Friendly fire WWII

[Brian]

Hi guys

Recently I have seen reference to a combat that apparently occurred between Spitfires from 154 Squadron and US fighters, obviously in the Mediterranean theatre of ops. Can anyone elaborate, please?

Cheers
Brian

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Originally Posted by Nokose

15Jul41 14:55 Defense of Hango: Ivan Savelyevich Kozlov (Order of Red Banner), Flight Commander of 13 IAP VMF was flying a I-153. Alexei Kasyanovich Antonenko (HSU) and Peter Antonovich Brinko (HSU) observed Kolzlov's plane heading head on towards them and believed it to be a Finnish fighter. They fired at it and Kozlov was shot down and killed. Antonenko was KIA 26Jul41 and Brinko was KIA 14Sep41.

A possible add-on to the above case, but that will need some validation before: according to one source (http://forum.patriotcenter.ru/index....c=31140.0;wap2), Brinko had been awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union the day before, and not yet sobered from the celebration. He was still drunk and so shot down Kozlov's I-153 (some were used by the Finnish, to be honest) but then, accodring to the same source, also attacked the pilot who bailed out and killed him under his parachute. When the mistake was realized, it was hushed from official records.

I would like to know the comments of our Russian friends on this one.

[Laurent Rizzotti]

On 18 July 1942 the fighter of Leytenant Ivan G. Shemyakin of 873 IAP was hit by Flak during a combat mission and he had to force-land on friendly territory in the Nizhne-Soloninskaya area, but was then killed by his own troops that took him for an enemy pilot.

Source:
http://allaces.ru/p/people.php?id=00000008082

[Nokose]

28Oct43: Mladshy Leytenant Vasilii Ivanovich Gilizidinov of the 57 BAP was returning from a bombing mission on "Nadvin". Yak-1 approached his Boston III and suddenly opened fire on it. Damage was done to the motors and rudder. The Yak-1 had ID#106 and rolled over diving away steeply. Gilizidinov ordered the crew to bail out. Gilizidinov then forced landed the Boston near "Loyeva". The escort for the 57 BAP had been Yak-1's who had been separated in a dogfight with FW-190's. Nothing about what happen to the Yak pilot or why it happened.

[Brian]

Many, many thanks Nokose - please keep the snippets coming!

Cheers
Brian

[George Hopp]

Yak-1 approached his Boston III and suddenly opened fire on it.

It seems unbelievable that a fighter that approached near enough to the Boston to be IDed by its a/c number would attack an a/c that it was escorting. I wonder if an Fw 190 carried out the attack on the Boston, and the a/c number was misread, thus making it an unfriendly fire incident.

[Nokose]

It does seem strange but it might have been a captured Yak like was described in "Dragons on Bird Wings". If not I wouldn't want to be the the Yak pilot.

[Nokose]

George, I wasn't to far off with my last post about the Yak-1. I read a VVS fighter pilot story of his describing a "Pawn" Yak-1 flying in the area of Army Group Center with no red stars on the plane in the same time period. So that shoot down might be Luftwaffe related.

Another friendly fire on 11Aug41 involving a raid on Berlin by TB-7's. Lt. Boris Afanasyevich Kubyshko's (420 DBAP) TB-7 was shot down returning to base by an I-16 of the KBF. Christer Bergstrom's volume 1 of BCRS has the same incident and another relating to 2 TB-7's shot down by friendly AAA and the the C.O. of 81 AD kolberg Mikhail Vodopyanov being jumped by fired on by I-16's with no damage.

[Brian]

Nokose - I can only repeat - Many Thanks indeed for your continuation in providing these further friendly fire incidents - everyone a gem.

Cheers
Brian

PS: I haven't a copy of Christer's Volume One (I wish I had!). Are you able to elaborate, please?

[Laurent Rizzotti]

According to this webspage, 3 Soviet bombers were shot down by friendly fire this night (11-12 August 1941):

http://zhukov.mitsi.com/sovietbombers.htm