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There have been many thousands of friendly fire incidents in recorded military history, accounting for an estimated 2% to 20% of all casualties in battle.^[1] The examples listed below illustrate their range and diversity, but this does not reflect increasing frequency. The rate of friendly fire, once allowance has been made for the numbers of troops committed to battle, has remained remarkably stable, and unimproved, over the past 200 years.^[2]

Wars of the Roses[edit]

• 1471 – During the Battle of Barnet a Lancastrian force under the Earl of Oxford was fired on by the Lancastrian centre while returning from a pursuit; their banner, Oxford's “star with rays” had been mistaken for the Yorkist “sun in splendour”. This gave rise to cries of treachery, (always a possibility in that chaotic period), Lancastrian morale collapsed, and the battle was lost.

English Civil War[edit]

Nine Years' War[edit]

• 1690 – Two French regiments accidentally attacked each other during the Battle of Fleurus, which led to the practice of attaching a white scarf to the flags of the regiments.^[4]

French and Indian War[edit]

• July 9, 1755 – Two main phases of friendly fire occurred during the Battle of the Monongahela, which halted the Braddock Expedition after French regulars, French militia and Indians joined battle with them before Fort Duquesne. In the obscuring woodland conditions and confusion caused by the French musket fire and the Native Americans' war cries, several British platoons fired at each other. Later in the battle many British soldiers fled from more exposed ground and into woods, where redcoats fired on them mistaking them for advancing French infantry.^[5]

American Revolutionary War[edit]

• In the Battle of Germantown in 1777, a combination of late arrival, poor navigation and overpursuit resulted in Major GeneralAdam Stephen's men colliding with General Anthony Wayne's troops. The two Continental Army brigades opened fire on each other, became badly disorganized, and fled.
• In the Battle of Guilford Courthouse on March 15, 1781, after several volleys of musket and cannon fire broke out, smoke began to obscure soldiers' view of the battlefield. In a pitched battle, smoke not only limited visibility but irritated soldiers' eyes and could make breathing difficult. In the confusion, British Lieutenant John Macleod, in command of two British three-pounders, was directed by British Lieutenant GeneralCharles Cornwallis to fire on the Americans who were in close combat with the British. Many British soldiers died as a result of friendly artillery bombardment.

Napoleonic Wars[edit]

• 1796 – Battle of Fombio: In a night of confused fighting when Austrian units had stumbled into his army's position, French general Amadee Laharpe was shot dead by his own men while returning from reconnaissance.
• 1801 – Battle of Algeciras Bay: Spanish ships Real Carlos and San Hermenegildo mistakenly engaged each other in the dark after the HMS Superb sailed between them and fired at both. 1,700 were killed when the two ships exploded.^{[citation needed]}
• 1806 – On 30 November, at 10pm, HMS Dart and Wolverine came upon a ship that they suspected was a French privateer and that kept up a running fight until morning, only surrendering after her captain and several of her crew had been wounded, of whom six later died. The vessel turned out to be the British merchant ship Mary.^[6]
• 1809 – Battle of Wagram: French troops mistakenly fired on their allies from the Kingdom of Saxony. The grey uniforms of the Saxons were misidentified as white, the colour of uniform worn by their Austrian enemy.
• 1815 – :*Battle of Quatre Bras: Soldiers of the Dutch 3rd Light Cavalry Brigade disengaging and retiring from a skirmish against the French were fired on by Scottish highlanders who mistook their uniforms for those of French chasseurs a cheval.^[7]

Texas Revolution[edit]

• In early hours of 1 March, a mounted party of Texian volunteers arriving at gallop to reinforce the Alamo garrison were fired at by defenders who mistook them in the dark for attacking Mexican horsemen, wounding one of them, before the sentries were called to open the gates for them.^[8]
• At the Mexicans' final mass assault (overnight 5–6 March), some of the veteran troops leading it were wounded or killed when shot by untrained recruits in the ranks behind who "blindly fir[ed] their guns", and when all the defenders had been killed, Mexicans continued to shoot Mexicans in mistake during the darkness.^[9]

American Civil War[edit]

• During the Battle of Shiloh on 6 April 1862, Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston was fatally wounded by a bullet that hit the back of his right knee when riding in advance of his troops. There were no Union troops observed to have got behind him and the bullet was identified by his surgeon as from a Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle, which was standard issue in the Confederate Army but not the Union troops present.^[10]
• Confederate Lieutenant General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was wounded as a result of friendly fire in the Battle of Chancellorsville on 2 May 1863, and died eight days later. He and some of his men had been returning, under the cover of night, from an intelligence-gathering mission when Confederate troops of the 18th North Carolina Infantry misidentified them as a Union cavalry scout team; as a result, the North Carolina troops opened fire.^[11]
• In the Battle of the Wilderness on 6 May 1864, Confederate Lt. General James Longstreet was wounded when his mounted column from the First Corps was mistaken for Federal troops. As a result of this, he did not return to command until October of that year. In the same incident, Brigadier General Micah Jenkins was mortally wounded after being struck in the head.^[11]
• In the early hours of 6 March 1865, the Union vessel USS Peterhoff was en route to blockade Wilmington, North Carolina when she was rammed and sunk by USS Monticello after being mistaken for a blockade runner. All hands were rescued before she sank.

