This is the place where the majority of the warbird (aircraft that have survived military service) discussions will take place. Specialized forums may be added in the new future
Sun Dec 04, 2011 3:26 pm
Found this info while playing around on the internet, not sure how reliable, most seems about right AFAIK but interesting to read anyway.
TRAGIC ENDINGS
Whatever happened to ...
MAJOR RICHARD BONG (1920-1945)
America's leading air ace with 40 kills in the Pacific theatre. In 1942 he served in New Guinea with the 'Flying Knights' Fighter Squadron. A Congressional Medal of Honor winner, he was killed on August 6, 1945 when his P-80 Shooting Star suffered a flame-out on take off and crashed. Major Richard Ira Bong is buried in the Poplar Cemetery in Wisconsin.
COLONEL DAVID SCHILLING (1918-1956)
American pilot with 25 kills in the European theatre. He survived the war and returned to the USA. In 1948 he returned to England with the 56th Fighter Group. Whilst in England, he was killed on August 14, 1956, near Eriswell in Suffolk, when his sports car hit a concrete bridge-post.
SQUADRON LEADER THOMAS PATTLE (1914-1941)
South African. His score of 41 kills made him the highest scoring RAF pilot. On April 20, 1941, while covering the Allied withdrawal from Greece, he shot down two German fighters before being shot down himself, his Hurricane diving into the waters of Eleusis Bay
HANS-JOACHIM MARSEILLE (Luftwaffe)(1909-1942)
Top scoring pilot against the Allies, with a score of 158. (including Russia) He shot down 101 Tomahawks and Kittyhawks, 30 Hurricans, 16 Spitfires and 4 bombers. Born in Charlottenburg, Berlin, he achieved fame in North Africa when he shot down 17 RAF planes in one day. Returning from a patrol near Cairo on September 30, 1942, his engine caught fire. Baling out, he was hit in the chest by the planes rudder. Unable to deploy his parachute, he fell to his death about three miles south of Sidi Abdul Rahman. (He now lies buried in the Dorf-Kirche Cemetery in Schöneberg, Berlin). Germany's and the world's top scoring fighter pilot was Erich Hartmann with a score of 352 mostly on the Russian front.
FLYING OFFICER COBBER' KAIN (1918-1940)
A New Zealander and the RAF's first 'ace'. By 1940 he had scored 17 kills. Ordered back to England for a rest, he took off in his Hurricane from Bois airfield and as a farewell to his unit, he attempted to 'beat up' the airfield. Misjudging his roll, his plane cart wheeled into the ground and he was killed. (Edgar James Kain is buried in the Choloy War Cemetery at Meurthe-et-Moselle.)
HEINZ BÄR (Luftwaffe) (1913-1957)
German ace with 220 kills including 16 Allied aircraft with his Jet ME 262. On the Western Front he was the highest scorer with 124 kills. Achieving 9th place in the listings of top German aces, Heinz Bar died in a light plane crash in April, 1957.
WING COMMANDER PADDY FINUCANE (1920-1942)
Born in Dublin 1920, at the age of 21 he became the youngest Wing Commander in the RAF. Returning from a sweep across France, his Spitfire was hit by machine-gun fire from the sand dunes near Pointe au Touquet. With the engine overheating, he was forced to ditch in the sea but the plane sank before he could get out and he drowned. His score stood at 32.
HELMUT LENT (Luftwaffe)
Night fighter ace with 94 kills. Co-inventor of the vertically firing cannon. His BF 110 hit a power line when landing at Paderborn killing his crew. Lent survived two more days before dying of his injuries. (Helmut Lent is buried in the Old Garrison Cemetery at Stade, Germany.)
FLIGHT LIEUTENANT GEOFFREY ALLARD
Twenty-five victories to his credit. On March 13, 1941, he and two companions arrived at RAF Debden to collect a new Douglas Havoc night fighter. On take off, a nose panel flew off and jammed the rudder. The Havoc flicked over and ploughed upside down into the ground, killing all occupants.
