Friendly fire incidents, all theaters of operation
The first British warship to be lost in the Second World War was the submarine HMS Oxley, which was sunk by another British submarine, HMS Triton, on September 10, 1939, one week after Britain declared war on Germany. Fifty-two of Oxley’s crew were killed, two survived, and the incident remained classified by the Royal Navy for more than a decade. It was the first of what would become hundreds, if not thousands, of mistakes which led to the allies killing members of their own units, and other allied units, known as friendly fire, an oxymoron of tragic consequences. How many actually occurred can never be known with certainty.
Anti-aircraft gunners fired on planes of their own and allied services. Tanks engaged each other before discovering they were allies. Artillery shells fell short of their intended targets, striking positions held by allied troops. Aircraft strafed positions held by friendly forces. During the second battle of El Alamein, elements of the British army endured a four hour long aerial bombardment which was conducted by British aircraft. At the Battle of Guadalcanal, USS San Francisco, a heavy cruiser, targeted and hit USS Atlanta, a light cruiser which sustained heavy damage and casualties. Throughout the war and for years afterwards, the allied forces kept the incidents of friendly fire classified so as to not have them adversely affect recruiting and morale.
Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“Japan Strikes: 1941”, by William H. Honan, American Heritage Magazine, December 1970
“The Seeds of Disaster: The Development of French Army Doctrine, 1919-1939”, by R. A. Doughty, 2014
“Culpable Negligence”, by Edward L. Beach, American Heritage Magazine, December 1980
“The Biggest Theater”, by Edward L. Beach, American Heritage Magazine, December 1991
“Vulnerable: HMS Prince of Wales in 1941”, by David Hein, Journal of Military History, July 2013
“Debacle at Dakar”, by David H. Lippman, WWII History, July 2011
“Carrier Operations in World War II”, by J. D. Brown, 2009
“The Night of the U-Boats”, by Harry Ludlam and Paul Lund, 1973
“The Maginot Line”, by Rudolph Chelminski, Smithsonian Magazine, 1997
“The Dieppe Raid”, by Julian Thompson, BBC: World Wars in Depth, June 6, 2010
“Berlin Diary”, William Shirer, 1941
“The New Dealer’s War”, by Thomas Fleming, 2002
“Rethinking Douglas MacArthur”, by Mark Perry, POLITICO Magazine, May 25, 2014
“Fatal Decision: Anzio and the Battle for Rome”, by Carlo d’Este, 1991
“Bloody Peleliu: Unavoidable but Unnecessary”, by Jeremy Gypton, Military History Online, 2004
“A Magnificent Disaster”, by David Bennett, 2008
“Friendly Fire’s Deadliest Day”, by Robert F. Dorr, America in World War II Magazine, online