Friendly fire incidents of World War II

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.Percin, Gen. Alexandre (1921) ''Le Massacre de Notre Infanterie 1914–1918'', Michel Albin, Paris Shrader, Charles R. (1982) ''Amicicide: The Problem of Friendly Fire in Modern War'', US Command & General Staff College Survey No.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.Kirke, Charles M. (ed., 2012) ''Fratricide in Battle: (Un)Friendly Fire'
Continuum Books
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Wars of the Roses

*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

*1643 – Following the fall of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire to Roundhead forces, captured Royalist commander, the Earl of Kingston, was killed by Royalist cannon fire when the boat transporting him to Hull was fired on from the banks of the River Trent.

Nine Years' War

*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.

French and Indian War

*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 American soldiers fled from more exposed ground and into woods, where redcoats fired on them mistaking them for advancing French infantry.
*November 12, 1758 - Friendly fire occurred near Fort Ligonier, resulting "in the accidental death of many of George Washington’s fellow Virginians under his command, while also resulting in the capture of French prisoners who provided intelligence that led to the successful taking of Fort Duquesne by the British army."

American Revolutionary War

*In the Battle of Germantown in 1777, a combination of late arrival, poor navigation and overpursuit resulted in Major General Adam 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 General Charles 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.

Austro-Turkish War

*The Battle of Karánsebes in 1788, which only involved Austrian Imperial Army forces, started with a dispute over schnapps between Hussars and infantry of the Austrian vanguard which escalated into armed combat. The ensuing chaos involved even more Austrian forces, leaving 150 dead and 1200 wounded. The Ottoman Forces arrived only after the Austrian withdraw.

Napoleonic Wars

*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 ''HMS Superb'' sailed between them and fired at both. 1,700 were killed when the two ships exploded.
* 1806 – On 30 November, at 10pm, and 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 .Clowes (1897–1903), pp.394–5
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*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''. Section "French lancers created havoc." cites Hamilton-Williams as a source but does not give the book.
:*Battle of Waterloo: Prussian artillery mistakenly fired on British artillery causing many casualties, and British artillery returned fire at the Prussians.

Texas Revolution

*Both sides, Texians and Mexicans, in the Siege of the Alamo in 1836, had friendly fire incidents:
:*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.
:*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 dtheir guns", and when all the defenders had been killed, Mexicans continued to shoot Mexicans in mistake during the darkness.

American Civil War

*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.
*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.Garrison, Webb B. (1999) ''Friendly Fire in the Civil War: More than 100 True Stories of Comrade Killing Comrade'', Rutledge Hill Press;
*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.
*In the early hours of 6 March 1865, the Union vessel was en route to blockade Wilmington, North Carolina when she was rammed and sunk by after being mistaken for a blockade runner. All hands were rescued before she sank.

Russo-Japanese War

*Dogger Bank Incident (overnight 21/22 October 1904) – In what can be classified literally as a case of fog of war, 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 fishing vessel was sunk, four were damaged, and two fishermen were killed and six wounded. In the general chaos that ensued, the cruisers and 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 , 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.Dogger Bank – Voyage of the Damned
('Hullwebs – History of Hull' website. Retrieved 8 September 2007.)

World War I

*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. This led to arrests and massacres of local civilians when the town was invaded 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.
*Battle of Bolimów 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.
*25 September 1915 – In the first gas attack launched by British forces prior to their infantry attack that opened the Battle of Loos, about 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, 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.
*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.
*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.Article by Gordon MacKinnon.
*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.
*17 March 1917 – The German submarine '' SM UB-40'' sank the British hospital ship '' HMHS Lanfranc'' in the English Channel when it was ferrying wounded from Le Havre to Southampton. The passengers included 167 German prisoners of war, of whom 18 were killed and 15 wounded in the sinking.
*At night in foul weather on 16 September 1917, the British submarine mistook the destroyer 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 and killed 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.
*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.
*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".
*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.
*16 June 1918 – During German 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.
*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 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 Camel biplane behind enemy lines in France. During the incident, he later claimed, Stephenson was injured by fire not only from German ace pilot, Justus Grassmann, but also by friendly fire from a French observer.
He was subsequently captured and held as a prisoner of war until he escaped in October 1918.
*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 was sunk by British Q-ship 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

*6 March 1919 – Colonel Oskars Kalpaks was killed in command of his 1st Latvian Independent Battalion, when his unit had a mistaken skirmish with a German Freikorps party near Airītes in Saldus District. Both parties were allied in a counterattack on the Soviet Army occupying Latvia.

Spanish Civil War

*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 had any battle experience.

World War II

1939

*6 September – Just days after the start of the war, in what was dubbed the Battle of Barking Creek, three Royal Air Force Spitfires 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.Townshend Bickers, Richard L. (1994) ''Friendly Fire: Accidents in Battle from Ancient Greece to the Gulf War'', Leo Cooper;
*10 September – The British submarine sank another British submarine, . 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.
*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."Allied Warships: HMS ''Snapper'' (N 39). Submarine of the S class"
uboat.net; retrieved 7 January 2008.

1940

*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.
*14 April – The Dutch submarine was bombed in error off Noordwijk by an RAF aircraft.
*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.
*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.
*Battle of the Grebbeberg, The Netherlands - 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.
*20 May – The French Navy submarine mistakenly fired three torpedoes at the French Navy submarine in the North Sea off the coast of the Netherlands. ''Sybille'' avoided the torpedoes.
*21 May – A Royal Air Force Hurricane shot down Bristol Blenheim L9325 of No. 18 Squadron RAF. The Blenheim crashed near Arras, France. Its three crewmen were killed.(P.226)Warner, Graham. Bristol Blenheim: A Complete History. 2nd Edition. (Manchester, U.K.: Crecy Publishing, 2005
*22 May – A Royal Air Force Spitfire shot down Bristol Blenheim L9266 of No. 59 Squadron RAF. The Blenheim crashed near Fricourt, France. Its three crewmen were killed.
*May (unknown date) – As the French Navy submarine returned to her base at Dundee, Scotland, after a patrol in the Skagerrak that had begun on 7 May, a British bomber mistook her for a German submarine and attacked her in Dundee Channel, dropping five bombs. ''Achille'' suffered serious damage, particularly to her ballast tanks, propeller shafts, and hydrophones.
*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.
*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.
*8 July – While the Vichy French submarine was departing Dakar, Senegal, to attack British warships threatening Dakar during Operation Catapult, she suffered light damage when she came under heavy gunfire from three Vichy French warships and was bombed by a Vichy French seaplane, all of which mistook her for a British submarine attempting to infiltrate the harbor.
*8 October – While on patrol in the Mediterranean, the Italian submarine sank the Italian submarine in error.

1941

*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 signal to identify aircraft known by all British forcesover 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."
* 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.
*May 26 – Fifteen Fleet Air Arm Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers from the British aircraft carrier attempting to carry out a torpedo attack against the German battleship in the Atlantic Ocean mistakenly attacked the British light cruiser instead. They dropped 11 torpedoes, some of which exploded on contact with the water. The rest missed.
*5 July 1941 – An Armstrong Whitworth Whitley V bomber aircraft, Z6667 of No. 10 Operational Training Unit RAF based at Abingdon, 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 ''Luftwaffe'' night fighter or friendly fire by a local anti-aircraft unit. All six crewmen were killed.
*9 August – RAF fighter ace Wing Commander Douglas Bader was shot down in what recent research suggests was a friendly fire incident.
*29 August – A Focke-Wulf Fw 190 plane was shot down in error by a German 8.8 cm antiaircraft gun 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.
*26 November – A RAF aircraft bombed the 1st Essex Regiment during Operation Crusader, causing about 40 casualties.
*7 December
**During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, confused and inexperienced naval gunners downed several US fighter aircraft that were sent from to bolster the harbor defenses. Army pilot Lieutenant John L. Dains was also killed by friendly fire just after having shot down the first Japanese aircraft of the war.
** During the evening, six VF-6 Wildcats attempted to land at Ford Island, but five were accidentally shot down by friendly anti-aircraft fire, killing three pilots and wounding two others.
*20 December – Aircraft from the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier mistakenly bombed the U.S. Navy submarine in the Pacific Ocean bearing 261 degrees True from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and from Johnston Atoll. ''Pompano'' suffered damage to her seams and fuel tanks.