WING COMMANDER GUY GIBSON (1918-1944)
Hero of the Ruhr Dams raid and VC winner. Taken off operational duties he toured the United States with Winston Churchill on a promotional visit. He finally persuaded his superiors to let him fly just one more mission and on September 19, 1944 he flew Mosquito KB-267 on a raid on the communications centre at Rheydt. Returning home, his plane caught fire and crashed in Holland. The bodies of Gibson and his navigator, Squadron Leader J. B. Warwick, were buried together in the Roman Catholic Cemetery at Steenbergen by the townspeople.
LIEUTENANT AUDIE MURPHY (1924-1971)
American war hero and star of over forty Hollywood Films, he first saw action in Sicily when his Infantry Company landed there. Following the landings in Southern France, his unit finally reached Strasbourg. During a fierce action at Holtzwihr he won the Congressional Medal Of Honor. Returning to the USA he was awarded 23 other decorations, including five from France and Belgium, making him the most decorated soldier in the US Army. Introduced to film acting by James Cagney, he left the film business in in the late 60s to go into business. On May 28, 1971, he and four others were flying from Atlanta to Virginia when the plane, an Aero Commander, crashed near Roanoke. Audie Murphy was buried with full military honours in the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington.
LORD LOUIS MOUNTBATTEN (1900-1979)
Appointed Chief of Operations on March 18, 1942 and on August 25, 1943, appointed Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia. Post war he became Viceroy of India and later Governor General in 1947/48. Admiral of the Fleet, Earl Mountbatten of Burma as he was now known, was assassinated by an IRA bomb placed on board his boat as he prepared to go fishing in Donegal Bay, County Sligo, in Ireland. (His grave can be seen in the Abbey Church, Romsey, Hampshire).
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS, THE DUKE OF KENT (1903-1942)
Gave up his rank of honorary Air Vice Marshal to accept a post as Group Captain in the RAF Welfare Branch. His last assignment was a tour of RAF bases in Iceland. On August 24, 1942, the Duke and his party took off from Alness near Invergordon in Scotland for the 900 mile flight to Iceland. AS the plane flew up the east coast of northern Scotland it flew into a heavy mist and crashed into a hillside near Berriedale. Of the fifteen passengers and crew, only one survived, the tail gunner. (The Duke of Kent is buried in the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore in Berkshire. He was 39 years old)
AIR MARSHALL SIR ARTHUR CONINGHAM (1895-1948)
Former Commander-in-Chief of the RAFs 2nd Tactical Air Force in Europe, previously commander of the Western Desert Air Force and later C-in-C Flying Training Command. His plane, a Tudor IV named 'Star Tiger' flying from the Azores to Bermuda, disappeared completely in the so-called Bermuda Triangle on January 29, 1948. No trace of the plane has ever been found.
MAJOR-GENERAL ORDE WINGATE (1903-1944)
Commander of the guerrilla forces known as the 'Chindits', a unit comprising the 77th Indian Brigade and trained to operate behind enemy lines in the Burmese jungles. After a conference in Imphal with Air Marshal Sir John Baldwin, commander of the 3rd Tactical Air Force, he was returning to his H/Q when his plane, an American Mitchell B-25H bomber, with an American crew of five, crashed into the slopes of the Silchar Plain in Assam, north-east India, (now Bangladesh) on March 24, 1944, killing Wingate and all eight others on board. When found, the nine bodies were unidentifiable and were buried in Burma. After the war the remains were disinterred and reburied in a common grave in the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, USA, on November 10, 1950. (In April, 1996, the ten war medals of General Wingate was sold at Sotheby's for £56,500)
GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON (1885-1945)
Commander of the US 3rd Army and later the US 7th Army in the invasion of Sicily. On Sunday, December 9, 1945, he was being driven by twenty-three old Private Horace Woodring in a 1939 Cadillac for an afternoon of pheasant shooting on the estate of a German friend. At 11.45am they were passing through the outskirts of Mannheim when a US Army truck turned left in front of the Cadillac to enter the Quartermaster Corps camp. It appeared to be a minor accident but the collision broke the neck of the flamboyant General who died a few days later at the US Military Hospital in Heidelberg from a pulmonary embolism in the left lung. (Patton's grave can be seen in the American War Cemetery at Hamm, outside Luxembourg)
