Friendly fire is fire which was intended to do harm to the enemy;
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this has the UK in a bit of a mess at the moment.
but it makes me proud to say that friendly fire looks like a British invention :houra:+excited-
Incidents and persons
The Pentagon estimates of U.S. friendly fire deaths, with percentage of total US deaths:
In Iraq, many friendly Iraqis have also been killed and injured in a similar manner, but the US military has stated that it collects no statistics on these outcomes.
all from Friendly fire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
and your going to send another 30,000 troops there :smokesmal
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this has the UK in a bit of a mess at the moment.
but it makes me proud to say that friendly fire looks like a British invention :houra:+excited-
Incidents and persons
- 1461 ? War of the Roses: At the Battle of Towton, wind conditions often resulted in arrows falling amongst friendly troops as well as the enemy.
- 1471 - Battle of Barnet: The ?radiant star? battle standard used by the troops commanded by the Earl of Oxford was misidentified as an enemy standard (which depicted a ?brilliant sun?) and were fired on by their own archers.
- 1809 - Battle of Wagram: French troops mistakenly fired on their Saxon Allies. The uniforms of the Saxon?s were grey and misidentified as white, the colour of uniform worn by their Austrian enemy.
- 1815 ? Battle of Waterloo: Famously, Marshal Bl?cher?s Prussians came to the aid of the British, and defeated Napoleon decisively. Lesser known is that Prussian artillery mistakenly fired on British artillery causing many casualties, and British artillery returned fire at the Prussians.
- 1863 - Lt. Gen. T. J. ?Stonewall? Jackson, famous Confederate Civil War general accidentally killed by his own troops at Chancellorsville, VA.
- 1914-1918 ? World War I: The French have estimated that more than 75,000 French soldiers were casualties of friendly artillery in the four years of World War I<sup id="_ref-2" class="reference">[4]</sup>.
- 1939 (10 September - early World War II) ? British submarine HMS Triton sank another British submarine, HMS Oxley, mistaking it for a German U-boat and received no responses to challenges. Oxley was the first Royal Navy vessel to be sunk and also the first vessel to be sunk by a British vessel in the war.
- 1940 - Italian Air Marshal Italo Balbo shot down by his own side.
- 1940 - Operation Wikinger: German destroyer sunk by Luftwaffe bombs, another sunk by mines during confusion<sup>[7]</sup>
- 1941 - Fleet Air Arm torpedo attack on HMS Sheffield during the hunt for the German battleship Bismarck
- 1941 - RAF fighter ace Wing Commander Douglas Bader shot down in what recent research suggests was a friendly fire incident [8].
- 1942 - polish submarine ORP Jastrząb was mistakenly sunk by british destroyer HMS St Albans (I15) and minesweeper HMS Seagull (J85).
- 1943 ? Operation Husky (Allied Invasion of Sicily): 144 C-47 transport planes passed over Allied lines shortly after a German air raid, and were mistakenly fired upon by ground and naval forces, 33 planes were shot down and 37 damaged, resulting in 318 casualties.
- 1944 - British flotilla attacked by RAF Hawker Typhoons, off Cap d'Antifer, Le Havre. HMS Britomart and HMS Hussar sunk. HMS Salamander damaged beyond repair and scrapped. HMS Jason escaped major damage.
- 1944 - Operation Wintergewitter (Winter Storm) - Italian Front: American forward observer John R. Fox called down fire on his own position to stop a German advance on the town of Sommocolonia, Italy. In 1997 he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for this action.
- 1945 ? Operation Bodenplatte (Baseplate): 900 German fighters and fighter-bombers launched a surprise attack on Allied airfields, approximately 300 aircraft were lost, 237 pilots killed, missing, or captured, and 18 pilots wounded - the largest single-day loss for the Luftwaffe, many losses were due to friendly anti-aircraft guns.
- 1956 - Suez: Attacks from British Royal Navy carrier-borne aircraft caused heavy casualties to UK 45 Commando and HQ.
- 1967 - USS Liberty Incident when Israeli aircraft attacked U.S. Navy ship in international waters during the Six-Day War (between Israel and Egypt).
- 1968 - USS Boston, USS Edson, USCGC Point Dume, HMAS Hobart and two U.S. patrol boats, PCF-12 and PCF-19 are attacked by US aircraft on June 17 in the Vietnam War.[9] Several sailors were killed and PCF-19 was sunk. [10]
- 1969 - U.S. Helicopters attack U.S. 3/187th Infantry Battalion CP during the Battle of Hamburger Hill, killing two and wounding thirty-five, including Lt. Col. Weldon Honeycutt.
- 1974 - Turkish Destroyer Kocatepe was sunk by Turkish aircraft during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
- 1982 - HMS Cardiff shoots down AAC Gazelle (UK) in the Falklands Islands.
- 1982 - 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, British Army (UK) Companies A and C engage each other in an hour-long firefight in the Falkland Islands involving heavy weapons and artillery strikes. At least 8 UK casualties.