1942

*11 January – During the Battle of Manado, an Aichi E13A (Allied reporting name "Jake") floatplane from the Imperial Japanese Navy seaplane carrier shot down an Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service Yokosuka L3Y (Allied reporting name "Tina") transport aircraft carrying Special Naval Landing Force paratroopers when the L3Y flew low over a Japanese anchorage near Manado in northern Celebes without responding to recognition signals.
*31 January – The German blockade runner was torpedoed and sunk by the , captained by U-boat ace Peter-Erich Cremer, off Bordeaux.
*20 February – British Commonwealth forces during the Burma Campaign were repeatedly bombed and strafed by RAF Blenheims 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.Warner, Graham. 'Bristol Blenheim: A Complete History. 2nd Edition''. (Manchester, UK: Crecy Publishing, 2005) pp.563–564''
*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. Around the same day, retreating British Commonwealth forces with 300 vehicles were bombed and strafed by RAF Blenheims near Mokpalin, Burma, resulting more than 110 casualties and 159 vehicles destroyed.
*25 February – Nine Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi A6M Zero ( Allied reporting name "Zeke") fighters escorting a Mitsubishi C5M (Allied reporting name "Babs") reconnaissance aircraft mistook the Imperial Japanese Navy Japanese submarines and for Royal Netherlands Navy submarines while ''I-5'' and ''I-6'' were on the surface in the waters of the Netherlands East Indies west of Timor. They made repeated strafing attacks. ''I-6'' submerged and avoided damage and casualties, but ''I-5'' suffered serious damage after a fire started within her conning tower and caused the explosion of signal rockets. ''I-5''′s commanding officer and two other officers suffered severe injuries.
* 1 March before dawn – At the naval Battle of Sunda Strait, Japanese cruisers and destroyers fired Long Lance torpedoes against the Allied squadron. Many travelled too far and unexpectedly hit four Japanese auxiliary ships and sank all (one re-floated later). Many soldiers were rescued from the sea, including the 16th Army Commander Hitoshi Imamura.
* Ca. March 1942 – An Allied aircraft attacked the U.S. Navy submarine as she made a transit from the United States East Coast to the Panama Canal.
*8 April – An aircraft identified by the crew of the U.S. Navy submarine as a United States Army Air Forces P-38 Lightning fighter dropped four bombs which straddled ''Mackerel''′s track while ''Mackerel'' was conducting exercises with the U.S. Navy patrol vessel south of the Watch Hill buoy off Watch Hill, Rhode Island. The bombs ricocheted off the water and did not explode. Neither ''Mackerel'' or ''Sapphire'', which was from ''Mackerel'' at the time, suffered damage or casualties.
* 14 April
**RAF fighter pilot fires on the audience during a demonstration of ground attack tactics at Imber training ground, Wiltshire, England, after mistaking them for dummy targets in mist. 25 killed and 71 wounded.
**After sighting a German U-boat in the Atlantic Ocean about off Cape Charles, Virginia, which had fired two torpedoes at her and one at her escort — the United States Coast Guard cutter , which was about astern of her — the U.S. Navy submarine fired two torpedoes at the U-boat, which disappeared into the darkness. ''Legare'' sighted a torpedo headed directly for her which her crew thought ''Mackerel'' had fired, and took evasive action. The torpedo passed down ''Legare''′s port side at a distance of only . A subsequent investigation of the incident by the Eastern Sea Frontier concluded that ''Mackerel'' had mistakenly fired a torpedo at ''Legare''.
*20 April - A U.S. Army Air Forces aircraft dropped depth charges on the U.S. Navy submarine in the Caribbean Sea ''Flying Fish'' submerged and avoided damage.
* 21 April – In the aftermath of the Doolittle Raid, the Imperial Japanese Navy seaplane tender opened fire on an approaching Japanese transport plane her crew mistook for a United States Army Air Forces B-25 Mitchell medium bomber off Wadamisaki, Kobe, Japan. Splinters from her anti-aircraft shells struck the nearby Japanese passenger ship , prompting ''Tennyo Maru'' to transmit a mistaken report that the plane had attacked her with machine-gun fire.
*24–25 April – The Imperial Japanese Army armed transport mistakenly opened gunfire on the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine while ''I-10'' was on an overnight voyage from Singapore to Penang in Japanese-occupied British Malaya. ''I-10'' escaped without damage or casualties.
*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.
*2 May – The Polish submarine was mistakenly sunk by the Royal Norwegian Navy destroyer and minesweeper 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.
*4 May – The United States Navy Armed Guard detachment aboard the American tanker ''El Lago'' mistook the U.S. Navy submarine for a German U-boat and opened gunfire on her off the coast of Rhode Island about south of Watch Hill Light at . ''Mackerel'' sustained no damage.Hinman & Campbell, pp. 119–120.
*6 May: Two Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi G4M1 ( Allied reporting name "Betty") bombers mistook the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine for an Allied submarine and attacked her off Roi-Namur at Kwajalein Atoll, dropping eight bombs and inflicting damage on ''I-8'' that prevented her from submerging.
*7 May: During the Battle of the Coral Sea, TF 44, a joint Australia–U.S. warship force, was mistakenly bombed by three U.S. Army B-17s, but it sustained no damage.
*30 May - A U.S. Navy OS2U-2 Kingfisher floatplane dropped a depth charge on the U.S. Navy submarine as ''R-18 '' crash-dived in the Atlantic Ocean bearing 50 degrees from Bermuda′s Mount Hill Lighthouse. ''R-18'' sustained no damage.
*8 June – The Italian submarine ''Alagi'' sank the Italian destroyer ''Antoniotto Usodimare''.
*15 June – In the last stages of the Italian fleet attack on Harpoon convoy, German Ju-88 bombers targeted the Italian squadron without inflicting any damage.
* 21 June – The Royal Canadian Navy minesweeper rammed and sank the Royal Navy submarine HMS ''P.514'' in the Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland after ''P.514'' did not reply to her challenge. ''P.514'' was lost with all hands.
* 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. 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 ...
* 4 August – At 14:20, a U.S. Lockheed Ventura patrol aircraft attacked the U.S. Navy submarine at with four depth charges while ''S-17'' was operating on the surface in the Caribbean Sea, inflicting damage that prevented ''S-17'' from diving.
*25 August - The United States Coast Guard Cutter opened gunfire on the U.S. Navy submarine near Key West, Florida. ''R-2'' sustained no damage.
*September 1942 - The ''Laconia'' incident involved three friendly fire incidents:
:*, a British naval transport ship, sunk by the 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.The Laconia Incident
Various survivor accounts of the incident. 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, , carrying 151 survivors, was attacked by a USAAF North American B-25 Mitchell bomber, although it failed to disable the vessel.
* 12 October – received friendly fire in a night surface action and sank during the Battle of Cape Esperance off Guadalcanal
* 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.
*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.
*26 October — During the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, was forced to be scuttled after being hit by 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.
*8 November – On the morning of the Operation Torch landings in French North Africa, a U.S. Army Air Forces P-40 Warhawk fighter strafed the U.S. Navy submarine in the Atlantic Ocean off Casablanca, French Morocco. A few hours later, an aircraft identified by ''Gunnel''′s crew as an American bomber attacked ''Gunnel'', which submerged and whose crew heard an explosion as she passed a depth of . ''Gunnel'' suffered no damage or casualties in either attack.
*11 November – British submarine 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 RAF Wellington bomber of No. 172 Squadron, Coastal Command in the Bay of Biscay. She was lost with all hands.
*During the night attack of 12/13 November in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the already damaged light cruiser was fired on by the cruiser , causing several deaths, including Rear Admiral Norman Scott.
*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.
*7 December - The United States Army transport opened gunfire on the U.S. Navy submarine in the Caribbean Sea. ''R-16'' submerged and avoided damage.

1943

*21 January – German army general Karl Eibl was killed northwest of Stalingrad during a chaotic retreat in the wake of Soviet Operation Little Saturn when Italian soldiers mistaking his command vehicle for a Soviet armoured car blew it up with hand grenades.
*6 February – The Imperial Japanese Navy submarine suffered minor damage when an Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service Aichi E13A1 ( Allied reporting name "Jake") floatplane mistakenly bombed her while she was in the Bismarck Sea northwest of Rabaul.
*3 March – The German blockade runner and minelayer was mistaken for a British freighter and sunk by the submarine 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.
*13 March - Four U.S. Navy TBF-1 Avenger torpedo bombers dropped depth charges on the U.S. Navy submarine off the coast of Rhode Island off the southwest corner of Block Island while ''R-6 '' was conducting torpedo exercises with the U.S. Navy patrol boat in Block Island Sound. ''R-6'' suffered no damage or casualties.
*20 April – The escorts of an Allied convoy opened gunfire on the Free French Naval Forces submarine while she was taking part in an exercise in the Bay of Arzew off Arzew, Algeria.
*2 May – While the U.S. Navy submarine was crossing the Caribbean Sea on the surface bound for the Panama Canal, an approaching U.S. Navy PBY Catalina flying boat responded to her recognition signals with machine-gun fire, then dropped two bombs, one of which shook ''Harder'', as ''Harder'' submerged.
*9 May – The destroyers and , 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 RAF Lancaster 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. According to German historian , at least 1,650 people were killed. Of the bodies found downriver of the Möhne Dam, 1,026 were foreign prisoners of war and forced labourers in different camps, mainly from the Soviet Union. At the city of Neheim (now part of Neheim-Hüsten) at the confluence of the Möhne and Ruhr rivers, over 800 people perished, among them at least 493 female forced labourers from the Soviet Union. Some non-German sources cite an earlier total of 749 for all foreigners in all camps in the Möhne and Ruhr valleys as the casualty count at a camp just below the Eder Dam.)
*May 1943 – During the Battle of Attu, U.S. Army First Sergeant Dick Laird killed an American runner on Attu during a Japanese banzai charge.
*5 June - Friendly forces machine-gunned the U.S. Navy submarine at New London Sanctuary, Connecticut.
*29 June - United States Army Coast Artillery Corps guns at Fort Zachary Taylor opened fire on the U.S. Navy submarine while ''R-14 '' was off Key West. Florida. ''R-14'' suffered no damage.
*11 July 1943 - 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.
*July 1943 - During Operation Husky, Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, commander of the U.S. II Corps, recalled that his column was attacked by American A-36 ground-attack aircraft 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?'.
*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. He died, after successfully landing the plane in Algeria, nine hours later.
*13 August - An Allied tanker opened gunfire on the U.S. Navy submarine in the Pacific Ocean a day after ''Porpoise'' departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, bound for New London, Connecticut. ''Porpoise'' maneuvered away on the surface and suffered no damage.
*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.
*August - During Operation Cottage, after Allied forces occupied Kiska Island, U.S. and Canadian forces mistook each other for Japanese and engaged each other in a deadly firefight. As a result, 28 Americans and four 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 warships shelled and attempted to torpedo neighbouring Little Kiska Island where Japanese soldiers were waiting to embark.
*30 August - The American Type C1-B cargo ship opened gunfire on the U.S. Navy submarine in the Caribbean Sea at , about north-northwest of Baranquilla, Colombia, and east of the northern entrance to the Panama Canal. Less than three hours later, ''Alcoa Patriot'' again sighted ''Cod'' and fired on her at , about northwest of Baranquilla and east of the northern entrance to the Panama Canal. ''Cod'' suffered no damage in either incident.
*8 September - A Royal Australian Air Force Catalina flying boat strafed the U.S. Navy submarine in the Timor Sea north of Melville Island.
*9 September - An Allied maritime patrol aircraft attacked the U.S. Navy submarine with a depth charge in the Pacific Ocean north-northeast of Buka on Bougainville Island in the Solomon Islands at . The depth charge missed by a wide margin, and ''Peto'' submerged to and avoided damage.
*16 September - After the U.S. Navy submarine sighted an Allied Liberty ship in the Coral Sea east of Grafton Passage in the Great Barrier Reef at at 04:05, the ship altered course directly toward ''Pompon''. ''Pompon'' submerged. After ''Pompon'' returned to the surface, she unsuccessfully attempted to exchange recognition signals with the ship, which opened gunfire on her at a range of at 06:14. ''Pompon'' submerged again and suffered no damage.
*Late October - A U.S. Navy patrol bomber dropped a string of bombs on the U.S. Navy submarine in the Caribbean Sea northeast of the Panama Canal but did not damage her.Hinman & Campbell, p. 14.
*8 November - A United States Army Air Forces Fifth Air Force plane bombed and strafed the U.S. Navy submarine north-northwest of Mussau Island at . Four bombs landed close alongside ''Albacore'' as she submerged to escape the attack.
*10 November - A United States Army Air Forces Fifth Air Force four-engine bomber dropped a string of bombs which straddled the U.S. Navy submarine in the northeastern portion of the St. George's Channel southwast of Kavieng, New Ireland at . ''Albacore'' suffered damage which caused her to plunge to a depth of before her crew regained control of her.
*15 November - An Allied tanker opened gunfire on the U.S. Navy submarine in the Pacific Ocean between the Panama Canal and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. ''Batfish'' submerged and avoided damage.
*19 November - The U.S. Navy destroyer opened gunfire on the submarine while ''Nautilus'' was off Maiana in the Gilbert Islands at , hitting ''Nautilus'' at the base of the conning tower with one round which did not explode. ''Nautilus'' submerged and avoided further damage, suffering no casualties, but reached before her crew gained control of her.
*20 November - An Allied patrol bomber dropped a depth charge on the U.S. Navy submarine while ''Rasher'' was at a depth of in the Indian Ocean north-northeast of Exmouth Gulf in Western Australia at . ''Rasher'' sustained no damage.
*December - An Allied merchant ship opened gunfire on the U.S. Navy submarine on an unrecorded date in December 1943 sometime prior to 20 December, firing 13 rounds before ''Flier'' escaped undamaged into a rain squall.