FIELD MARSHAL ERWIN ROMMEL (1891-1944)
German commander of Army Group B. The famous 'Desert Fox' was recuperating at his home in Herrlingen, from wounds received when his car was strafed on a road in France, when he was visited by three high ranking officers from Berlin. Accusing him of complicity in the July 20 plot against Hitler he was given a choice, suicide by poison or court martial. Bidding his wife Lucie and son Manfried a fond farewell, he drove off with the three officers. On the road to Wippingen, the car stopped and the three officers walked up the road for some distance. When they returned to the car, Field Marshal Rommel was slumped, dead on the back seat. He was given a state funeral with all the trimmings, the German radio announcing that he had died from his wounds. (Erwin Rommel is buried in the local cemetery at Herrlingen, near Ulm)
ADMIRAL SIR BERTRAM RAMSAY (1883-1945)
Allied Naval C-in-C for liberation of Europe. On January 2, 1945, he was due to fly from his H/Q near Paris to a meeting with General Montgomery in Brussels. At 11.30, he and four others took off from Toussus-le-Noble airfield in his private plane, a Hudson bomber. The plane climbed slowly as if the engines were labouring, then banked sharply to the left and crashed straight into the ground killing all on board. (Admiral Ramsay, the mastermind behind the Dunkirk evacuation, is buried in the Nouveau Cemetery at St. Germain-en-Laye)
AIR CHIEF MARSHAL SIR TRAFFORD LEIGH-MALLORY (1892-1944)
Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Air Forces in Europe and the highest ranking officer to serve in the Royal Air Force during WWII, was killed when his aircraft, an Avro York, crashed into the rock face of a mountain in the French Alps on November 14, 1944. Sir Trafford was on his way to Ceylon to take up his new appointment as Air Commander for South-East Asia. His wife, Lady Mallory and all crew died in the crash. Buried in snow, the wreck was not found until June, 1945. (Leigh-Mallory's brother, George Mallory, also died on a mountain in 1924 while attempting to climb Mt. Everest)
GENERAL FRANK MAXWELL ANDREWS (1884-1943)
Often referred to as the 'father of the United States Army Air Force'. In February, 1943, he took over from General Eisenhower as Commanding-General of the European Theatre of Operations. Iceland was part of the ETO and an inspection of the bases there was scheduled for April. A Liberator B-24 bomber named 'Hot Stuff' was put at his disposal for the flight to Iceland. The plane and crew had completed 29 of its 30 missions and was due to return to the US for a triumphant tour. The crew were disappointed that their last mission was not to be a bombing raid over Germany. At 8 PM on Monday May 3, 1943, General Andrews and staff took off from Bovington airfield. Over Iceland they encountered foul weather, low cloud, mist and rain. The aircraft crashed into the slope of a 1,600-foot high mountain. Of the 15 persons on the plane, there was only one survivor, Flight Sergeant George Eisel, the tail gunner.
GENERAL EBERHARD KINZEL
German Chief-of-Staff of OKW-Führungsstab Nord (Operational Staff North) and member of the German delegation at the signing of the unconditional surrender instrument at Montgomery's headquarters on Luneburg Heath on May 4, 1945. Kinzel, married with two children but separated from his wife and family, was living with his long time girl friend, Erika von Ashoff, in Glucksburg Castle near Flensburg. When on June 24, he was ordered to report to an Allied internment camp within two days, he requested that his car, a BMW, be brought to him. He then drove off with Ericka, whom he always introduced as his wife. In a letter left behind with his landlady he had written 'I cannot admit being separated from my wife, to go into endless British captivity'. Included in the letter were instructions as to where to find his car. That evening the car was found on the right hand side of the road coming from Idstedt along the north bank of the Lake Langsee. Just outside the car were two bodies, both showed gunshot wounds in the head. In the car was another letter, 'I have committed suicide together with my wife by my own will'. General Kinzel is buried in the German War Cemetery at Karberg and Erika von Aschoff is buried in Plot 32 in the Friedenshugel Cemetery in Flensburg.
