne. It was shot for an anti-aircraft battery of 20 mm. Its pilot 1st Lt. Louis Alphonse G (KIA).

http://www.absa39-45.asso.fr/P47/p47.html

[Brian]

Many thanks Dahiot

I do have these three incidents recorded - but not in such detail! Excellent.

Cheers
Brian

[dahiot daniel]

Originally Posted by dahiot daniel

Brian,

Here are three examples known to me.
05/08/1944. Lysander V9748. Shot taken by mistake for a Henschel 126.

http://www.absa39-45.asso.fr/5%20aou...k_anglais.html

08/08/1944. Albemarle P1501. Shot dead in error by 604 Sqn (Mosquito). mistaken for a Do 217.
http://www.absa39-45.asso.fr/9%20aout%2044/aout44.html

P-47 D-5 RE, serial 42-8491. Strafed the HQ of General Patton in Mayenne. It was shot for an anti-aircraft battery of 20 mm. Its pilot 1st Lt. Louis Alphonse G (KIA).


http://www.absa39-45.asso.fr/P47/p47.html

Link bad : new : http://www.absa39-45.asso.fr/9%20aout%2044/aout44.html

[Brian]

Thanks once again Dahiot

Cheers
Brian

[revell222]

No doubt you have got Lt Col GR Johnson's P-38 with its famous RAAF Boomerang shoot down and kill marking but what about Cundles' "Bad Angel" with its scoreboard with nine German, Italian, Japanese and one American symbol. Contact me at revell2000 (at) hotmail.com for picture sources if you haven't got them.