1944

*1 January – An Allied tanker opened gunfire on the U.S. Navy submarine in the Pacific Ocean northeast of Hawaii at .
*28 January
:*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.
:*Early in the morning a U.S. Navy PT 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.
*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, bombed 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). 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 away, exploding yards from General Clark's trailer while he was at his desk inside.
*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 Arm Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter. All six crew were killed.
*27 March – During the morning, two U.S, Navy motor torpedo boats ('' PT-121'' and ''PT-353'') were destroyed in error by Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) P-40 Kittyhawks of No. 78 Squadron, along with an RAAF Bristol Beaufighter of No. 30 Squadron. A second Beaufighter crew recognized the vessels as PT boats 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 herself became a friendly fire victim in April 1944.
*29 March – A U.S. Army Air Forces Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberator bomber attacked the U.S. Navy submarine off Australia, dropping a bomb as she crash-dived. ''Gunnel'' suffered no casualties or damage.
*11 April - A U.S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber strafed and bombed the U.S. Navy submarine as she submerged in the western Pacific Ocean about east-northeast of Biak Island. ''Cero'' suffered no damage.
*13 April - A U.S. Navy PB4Y-1 Liberator patrol bomber bombed the U.S. Navy submarine in the Pacific Ocean west-southwest of Truk Atoll at . ''Bashaw'' submerged and avoided damage.
*24 April - An Allied two-engine bomber strafed the U.S. Navy submarine as ''Billfish'' submerged in the Timor Sea west of Port Darwin, Australia.
*29 April – The U.S. Navy patrol torpedo boat '' PT-346'', which had rescued the survivors of ''PT-121'' and ''PT-353'' after a friendly-fire incident on 27 March, herself became the victim of friendly fire, when sent to the aid of the PT boat '' PT-347'', which had become stuck on a reef during a night patrol to intercept Japanese barges and destroy Japanese shore installations off the coast of Rabaul in Lassul Bay, located off the northwest corner of New Britain Island. 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 Avenger torpedo bombers, four Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters, and eight Douglas SBD Dauntless dive 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.
*12 May
**An Allied Liberty ship opened gunfire at a range of on the U.S. Navy submarine in the Coral Sea at , firing five or six rounds. ''Bream'' suffered no damage.
**Three British aircraft mistook the Free French Naval Forces submarine for a German U-boat and attacked her in the Mediterranean Sea. She avoided damage by diving to a depth of .
*27 May – The U.S. Navy submarine hit the submarine — which she had mistaken for an Imperial Japanese Navy submarine — with two torpedoes in the South China Sea near Dangerous Ground at , denting ''Raton''′s hull. ''Raton'' survived, suffering no casualties and no other damage. It is the only confirmed instance of one U.S. submarine firing at another during World War II.
*28 May – A PV-1 Ventura of U.S. Navy Bombing Squadron 148 (VB-148) damaged the submarine with a depth charge in the Pacific Ocean in the vicinity of . ''Permit'' suffered no casualties.
* 5–6 June – Several RAF Avro 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.
*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.
*8 June – a group of RAF Hawker Typhoons attacked the 175th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division (United States), 29th U.S. Infantry Division on the Isigny-sur-Mer, Isigny Highway, France, causing 24 casualties.
*16 June – After sighting the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine surfacing nearby and mistaking her for an Allied submarine, the Japanese armed cargo ship ''Toyokawa Maru'' rammed and sank ''I-6'' in the Pacific Ocean near Yokosuka, Japan. ''I-6'' was lost with all hands. (Alternative accounts have ''Toyokawa Maru'' sinking ''I-6'' off Saipan on 30 June 1944Powell, Arthur, "War Comes to the Brisbane Sea Approaches, March 1943: Via the IJN Submarine ''I-6''," ''Boat Talk'', February–March 2012, p. 13.
/ref> and the U.S. Navy destroyer escort and high-speed transport sinking ''I-6'' west of Tinian at on 19 July 1944.)
*18 June – The 5,433-gross register ton Panamamanian merchant ship fired six rounds at the U.S. Navy submarine in the Caribbean Sea about south of Cape San Antonio, Cuba, Cape San Antonio, Cuba, at . ''Hawkbill'' suffered no damage.
*June - During Operation Cobra, the American offensive push south from western Normandy, bombs from the U.S. Army Air Forces 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 the Eighth Air Force. On this occasion, the weather was clear, but despite requests by First United States Army, 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 – USAAF Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, P-47s mistakenly strafed the US 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion near Perrières, France. 20 men were badly injured, but there were no fatalities.
*27 July – The former 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.
*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.
*7 August – A RAF Hawker Typhoon strafed a squad from 'F' Company/US 120th Infantry Regiment (United States), 120th Infantry Regiment, near Hill 314, France, killing two men.''Battle for Mortain: The 30th Infantry Division Saves the Breakout: 7–12 August 1944'', Alwyn Featherston, pp.111–112 Around noon on the same day, RAF Hawker Typhoon of the RAF Second Tactical Air Force, 2TAF was called in to assist the US 823rd Tank Destroyer Battalion in stopping an attack by the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, 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. An hour later, RAF Typhoons strafed 'B' Company/US 120th Infantry Regiment on Hill 285, killing a driver of a weapons carrier.
*Two battalions of the 77th Infantry on Guam exchanged prolonged fire on 8 August 1944, the incident possibly started with the firing of mortar (weapon), 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.
*8 August –
:*8th USAAF heavy bombers bombed the headquarters of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and 1st Polish Armoured Division during Operation Totalize, killing 65 and wounding 250 Allied soldiers.
:*Near Mortain, France, RAF Hawker Typhoon aircraft attacked two Sherman tanks of 'C' Company, US 743d Tank Battalion, 743rd Tank Battalion with rockets, killing five tank crewmen and wounding ten soldiers. Later that day, two Shermans from 'A' Company, US 743rd Tank Battalion were destroyed and set ablaze by RAF Typhoons near Mortain. One tank crewman was killed and 12 others wounded.
*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.
*13 August – 12 British soldiers of 'B' Company, 4th Wiltshire Regiment, 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.
*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 King's Royal Irish Hussars, 8th Hussars who was badly injured. The colonel riding along was badly shaken when their jeep crashed off the road.
*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.
*27 August
**A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber strafed the U.S. Navy submarine with machine-gun fire in the Pacific Ocean off Yap in the Caroline Islands in the vicinity of . ''Pollack'' suffered no damage or casuatties.
**A minesweeping flotilla of Royal Navy ships came under fire near Le Havre. At about noon on 27 August, , , and 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'' was raked by machine gun fire, killing and wounding several of her crew. Two of the accompanying Naval trawler, trawlers were also hit. The total loss of life was 117 sailors killed and 153 wounded. The attack had continued despite the attempts by the ships to signal that they were friendly and radio requests by the John Robert Baldwin, commander of the aircraft for clarification of his target. In the aftermath the surviving sailors were told to keep quiet about the attack. The subsequent court of enquiry identified the fault as lying with the Navy, which had requested the attack on what they thought were enemy vessels entering or leaving Le Havre, and three RN officers were put before a court martial. The commander of ''Jason'' and his crew were decorated for their part in rescuing their comrades. At the time reporting of the incident was suppressed with information not fully released until 1994.
*8–9 September – At about midnight on the night of 8–9 September, the Japanese cargo ship ''Izu Maru'' rammed the Imperial Japanese Army Type 3 submergence transport vehicle ''Japanese submarine Yu 3001, Yu 3001'' — a transport submarine — in the Yellow Sea near Kunsan, Korea, after mistaking her for an enemy submarine. The collision ripped a large hole in ''Yu 3001''′s pressure hull and injured one Commissioned officer, officer on board. ''Yu 3001'' remained afloat. In a second incident later in ''Yu 3001''′s voyage as she headed to port for repairs, an Imperial Japanese Navy ship escorting a passing convoy fired two rounds at her without damaging her.
*9 September – On third day of the Battle of Arnhem, a German Schutzstaffel, SS battalion's pursuit of landed Allied paratroopers was halted at the village of Wolfheze, Netherlands, when Luftwaffe planes mistakenly strafed it.
*12 September:
:*A group of RAF Hawker Typhoon aircraft destroyed two Sherman tanks of the Governor General's Foot Guards, 4th Canadian Armoured Division in the vicinity of Maldegem, Belgium, killing three men and injuring four. One Canadian soldier from the 4th Canadian Armored Division wounded recalled this incident saying "... while so deployed the tanks were suddenly attacked, in mistake, by several Typhoon aircraft. Lt. Middleton-Hope's tank was badly hit, killing the gunner Guardsman Hughes, and the tank was set on fire. Almost immediately Sgt. Jenning's tank was similarly knocked out by Typhoon rockets. Meanwhile the Typhoons continued to press home their attack with machine guns and rockets, and, while trying to extricate the gunner, Lt. Middleton-Hope was killed after his tank was blown off. In this tragic encounter, Guardsman Scott was also killed and Baker, Barter, and Cheal were seriously wounded."
:*The Japanese transport ship , carrying 1,317 Australian and British prisoners-of-war in convoy from Singapore to Formosa (Taiwan), was sunk in the Luzon Strait by the submarine , whose commanders were unaware until after the sinking that allied prisoners had been on board. Ultimately 1,159 POWs died, only 50 rescued by the ''Sealion'' and sister submarines in her pack lived to make landfall.
:*, carrying some 950 Australian and British prisoners-of-war, was travelling in the same convoy when it was sunk by the submarine . 431 prisoners were killed; the remainder were rescued by Japanese destroyers and taken to Japan.
*18 September – The Japanese cargo ship was packed with 1,377 Dutch, 64 British and Australian, and 8 American prisoners of war along with 4,200 Javanese people, Javanese unfree labour, slave labourers (Romushas) bound for work on a railway line being built in Sumatra when she was attacked and sunk by British submarine , whose commander, Lt. Cdr Lynch Maydon, did not know there were Allied prisoners of war on board. At that time it was the world's greatest sea disaster with 5,620 dead as well as the worst single friendly fire loss (surpassed by the Cap Arcona disaster next year) and highest death toll inflicted in a single action by British forces. 680 survivors were rescued, the prisoners of whom went on to their intended destination.
*19 September – RAF Sergeant Bernard McCormack, a gunner in a Lancaster bomber, was returning along with other RAF aircrews from a night time raid over Nazi Germany. As they returned to RAF Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire, Sgt McCormack saw a plane flying in the same formation as he was. Believing that it was a German Junkers Ju 88, he attacked the plane, bringing it down over the Dutch town of Steenbergen. Two of the occupants were killed. It was found out by RAF intelligence officers that it was actually a British de Havilland Mosquito, Mosquito flown by Commanding officer, CO Guy Gibson, who previously took part in Operation Chastise, and his navigator Jim Warwick. Wracked with guilt, McCormack taped a confession, which he entrusted to his wife Eunice when he died in 1992.
*4 October - A United States Navy PB4Y-1 Liberator patrol bomber attacked the submarine while ''Mingo'' was performing lifeguard duty in support of United States Army Air Forces Thirteenth Air Force strikes on the Philippines and Borneo. The Liberator dropped a bomb which landed from ''Mingo'', inflicting no damage or casualties.
*9 October - The U.S. Navy destroyer Depth charge, depth-charged the U.S. Navy submarine in the Pacific Ocean after ''Flying Fish'' submerged as she approached and did not respond to sonar recognition signals. ''Cogswell'' halted her attack after ''Flying Fish'' responded to the recognition signals. ''Flying Fish'' suffered no damage.
*24 October – the Japanese transport was carrying 1,784 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) from Manila to Manchuria when it was sunk by a torpedo from USS Shark (SS-314), USS ''Shark''. All but nine of the POWs are reported to have died in the incident mainly through the Japanese escort ships not rescuing them when they had all evacuated ship.
*In October, Soviet troops liberated the city of Niš from occupying German forces and advanced on Belgrade. At the same time, the U.S. Army Air Forces was bombing German-Albanian units entering from Kosovo. The U.S. planes mistook the advancing Soviet tanks as enemies (probably due to a lack of communications) and began attacking them, whereupon the Soviets then called in for air support from Niš airport and a five-minute dogfight ensued, ending after both the U.S. and Soviet commanders ordered the planes to retreat.
*Late October – The United States Navy Armed Guard detachment aboard an American Liberty ship opened fire with a gun on the U.S. Navy submarine in the Bass Strait south of Melbourne, Australia. ''Crevalle'' suffered no damage.
*December 1944 – Canadian artillery units were rushed in to support the retreating American forces as a counterattack against the advancing German Army during the early stages of the Ardennes Offensive. When American troops were making a retreat north of the Ardennes, the Canadians mistook them for a German column. The Canadian artillery guns opened fire on them, resulting in 76 American deaths and many as 138 wounded.
*25 December 1944 – Major George E. Preddy, commander of the USAAF 328th Fighter Squadron, was the highest-scoring U.S. ace still in combat in the European Theater at the time when he died on Christmas Day near Liege in Belgium. Preddy was chasing a German fighter over an American anti-aircraft battery and was hit by their fire aimed at his intended target.
*Operation Winter Storm, 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