GENERAL ADMIRAL HANS-GEORG VON FRIEDEBURG (1895-1945)
Member of the short-lived Donitz Government at Flensburg he was arrested by the British along with around 6,000 other German officials and officers of the armed forces. After having his identity documents examined he asked permission to collect his belongings from his billet. When permission was granted he returned to his quarters accompanied by a small detachment from the Cheshire regiment. Escorted up to his room on the first floor he then asked permission to use the toilet in the corridor. About 45 seconds later the escorts heard the sound of groaning but finding the door locked succeeded in breaking in only to find Friedeburg lying on the floor. He had crushed a phial of cyanide between his teeth and seconds later he died.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL WILLIAM HENRY EWART GOTT (1897-1942)
Killed when the unarmed transport plane he had hitched a lift in was attacked and shot down by Luftwaffe fighters on August 8, 1942. He was about to take command of the British 8th Army in North Africa, to replace General Auchenleck. The command was now given to General Montgomery who assumed command on August 15, 1942. On August 19, Monty was directed by General Alexander to hold the line at El Alamein until his manpower build-up was completed.
CARLO EMANUELE BUSCAGLIA (1915-1944)
Italian air ace and Commander of the 132nd Autonomous Torpedo Group was born in Novara on November 29, 1915. He was the youngest and most decorated officer in the Royal Italian Air Force. In 1942 his aircraft was shot down in flames by RAF Spitfires during a raid over Bougie Bay in Algeria. Badly burned, he was rescued by a British ship which took him to the USA for internment at Fort Meade. In 1944 he choose to fight on the Allied side and was freed. He became commander of the 28th Bomber Group of the Italian Co-belligerent Air Force now fighting on the Allied side. On August 23, 1944, at Campo Vesuvio Air Base, he entered a Martin Baltimore bomber and started the engines while his friends watched from the canteen. He took off from the landing strip, zoomed and fell back to the ground and caught fire. He survived only one day before he died. He probably wanted to show his companions, or to prove to himself, that he was still able to fly.
INCIDENTS OF FRIENDLY FIRE
FRIENDLY FIRE (Disaster off Norway)
Only a week after the war broke out, the British submarine Oxley was patrolling off the coast of Norway along with her sister ship HMS Triton. Somehow the Oxley had sailed into the sector patrolled by Triton. The Commander of the Triton, Lt. Cdmr. Steel, sighted an unidentified submarine on the surface and when challenged received no reply. Assuming the other submarine to be hostile, he ordered two torpedoes to be fired. The unidentified submarine disappeared, leaving three survivors swimming towards the Triton but one of the swimmers was seen to sink below the water and disappear. One can only imagine the shock the Triton's crew experienced when they pulled the Oxley's Commander, Lt. Cdmr. Bowerman and one other survivor, Able Seaman Gluckes, out of the water. They happened to be standing on the bridge when the torpedo hit. Fifty-three of Oxley's crew perished. Apparently the Oxley's signal answering apparatus had malfunctioned and failed to answer in time. Families were notified that the Oxley was accidentally rammed by the Triton and it was not until the 1950s that they were informed that the loss was due to friendly fire. Its a sad fact that the first British submarine torpedo to explode on target, sank a sister ship. The Oxley was the first submarine to be lost in the war.
FRIENDLY FIRE (Greenock, Scotland)
On April 28, 1940, the 2,400 ton French destroyer Maillé Brézé, became a victim of its own weaponry when one of its own torpedoes accidentally fired and slithered along the main deck exploding under the bridge structure and completely wrecking the forepart of the ship. The British destroyer HMS Firedrake, rushed to the scene and rescued fifteen men who had slid down the hawse pipe. Other mangled bodies were recovered but those on the mess deck were doomed as the ship slowly sank taking with her 38 of her crew still trapped below.
