Friendly Fire Incident

[Gregvan]

Hello All,

I acquired the wonderful book Hero of the Angry Sky, edited by Geoffrey L. Rossano, some time ago and found it very interesting. It is the WWI diary and letters of David S. Ingalls, America's first naval ace and our only naval ace of the First World War. Ingalls, of course, flew Camels with No 213 Sqn RAF. It's a very illuminating and enlightening book. One incident in particular elicited my fascination. We've all heard of various 'blue on blue' actions involving aircraft crews firing on aircraft of their own side by mistake. However, on 1 October 1918, Ingalls reported on a very unusual incident. He and his squadron had recently been involved in many harrowing ground strafing attacks on German troops and installations - which Ingalls absolutely detested, and figured that soon that sort of operation would result in his demise.

On 1 October, he had already completed one early morning 'strafe' and was soon sent out again on another. The "Greene" he mentions is John Edmund Greene, a highly experienced Canadian who would achieve some 15 victories before his death on 14 October (less than 2 weeks after this incident). Anyway, here's Ingalls' account:

1 October 1918: “A brief respite and off again, this time to take care of some troops reported to be advancing to the front. We were able to get together three flights of four each for this trip, and I led my flight off to the right of Greene’s. He was to lead the squadron. He got off and climbed to 4,000 feet, coasted along, and then I saw Greene lead his flight down. ‘Too soon,’ thinks I. ‘We can’t be over the new lines yet,’ I pondered. Very clearly we could all see a long line of troops marching due east on one of the roads through the sort of swamps abounding there. It looked like a column of eight men abreast and extended probably a mile. To my amazement Greene headed for it. ‘They must be Belgians,’ I thought, though I didn’t know. Down he went and I followed him for a while and then decided, ‘To Hell with it. They must be our men, they see us and don’t run, we’ve not got over the lines.’ So I swung off and paralleled the road watching Greene and the other two flights. They did a good job of it and the troops scattered, many of them too late. ‘Probably I’m wrong,’ thinks I, ‘but any how!’ And I led my boys some miles further east and then down. The ground machine guns assured me of where I was and we picked a village [Gits] and raised Hell there and came home. Then we had a good row over what Greene had bombed for a while, till suddenly the C.O. came in with a message from headquarters that the Belgians had reported an attack by British machines, Camels. Then there was some consternation, but no more talk, and our C.O. reported as all other C.O.s and headquarters advised the Belgians of course the British would not shoot them up and they must be nuts. Ce la guerre, but we were more careful thereafter.”

I just thought that this might be interesting for our Forum members. Of course, there were other times when Allied fliers actually fired on each other. One of the most famous was on 8 May 1918, when Australian ace G.H. Blaxland of No. 2 Sqn AFC (flying an SE5a) shot down the Spad of Adj. Henri Renault of SPA 86, killing Renault.

The Germans weren't immune to this problem. Olivier Freiherr von Beaulieu-Marconnay was fatally wounded by a Fokker D.VII (said to have been from Jasta 74). The war diaries of many German Fl. Abt. units contain reports of attacks made on their two-seaters by over-eager Jasta pilots. Part of the reason two-seaters carried so many flare cartridges was to signal their own fighters about their nationality.

[ONEALM]

Greg -

Do you have the photo of that crashed SPAD ? I can scan it out of the journal and post it, but a better digital copy would be better if we have it.

I depicted that as a SPAD VII based on what I saw int the wreck photo, but IIRC there were some friends of mine who thought this was a SPAD XIII. I suspect if we loose some of our crash experts that can determine which it is from the wreckage.

[Gregvan]

Hi Mike,

I've just sent the 2 photos to you by private e-mail. I spoke too soon in my initial post - it probably was a Spad VII. I've amended my post to be more ambiguous!!

You can post the photos on the forum if you like.

Greg

[ONEALM]

Thanks Greg !

[Gregvan]

Hey Mike,

Our friend Alan Toelle confirms it was a Spad VII, manufactured by Janoir. So you were right all along.

Greg

[ONEALM]

Lucky guess.... But thanks for the confirmation. IIRC I based the distinction on the shape of the tailplane. The corners looks less S.XIII "rounded" to me and had the more angular S.VII look to them.

Anyway, no big deal... at least I do not have to change the painting !

[Froggy]

I just thought that this might be interesting for our Forum members. Of course, there were other times when Allied fliers actually fired on each other. One of the most famous was on 8 May 1918, when Australian ace G.H. Blaxland of No. 2 Sqn AFC shot down the Spad of Adj. Henri Renault of SPA 86, killing Renault.

.

On the same day a french breguet XIV of escadrille BR 224 was attacked by
5 british camels. the pilot l'Adjudant Charles Lavauzelle succeeded to land safely but the gunner soldat Pierre Marie Delhumeau was wounded and died of his wounded on 23 may 1918
http://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defe...05239e32b48fb1
cordialement
Bruno

[Gregvan]

Many thanks for that piece of interesting information, Bruno!!

The 8th of May 1918 was a bad day for inter-Allied relations!

Greg

[R Gannon]

Aircraft indulging in blue on blue's happened then, and have been common ever since right up to modern times - Iraq 2003 and Afganistan.

In the official Australian history by CEW Bean, there is at least one note of Aussie troops well forward in a shell hole, being straffed by British fighters.

On the Great War Forum site there is note of British pow's taken on the Lys (Apr 18) being straffed along with their guards as they were being escorted to the rear.

And I always love the incident involving US 30 Div during the Battle of the Bulge, when they began to deploy to so as to halt Piper's 1SS spearhead battlegroup, and were attacked by their own US fighters, with the laconic note that it was the 30th such event since landing in Normandy.

Audie Murphey in his book To Hell & Back tells of his regiment being badly straffed by US fighters marching on a road, just after the breakout from Anzio, - that incident never made the film.

German ground attack Stukas decimated a Tiger Tank column in Russia in 1944.

The Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders were napalmed by US planes in Korea whist trying to fend off an attack on their hill (282).

And so on, and so on.

For Bruno - the only Camel claim against 2-seaters on 8 May was by 208 Sqn on the River Scarpe.

Cheers Russ

[Froggy]

Originally Posted by R Gannon

For Bruno - the only Camel claim against 2-seaters on 8 May was by 208 Sqn on the River Scarpe.

Cheers Russ

Bonjour russ
On that day the breguet was not shot down but only hit and it came back safely to the escadrille airfield. And I hope that even it had been shot down one don't confirm a victory against an allied aircraft in british aviation..
Cordialement
Bruno