*1 January – 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 fire from Luftwaffe anti-aircraft batteries, whose crew members had not been informed of the attack.
*5 January – Friendly gunfire hit the Superstructure (ship), superstructure of the U.S. Navy battleship in Lingayen Gulf off Luzon in the Philippines, killing 18 and wounding 51.
*6 January - Two United States Marine Corps Douglas SBD Dauntless, SBD Dauntless dive bombers of VMSB-245, Marine Scouting Squadron 245 (VMSB-245) bombed the U.S. Navy submarine in the Pacific Ocean off Majuro Atoll. ''Spadefish'' submerged and survived.
*16 January – During the South China Sea raid, U.S. Navy bombers targeting transport and harbor facilities in Japanese-occupied Hong Kong mistakenly bombed the nearby village of Hung Hom, killing and wounding many civilians, and dropped one bomb in Stanley Internment Camp, killing 14 Allied civilian internees.
*23 January – A group of RAF fighters strafed the assault gun platoon (105mm Sherman tanks) of US 743rd Tank Battalion, near Sart-Lez-St.Vith, Belgium, killing 6 men and wounding 15.
*10 February
**While at periscope depth in the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy submarine detected an incoming torpedo apparently dropped by a nearby U.S. Navy flying boat. ''Batfish'' went deep and the torpedo passed overhead.
**Lieutenant Louis Edward Curdes, a USAAF P-51 pilot, shot down a USAAF C-47 about to land by mistake on a Japanese held airstrip. All personnel on board the Skytrain survived.
*15 February – The American Liberty ship — which reported her position as — opened gunfire on the U.S. Navy submarine in the Pacific Ocean at a range of , firing eight rounds and claiming two hits. All rounds actually missed, and ''Crevalle'' — which reported her own position as — suffered no damage.
*27 February – Calais suffered its last bombing raid by Royal Air Force bombers who mistook the by-now liberated town for Dunkirk, which was at that time still occupied by German forces.
*1 March – Operating on the surface in heavy fog in the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy submarine sighted a torpedo at a distance of which passed ahead of her. With strong indications of nearby U.S. SD radar, SD and SJ radar, SJ submarine radars, she challenged what she presumed was a nearby U.S. submarine for 45 minutes via SJ radar signals before receiving a reply and exchanging recognition signals. The other submarine never identified itself, but the torpedo had come from its direction. Although unable to prove conclusively that they had been either in contact with or fired upon by another U.S. submarine, ''Guitarro''′s crew concluded that they had nearly been the victims of a friendly fire incident.
*3 March – The Royal Air Force mistakenly Bombing of the Bezuidenhout, bombed the heavily populated Bezuidenhout quarter of The Hague, Holland. The target was an installation of V-2 rockets in the nearby Haagse Bos park, but because of navigational errors, the bombs all fell more than 500 yards (460 m) short of target. The bombardment wreaked widespread destruction in the area and caused 511 fatalities,
*11 March - A U.S. Navy Martin PBM Mariner, PBM Mariner flying boat attacked the U.S. Navy submarine in the South China Sea, dropping four bombs. ''Piranha'' took evasive action and avoided damage.
*20 March - An Allied aircraft which the crew of the U.S. Navy submarine though was most likely a U.S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber, bombed ''Piranha'' as she maneuvered evasively and submerged in the South China Sea. ''Piranha'' sustained no damage.
*8 April – A U.S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber dropped three or four bombs on the U.S. Navy submarine as she submerged in the South China Sea southwest of Macao, China.''Bullhead'' suffered no damage.
*14 April – The German submarine , en route to Norway, was sunk by a German torpedo boat with no survivors.
*19 April
**An Allied aircraft — probably a U.S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber — dropped two depth charges on the U.S. Navy submarine as she submerged in the South China Sea. The depth charges detonated as ''Bullhead'' reached . She suffered no damage.
** A U.S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber strafed the U.S. Navy submarine while ''Pogy'' was on lifeguard duty in the Pacific Ocean southeast of Honshu, Japan, at . As ''Pogy'' submerged, the B-24 dropped a Aerial bomb, bomb which detonated as she passed through a depth of . The strafing inflicted minor but extensive damage on ''Pogy'', but she suffered no casualties and was able to remain on patrol.
*24 April – The Royal Air Force, carrying out an air raid on Rangoon, Burma, bombed a jail in the belief that it was a command center for the Imperial Japanese Army. The jail actually was the incarceration site of Allied prisoners-of-war. Over 30 Allied POWs were killed.
*29 April – A U.S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator dropped a bomb on the U.S. Navy submarine in the South China Sea approximately east-northeast of Long Hải (township), Pulo Cecil de Mer, French Indochina, at . The bomb exploded about ahead of ''Baya'', which suffered no damage.
*3 May – ''Cap Arcona'' incident: Although it did not involve troops in combat, this incident has been referred to as "the worst friendly-fire incident in history".White-Harvey, Robert (18 April 2007)
"The Friendly Fires of Hell"
Jerusalem Post. On 3 May, the three ships SS Cap Arcona (1927), ''Cap Arcona'', SS Thielbek (1940), ''Thielbek'', and the in Lübeck, Lübeck Harbour were sunk in Cap Arcona#Sinking, four separate, but synchronized attacks with bombs, rockets, and cannons by the Royal Air Force, resulting in the death of over 7,000 Jewish concentration camp survivors and Russians, Russian prisoners of war, along with POWs from several other allied nations. The British pilots were unaware that these ships carried POWs and concentration camp survivors, although British documents were released in the 1970s that state the Swedish government had informed the RAF command of the risk prior to the attack.
*14 May – Several days after the German surrender, U-boat ace Wolfgang Luth was shot and killed by a sentry while walking after dark at the German naval base at Flensburg-Marwik.
*3 July 1945 – While covering the Battle of Balikpapan (1945), invasion of Balikpapan in Borneo, Australian war correspondents John Elliott (British boxer), John Elliot and William Smith went ahead of the advancing Australian troops; an Australian Bren light machine gun, Bren gunner, believing them to be Japanese troops, shot and killed them.
*14 July – In the East China Sea, a U.S. aircraft dropped two torpedoes targeting the U.S. Navy submarine . The torpedoes passed ahead of ''Batfish''.Hinsman & Campbell, p. 15.
*1 August – An Okinawa-based U.S, Army Air Forces B-25 Mitchell bomber aircraft dropped five bombs on the U.S. Navy submarine in the East China Sea off the southwest coast of Kyushu, Japan, in the vicinity of . The bombs missed, and ''Batfish'' submerged and avoided damage.
*6 and 9 August – 20 Allied POWs died in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Afghan tribal revolts of 1944–1947