FRIENDLY FIRE (Pearl Harbor)
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, US army personnel started digging trenches along the beaches in anticipation of a seaborne invasion. Every fifty feet or so along the beach, a gun crew with 30 calibre machine guns took up their positions. At around 8pm on December 7th, seven planes were seen trying to land on an airstrip on Ford Island. Misjudging the length of the runway the pilots decided to go around again for a second try. As the planes came around again the gunners, thinking they were Japanese, opened fire and shot down all seven. The planes were their own aircraft from the carrier USS Enterprise out at sea.
FRIENDLY FIRE (Italy)
The first major 'Friendly Fire' incident in the European Theatre was on March 15, 1944, when 435 Allied bombers attacked the area around the town of Cassino in Italy. Bombs fell short on Allied troops and Italian civilians, killing 28 and wounding 114. At the same time, some ten miles away, in the town of Venafro, 28 Allied soldiers and civilians were killed and 179 wounded by misplaced bombs.
FRIENDLY FIRE (D Day-June 6, 1944)
At sunset on D-Day, forty DC3s from 233 Squadron RAF, crossed the English Channel carrying 116 tons of ammunition, spares and petrol for the 6th Airborne Division. As the planes passed over the warships off the mouth of the Oren river, trigger happy gunners on the ships opened fire. Two planes were forced to turn back with severe damage, one ditched in the sea and five went missing believed shot down. Fourteen others were damaged. The end result was that only twenty-five tons of supplies were recovered. In future, all operations of this nature were carried out only during daylight hours.
FRIENDLY FIRE (Sicily)
On July 11, 1943, on the American held airfield at Farrell, three miles east of Gela in Sicily, preparations were under way for the reception of reinforcements from Colonel Reuben H. Tucker's 504th Parachute Regiment. As the C-47 transports approached the bridgehead and headed for the drop zone, an American machine-gun down below fired a stream of tracers upward at the C-47s. A second machine-gun opened up followed by another and still another. Directly into this storm of 'friendly fire' flew the C-47s. As plane after plane was hit, the paratroopers jumped only to be shot in mid-air or just before they landed. The trigger-happy machine-gunners, thinking they were German paratroops, kept up their deadly fire while General George Patton and General Matthew Ridgeway, the 82nd Airborne commander, awaiting to greet the paratroopers, could only look on with shocked disbelief as the tragedy unfolded before their eyes. Altogether, twenty three of the original 144 troop carrying planes were shot down and thirty-seven others badly damaged. Ninety-seven men were killed and around 400 were wounded in this, the greatest tragedy to befall the US invasion forces. A total of 2,440 US soldiers died in the battle for Sicily and are now buried in the American Cemetery on the Gulf of Salerno. The battle for Sicily (Operation Husky) involved a total of 467,000 men. The Allied forces lost 5,532 men killed and 2,869 missing. German dead amounted to 4,325 and the Italian dead, 4,278.
FRIENDLY FIRE (Aleutian Islands)
On August 15-16, 1943, a force of 35,000 American troops invaded the island of Kiska in the Aleutians. Most of these troops had not seen combat before but expected fanatical enemy resistance. Heavy fog had descended on the island and by nightfall 28 soldiers were dead and around 50 wounded, shot by their own comrades who were shooting at anything that moved in the fog. (Only four Canadians were killed and four wounded) The irony was that not a single Japanese soldier was on the island, all having been evacuated before the invasion began. Four of the American dead were killed by stepping on land mines left behind by the Japanese.