- 1982 - United Kingdom UK Special Boat Service Commando killed in firefight with UK Special Air Service Commandos. Falkland Islands.
- 1991 - American A-10 in the Gulf War attacks British armoured personnel carriers killing nine British soldiers (the same number as were killed by enemy fire in the whole war).
- 1992 - USS Saratoga during an no-notice exercise that included a simulated RIM-7 launch, confusion ensued and a sailor launched into the bridge of the Turkish Destroyer Muavenet killing 5.
- 1994 - Erik Mounsey, peacekeeper and cousin of legendary guitarist Ian Bairnson memorialized in the 1996 Alan Parsons release On Air.
- 2001 - American F/A-18 dropped 3 Mk-82 bombs on a friendly observation post killing six and wounding 11 at Al Udairi Range, Kuwait.
- 2002 - American F-16 pilot Harry Schmidt killed four Canadian soldiers and injured another 8 in the Tarnak Farm incident.
- 2003 - American aircraft attacked a friendly Kurdish & US special forces convoy killing 15. BBC translator Kamaran Abdurazaq Muhamed was killed and BBC reporter Tom Giles and World Affairs Editor John Simpson were injured. The incident was filmed. [11]
- 2003 - American Patriot missile shot down in error F/A-18C Block 46 Hornet 164974 of VFA-195 50 mi from Karbala, Iraq, killing the pilot.
- 2003 - American Patriot missile shot down a British Panavia Tornado GR.4A ZG710 'D' of 13 Squadron killing the pilot and navigator, Flight Lieutenant David Rhys Williams and Flight Lieutenant Kevin Barry Main, both from 9 Squadron
- 2003 British Challenger 2 tank came under fire from another British tank in a nighttime firefight, blowing off the turret and killing two crew members, Corporal Stephen John Allbutt and Trooper David Jeffrey Clarke [12]
- 2003 - 190th Fighter Squadron, Blues and Royals friendly fire incident - March 28, 2003 when a pair of American A-10s from the 190th Fighter Squadron attack four British armoured reconnaissance vehicles of the Blues and Royals, killing Lance-Corporal of Horse Matty Hull, during the invasion of Iraq.
- 2004 - Pat Tillman, famous American football player and friendly fire victim in Afghanistan
- 2005 - American soldier Mario Lozano is suspected of killing Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari and wounding Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena in Baghdad. Sgrena had been kidnapped and subsequently rescued by Calipari. However it is claimed that the car they were escaping in failed to stop at an American checkpoint, and US soldiers opened fire.
- 2005 - American troops opened fire on a Bulgarian convoy. Junior Sergeant Gardi Gardev was killed.
- 2006 - Two U.S. A-10 Thunderbolts strafed their own NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, killing Canadian Private Mark Anthony Graham, and seriously wounding five others when soldiers were trying to seize a Taliban stronghold along the Arghandab River. Graham was a former Canadian Olympic athlete who competed on the Canadian 4x400 Men's Relay Team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
- 2007 American airstrike killed eight Kurdish Iraqi soliders. [13]
The Pentagon estimates of U.S. friendly fire deaths, with percentage of total US deaths:
- World War II: 21,000 (16%)
- Highest-ranking U.S. loss of the war, Lieutenant General Lesley J. McNair
- Sinking of the submarine FS Surcouf. This was initially attributed to a collision with the U.S. freighter Thompson Lykes, but a later report stated that the Surcouf was mistaken for a U-boat and destroyed by U.S. planes. Which event occurred is disputed by historians.
- Sinking of the submarine USS Dorado by U.S. planes.
- Damage to the cruiser USS Atlanta by the cruiser USS San Francisco.
- Near damage of the battleship USS Iowa (with President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard) by the destroyer USS William D. Porter. This incident led to the ?Willie D.? being greeted with the hail, ?Don?t shoot, we?re Republicans!?
- Viet Nam War: 8,000 (14%)
- First Persian Gulf War (1991): 35 (23%)
- Invasion of Afghanistan (2002): 4 (13%) *note* fatalities were Canadian soldiers. Caused when a U.S. fighter pilot dropped a 500 lb (228 kg) bomb while Canadian soldiers were performing a live-fire exercise on April 17, 2002 [3]
- Afghanistan NATO Mission - Operation Medusa (2006): 1 *note* the fatality was a Canadian Soldier. Caused when two U.S. A-10 Thunderbolts accidentally strafed their own NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, killing Canadian Private Mark Anthony Graham, and seriously wounding five others when soldiers were trying to seize a Taliban stronghold along the Arghandab River. Graham was a former Canadian Olympic athlete who competed on the Canadian 4x400 Men's Relay Team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
In Iraq, many friendly Iraqis have also been killed and injured in a similar manner, but the US military has stated that it collects no statistics on these outcomes.
all from Friendly fire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
and your going to send another 30,000 troops there :smokesmal