* It was rumoured that on one occasion during the revolts, Afghan aircraft accidentally bombed and machine gunned government troops or allied tribal levies, causing 40 casualties.

Palestine Emergency (1945–48)

*In 1946, Lieutenant (later Lieutenant-Colonel) Colin Campbell Mitchell of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders was deployed with his battalion in a crackdown on Jewish militants. On one personal reconnaissance mission he was shot and wounded by one of his own Bren gunners when he was mistaken for a guerilla, but subsequently recovered.
*During the Acre Prison break, a 1947 raid on Acre Prison by the Irgun to free imprisoned Irgun and Lehi (group), Lehi members, Lehi fighter and escaped prisoner Shimshon Vilner was accidentally killed by Bren gun fire from the Irgun commander of the operation, Dov Cohen, during a firefight with British troops.

1948 Arab–Israeli War

* 10 June 1948: Mickey Marcus, the Israel Defense Forces' first general, was shot and killed by a sentry while returning at night to his headquarters.

Korean War

*3 July 1950 – Eight North American P-51 Mustang, F-51 Mustangs of No. 77 Squadron RAAF strafed and destroyed a train carrying thousands of American and Republic of Korea Army, South Korean soldiers who were mistaken for a North Korean convoy in the main highway between Suwon and Pyongtaek, P'yongtaek, resulting more than 700 casualties. Before the attack, the Australian pilots had been assured by the United States 5th Air Force Tactical Control Centre that the area under attack was in North Korean hands. However, 20 minutes prior to an attack, the 5th Air Force Tactical Control Centre received intelligence that the area might be under American hands and told the Australian pilots to hold their fire. One Australian pilot ignored the order, believing the train was indeed carrying North Korean forces. The pilot then strafed the train and his squadron followed the lead as well.
*23 September 1950 – Battle of Hill 282, Hill 282 was attacked by 1st Battalion, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, part of the 27th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom), British 27th Infantry Brigade in the United Nations Command. Having captured it and facing strong Korean People's Army counter-attacks, the Argylls, devoid of artillery support, called in a UN air-strike. A group of United States Air Force North American P-51 Mustang, F-51 Mustangs of the 18th Fighter Bomber Wing circled the hill. The Argylls had laid down white air-recognition panels, but the North Koreans imitated similar panels on their own positions in white as well. It was later found out that several British air controllers mistakenly did not inform the pilots of proper air-recognition panels and the Argylls Captain was unable to contact the F-51s due to his defective radio. As a result, the planes mistakenly napalm-bombed and strafed the Argylls' hill-top positions. Despite a desperate counter-attack by the Argylls to regain the hill, for which Major Kenneth Muir (VC), Kenneth Muir was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross, the Argylls, much reduced in numbers, were forced to relinquish the position. Over 60 of the Argylls' casualties were caused by friendly air-strike.
*During the Battle of Wawon, fleeing soldiers of the Republic of Korea Army II Corps (South Korea), II Corps were mistaken by the Turkish Brigade as Chinese which led to an exchange of fire. As a result, 20 South Korean soldiers were killed and four others wounded with 14 Turkish deaths and six wounded.
*5 December 1952 – RCAF Squadron Leader Andy MacKenzie (a World War II ace) was shot down by his own squadron mate during a dogfight. Captured by Chinese forces, he was kept prisoner for two years, being released in December 1954.

Cyprus Emergency

1956 Suez Crisis

*3 November 1956 – During first phase of air operations in Israel's Operation Kadesh against Egypt in Sinai, Israeli Air Force Dassault Mystere IV, Mystere fighter jets attacked a British warship, the Black Swan class sloop HMS ''Crane'' as it was patrolling the approaches to the Gulf of Aqaba. According to the Israeli Defence Force, IDF, ''Crane'' had been identified as an Egyptian Navy, Egyptian warship. The ship was attacked with rockets, cannon fire, and napalm bombs. Its captain reported light damage, and three crewmen were lightly injured in the attack. The ship put up heavy anti-aircraft fire, and there are conflicting accounts as to whether it shot down an Israeli aircraft or not.
*6 November 1956 - British commandos of No. 45 Commando Royal Marines, assaulting Port Said by helicopter, suffered friendly fire from British carrier-borne aircraft which mistakenly hit 45 Commando and HQ. One Marine was killed and 15 wounded when a carrier-based Wyvern mistakenly fired into a concentration of Marines.

Vietnam War

It has been estimated that there may have been as many as 8,000 friendly fire incidents in the Vietnam War; one was the inspiration for the book and film ''Friendly Fire (1979 film), Friendly Fire''.