FRIENDLY FIRE (Solomon Islands)
When out on a pre-dawn patrol on April 29, 1944, off the island of New Britain in the Solomon Islands, the Patrol Boat P-347 commanded by Lt. Robert J. Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, runs up onto a reef in Lassul Bay. Patrol Boat P-350 attempts to tow the P-347 off the reef but while doing so both boats were strafed by US Corsairs whose pilots mistook them for enemy gun boats. Soon, another Patrol Boat, P-346 appeared on the scene to assist in the tow but more planes made their appearance and began their strafing run in spite of the crew of the P-346 waving the Stars and Stripes. The Patrol Boats opened fire and shot down two of the planes. One bomb made a direct hit on the P-347 just after the crew had abandoned ship. The planes continued strafing the men in the water before heading back to base. On the boats involved in this tragic incident, fourteen men were killed, another fourteen wounded and two pilots lost.
FRIENDLY FIRE (Anzio)
On May 26, 1944, the beachhead at Anzio/Nettuno ceased to exist. It had now become a bridgehead. British and American troops had broken out and were pushing forward to cut the retreat of Kesselring's forces on Route 6, the main highway leading to Rome. A few minutes after noon on the 26th on the outskirts of Cori, a squadron of five American P-40 fighter-bombers of the 99th Fighter Group, US 12th Air Force, flew over the Anzio/Nettuno area, turned back and prepared for a strafing run. Soldiers of the US 15th Infantry froze in terror as bombs started falling in their midst. Within seconds, 120 men were either dead or wounded. The 2nd Battalion of the 15th Infantry, US 3rd Division, suffered seventy-two casualties. A number of bombs hit their jeeps which were loaded with ammunition and the exploding 37mm anti-tank shells caused additional casualties; some of the bodies were never found. This held up the advance to Giuglianello for five to six hours. A week later, headlines in the 'Stars and Stripes' proclaimed "American troops at Anzio bombed by Germans flying American planes". This incident has been covered up for over fifty years, the 12th Air Force never having admitted its error. One of the many witnesses to this tragedy was ex-Corporal Robert Steele, of Cannon Company, 15th Infantry Regiment, who now lives in Columbus, Georgia.
FRIENDLY FIRE (Italy)
On April 29, 1944, a group of American P-47 Thunderbolt fighters mistakenly strafed the airstrip at Cutella on Italy's Adriatic coast, the pilots thinking that it was a Luftwaffe airfield. The airstrip was a base for the Royal Australian Air Force 239 Wing which included 3 and 450 Squadrons. One 3 Squadron Kittyhawk fighter was destroyed and three more damaged. Human casualties were one pilot of an Air Sea Rescue Walrus float plane killed and a few other ground personnel wounded. Tragedy was to strike again next day when a pilot of one of the attacking Thunderbolts, realizing a mistake had been made, flew to the airstrip to apologize. Unfortunately he was killed when his plane crashed when taking off to return home.
FRIENDLY FIRE (Normandy)
On July 24, 1944, 300 US planes dropped a total of 550 tons of bombs on the St. Lo front. It was during 'Operation Cobra' (The breakthrough from St Lo) that the most devastating incident of Friendly Fire occurred. Some of the bombs fell short upon the 30th Infantry Division (Old Hickory) killing 25 men and wounding 131. Next day, the Americans flung in 140,000 shells while 2,730 planes dropped 3,300 tons of bombs and napalm canisters into an area 7,000 long by 2,500 yards wide. The bomb loads of 35 heavy bombers and 42 medium bombers again fell upon the 30th Infantry Division. In this second disaster in two days, the bombing killed a further 111 men and wounded 490. The 30th Division alone suffered 662 casualties from friendly bombing on 25 July: 64 killed, 374 wounded, 60 missing. There was also 164 cases of combat fatigue induced by the stunning effects of the heavy bombardment. Among the casualties in this second disaster was General Lesley J. McNair, Commanding General of US Army Ground Forces. He had flown over from England as an observer to the raid taking place. He was the most senior American General to be killed in the Second World War. His grave can be found in the US Military Cemetery above Omaha Beach in Normandy. This is one of the fourteen permanent WWII military cemeteries that the USA built on foreign soil. In the 172 acre site lie the remains of four women and buried side by side are a father and son as well as thirty-three pairs of brothers. The cemetery contains a total of 9,386 graves. (It is estimated that about 15,480 Americans, fell victim to Friendly Fire in World War 1I. This includes 185 US sailors also lost to Friendly Fire)
Grave Of General Leslie McNair.
