Friendly fire

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Friendly fire (fratricide or non-hostile fire) is a term originally adopted by the United States military in reference to an attack on friendly forces by other friendly forces,^[1] which may be deliberate (e.g. incorrectly identifying the target as the enemy), or accidental (e.g. missing the enemy and hitting "friendlies"). Friendly fire is contrasted with fire originating from enemy forces ("enemy fire"). In a friendly fire incident personnel may be killed, or material assets may be damaged or destroyed. Friendly fire is one kind of collateral damage.

The British military refers to these incidents as blue on blue,^[2] which derives from military exercises where friendly forces are "blue" and enemy forces are "red".

In the Philippines, the military term for a friendly fire incident is a misencounter.^{[citation needed]}

Fratricide versus Friendly Fire

Some prefer the term fratricide over friendly fire, because they deem the latter to be an unfitting euphemism exemplified by the aphorism "there's nothing friendly about getting shot by your own side."^[1] However, the origin and purpose of the term is as a simple distinction to enemy fire. Both terms serve only to identify the source of an attack as coming from enemy (hostile) or friendly forces and not the nature of an attack.

The term amicicide (killing of a friend) has also been used in the same manner as fratricide (Shrader 1982).

Classification

Friendly fire incidents fall roughly into two categories. The first classification is Fog of war which generically describes friendly fire incidents in unintentional circumstances. The second classification is murder where friendly fire incidents are premeditated. During the Vietnam War, this was known as fragging.^[1]

Fog of war incidents fall roughly into two classes:^[1]

Errors of position

Where fire aimed at enemy forces accidentally ends up hitting one's own. Such incidents were relatively common during the First and Second World Wars, where troops fought in proximity to each other and targeting was relatively inaccurate. As weapons have become more accurate in recent times, this class of incidents has become less common but is still possible, the most recent and highly publicized example being Operation Enduring Freedom, wherein a GPS-guided bomb was mistakenly called in on friendly forces, causing massive casualties.

Errors of identification

Where friendly troops are mistakenly attacked in the belief that they are enemy. Highly mobile battles, and battles involving troops from many nations are more likely to cause this kind of incident as evidenced by incidents in the first Gulf War, or the shooting down of a British aircraft by a US Patriot Battery during the Invasion of Iraq.^[3]

History

Two French regiments accidentally attacking each other during the Battle of Fleurus led to the habit of attaching a white scarf to the flags of the regiments from 1690 - white being the colour of the kings of France.^{[citation needed]}

Friendly fire in the U.S. military

The Pentagon estimates of U.S. friendly fire deaths, with percentage of total US deaths:

• World War II: 21,000 (16%)
  • Highest-ranking U.S. loss of the war, Lt. General Lesley J. McNair
  • Sinking of the Surcouf. This was initially attributed to a collision with the US Freighter Thompson Lykes, but a later report stated that the Surcouf was mistaken for a U-boat and destroyed by US planes. Which event occurred is disputed by historians.
  • Sinking of the USS Dorado (SS-248) by US plane.
  • Damage to the USS Atlanta (CL-51) by USS San Francisco.
  • Near damage of the USS Iowa (BB-61) (with President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard) by USS William D. Porter (DD-579). This incident led to the "Willie D." being greeted with the hail, "Don't shoot, we're Republicans!"
• Vietnam war: 8,000 (14%)
• Gulf War: 35 (23%)
• Invasion of Afghanistan (2002): 4 (13%) *note* fatalities were Canadian Soldiers. Caused when a US fighter pilot dropped a 500 lb (228 kg) bomb while Canadian soldiers were performing a live fire exercise on April 17, 2002 [2]
• Afghanistan NATO Mission - Operation Medusa (2006): 1 *note* the fatality was a Canadian Soldier. Caused when two U.S. A-10 Thunderbolts accidentally strafed their own NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, killing Canadian Private Mark Anthony Graham, and seriously wounding five others when soldiers were trying to seize a Taliban stronghold along the Arghandab River. Graham was a former Canadian Olympic athlete who competed on the Canadian 4x400 Men's Relay Team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

In addition to the above, numbers of UK personnel have also been killed by US forces. In Britain the term 'friendly fire' is used in a semi-ironic way to imply perceived US Military incompetence [3] [4] [5], and is a frequent source of satirical humour. Examples include the third series of Monkey Dust, in which a British military vehicle in Afghanistan is targeted by an American pilot, despite a large Union Flag on its roof (the sole surviving soldier then runs through a series of British stereotypes, such as pouring a cup of tea and donning a bowler hat, but is bombed again, anyway), while in late-2006 Mock the Week host Dara Ó Briain noted that British soldiers in Afghanistan were being, "shot at on a daily basis, but things will get better once the Americans leave." There is even a "joke" in the dialogue of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - developed by Rockstar North, based in Scotland - about an American aircraft deliberately engaging a supposedly friendly target with an excuse that it can be claimed afterwards that it was thought to be "a British tank.