Russo-Japanese War[edit]

• Dogger Bank Incident (overnight 21/22 October 1904) – In what can be classified literally as a case of fog of war,^[12] battleships of the Imperial Russian Navy's Baltic Fleet en route to reinforce in the Far East, fired on a fleet of British fishing trawlers in the North Sea, mistaking them for Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo boats after misunderstanding signals. One vessel was sunk, four were damaged, and two fishermen were killed and six wounded. In the general chaos that ensued, the cruisers Aurora and Dmitrii Donskoi were also taken for Japanese warships in the fog and bombarded by seven battleships sailing in formation, damaging both ships and killing at least one Russian sailor and severely wounding another, and fatally wounding a naval chaplain. During the pandemonium, several Russian ships signalled that torpedoes had hit them, and on board the battleship Borodino, rumours spread that the ship was being boarded by the Japanese, with some crew members donning life vests and lying prone on the deck and others drawing cutlasses to repel a boarding before a ceasefire was signalled.

World War I[edit]

• Battle of Dinant 21–23 August 1914 – It is believed that some parties of German infantry entering the Belgian city of Dinant in a nighttime assault, fired at each other in the darkness of the night while under fire from French troops. The Germans mistakenly believed that hostile Belgian civilians had fired on them, contributing to a conviction among the German soldiers that Belgian civilians were actively fighting them.^[13] This led to arrests and massacres of local civilians when the town was invested and occupied. On the 23rd, German artillery mistakenly fired on infantry who were occupying and barricading a street; the latter units were temporarily forced to withdraw, having shot a man held as human shield accused of having been a franc-tireur in earlier fighting.^[14]
• Battle of Bolimow 31 January 1915 – The German Ninth Army launched the first large scale poison tear gas attack on the Russian Second Army in Poland, firing 18,000 gas shells. However the wind blew the gas back onto the German lines, causing a few casualties which could have been higher had the winter cold not frozen the ingredient xylyl bromide. The attack was called off, the counter-attacking Russians being successfully repelled by conventional artillery shellfire.^[15]
• 25 September 1915 – In the first gas attack launched by British forces prior to their infantry attack that opened the Battle of Loos, about 140 long tons (140,000 kg) of chlorine gas was released, aimed at the German Sixth Army's positions on the Hohenzollern Redoubt but in places the gas was blown back by wind onto the trenches of the British First Army. Due to the inefficiency of the contemporary gas masks, many soldiers removed them as they could not see through the fogged-up talc eyepieces or could barely breathe with them on. This led to some being affected by their own gas, as it blew back across their lines or lingered in no man's land,^[16] immediately causing the death of 10 and injury to about 2,000 British soldiers. It was made worse when German artillery fire blew up some of the cylinders.^[17]
• 8 May 1916 – During the Battle of Verdun, when the French outpost Fort Douaumont was occupied by German infantry, a careless cooking fire detonated grenades, flamethrower fuel and an ammunition cache. Hundreds of soldiers were killed instantly in the firestorm, including the entire 12th Grenadiers regimental staff. Worse, some of the 1,800 wounded and soot blackened survivors attempting to escape the inferno were mistaken for attacking French Colonial African infantry and were fired upon by their comrades. In all 679 German soldiers perished in this fire.^[18]
• 2 June 1916 - On the opening of the Battle of Mount Sorrel in the Ypres Salient of Belgium, the commanding officer of the 3rd Canadian Division, Major General Malcolm Mercer, and his aide Captain Lynam Gooderham, were wounded and trapped when German artillery opened fire on divisional trenches they were inspecting. They ran into rifle crossfire when attempting to evade advancing German infantry, Mercer receiving a bullet in a leg, then remained overnight unhelped until 2 am next day when Mercer was killed by an exploding shell and Gooderham was taken prisoner by the Germans. A staff officer later claimed the fatal shell was British and Mercer is upheld as the most senior Canadian officer killed in combat and by friendly fire.^[19]
• On the night of 4–5 August 1916, during the First Battle of the Somme, the 13th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry were fired on by Australian Artillery while in process of capturing and holding onto a German communication trench called Munster Alley.
• 17 September 1916 – During the same Battle of the Somme, a company of the 1st/7th Battalion of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment waiting to charge a German trench south of Thiepval, France, were strafed from behind by Stokes mortar fire, the most loss of life caused when their hand grenade store was hit, detonating its contents. The mortars had been issued their battalion only a few weeks before and inexperienced firers had set too short a range aiming at enemy lines. Despite this, company commander Captain Basil Lupton rallied the survivors and led a successful taking of the opposite trench.^[20]
