Friendly fire WWII

[BIGVERN1966]

Originally Posted by Juha

I had a little more time to study the subject today.
the whole caption reads as “Firefly NF1 MB564 of No 746 Squadron in 1945. This was the type 746 used for their night interceptions of flying bomb-carrying He IIIs(sic.) in late 1944.”
For other readers, according to Harrison 746 Sqn was NFIU.

On colours, the two upper colours are rather dark and the difference of their darknesses is clearly less than the difference in those b/w photos that I have seen on for ex. 2 TAF and ADGB Spitfires in 44.

HTH
Juha

Hi Juha

That would mean that the aircraft would have been in the Standard RN Extra Dark Sea Grey and Slate Grey upper colours and Sky undersides of the period. Does the aircraft in the photograph have any unit codes on the side that are visible besides the Royal Navy and Aircraft Serial. The profile I wish get the correct markings on is attached.

Regards Richard

[Juha]

Hello BIGVERN1966
regretfully I cannot enlarge the thumbnail, most probably because my b….. PC is acting again, but after looking the small thumbnail I noticed that I should have written before that the spinner of the a/c in the photo is very dark, probably black. And the front half of the radar pod shows in the photo as light grey and the after half as white. The starboard wing conceals the fuselage in front of the side roundel, but behind the roundel there is no unit code. The starboard wing underside is badly in shadow, but there seem to be only rather small roundel, which isn’t at the tip of the wing but maybe halfway between tip and the outer cannon.

As You know MB419 seems to have flown most of the Firefly interception missions from Coltishall.

HTH
Juha

[Laurent Rizzotti]

On September 30th (1941), S.Ten. Franco Ferrari of 371ª Squadriglia was shot down and killed in the Nowo-Petrikowka area by German Flak, which mistook his Macchi as a Russian fighter.

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cg...7;article=3224

[Brian]

Many thanks Laurent - another 'new' incident to me.

Cheers
Brian

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Hi Brian,

I continue to find friendly fire incidents here and there, and will report them here.

Here are two, both for 49th FG USAAF:

31 October 1944:
To start the day wrong, the ack ack shot down a P-38 from the 7th squadron while it was landing. There was a strafing raid in progress, but that was a scant excuse for the tragic incident.
Source: http://www.flyingknights.net/unit/oct44b.htm
The pilot may have been 2nd Lt Robert W. Searlight who was KIA this day but I have no confirmation of this, or any serial.

4 April 1942
See the following link: http://www.armyairforces.com/forum/m_89349/tm.htm
It describes a raid on Darwin. Returning intercepting US fighters were fired on by Australian AA fire and two shot down, with one pilot KIA.

Best regards

Laurent

[Six Nifty .50s]

Originally Posted by Laurent Rizzotti

Hi Brian,

4 April 1942
See the following link: http://www.armyairforces.com/forum/m_89349/tm.htm It describes a raid on Darwin. Returning intercepting US fighters were fired on by Australian AA fire and two shot down, with one pilot KIA.

Lt. Grover Gardner bailed out and Lt. John Livingstone was killed during his emergency landing attempt.

[Brian]

Thanks for the latest - nice to hear from you once again, Nifty, trust you are well.

Keep em coming!

Cheers
Brian

[shooshoobaby]

Brian - from Kelly Gross's book page 241.
354th pilot M.J. Slavlan P-47 AJ - I serial # unknown
Shot down by U.S. Anti - Aircraft near 354th base, Rosieres- en - Hays
December 4 , 44.
He also witnessed a P -38 shot down by U.S. AA at Base A - 2.
Evening of June 26,44.
All evidence points to P-38 #2104416 479th FG
Lt. Burton Gross( not related) KIA Macr 6557- Filed the next day.
Cheers,
Mike

[Brian]

Cheers, Mike, two new names for me. The shooting down of the P-38 at A.2 was the incident witnessed by Richard Turner - the one we couldn't establish earlier.

I assume Slavin's aircraft wasn't badly damaged - it doesn't appear in the Armyairforces listing. Does anyone know more about him?

Have a nice one - the weather here today in Suffolk is beautiful - and about time too. Just perfect for the second day of the Third Test Match against Sri Lanka!! With apologies to all Americans who do not appreciate the real 'beautiful game'!

Cheers
Brian

[paulmcmillan]

Brian - Are you aware of this incident?

Look up X4818 on this web site?

http://www.adf-serials.com/2a58.shtml


If you do, I don't suppose you have crew names do you?

Thanks

Paul