In Iraq, many friendly Iraqis have also been killed and injured in a similar manner, but the US military has stated that it collects no statistics on these outcomes.

Incidents and persons

• 1461 – War of the Roses: At the Battle of Towton, wind conditions often resulted in arrows falling amongst friendly troops as well as the enemy.
• 1471 - Battle of Barnet: The ‘radiant star’ battle standard used by the troops commanded by the Earl of Oxford was misidentified as an enemy standard (which depicted a ‘brilliant sun’) and were fired on by their own archers.
• 1809 - Battle of Wagram: French troops mistakenly fired on their Saxon Allies. The uniforms of the Saxon’s were grey and misidentified as white, the colour of uniform worn by their Austrian enemy.
• 1815 – Battle of Waterloo: Famously Marshal Blücher’s Prussians came to the aid of the British, and defeated Napoleon decisively. Lesser known is that Prussian artillery mistakenly fired on British artillery causing many casualties, and British artillery returned fire at the Prussians.
• 1863 - Stonewall Jackson, famous Confederate Civil War general accidentally killed by his own troops at Chancellorsville.
• 1914-1918 – World War I: The French have estimated that more than 75,000 French soldiers were casualties of friendly artillery in the four years of World War I^[6].
• 1939 (10 September - early World War II) – British submarine HMS Triton sank another British submarine, HMS Oxley, mistaking it for a German U-boat and received no responses to challenges. Oxley was the first Royal Navy vessel to be sunk and also the first vessel to be sunk by a British vessel in the war.
• 1940 - Italian Air Marshal Italo Balbo shot down by his own side.
• 1940 - Operation Wikinger: German destroyer sunk by Luftwaffe bombs, another sunk by mines during confusion^[7]
• 1941 - Fleet Air Arm torpedo attack on HMS Sheffield during the hunt for the German battleship Bismarck
• 1941 - RAF fighter ace Wing Commander Douglas Bader shot down in what recent research suggests was a friendly fire incident [8].
• 1943 – Operation Husky (Allied Invasion of Sicily): 144 C-47 transport planes passed over Allied lines shortly after a German air raid, and were mistakenly fired upon by ground and naval forces, 33 planes were shot down and 37 damaged, resulting in 318 casualties.
• 1944 - British flotilla attacked by RAF Hawker Typhoons, off Cap d'Antifer, Le Havre. HMS Britomart and HMS Hussar sunk. HMS Salamander damaged beyond repair and scrapped. HMS Jason escaped major damage.
• 1944 - Operation Wintergewitter (Winter Storm) - Italian Front: American forward observer John R. Fox called down fire on his own position to stop a German advance on the town of Sommocolonia, Italy. In 1997 he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for this action.
• 1945 – Operation Bodenplatte (Baseplate): 900 German fighters and fighter-bombers launched a surprise attack on Allied airfields, approximately 300 aircraft were lost, 237 pilots killed, missing, or captured, and 18 pilots wounded - the largest single-day loss for the Luftwaffe, many losses were due to friendly anti-aircraft guns.
• 1956 - Suez: Attacks from British Royal Navy carrier-borne aircraft caused heavy casualties to UK 45 Commando and HQ.
• 1967 - USS Liberty Incident when Israeli aircraft attacked U.S. Navy ship in international waters during the Six-Day War (between Israel and Egypt).
• 1968 - USS Boston, USS Edson, USCGC Point Dume, HMAS Hobart and two US patrol boats, PCF-12 and PCF-19 are attacked by US aircraft on June 17 in the Vietnam War.[9] Several sailors were killed and PCF-19 was sunk. [10]
• 1969 - US Helicopters attack US 3/187th Infantry Battalion CP during the Battle of Hamburger Hill, killing two and wounding thirty-five, including LtCol. Weldon Honeycutt.
• 1974 - Turkish Destroyer Kocatepe was sunk by Turkish aircraft during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
• 1982 - HMS Cardiff Shoots down AAC Gazelle (UK) in the Falklands Islands.
• 1982 - 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, British Army (UK) Companies A and C engage each other in an hour-long firefight in the Falkland Islands involving heavy weapons and artilery strikes. At least 8 UK casualties.