• At night in foul weather on 16 September 1917, the British submarine HMS G9 mistook the destroyerHMS Pasley for a German U-boat and attacked with torpedoes. Pasley, not recognising G9 as British until too late, responded to the attack by ramming G9. Nearly cut in two, the G9 sank. Only one of the G9's crew members survived.
• 23 January 1918 – Major William Robert Gregory, Royal Flying Corps, was shot down by mistake by an Italian Corpo Aeronautico Militare pilot at Monastiero near Grossa, Padua, Italy. He inspired the poem, An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, by family friend W.B. Yeats.^[21]
• 15 April 1918 – Two British soldiers from the Somerset Light Infantry were killed and C.S. Lewis was wounded after being hit by a shrapnel from a British shell that had fallen short of its target in Mont-Bernanchon, France.^[22]
• 24/25 April 1918 – During the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux, soldiers of the Australian 50th Infantry Battalion, advancing in the dark under German machine fire, attacked what they believed was an enemy trench. They found out that the trench was instead occupied by British troops of the 2nd Devon and 1st Worcester Battalions who had not been informed of the Australian counterattack and "thought the Germans were attacking them from the rear".^[23]
• During the attack on the main wagon bridge over the Marne at Château-Thierry, American machine gunners described a night attack on 1 June 1918 of massed German troops, who were singing gutturally as they made a suicidal charge, some linked arm in arm. The victims were soldiers of the French 10th Colonial division from Senegal, who had been trying to get back across the river. Although reports of the incident were suppressed, it was discussed by American and French soldiers. There are no German records of any attack on the wagon bridge.^[24]
• 16 June 1918 – During Spring Offensive, the British 4th Battalion of the King's Shropshire Light Infantry (4th KSLI), with reinforcing elements of North Staffordshires and Cheshires, were shelled by British artillery who were unaware the position had changed hands, within 30 minutes of successfully taking a hill, Montagne de Bligny, from the Germans and capturing prisoners. The bombardment reduced the units' effective strength to 100 men but their commander, Captain Geoffrey Bright, insisted on retaining the hill and sending out for reinforcements from British units until help arrived before nightfall. For the overall action the 4th KSLI received a unit award of the French Croix de Guerre.^[25]
• 13 July 1918 – British army officer and poet Siegfried Sassoon was wounded after being shot in the head by a fellow British soldier who had mistaken him for a German near Arras, France. As a result, he spent the remainder of the war in Britain.
• 16 July 1918 – British flying ace Major Awdry Vaucour was killed^[26] in the vicinity of Monastier di Treviso, Italy when he was accidentally shot down by an Italian pilot.
• 28 July 1918 – Canadian flying ace and future spymaster William Stephenson, then posted with No. 73 Squadron RAF, was shot down and crashed his Sopwith Camelbiplane behind enemy lines in France. During the incident, he later claimed, Stephenson was injured by fire not only from German ace pilot, Justus Grassmann,^[27] but also by friendly fire from a French observer.^[28] He was subsequently captured and held as a prisoner of war until he escaped in October 1918.^[28]
• 4 October 1918 - The nine companies from the US Army's 77th Infantry Division which had pushed into a salient at Charlevaux, France and became known as the "Lost Battalion" after being surrounded by the Germans, were subjected to friendly artillery fire for several hours, either due to the artillery fire being inaccurate or the coordinates, delivered by carrier pigeon, being inaccurate. The overall commander, Major Charles Whittlesey, used his last carrier pigeon, named Cher Ami, to send a second message for the artillery to cease fire.
• 15 October 1918 – British submarine HMS J6 was sunk by British Q-shipCymric in the Northumberland Coast. Cymric's captain, Lieutenant F. Peterson RNR, mistook the identity lettering on the conning tower of J6 for U6. Assuming U6 to indicate a German U-boat, Peterson raised the White ensign and opened fire on J6. After a number of direct hits, J6 sank. It was only after the survivors were seen in the water that Peterson and the crew of Cymric realised their mistake and recovered the survivors. Of the crew of J6, 15 were lost; a subsequent court of enquiry found that no action should be taken against Peterson.

Latvian War of Independence[edit]

Spanish Civil War[edit]

• In 1937, the Nationalist Irish Brigade was fired upon by a Falangist unit, and the hour-long firefight resulted in 17 deaths. Neither unit had any battle experience.

