Friendly fire WWII

[Laurent Rizzotti]

It will never end...

Argus I EV762 Crashed near Messina Sep 1, 1943 after being fired on by friendly AA

41-31951 (455th BS, 323rd BG, 9th AF) hit by friendly fire at RAF Earls Colne, Essex, England Nov 7, 1943. All crew survived, aircraft badly damaged, unknown if repaired.

Source for both:
http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1941_5.html

[Laurent Rizzotti]

The find of the day:https://books.google.fr/books?id=ikx-AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA194

A book called "Friend or Foe: Friendly Fire at Sea 1939-1945", by Paul Kemp, with a lot of data on AC vs ship and ship vs AC cases.

[Laurent Rizzotti]

And another, 5 May 1944, off Brazil, the Brazilian sub chaser Jaguarao was attacked by mistake at 01:10 AM by USN "blimp" K-132, which dropped one D/C over the ship. The bomb near missed by 20 meters.

Source:
http://www.sixtant.net/2011/artigos....-jaguarao-cs55

[Brian]

Thanks again, Laurent

I have a copy of Kemp's book - interesting.

Cheers
Brian

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Hello, just read the following in the book "The Pendulum and the Scythe", the history of 4 Group RAF by Ken Marshall, 1996:

"By mid-1941, Germany possessed 250 twin-engined night-fighters (Bf110, Ju88 and Do217) backed by an increasingly effective ground control and reporting organisation. From the middle of 1941 the above system gradually became integrated with the Luftwaffe's Flak arm to create a 'Combined Nightfighting' (Kombinierte Nachtjagd) system around the cities of Bremen, Cologne, Darmstadt/Mannheim, Duisburg, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Kiel and Munich. Flak was normally limited to a height of 4,000 metres, although this could be raised at the discretion of the Division Kommandeur. For various reasons this resulted in quite a few night-fighters being shot down by their own Flak and, not sirprisingly, this system was abandoned by the end of the year."

My understanding of the above is the system was set in place in mid-1941 and was abandoned before the end of 1941 after "quite a few" German nightfighters were shot down.

Problem: I have checked both books of Michael Balss on Nachtjagd losses and I can't find any German nightfighter shot down by friendly Flak over Germany in this period. I found one in Germany in February 1941 and one over Holland in July.

Here are all the case I found for 1941:
9./10.2.1941
3./NJG 1
Fliegerhorst Wunstorf
Feindflug: ja
Bf 110 D-0 Werknr.: 3172
Oblt. Werner Hansen gefallen
unverletzt abgesprungen
Durch eigene Flak abgeschossen.

13.3.1941 (book Materialverluste)
III./NJG 1
Flugplatz Rheine
Feindflug: ja
BF 110 E Werknr.: 3684
Besatzung unverletzt
Notlandung infloge Beschuß durch eigenen Nachtjäger. Schaden 40%

11./12.5.1941 (book Materialverluste)
II./NJG 1
Bei Schleswig
Feindflug: ja
Bf 110 D-3 Werknr.: 4301
Oblt. Müntefering unverletzt
Beschuß durch eigenen Jäger, Schaden 15%

27.5.1941 (book Materialverluste)
1./NJG 2
Bei Lannion (Frankreich).
Feindflug: ja
Ju 88 C-4 Werknr.: 0359 R4 + MK
Ofw. Hermann Sommer verwundet
Fw. Otto Glaß unterverletzt
Ofw. Johann Reinagel verwundet
Beschuß durch eigene Jäger , Bf 109, schaden 50%

23./24.7.1941
4./NJG 2
Bonby, Lincolnshire (England)
Feindflug: ja
Ju 88 C-4 Werknr.: 0854 R4 + LM
Ogefr. Heinrich Ladiges gefallen
Ogefr. Friedrich Heinemann gefallen
Fw. Josef Beblow gefallen
Vermutlich von eigenem Nachtjäger abgeschossen.

6./7.9.1941 0200 hrs according to Verliesregister
4./NJG 1
bei Franeker (Holland)
Feindflug: ja
Bf 110 C-5 Werknr.: 2191 G9 + BH
Uffz. Heinz Grimm verwundet
unverletzt
Durch Abwehrfeuer geriet das eigene Flugzeug in Brand und die Besatzung sprang mit dem Fallschirm ab.

[JaganP]

14th February 1945

Location: Pakkokku, Burma (or India?)

Harvard attacked by a Spitfire of No.17 Squadron. Fg Offr Rathwell when on patrol over bomb line attacked an enemy ac that turned out to be a harvard. the Harvard crash landed in a paddy field and neither of the crew were injured.

Approx 0700 hours.

There is a detailed combat report by Rathwell available.
----------------
I have not been able to identify the unit or the air crew of this Harvard that ws downed.

----------------

Added after an hour !

Date of Crash 14 Feb 45 Aircraft Type Harvard IIb
Serial Number KF106 Unit 42 Sqn
Pilot details Fg Offr R B Jackson & Plt Offr Ashley
Details Photograph sortie for smoke laying mission DAM BY Spitfire of 17 Sqn and Cr L Meiktila to escape gun fire. Crew slightly injured. Map Ref PP250790. Pilot slightly injured and passenger in right arm by shell splinter. Cat AC. 132RSU.
http://www.rafcommands.com/database/...php?uniq=KF106

[Laurent Rizzotti]

I think you have data on paratroops being hit by RAF on 6 June 1944, but the fact that a dog was among the victims was new to me:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133565530/glenn-dog

[Brian]

Hi Laurent

Great stuff once again. It's a pity that I don't have sufficient time at the moment to assimilate all this new material, but do please keep it coming.

The Glen the dog account is certainly interesting - I like to include animal stories in my books wen possible. A sad tale, but do we know how many other paratroopers were killed in this incident?

Cheers
Brian

[Laurent Rizzotti]

A webpage listing friendly fire cases in North Pacific:
https://www.norpacwar.com/friendly-fire

[Brian]

Laurent, you're a hero!

Another site I had not seen. Excellent!

Cheers
Brian