*2 January 1966, in Bao Trai in the Mekong Delta during joint Australian/American forces fighting the Viet Cong, a USAF Cessna O-1 Bird Dog flying at low level accidentally flew through Australian and New Zealand artillery fire. The aircraft tail was blown off and the aircraft dived into the ground, killing the pilot instantly.Bob Breen, Bob (1988) ''First to Fight: Australian Diggers, NZ Kiwis and US Paratroopers in Vietnam, 1965–66'', Allen and Unwin, Sydney;
*3 January 1966, near Bao Trai, at midnight, Sergeant Jerry Morton from 'C' Company, the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment had called in marker white phosphorus rounds ahead of the company from the supporting New Zealand gun battery on a suspected enemy position. However, due to the bad coordinates given by Morton, the rounds instead landed on the Australian forces. Morton along with another Australian soldier were killed and several others wounded.
*3 January 1966, two rounds fired by Royal Regiment of New Zealand Artillery, 161 Battery, Royal New Zealand Artillery accidentally landed on C Company, 2/503rd Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, US 173rd Airborne Brigade, killing three paratroopers and wounding seven during Operation Marauder. The short rounds were found to have happened due to damp powder.
*11 August 1966, while supporting Operation Market Time, was attacked by USAF aircraft, resulting in the deaths of two Coast Guardsmen.
*29 December 1966, a premature burst of a 105mm round from an LVTH-6 killed five Marines and wounded two more east of Dong Ha in Quang Tri.
*6 February 1967, twelve rounds from New Zealand artillery accidentally landed on the Australian 'D' Company 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, killing four and thirteen injured in west of Song Rai river between Nui Dat and Xuyên Mộc District.
*3 August 1967, a C-7 Caribou transport plane was approaching the special forces camp at Đức Phổ District, Đức Phổ when it flew into line of fire from a U.S. Army 155 mm howitzer. The tail section separated and the airplane fell down, killing the crew. A cease fire had been issued but failed to reach the gun crew in time. The Caribou was photographed just before it hit the ground.
*19 November 1967, during the Battle of Dak To a United States Marine Corps, U.S. Marine Corps Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, A-4 Skyhawk aircraft flown by Lieutenant Colonel Richard Taber dropped two bombs on the command post of the 2nd Battalion (Airborne) 503d Infantry, 173d Airborne Brigade while they were in heavy contact with a numerically superior People's Army of Vietnam force. At least 45 paratroopers were killed and another 45 wounded. Also killed was the Battalion Chaplain Major Charles J. Watters, who was subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor.
*16–17 June 1968, , and were attacked by US aircraft. At 03:09, ''Hobart''s radar picked up an aircraft approaching with no IFF transponder active. At 03:14, the aircraft fired a single missile at the ship which killed one sailor, wounded two others and damaged the ship. Two minutes later, the aircraft made a second pass and fired two missiles which caused further damage, killed another sailor and wounded six others. The aircraft came around for a third attack run, but was scared off when ''Hobart''s forward gun turret, under independent control, fired five rounds at it. At 03:30, USS ''Edson'', in company with Hobart, reported coming under fire, and Hobart's captain ordered both destroyers and to take up anti-aircraft formation. At 05:15, the three destroyers linked up with the cruiser USS ''Boston'' (which had been hit by a missile from another aircraft) and the escorting destroyer , and continued anti-aircraft manoeuvring. Debris collected from ''Hobart'' and the other ships indicated that the missiles were of United States Air Force (USAF) origin. The attacks on ''Hobart'' and the other ships were the capstone of a series of firing incidents between 15 and 17 June, and an inquiry was held by the USN into the incidents, with three RAN personnel attending as technical advisors. The inquiry found that a few hours before the attack on ''Hobart'', Swift boats ''PCF-12'' and ''PCF-19'', along with , were attacked by what they identified at the time as hovering enemy aircraft, but were believed to be friendly planes; ''PCF-19'' was sunk in the attack. F-4 Phantoms of the USAF Seventh Air Force, responding several hours after the attack on the Swift boats, were unable to distinguish between the radar signature of surface ships and airborne helicopters, and instead opened fire on ''Hobart'', ''Boston'', and ''Edson''.
*11 May 1969, during the Battle of Hamburger Hill, Lieutenant Colonel Weldon Honeycutt directed helicopter gunships, from an Aerial Rocket Artillery (ARA) battery, to support an infantry assault. In the heavy jungle, the helicopters mistook the command post of the 3/187th battalion for a Vietnamese unit and attacked, killing two and wounding thirty-five, including Honeycutt. This incident disrupted battalion command and control and forced 3/187th to withdraw into night defensive positions.
*1 May 1970, during military operations in Phước Tuy Province, an Australian machine gunner opened fire on soldiers of the 8th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment without warning, killing two and wounding two other soldiers.
*20 July 1970, patrol units of 'D' Company 8th Battalion, 1st Australian Task Force outside the wire at Nui Dat called in a New Zealand battery fire mission as part of a training exercise. However, there was confusion at the gun position about the fire corrections issued by the inexperienced Australian officer with the patrol. The result was two rounds fell upon the patrol, killing two and wounding several others.
*24 July 1970, New Zealand artillery guns accidentally shelled an Australian platoon, 1 Australian Reinforcement Unit, (1 ARU), killing two and wounding another four soldiers.
*10 May 1972, a Vietnam People's Air Force, VPAF Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, MiG-21 was shot down in error by a North Vietnamese surface-to-air missile near Tuyen Quang, killing a pilot.
*2 June 1972, a VPAF Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19, MiG-19 was shot down in error by a North Vietnamese surface-to-air missile near Kep Province, killing a pilot.

1967 Six-Day War

*On the fourth day of the Six-Day War (8 Jun 1967), at about 2 PM Sinai time (then, GMT+2), Israeli defense forces USS Liberty incident, attacked USS ''Liberty'' in International waters about 14 miles off the coast of the Sinai Peninsula, near Arish, El Arish, killing 34 (naval officers, seamen, two marines, and one civilian), and wounding 171 crew members; the ship was severely damaged. At the time, the ship was in international waters. Though controversially disputed by the survivors of the attack, both countries officially consider it to be a case of mistaken identity.

The Troubles

*On 13 September 1969, British Lance Corporal Michael Spurway, of 24 Airportable HQ and Signal Squadron, was accidentally shot dead by a fellow British soldier while he was on the telephone to his wife, shortly after returning to his base at Gosford Castle after manning a rebroadcast station supporting 3 LI rear link communications.
*On 3 September 1972, two Royal Marines on patrol in Stratheden Street in New Lodge, Belfast, came into contact from separate directions and in the confusion, shot and killed a fellow Royal Marine, 18 year old Gunner Robert S. Cutting. At the time of Cutting's death, he had been on foot patrol in the New Lodge Road approaching Stratheden Street. A Royal Marine saw whom he thought was an enemy sniper and fired at him, injuring him. However, the Royal Marine shot him a second time as he attempted to crawl away, killing him instantly. There was no investigation into his death until 40 years later, when the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), MoD found out that the soldier who shot him did not observe the correct procedure for engagement. No charges were filed against the soldier who shot him.

*On 27 August 1979, in the aftermath of the Warrenpoint ambush, British soldiers fired across the Newry River into the Republic of Ireland about 3 km from the village of Omeath, County Louth, killing 29-year-old Londoner William Hudson and wounding his cousin Barry Hudson, a 25-year-old Irish native from Dingle. The two men were fishing in the area when they were fired upon.

*On 1 January 1980, Lieutenant Simon Bates, of 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, 2 PARA, was commanding an ambush at Tullydonnell, near Forkhill. A cardinal principle of ambush orders was to never leave the position. However, for some reason, Bates and his radio operator, Private Gerald Hardy, left the ambush and were mistakenly killed by fellow British paratroopers while returning to their positions.
*On 15 June 1989, Royal Marine Adam Gilbert was shot and killed by a fellow marine when his platoon tried to stop a stolen car at a checkpoint on the junction of New Lodge road and Antrim road, Belfast.

1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus

*The Turkish Naval Forces destroyer USS Harwood (DD-861), ''Kocatepe'' was sunk by Turkish Air Force warplanes after being mistaken for a Greek ship.
*A fleet of Hellenic Air Force Nord Noratlas transport aircraft carrying reinforcements from Greece (Operation Niki) was mistaken for a flight of Turkish aircraft by Cypriot National Guard anti-aircraft gunners defending Nicosia International Airport, who opened fire. Of the 13 planes that came flew in, 1 was shot down and 3 more written off and later destroyed. Greek casualties were at least 33 dead including both commandos and aircrew and another 10 wounded.
*During the Battle of Pentemili beachhead, Colonel Karaoglanoglu, the commander of the Turkish Army's 50th Infantry Regiment, was killed in a villa near the beachhead. Although the official cause of his death was enemy mortar or artillery fire, another Turkish General claimed that he was actually killed by friendly M20 Super Bazooka fire.

Rhodesian Bush War

*On November 7, 1976, Canadian spree killer Mathew Charles Lamb was fatally shot by one of his own men in the Rhodesian Special Air Service while carrying out Fireforce, an operation to destroy militants in the Mutema Tribal Trade Lands, Manicaland province, Rhodesia.

First Lebanon War

During the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the worst friendly fire incident in the history of the IDF took place.
On 10 June 1982, the Israeli air force mistook a column of Israel Defense Forces, IDF Nahal Brigade forces for a Syrian commando unit. An IAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, F-4 Phantom attacked the Battalion 931, advancing in open Armoured personnel carrier, APCs in south-eastern Lebanon with cluster munitions. The unit suffered 24 soldiers killed and 108 wounded, with a further 30 soldiers shell shocked.

1982 Falklands War

*A Dassault Mirage III was shot down by Argentine Anti-Aircraft and small arms fire at Port Stanley on 1 May while an A-4 Skyhawk was downed by a 35 mm antiaircraft battery near Goose Green on 12 May. Both aircraft belonged to the Argentine Air Force.
*Companies A and C of the 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom), Parachute Regiment, British Army engaged each other in an hour-long firefight in the Falkland Islands involving heavy weapons and artillery strikes, resulting in five deaths and three injuries.
*2 June – A friendly fire incident took place between the Special Air Service, SAS and the Special Boat Squadron (SBS). An SBS patrol had apparently strayed into the SAS patrol's designated area and were mistaken for Argentine forces. A brief firefight was initiated during which one of the SBS patrol, Sergeant Ian Hunt, was killed.
*1982 British Army Gazelle friendly fire incident – Due to a lack of communication between the Army and the Navy, the destroyer shot down a British Aérospatiale Gazelle, Gazelle helicopter over the Falkland Islands, killing four British soldiers. The Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), MoD immediately covered up the incident, saying that the soldiers were killed by enemy fire. However, four years later, under intense pressure and scrutiny, the MoD finally admitted that they were killed by friendly fire.
*11 June – Just before the Battle of Two Sisters, British units of 45 Commando Royal Marines on reconnaissance Patrolling, patrol were mistaken for Argentine units in the dark and the British mortar (weapon), mortar group opened up on them, only to be met with a withering hail of fire from the 45 Commando in return. In the confusion, five British troops died, including the mortar troop sergeant, and two were wounded. Among the dead from 45 Commando were Sergeant Robert Leeming, Corporal Peter Fitton, Corporal Andy Uren, and Royal Marine Keith Phillips.
*11 June – A British Royal Navy frigate, HMS Avenger (F185), HMS ''Avenger'' (F185), fired a 4.5 inch explosive shell into a house while shelling Stanley, Falkland Islands, Port Stanley, killing three British women and wounding several others. They remained the only British civilian casualties of the war.