World War II[edit]

1939[edit]

• 6 September – Just days after the start of the war, in what was dubbed the Battle of Barking Creek, three Royal Air ForceSpitfires from 74 Squadron shot down two Hurricanes from the RAF's 56 Squadron, killing one of the pilots. One of the Spitfires was then shot down by British anti-aircraft artillery while returning to base.^[29]
• 10 September – The British submarine HMS Triton sank another British submarine, HMS Oxley. After making challenges which went unanswered Triton assumed it must have located a German U-boat and fired two torpedoes. 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, killing 52 with only two survivors. Both vessels were patrolling off the coast of Norway (then neutral) at the time. The incident that led to the loss of Oxley was kept in secrecy until the 1950s.^[30]
• 3 December 1939 - British submarine HMS Snapper sustained a direct hit from a British aircraft while returning to Harwich after a patrol in the North Sea, but without taking damage.^[31]

1940[edit]

• 19 February – During Operation Wikinger the German destroyer Z1 Leberecht Maass was sunk by Luftwaffe bombs while another destroyer, the Z3 Max Schultz, was sunk by mines in the confusion.^[32]
• 14 April – The Dutch submarine HNLMS O 10 was bombed in error off Noordwijk by two American V.156-F dive bombers.^{[citation needed]} Other reports attribute the accidental attack to an RAF aircraft.^[33]
• 10 May – German Luftwaffe bombers sent to bomb Dijon in France instead bombed the German city of Freiburg due to navigation errors, killing 57 people.^[34]
• Night of 11 May - During the Battle of Belgium the British 3rd Infantry Division, commanded by General Bernard Law Montgomery were sent to take their pre-arranged position on the River Dyle near Leuven when they were fired on in mistake for German paratroopers by the Belgian 10th Infantry Division who were holding the position. They gave way when Montgomery (own claim) approached and offered to place himself under Belgian command.^[35]
• Battle of the Grebbeberg, Holland - The 2nd Battalion of the Dutch 19th Infantry Regiment, ordered to make a night counterattack against positions newly seized by the Germans on 11 May, were fired on at the stopline by other Dutch troops who had been uninformed of the counterattack, causing it to be called off at dawn when order had been restored. (Fortunately for the Dutch a planned German night attack at that point had been called off because of their deterring supporting artillery fire.) They were ordered to counterattack again, after 1600 hours the following day, when, reaching the frontline, fellow troops again fired on them, causing the counterattack to peter out and be abandoned.
• 14 May - At midday German Luftwaffe fighters attacked at French town of Chemery-sur-Bar as the 1st Panzer Division were holding a victory parade following the battle of Bulsen, causing a few casualties.^[36]
• 21 May – A Bristol Blenheim L9325 of No. 18 Squadron RAF was shot down by RAFHurricane and crashed near Arras, France. Three crewmen were killed.^[37]
• 22 May – A Bristol Blenheim L9266 of No. 59 Squadron RAF was shot down by RAFSpitfire and crashed near Fricourt, France. Three crewmen were killed.^[37]
• 1 June - A Bristol Blenheim Piloted by Alastair Panton was shot down by Northumberland Fusiliers while flying low over the beaches of Dunkirk in order let the soldiers see the RAF was involved.^[38]
• 28 June – Italian Air Marshal Italo Balbo and his crew were killed when Italian anti-aircraft guns at Tobruk shot down their Savoia-Marchetti SM.79.^[39]
• 6 October – The Italian submarine Gemma was sunk in error by the Italian submarine Tricheco while on patrol in the Mediterranean.^[40]

1941[edit]

• January, New Fourth Army incident, Chinese Red Army commander Xiang Ying was killed by one of his subordinates over the gold resources of the rival National Revolutionary Army's New Fourth Army
• 5 January – While flying an Airspeed Oxford for the ATA from Blackpool to RAF Kidlington near Oxford, Amy Johnson went off course in adverse weather conditions. Reportedly out of fuel, she bailed out as her aircraft crashed into the Thames Estuary but her body was never recovered. In 1999 it was reported that Tom Mitchell, at the time a RAF fighter pilot, claimed to have shot Johnson down when she twice failed to give the correct identification code during the flight. He said: "The reason Amy was shot down was because she gave the wrong colour of the day [a signal to identify aircraft known by all British forces] over radio." Mitchell explained how the aircraft was sighted and contacted by radio. A request was made for the signal. She gave the wrong one twice. "Sixteen rounds of shells were fired and the plane dived into the Thames Estuary. We all thought it was an enemy plane until the next day when we read the papers and discovered it was Amy. The officers told us never to tell anyone what happened."^[41]
• Bardia raid (1941): On the night of 19/20 April, 450 British commandos conducted an amphibious raid against Axis forces in Bardia, Libya, to destroy an Italian supply dump and a coastal artillery battery (which were successful). While most men were successfully evacuated after the raid, one was killed by friendly fire from an overalert British commando soldier and 67 became prisoners of war after getting lost and going to the wrong beach.^[42]
• In May, a Fleet Air Arm torpedo attack was erroneously carried out against HMS Sheffield during the hunt for the German battleship Bismarck. Fortunately all eleven torpedoes missed.^[43]
• 5 July 1941 - An Armstrong Whitworth Whitley V bomber aircraft, Z6667 of No. 10 Operational Training Unit RAF based at Abingdon,^[44] was on a night training flight when it broke up over Oxfordshire, crashed on Chiselhampton Hill and caught fire on impact. The crash was variously attributed to either interception by a Luftwaffenight fighter or friendly fire by a local anti-aircraft unit. All six crewmen were killed.^[45]
• 9 August – RAFfighter aceWing CommanderDouglas Bader was shot down in what recent research suggests was a friendly fire incident.^[46]
• 29 August – A Focke-Wulf Fw 190 plane was shot down in error by a German 8.8 cm FlaK 18/36/37/41 near the French coast and crashed on the beach south of Dunkirk. Leutnant Heinz Schenk was the first Focke-Wulf 190 pilot to be killed in action.^[47]
• 26 November – A RAF aircraft bombed the 1st Essex Regiment during Operation Crusader, causing about 40 casualties.^{[citation needed]}
• 7 December – During the Attack on Pearl Harbor confused and inexperienced naval gunners downed several US fighter aircraft that were sent from USS Enterprise to bolster the harbor defenses.^[48] Army pilot Lieutenant John L. Dains was also killed by friendly fire just after having shot down the first Japanese aircraft of the war.^[49][50]