FRIENDLY FIRE (Germany)
In July, 1944, prisoners from the concentration camps in Poland were being transported to labour camps in the Reich. German munitions factories were crying out for slave labour. To fill this need around 2,000 Jewish women from the women's camp at Birkenau were being sent by train to camps near Essen. As fate would have it, the train was caught up in an Allied bombing raid as it crossed central Germany. Of the two thousand women passengers on the train, 266 were killed.
FRIENDLY FIRE (Germany)
On August 24, 1944, the RAF bombed the industrial complex at the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar. A total of 384 prisoners were killed and around six hundred were injured. Among the casualties were the wife and daughter of the Camp Commandant, SS Colonel Herman Pister. Again, on February 9, 1945, the complex was bombed for the second time, the target being the Gustloff Works, an SS run munitions factory. In this raid 316 prisoners lost their lives out of about two thousand employed in the works. Prisoners were forbidden to leave their workbenches during raids. Over 80 SS guards were killed and 238 wounded. Hospitals in nearby Weimar refused to receive the wounded Buchenwald prisoners so they had to be transported back to the camp where many died through lack of first aid. Colonel Pister was later arrested and tried at the Camp Guards Trial and was sentenced to death. While awaiting execution in Landsberg Prison he died of a heart attack on September 28, 1948.
FRIENDLY FIRE (Pacific)
On September 29, 1944, the American submarine USS Seawolf (SS-197) set sail from Manus with 62 crew, some stores and 17 military personnel on board. On October 3, an attack was made by the Japanese submarine RO-41 on the US destroyer USS Shelton in the area through which the Seawolf was passing. The Shelton was sunk. An American aircraft on patrol, spotted a submarine in the vicinity of the sinking and notified the destroyer USS Rowell which immediately attacked what was thought to be the RO-41. As the RO-41 made it safely back to Japan and no attack was listed in Japanese reports of the day, it is now assumed that the Rowell mistakenly sank the Seawolf. In all, 79 men were lost.
FRIENDLY FIRE (Pacific)
On October 25, 1944, the American submarine USS Tang, commanded by Commander Richard O'Kane, was chasing a damaged Japanese warship that had fallen behind the convoy it had been escorting. During an engagement the day before, the Tang had fired all her torpedoes except one, at the convoy. Now its commander was determined to finish off the damaged warship using the last torpedo. Catching up with the limping ship, the Tang surfaced and fired its torpedo. From the bridge, Commander O'Kane and eight of his officers, looked on in amazement as the wake of the torpedo made a complete circle around their ship. The circle got smaller and smaller until a terrific explosion blew them all from the bridge and into the water. The Tang sank fast as tons of water poured into her hull. Seventy-eight officers and men of the Tang lost their lives. When Japanese destroyers arrived on the scene only nine men had survived to be picked up and taken prisoner. They all survived the war.
FRIENDLY FIRE (Germany)
In the first week of April, 1945, a column of American POWs from the Hammelburg camp were being evacuated through the city of Nuremberg. Stopping for a rest near some rail yards on the south-west of the city, they were caught up in a bombing raid by their own fighter-bombers. Around forty men were killed and nearly one hundred wounded leaving some 110 survivors to continue the march towards their destination, Austria.
FRIENDLY FIRE (Germany)
During April, 1945, a column of 2,000 Allied airmen were being evacuated from their prisoner-of-war camp at Fallingbostal in face of the advancing Russian army. Near the village of Gresse they stopped for a rest in a country lane. Six RAF Typhoons appeared and began strafing the helpless prisoners. Eight of their German guards were killed as were thirty of the airmen. There were over sixty injured. The injured were taken to the town of Boizemburg where they were operated on by German doctors and then transported to an airfield near Luneburg to await air-lifting to the UK. It is not known why the RAF pilots mistook the prisoners for Germans.