1991 Persian Gulf War

*During the Battle of Khafji, 11 American Marines were killed in two major incidents when their LAV-25, light armored vehicles (LAV's) were hit by missiles fired by a USAF A-10.
*Two soldiers of the U.S. Army were killed and a further six wounded when an American Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter fired upon and destroyed a U.S. Army Bradley Fighting Vehicle and an M113 Armoured Personnel Carrier (in the same incident) during night operations.
*A British officer was severely injured when his Warrior tracked armoured vehicle, FV510 Warrior vehicle was attacked by a Challenger 1 tank of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.
*A United States Air Force, U.S. Air Force Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, A-10 during Operation Desert Storm attacked British Warrior MICVs, resulting in nine British dead and numerous casualties.
*During the Battle of Phase Line Bullet, American M1 Abrams tanks in the rear fired in support of American troops facing dug-in Iraqi Army troops. American Infantry Fighting Vehicles were hit by fire from the tanks, resulting in two fatalities.
*Several friendly fire incidents took place during the Battle of 73 Easting, wounding 57 American soldiers, but causing no fatalities.
*One American soldier was killed by friendly fire during the Battle of Medina Ridge.
*Two soldiers from 10 Air Defence Battery, Royal Artillery, were badly injured when two FV103 Spartan from which they had dismounted were fired upon by Challenger 1 tanks from 14th/20th King's Hussars with thermal sights beyond the range of unaided visibility (about 1500 m). The rearmost vehicle was hit and burst into flames. The other vehicle was also damaged in the ensuing fire.
*A large number of friendly fire incidents took place during the Battle of Norfolk, resulting in 5 American casualties.

War in Afghanistan (2001–2016)

*On December 5, 2001, an Air Force Boeing B-52 Stratofortress dropped a 2,000 pound bomb on a group of American soldiers, killing three members of the 5th Special Forces Group (United States), 5th Special Forces Group.
*In the Tarnak Farm incident of 18 April 2002, four Canadian soldiers were killed and eight others injured when U.S. Air National Guard Major Harry Schmidt dropped a laser-guided bomb from his General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-16 jet fighter on the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry regiment which was conducting a night firing exercise near Kandahar. Schmidt was charged with negligent manslaughter, aggravated assault, and dereliction of duty. He was found guilty of the latter charge. During testimony Schmidt blamed the incident on his use of "Amphetamine, go pills" (authorized mild stimulants), combined with the 'fog of war'. The Canadian dead received US medals for bravery, along with an apology.
*75th Ranger Regiment, Army Ranger Specialist (rank), Specialist Pat Tillman, a former professional American football player, was shot and killed by American fire on 22 April 2004. An Army Special Operations Command investigation was conducted by Brigadier General Jones and the U.S. Department of Defense concluded that Tillman's death was due to friendly fire aggravated by the intensity of the firefight. A more thorough investigation concluded that no hostile forces were involved in the firefight and that two allied groups fired on each other in confusion after a nearby improvised explosive device was detonated.
*On 6 April 2006, a British convoy in Afghanistan wounded 13 Afghan police officers and killed seven, after calling in a US airstrike on what they thought was a Taliban attack.
*In Sangin Province, a RAF British Aerospace Harrier II, Harrier pilot allegedly mistakenly strafed British troops missing the enemy by 200 metres during a firefight with the Taliban on 20 August 2006. This angered British Major James Loden of 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, 3 PARA, who in a leaked email called the RAF, "Completely incompetent and utterly, utterly useless in protecting ground troops in Afghanistan".
*Canadian soldiers opened fire on a white pickup truck, about 25 kilometres west of Kandahar, killing an Afghan officer with 6 others injured on 26 August 2006.
*Operation Medusa (2006): Onetwo U.S. Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, A-10 Thunderbolts mistakenly strafed NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, killing one Canadian, Private Mark Anthony Graham, and wounding 30 other Canadian soldiers, 5 seriously.
*On 5 December 2006, an McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet, F/A-18C on a Close Air Support mission in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, mistakenly attacked a trench where British Royal Marines were dug-in during a 10-hour battle with Taliban fighters, killing one Royal Marine.
*Lance Corporal#United Kingdom, Lance Corporal Matthew Ford, from Zulu Company of 45 Commando Royal Marines, died after receiving a gunshot wound in Afghanistan on 15 January 2007, which was later found to be due to friendly fire. The final inquest ruled he died from NATO rounds from a fellow Royal Marine's machine gun. The report added there was no "negligence" by the other Marine, who had made a "momentary error of judgment".
*Canadian troops mistakenly killed an Afghan National Police officer and a homeless beggar after their convoy was ambushed in Kandahar City.
*Of two helicopters called in to support operations by the British Grenadier Guards and Afghan National Army forces in Helmand, the British Westland WAH-64 Apache engaged enemy forces, while the accompanying American AH-64D Apache opened fire on the Grenadiers and Afghan troops.
*23 August 2007: A USAF F-15 called in to support British ground forces in Afghanistan dropped a bomb on those forces. Three privates of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Anglian Regiment, were killed and two others were severely injured. The coroner at the soldiers' inquest stated that the incident was due to "flawed application of procedures" rather than individual errors or "recklessness".
*On 26 September 2007, British soldiers in operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, fired FGM-148 Javelin, Javelin anti-tank missiles at Denmark, Danish soldiers from the Royal Life Guards (Denmark), Royal Life Guards, killing two. It is also confirmed from Danish forces that the British fired a total of 6–8 Javelin missiles, over a hour period and only after the attack was completed did they realize that the missiles were British, based upon the fragments found after the incident.
*On 12 January 2008, two Dutch soldiers and two allied Afghan soldiers were shot dead by fellow Dutch soldiers in Uruzgan, Afghanistan.
*In the night on 14 January 2008 in Helmand Province, British troops saw a group of Afghans "conducting suspicious activities". Visibility was too bad for rifle-fire and they were too far away to call in mortar strikes. The squad decided to use a FGM-148 Javelin, Javelin anti-tank missile they were carrying. British soldiers fired their missile on the nearby roof but the victims were their own Afghan army sentries. 15 Afghan soldiers were killed.
*Between January 2008 and June 2009, Afghan military, police, and security personnel came under fire by British troops at least 10 times, resulting in seven deaths. The most serious incident occurred in the Lashkargah District of Helmand Province in October 2008, in which British troops opened fire on Afghan National Police officers that killed three and injured another.
*On 9 July 2008, nine British soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment were injured after being fired upon by a British Army Apache helicopter while on patrol in Afghanistan.
*A statement issued jointly by the American and the Afghan military commands said a contingent of Afghan police officers fired on United States forces on 10 December 2008 after the Americans had successfully overrun the hide-out, killing the suspected Taliban commander and detaining another man. The US forces after securing the hideout came under heavy small arms fire and explosive grenades from the Afghan Police forces. "Multiple attempts to deter the engagement were unsuccessful," and the US forces returned fire. Afghan police have stated that they came under fire first and that the initial firing on the US forces came from the building next to the police station. This has led the US forces to conclude that the Afghan police forces might have been compromised. Initial reports indicate that this was a tragic case of mistaken identity on both parts.
*Captain Tom Sawyer, aged 26, 29th Commando Regiment Royal Artillery, 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery, and Corporal Danny Winter, aged 28, Zulu Company 45 Commando, 45 Commando Royal Marines, were killed by an explosion on 14 January 2009 from a Javelin missile fired by British troops acting on the orders of a Danish officer. Both men were taking part in a joint operation with a Danish Battle Group and the Afghan National Army in a location north east of Girishk, Gereshk in central Helmand Province.
*On 9 September 2009, British Special Boat Service forces were sent to rescue ''New York Times'' journalist Stephen Farrell (journalist), Stephen Farrell and his Afghan translator Sultan Munadi who were kidnapped by Taliban forces in northern Afghanistan near Kunduz four days earlier. During the raid, Farrell was rescued, but Munadi was shot and killed in the firefight between the Taliban and British forces. It was later found out that Munadi was running towards the helicopter when he was shot in the front by a British soldier, in addition to being shot in the back by the Taliban, after the British mistook him for the Taliban. Two Afghan civilians also died from the hail of bullets by British and Taliban forces.
*A Royal Military Police, British Military Police officer was shot dead by a fellow British soldier while on patrol. It was reported that no charges were to be brought against a British army sniper who killed a British Military Policeman because he was allowed to open fire if he believed that his life was in danger.
*In December 2009, British commanders called upon a U.S. airstrike which killed Lance Corporal Christopher Roney from The Rifles, 3rd Battalion The Rifles who was engaging along with his comrades with the Taliban. The incident happened when a firefight was going on between British soldiers of 3rd Battalion The Rifles and the insurgents in Sangin, Sangin Province. Senior British officers were watching a Unmanned aerial vehicle, drone's grainy images of the fight from Camp Bastion, about 30 miles from the battle at Patrol Base Almas. The officers mistook the soldiers' mud-walled compound for an enemy position and called down a U.S. Apache airstrike on the base. Roney was fatally shot in the head after a helicopter gunship opened fire on the base. He died later the next day after being taken to Camp Bastion. Eleven other British soldiers were wounded in the attack.
*German soldiers killed six Afghan soldiers in a friendly fire incident on their way to attack a group of Taliban. Afghan soldiers were traveling in support of other Afghan troops in the area.
*Sapper#Commonwealth of Nations, Sapper Mark Antony Smith, age 26, of the 36 Engineer Regiment, Royal Engineers, was killed by a smoke shell fired upon by British troops in Sangin Province, Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), MoD were investigation his death and said a smoke shell, designed to provide cover for soldiers working on the ground, may have fallen short of its intended target.
*2011 NATO attack in Pakistan, Friendly fire between ISAF and Pakistan on 26 November 2011. International Security Assistance Force, ISAF forces opened fire on Pakistan Army forces killing 24 Pakistani soldiers and causing a great diplomatic standoff between U.S. and Pakistan. ISAF forces argue they were there to hunt down militants at the AF-PAK border. Pakistan had stopped transit of goods through its territory to ISAF in Afghanistan because of the incident. After an official apology by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on 3 July 2012 the NATO supply routes were restored.
*Two New Zealand soldiers were wounded by friendly fire from a 25mm gun mounted on an armored New Zealand LAV during a 12-minute firefight with insurgents in Bamyan Province on 4 August 2012.
*A British female soldier and a Royal Marine man were mistakenly killed by another British unit on patrol after her unit opened fire on an Afghan policeman assuming he was a Taliban insurgent. The British unit who killed the female soldier and the Royal Marine assumed they were under attack after the firing happened.
* Five United States Special forces operatives, and an Afghan Army counterpart were 2014 Gaza Valley airstrike, killed by friendly fire in Southern Zabul Province on June 9, 2014. Whilst on patrol, and coming under heavy Taliban fire, an air-strike was called in and a Rockwell B-1 Lancer, B-1 Lancer bomber misdirected its payload killing the six military personnel amongst others.