1942[edit]

• 31 January – The German blockade runner Spreewald was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-333, captained by U-boat ace Peter-Erich Cremer off Bordeaux.^[51]
• 20 February – British Commonwealth forces during the Burma Campaign were repeatedly bombed and strafed by RAFBlenheims during a break-out attempt by a battalion surrounded by Japanese troops in Sittaung River, Burma. More than 170 British Commonwealth lives were lost due to RAF air-strikes.^[52]
• 21 February – Pilots of the 1st American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers) strafed retreating Commonwealth forces who were mistaken for an advancing Japanese column during the Burma Campaign, resulting in more than 100 casualties.^[53] Around the same day, retreating British Commonwealth forces with 300 vehicles were bombed and strafed by RAFBlenheims near Mokpalin, Burma, resulting more than 110 casualties and 159 vehicles destroyed.^[52]
• 14 April - RAF fighter pilot fires on the audience during a demonstration of ground attack tactics at Imber training ground, Wiltshire, after mistaking them for dummy targets in mist. 25 killed and 71 wounded.
• 2 May – The PolishsubmarineORP Jastrząb was mistakenly sunk by the BritishdestroyerHMS St Albans and minesweeperHMS Seagull while on a convoy to Murmansk. She was attacked with depth charges and made to surface, there she was strafed with the loss of five crew and six injured, including the commander, despite lighting yellow recognition smoke candles. The ship was damaged and had to be scuttled.^[54]
• During the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign in May–September 1942, around 1,700 Japanese troops died out of a total 10,000 Japanese soldiers who fell ill with disease when their own biological weapons attack intended for Chinese civilians and soldiers rebounded on their own forces.^[55][56]
• 8 June – The Italian submarine Alagi sank the Italian destroyer Antoniotto Usodimare.^[57]
• 27 June – A group of RAF Vickers Wellington aircraft bombed the units of 4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), British 7th Armoured Division and the British 3rd Hussars during a two-hour raid near Mersa Matruh, Egypt, killing over 359 troops and wounding 560.^[58] The aftermath of RAF raids at this time were also seen by the Germans: "... The RAF had bombed their own troops, and with tracer flying in all directions, German units fired on each other. At 0500 hours next morning 28 June, I drove up to the breakout area where we had spent such a disturbed night. There we found a number of lorries filled with the mangled corpses of New Zealanders who had been killed by the British bombs ...^[59]
• Laconia incident – there were three elements of friendly fire:

* RMS Laconia, a British naval transport ship, sunk by the German submarine U-156 in the Atlantic Ocean off west Africa on 12 September, was carrying 1,793 Italian prisoners-of-war among its passengers, of whom 1,420 ultimately died.^[60] Italy was then Germany's ally.

• On 16 September, during the mass rescue of survivors by German vessels, a USAAF Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber under orders attacked U-156 despite the pilot having earlier received a signal conveyed by a RAF officer from the U-boat that indicated Allied passengers were on board, and the submarine bearing the Red Cross flag. This caused the U-boat to cast off its passengers in order to Crash dive to avoid destruction, and to abandon rescue attempts. (U-156 was wrongly reported sunk in the action.)

* On 17 September, another u-boat involved in rescue, U-506, carrying 151 survivors, was attacked by a USAAF North American B-25 Mitchell bomber, although it failed to disable the vessel.