• 1982 - United Kingdom UK Special Boat Service Commando killed in firefight with UK Special Air Service Commandos. Falkland Islands.
• 1991 - American A-10 in the Gulf War attacks British armoured personnel carriers killing nine British soldiers (the same number as were killed by enemy fire in the whole war).
• 1994 - Erik Mounsey, peacekeeper and cousin of legendary guitarist Ian Bairnson memorialized in the 1996 Alan Parsons release On Air.
• 2001 - American FA-18 dropped 3 Mk-82 bombs on a friendly observation post killing six and wounding 11 at Al Udairi Range, Kuwait.
• 2002 - American F-16 pilot Harry Schmidt killed four Canadian soldiers in the Tarnak Farm incident.
• 2003 - American aircraft attacked a friendly Kurdish & US special forces convoy killing 15. BBC translator Kamaran Abdurazaq Muhamed was killed and BBC reporter Tom Giles and World Affairs Editor John Simpson were injured. The incident was filmed. [11]
• 2003 - American Patriot missile shot down in error F/A-18C Block 46 Hornet 164974 of VFA-195 50 mi from Karbala, Iraq, killing the pilot.
• 2003 - American Patriot missile shot down a British Panavia Tornado GR.4A ZG710 'D' of 13 Squadron killing the pilot and navigator, Flight Lieutenant David Rhys Williams and Flight Lieutenant Kevin Barry Main, both from 9 Squadron
• 2003 British Challenger 2 tank came under fire from another British tank, blowing off the turret and killing two crew members, Corporal Stephen John Allbutt and Trooper David Jeffrey Clarke
• 2003 - Two British Scimitar armoured reconnaissance vehicles of the Blues and Royals attacked by a pair of American A-10s, killing Lance Corporal of Horse Matty Hull, during the invasion of Iraq. Trooper Christopher Finney was awarded the George Cross for bravery under fire during the attack, rather than the Victoria Cross, which can only be awarded for valour under "enemy fire."
• 2004 - Pat Tillman, famous American football player and friendly fire victim in Afghanistan
• 2005 - American soldier Mario Lozano is suspected of killing Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari and wounding Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena in Baghdad. Sgrena had been kidnapped and subsequently rescued by Calipari. However it is claimed that the car they were escaping in failed to stop at an American checkpoint, and US soldiers opened fire.
• 2005 - American troops opened fire on a Bulgarian convoy. Junior Sergeant Gardi Gardev was killed.
• 2006 - Two U.S. A-10 Thunderbolts accidentally strafed their own NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, killing Canadian Private Mark Anthony Graham, and seriously wounding five others when soldiers were trying to seize a Taliban stronghold along the Arghandab River. Graham was a former Canadian Olympic athlete who competed on the Canadian 4x400 Men's Relay Team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Distinction

Friendly fire is fire which was intended to do harm to the enemy; a death resulting from a negligent discharge is not considered "friendly fire".

See also

• Fragging, the intentional killing of a friendly soldier, especially an officer or Non-commissioned officer.
• Identification Friend or Foe
• Collateral damage
• Teamkilling, a computer-game term for often-intentional, friendly fire.

Notes

• ^ This figure comes from a 1921 book by an artillery expert, General Percin, called Le massacre de notre infanterie, 1914-1918. The book claims 75,000 French soldiers were casualties of their own artillery. Percin supports his claim with hundreds of battlefield correspondence from all parts of the Western Front.

References

1. Regan, G. Backfire: a history of friendly fire from ancient warfare to the present day. Robson Books, 2002.
2. [1]
3. The Economist Closing in on Baghdad March 25 2003

• Shrader, Charles R. Amicicide: the problem of friendly fire in modern war, University Press of the Pacific, 2005. ISBN 1-4102-1991-7
• Regan, G. More Military Blunders. Carlton Books, 2004.

External links

• Friendly Fire Notebook, List of U.S. friendly fire incidents

• ALLC Dispatches Vol 11, No 1 Fratricide, Canadian Army Lessons Learned on Fratricide