Iraq War (2003–2011)

*In the Battle of Nasiriyah, an American force of Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAVs) and infantry under intense enemy fire were misidentified as an Iraqi armored column by two U.S. Air Force Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, A-10s who carried out strafing runs on them. One Marine died as a result.
*A MIM-104 Patriot, U.S. Patriot missile shot down a British Panavia Tornado GR.4A of No. 13 Squadron RAF, killing the pilot and navigator. Investigations showed that the Tornado's identification friend or foe indicator had malfunctioned and hence it was not identified as a friendly aircraft.
*An F-14 Tomcat aircrew from VF-32 was involved in the worst friendly fire incident of the war when on 6 April 2003 an F-14 crew was cleared to attack an Iraqi tank near Dibakan, 30 miles (48 km) south east of Mosul. Instead, they mistakenly dropped a single laser-guided bomb on a vehicle convoy consisting of US Special Forces and Kurdish people, Kurdish resistance fighters, killing 18 Kurdish fighters, 4 US soldiers and a BBC translator; Kamaran Abdurazaq Muhamed. An additional 80 people were wounded including BBC reporter Tom Giles and World Affairs Editor John Simpson (journalist), John Simpson were injured.. An investigation following the war found that the pilot had been cleared to drop without the benefit of target coordinates provided by the Forward Air Controller, who was “operating under great stress” at the time. The incident was filmed.
*Sgt Steven Roberts (British Army soldier), Steven Roberts, a tank commander of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, was killed when a fellow British soldier manning a tank-mounted machine gun mistakenly hit him while firing at a stone wielding Iraqi protester at a roadblock in Az Zubayr near Basra on 24 March 2003. It was reported that no British soldiers were to be charged for his death.
*A British Challenger 2 tank came under fire from another British tank in a nighttime firefight. The turret was blown off and two of the crewmembers were killed.
*190th Fighter Squadron, Blues and Royals friendly fire incident, 190th Fighter Squadron/Blues and Royals friendly fire incident – 28 March 2003. A pair of American Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, A-10s from the 190th attacked four British armoured reconnaissance vehicles of the Blues and Royals, killing Lance-Corporal of Horse, L/CoH. Matty Hull and injuring five others.
*British Royal Marines, Royal Marine Christopher Maddison was killed when his river patrol boat was hit by missiles after being wrongly identified as an enemy vessel approaching a Royal Engineers checkpoint on the Al-Faw Peninsula, Iraq, on 30 March 2003.
*MIM-104 Patriot, U.S. Patriot missile batteries fired two missiles on a U.S. Navy McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet, F/A-18C Hornet from Karbala, Iraq. One missile hit the aircraft of pilot Lieutenant Nathan Dennis White of VFA-195, Carrier Air Wing Five, killing him. This was the result of the missile design flaw in identifying hostile aircraft.
*Fusilier#United Kingdom, Fusilier Kelan Turrington, of the 1st Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was killed by machine-gun fire from a British tank.
*American soldier Mario Lozano killed an Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari and is suspected of wounding Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena in Baghdad. Sgrena was rescued from a Rescue of Giuliana Sgrena, kidnapping by Calipari, and it was claimed that the car they were escaping in failed to stop at an American checkpoint, whereupon U.S. soldiers opened fire. Video evidence shows the car was respecting speed limits and proceeding with its headlights on. The shooting commenced well before 50 meters, in contrast with what Lozano and other soldiers testified.
*During a raid on 16 July 2006 to apprehend a key terrorist leader and accomplice in a suburb of North Basra, Cpl John Cosby, of the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, was killed by a 5.56 mm round from a British-issued SA80. It was ruled to be a case of friendly fire by the coroner. It was reported that the British forces who shot him were unclear about the rules of engagement.
*An American airstrike killed eight Kurds, Kurdish Iraqi soldiers. Kurdish officials advised U.S. helicopters hit the men who were guarding a branch of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Mosul. The U.S. military said the attack was launched after soldiers identified armed men in a bunker near a building reportedly used for bomb-making, and that American troops called for the men to put down their weapons in Arabic and Kurdish language, Kurdish before launching the strike.
*An Apache AH-64 identifies two journalists as Iraqi insurgents, and shoots at a van which had children in it, on July 12, 2007.
*Dave Sharrett, II was shot and killed in a firefight with insurgents near the village of Bichigan, north of Baghdad in January 2008, during Operation Hood Harvest. The incident has since been described as friendly fire.
SPC Donald OaksSGT Todd Robbins
an
SFC Randall Rehn
of D Battery, 1st Battalion, 39th Field Artillery Regiment (M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System, MLRS, M270 A1), 3rd Infantry Division Artillery (United States), 3rd Infantry Division Artillery(Previously C Battery 3–13 FAhttps://sill-www.army.mil/firesbulletin/archives/2003/SEP_OCT_2003/SEP_OCT_2003_FULL_EDITION.pdf ), were killed when a US fighter jet mistook the rocket artillery from US MLRS as enemy targets on 3 April 2003 while 3rd ID DIVARTY conducted a counter fire battle with Iraqi positions along the Euphrates, Euphrates River. The ordnance struck the vehicles of the soldiers killing SFC Rehn instantly, while SGT Robbins and SPC Oaks died shortly after from their wounds. 5 other soldiers were WIA from the event.

Gaza War

*On 1 June 2009 an Israeli tank fired on a building in Jabalia occupied by Golani Brigade troops after mistaking them for Hamas fighters, killing three soldiers and wounding 20.
*On 2 June 2009, an Israeli officer was killed when an Israeli tank fired at a building he was positioned in, causing a wall to collapse on him.

2014 Israel-Gaza conflict

* On 14 July 2014, an Israeli soldier, Staff Sergeant Eitan Barak, was killed during operational activity in the northern Gaza Strip, becoming the first Israeli fatality of the war. The Israeli military announced that he had probably been killed by errant Israeli tank fire.

Syrian Civil War

* 2017 – While fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in northern Syria, a United States Air Force aircraft was provided with incorrect coordinates, leading to an accidental airstrike on Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) troops. 18 SDF soldiers were killed.

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

* 12 April 2022 – A Ukrainian T-64 fires at Ukrainian infantrymen posturing over a captured Russian tank, killing all the infantrymen.
* 8 May 2022 – A Russian flamethrower unit mistook fellow Russian troops for the enemy, attacking them, with unknown casualties.
* 10 May 2022 – During the Battle of Zaporizhzhia, Russian artillery fired on their own troops and destroyed over 20 armored vehicles.
* 20 June 2022 – International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, International Legion units spent two hours in a firefight with Ukrainian special forces.

Other incidents

* 1565 – Great Siege of Malta: According to some sources, Ottoman army in the 15th–19th centuries, Ottoman Army general Turgut Reis was mortally wounded by friendly fire from Turkish cannons.
* 1991 - Gulf War: On 17 February, LTC Ralph Hayles, commanding an AH-64 Apache Helicopter, engaged two friendly vehicles with AGM-114 Hellfire, Hellfire missiles, killing two American soldiers and wounding six more.
* 1994 – 1994 Black Hawk shootdown incident: Two USAF McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, F-15s involved with Operation Provide Comfort shot down two United States Army, U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters over northern Iraq, killing 26 Coalition military and civilian personnel.
* 2000 – Grozny OMON fratricide incident. 20 Russian OMON policemen died.
* 2006 – Ingush–Chechen fratricide incident
* 2011 – 2011 Libyan civil war: A Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23, MiG-23BN flying for the Free Libyan Air Force was shot down over Benghazi when it was mistaken for a Libyan Air Force fighter. The pilot was killed after he ejected too late.
* 2015 – Operation Impact: A Canadian Special Operations Regiment team returning to an Observation post were mistakenly engaged by Iraqi Kurdish forces, killing sergeant Andrew Joseph Doiron and wounding three others.
* 2017 – On 31 May during the Marawi crisis in the Philippines, the military's SIAI-Marchetti S.211 was on a bombing run over Maute group, Maute Group positions when one bomb accidentally hit an army position locked in close-range with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIS-backed militants, killing 11 soldiers and wounding seven others.
* 2019 – On 27 February 2019, an Indian Mil Mi-17 helicopter was shot down by Indian air defense forces after being misidentified as a Pakistani military jet. Five Indian officers were found guilty of various charges relating to the incident, which killed all six Indian Air Force personnel on board the helicopter.
* 2020 – On 11 May, Iranian support vessel ''Iranian support vessel Konarak, Konarak'' was hit reportedly by a missile fired from Iranian frigate Iranian frigate Jamaran, ''Jamaran''. Officials stated that 19 were killed and 15 others injured.

See also

* Fog of war
* Fragging

References

Citations

Sources

* Pertek, Jerzy (1976) ''Wielkie dni małej floty'', Poznań

Hinman, Charles R., and Douglas E. Campbell. ''The Submarine Has No Friends: Friendly Fire Incidents Involving U.S. Submarines During World War II''. Syneca Research Group, Inc., 2019.
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