• 23 October – During the 2nd Battle of El Alamein, at 2140 hours under the cover of a barrage of 1000 guns, British infantry of the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division advanced towards the enemy lines. However, they advanced too fast into the area of fire from British artillery, causing over 60 casualties.^[29]
• During the 2nd Battle of El Alamein, RAF fighters bombed British troops during a four-hour raid, causing 56 casualties. The British 10th Royal Hussars were among the victims; they did not know the proper signals to call off their planes.^[29]
• 26 October — During the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, USS Porter was forced to be scuttled after an errant torpedo from a friendly Grumman TBF Avenger that had been damaged and forced to ditch nearby. Ironically, the torpedo came from the very aircraft that they were going to rescue.
• British submarine HMS Unbeaten completed Operation Bluestone, landing an agent in Spain near Bayona, then completed her patrol in the Bay of Biscay and was returning to the UK when she went missing. It is believed that she was probably attacked and sunk in error by an RAFWellington bomber of No. 172 Squadron, Coastal Command in the Bay of Biscay on 11 November 1942 . She was lost with all hands.^[61]
• During the night attack of 12/13 November in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the already damaged light cruiserUSS Atlanta was fired on by the cruiserUSS San Francisco, causing several deaths.
• 20 November – Numerous Allied pilots reported being shot at by friendly naval forces during the Torch landings in North Africa. In one such incident, a 202 Squadron Catalina flying boat was shot down with the loss of all 10 aircrew.^[62]

1943[edit]

• 3 March – The German blockade runner and minelayerDoggerbank was mistaken for a British freighter and sunk by the submarine U-43 in the mid-Atlantic. (It was a British made merchant vessel that had been captured in 1941 and impressed into German service.) Of the 365 men on board (the greater part Allied prisoners-of-war), only one German crewman survived.^[63]
• 9 May – The destroyers HMS Bicester and HMS Oakley, on deployment in the Mediterranean found themselves under air attack by Spitfire aircraft; Bicester sustained extensive damage from a near miss, with the bomb exploding alongside causing major flooding. Bicester was taken in tow to Malta for temporary repairs, and required permanent repairs in the United Kingdom, which were carried out between August and September.
• Operation Chastise: On 16–17 May, nineteen RAFLancaster bombers of No. 617 Squadron were dispatched to attack dams in Eder, Möhne and Sorpe (Röhr) rivers near Germany, using a specially developed "bouncing bomb" invented and developed by Barnes Wallis. Möhne and Edersee Dams were breached, causing catastrophic flooding of the Ruhr valley and of villages in the Eder valley. An estimated 1,600 people were killed by the floods; 1,519 of them were Allied prisoners of war.
• During Operation Husky, codename for the Allied invasion of Sicily, on the night of 11 July 1943, American paratroopers of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, together with the 376th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion and Company 'C' of the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion (making a total of some 1,900 parachutists), part of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, traveling in 144 C-47 transport planes, passed over Allied lines shortly after a German air raid, and were mistakenly fired upon by American ground and naval forces. 23 planes were shot down and 37 damaged, resulting in 318 casualties, with 60 airmen and 81 paratroopers killed.^[64]
• Lieutenant GeneralOmar Bradley, commander of the U.S. II Corps, recalled that his column was attacked by American A-36s in Sicily. The tanks lit yellow smoke flares to identify themselves to their own aircraft but the attacks continued, forcing the column to return fire which resulted in the downing of one aircraft. A parachuting pilot from the downed A-36 was brought before Bradley. 'You stupid sonofabitch!!' Bradley fumed. 'Didn't you see our yellow recognition signals!?' The pilot replied 'Oh, is that what that was?'.^[65]
• 12 August – RAF Flight Sergeant Arthur Louis Aaron was fatally wounded when the Short Stirling bomber he piloted during an air raid on Turin was reportedly (according to his posthumous Victoria Cross citation) hit by machine gun fire from an enemy night fighter, which killed his navigator and wounded other crew members, although it is believed it may have been friendly fire from another Stirling.^[66] He died, after successfully landing the plane in Algeria, nine hours later.
• 17-18 August - Local German anti-aircraft batteries were ordered to fire on 200 Luftwaffe planes observed flying over Berlin during the night which had been mistaken for British bombers that had become detached from the concurrent major air raid on Peenemunde (Operation Hydra). The responsible Luftwaffe general, Hans Jeschonnek, subsequently committed suicide after the error was revealed.^[67][68]
• During Operation Cottage after Allied forces occupied Kiska Island, U.S. and Canadian forces mistook each other as Japanese and engaged each other in a deadly firefight. As a result, 28 Americans and 4 Canadians were killed with 50 more wounded. There were no Japanese troops on the island two weeks before U.S. and Canadian forces landed. Meanwhile, thinking they were engaging Americans, Imperial Japanese Navy battleships shelled and attempted to torpedo neighbouring Little Kiska Island where Japanese soldiers were waiting to embark.^[69]
• 26 November - Medal of Honor recipient Edward O'Hare went missing during a nighttime mission. O'Hare was caught in the crossfire between a friendly Grumman TBF Avenger and a Japanese Mitsubishi G4M bomber. It was thought that O'Hare was indeed a victim of friendly fire, however several historians have argued that it was in fact the Japanese fire that shot him down.

1944[edit]

• A train carrying 800 Allied prisoners of war was bombed when it crossed a bridge on the Ponte Paglia in Allerona, Italy, approximately 400 British, U.S. and South African prisoners being killed. In anticipation of the Allied advance, the POWs had been evacuated from PG Campo 54 at Fara-in-Sabina outside of Rome, and were being transported to Germany in unmarked cattle cars. The prisoners of war had been padlocked in the cars and were crossing the bridge when B-26s of the 320th Bombardment Group arrived to blow up the bridge. The driver stopped the train on the span, leaving the prisoners locked inside to their fate. While many escaped, approximately 400 were killed, according to local records, and witness testimony. The mass graves were later destroyed by subsequent bombardments.^[70][71]
• Early in the morning a U.S. NavyPT boat carrying U.S. Fifth Army commander General Mark Clark to the Anzio beachhead, six days after the Anzio landings, was mistakenly fired on by sister U.S. naval vessels. Several sailors were killed and wounded around him.^[72]

• 15 February - During the Battle of Monte Cassino the USAAF, under orders from the Allied commander-in-chief, General Sir Harold Alexander via General Mark Clark, air raided the hilltop Cassino abbey which was suspected to be used as a German observation post. It killed 230 Italian civilians, whose country by then was 'co-belligerent' with the Allies, who had sought shelter in the monastery but no Germans (whose troops subsequently occupied and made the evacuated ruins a stronghold).^[73] Bombs that fell short of site killed some Allied troops on ground below, while 16 bombs were mistakenly dropped at the Fifth Army headquarter compound 17 miles (27 km) away, exploding yards from General Clark's trailer while he was at his desk inside.^[74]
• 25 March - a USAAF C-54 flying from the Azores to the U.K. was misidentified as a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor and shot down by a Fleet Air ArmGrumman F4F Wildcat fighter. All 6 crew were killed.^[75]
• On the morning of 27 March, two US Motor Torpedo Boats (PT-121 and PT-353) were destroyed in error by P-40 Kittyhawks of No. 78 Squadron RAAF, along with an RAAFBristol Beaufighter of No. 30 Squadron RAAF. A second Beaufighter crew recognized the vessels as PTs and tried to stop the attack, but not before both boats exploded and sank off the coast of New Britain. Eight American sailors were killed, with 12 others wounded. Survivors were rescued by PT-346, which itself became a friendly fire victim the following month.
• 29 April – US Navy PT-346 itself became the victim of friendly fire, when sent to the aid of PT-347, which had become stuck on a reef during a night patrol to intercept enemy barges and destroy shore installations off the coast of Rabaul in Lassul Bay, located off the northwest corner of New Britain Island in New Guinea. At 0700, PT-350 was attempting to dislodge PT-347 from the reef, when two American Marine Corsair planes mistook the PT boats for Japanese gunboats and attacked. Taking heavy fire from the planes, PT-350 shot down one of the two attacking fighters, believing them to be A6M Zeros. With three dead and four wounded and serious mechanical problems, PT-350 headed back to base. PT-347 remained stuck on the reef. When PT-350 could not be boarded because of extensive damage, PT-346 headed out to PT-347 to provide assistance. PT-346 arrived at 1230, and at 1400 was still attempting to dislodge PT-347 from the coral heads when planes appeared. The Corsair plane from the morning run brought back an entire squadron of 21 planes (four Corsairs, six Grumman TBF Avengertorpedo bombers, four Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters, and eight Douglas SBD Dauntlessdive bombers). Recognizing the planes as American and thinking they were the air cover he had ordered, the squadron commander ordered the men to keep working; however, the planes attacked the two boats, still mistaking them for Japanese gunboats. PT-346 did not respond defensively until it was too late, and took heavy casualties. The skipper of PT-347, Lieutenant Williams, who had experienced the earlier attack, ordered his men into the water and to stay dispersed, but two men were killed and three wounded. PT-346 and PT-347 were completely destroyed by bombs, and the men were strafed in the water for approximately one hour.
• 5–6 June – Several RAFAvro Lancasters attempting to bomb the German artillery battery at Merville-Franceville-Plage attacked instead friendly positions, killing 186 soldiers of the British Reconnaissance Corps and devastating the town. They also mistakenly bombed Drop Zone 'V ' of the 6th Airborne Division, killing 78 and injuring 65.^[76]
• 6 June – RAF fighters bombed and strafed the HQ entourage of 3rd Parachute Brigade (British 6th Airborne Division) near Pegasus Bridge after mistaking them for a German column. At least 15 men were killed and many others were wounded.^[77]
• 8 June – a group of RAF Hawker Typhoons attacked the 175th Infantry Regiment, 29th U.S. Infantry Division on the Isigny Highway, France, causing 24 casualties.^[78]
• During Operation Cobra, the American offensive push south from western Normandy, bombs from the U.S. Eighth Air Force landed on American troops on two separate occasions.
  • 24 July – Some 1,600 bombers flew in support of the opening bombardment for Cobra. Due to bad weather they were unable to see their targets. Although some were recalled, and others declined to bomb without visibility, a number did, which hit U.S. positions. Twenty-five were killed and 131 wounded in this incident.
  • The following day, on 25 July, the operation was repeated by 1,800 bombers of 8th Air Force. On this occasion, the weather was clear, but despite requests by First Army commander Gen. Omar Bradley to bomb east to west, along the front in order to avoid creepback, the air commanders made their attack north to south, over Allied lines. As more and more bombs fell short, and U.S. positions again were hit, 111 were killed and 490 wounded. Lieutenant General Lesley McNair was among the dead, the highest-ranking victim of American friendly fire.
• 26 July – USAAFP-47s mistakenly strafed the US 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion near Perrières, France. 20 men were badly injured, but there were no fatalities.^[79]
• 27 July – The former HMS Sunfish was sunk by a British RAF Coastal Command aircraft in the Norwegian Sea during the beginning of its process of being transferred to the Soviet Navy. The Captain, Israel Fisanovich, supposedly had taken her out of her assigned area and was diving the sub when the aircraft came in sight instead of staying on the surface and firing signal flares as instructed. All crew, including the British liaison staff, were lost. Later investigation revealed that the RAF crew were at fault.^[80]
• 4 August - The crew of a de Havilland Mosquito from 410 Tactical Fighter Operational Training Squadron, RCAF, mistook a Westland Lysander for a Henschel Hs 126 during a night interception, shooting it down.^[81]
• 7 August – A RAF Hawker Typhoon strafed a squad from 'F' Company/US 120th Infantry Regiment, near Hill 314, France, killing two men.^[82] Around noon on the same day, RAF Hawker Typhoon of the 2TAF was called in to assist the US 823rd Tank Destroyer Battalion in stopping an attack by the 2nd SS Panzer Division between Sourdeval and Mortain but instead fired its rockets at two US 3-inch guns near L'Abbaye Blanche, killing one man and wounding several others even after the yellow smoke (which was to identify friendlies) was put out. Two hours later, an RAF Typhoon shot up the Service Company of the 120th Infantry Regiment, US 30th Division, causing several casualties, including Major James Bynum who was killed near Mortain. The officer who replaced him was strafed by another Typhoon a few minutes later and seriously wounded. Around the same time, a Hawker Typhoon attacked the Cannon Company of 120th Infantry Regiment, US 30th Division, near Mortain, killing 15 men.^[82] An hour later, RAF Typhoons strafed 'B' Company/US 120th Infantry Regiment on Hill 285, killing a driver of a weapons carrier.^[83]
• Two battalions of the 77th Infantry on Guam exchanged prolonged fire on 8 August 1944, the incident possibly started with the firing of mortars for range-finding and angle calibration purposes. Small arms and then armour fire was exchanged. The mistake was realized when both units tried to call in the same artillery battalion to bombard the other.^[84]
• 8 August –

• 9 August – A RAF Hawker Typhoon strafed units of the British Columbia Regiment and the Algonquin Regiment, 4th Canadian Armoured Division, near Quesnay Wood during Operation Totalize, causing several casualties. Later that day, the same units were mistakenly fired upon by tanks and artillery of the 1st Polish Armoured Division, resulting in more casualties.
• 12 August – RAF Hawker Typhoons fired rockets at Sherman tanks of 'A' Company, US 743rd Tank Battalion, near Mortain, France, causing damage to one tank and badly injuring two tank crewmen.^[87]
• 13 August – 12 British soldiers of 'B' Company, 4th Wiltshires, 43rd Wessex Division, were killed and 25 others wounded when they were hit by rockets and machine gun attacks by RAF Typhoons near La Villette, Calvados, France.^[88]
• 14 August – RAF heavy bombers hit Allied troops in error during Operation Tractable causing about 490 casualties including 112 dead. The bombings also destroyed 265 Allied vehicles, 30 field guns and two tanks. British anti-aircraft guns opened fire on the RAF bombers and some may have been hit.
• 17 August – RAF fighters attacked the soldiers of the British 7th Armoured Division, resulting in 20 casualties, including the intelligence officer of 8th Hussars who was badly injured. The colonel riding along was badly shaken when their jeep crashed off the road.^[89]
• 14–18 August – The South Alberta Regiment of the 4th Canadian Armoured Division came under fire six times by RAF Spitfires, resulting in over 57 casualties. Many vehicles were also set on fire and the yellow smoke used for signalling friendlies was ignored by Spitfire pilots. An officer of the South Alberta demanded that he wanted his Crusader AA tanks to shoot at the Spitfires attacking his Headquarters.^[90]
• 27 August – A minesweeping flotilla of Royal Navy ships came under fire near Le Havre. At about noon on 27 August, HMS Britomart, Salamander, Hussar and Jason came under rocket and cannon attacks by Hawker Typhoon aircraft of No. 263 Squadron RAF and No. 266 Squadron RAF. HMS Britomart and HMS Hussar took direct hits and were sunk. HMS Salamander had her stern blown off and sustained heavy damage. HMS Jason