Deliberate Friendly Fire

War is all about eliminating the enemy before he gets a chance to eliminate you.
Throughout History, during conflicts and rebellions and wars, it has not been unusual for soldiers to be killed by their own side, either deliberately or by accident.
Friendly Fire or Fratricide relates to “accidental damage by allied troops to one’s own installations, aircraft, or personnel.” Friendly accidents that result in the deaths of fellow soldiers, often also referred to as a blue on blue incident, can happen quite easily, even in modern warfare where highly sophisticated weapons and reconnaissance equipment are involved. Friendly Fire has always been commonplace in warfare and will, unfortunately, continue to occur.

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Credit:
Created by Daniel Turner (B.A. (Hons) in History, University College London)
Script: Dejan Milivojevic
Narrator:

Chris Kane

[corruptcape]

I had the privelage to know an English korean war vet. He said the yanks used to mortar quite near to them a lot. Every time they went to command and complained, nothing happened, one day however, the yanks mortared too close and killed a 19 year old boy, the unit decided enough was enough and to take matters into their own hands by firing back with their own howitzers. he didn't tell me whether they hit or missed, but he said the yanks never fired their mortars near them ever again.

[liltoaster]

A very disturbing friendly fire incident was described in the WW2 memoire "With the Old Breed" by USMC veteran Eugene Sledge. During the battle of Peleliu, Marines were taking up positions in a heavily defended swamp one night. One Marine woke up screaming as he had lost his mind. Despite giving him morphine, punching him and trying to talk him down, the Marine kept screaming and thrashing, thinking the other Marines were Japanese troops. Not wanting their positions to be given away, someone hit him with an entrenching shovel to knock him out, but the sharp edge of the shovel went into his skull and killed him instantly. Everyone unanimously agreed it was better he was killed than risk everyone else's life and the murder wasn't too seriously questioned.

[txgunguy]

There was an incident in Vietnam when a company of LRPs(later Rangers) got a new commander who tried to run the company by the book. Daily formations and inspections etc. He also tried to run their missions from the basecamp instead of allowing the team leader in the field to run it. One day he came out of his hooch and stepped on a "toe popper" mine. It was officially determined to be the work of VC sappers.

[davidhenderson]

One problem with Vietnam was the so called "90 day wonder". Young officers that had never seen combat being put charge of battle harden soldiers. These young go by the book officers tended to get people killed. In Vietnam you had to throw away the book if you wanted to live. There is a scene in a movie that shows just how this worked. This new young officer gets off a helicopter. No one salutes him. He gets all mad and demands he be saluted. They salute him and down he goes. A sniper was just waiting for an officer to shoot and he found one. He went back on the same chopper he came in on. This kind of stuff happened a lot.

[nathanielmoore]

There's a Vietnam vet that my grandpa knew who "tripped" and "accidentally" shot his officer, killing him, after his group was ordered to march toward a very large group of NVA which they thought was a suicide mission. After he died they walked back to base.

[CHRF-]

Those officers that were unpopular and died to their own troops never heard of Sun Tzu's "Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death."

[hugolarget]

My grandfather told me the story of when he went to do is military service, which was mandatory here in France. There was this officer that liked messing with him, and disliked him for some reason. One night, my grandpa was affected to guard a hangar, in which were placed all of the bases bed sheets on lines for them to dry. So, there is this huge hangar and my grandfather watching over it, when in the middle of the night, there’s this guy sneaking in. My grandpa sees him, recognize his officer. Before this guy realizes, gramp takes his rifle by the cannon and smack his officer in the face with the butt. The man end up knocked unconscious, and when the others arrive to see what’s the commotion, my grandpa explains to them he warned the guy to identify himself, which he ignored so he went straight to violence (obviously there was no first steps to this story except straight fking vengeance) . He told me that after this incident, the officer kept himself from bullying though I highly doubt he liked my grandfather any more than prior to this.

[ives]

"War does not determine who is right, only who is left." — Bertrand Russell

[FeyTheBin]

I remember someone telling a story from his grandma about how her husband had fought in The Great War. He was serving under a coward and incompetent lieutenant who would order a daring charge, only to hide under a crater. Eventually, one of his men threw a grenade at the hole and carried on.

[chris.]

Carlos Hathcock address this breifly in his book. Telling tales of how you didn't want to be an officer that 'accidentally' frogot to turn in his hand grenade. He spoke of how common it was for disgruntled men to toss them under an officers tent flap late at night. Spooky stuff.

[BCbuddyeh]

My grandfather is a Canadian Korean War vet and he recounted many times the American troops would bomb the hillside they were stationed on. Thankfully no one was ever killed from what I know but he did say it was quite the experience hearing the roar of their fighters and soon the sound of their bombs hitting the ground.

[richardkent]

Had a great uncle that fought in WW2. Was Canadian with British commander. They were to take a bridge, with a German machine gun on the other side. The British officer wanted the men to march four abreast across the bridge. They were getting torn to pieces, my uncle was in line to march across when that officer was shot in the back of the head. As soon as that happened the second in charge pulled everyone back. That night they snuck through the river and took the machine gun out without losing another man.

[SEAZNDragon]

At 1:34 they recreate the scene in Platoon where Barnes tries to kill Elias while mentioning fragging. Thing is the killing was to keep Elias from telling their superiors of Barnes' war crimes. It doesn't really goes with the fragging out of rebellion concept but is more in straight up murder.

[cannonball]

One friendly fire scenario you left out is the firing on an enemy position without regard for the proximity of friendly troops because they were to be sacrificed. i.e. Longshanks orders his archers to fire vollys at the Scots who were intermingled with his own troops.

[Ruggedystim]

My grandfather told me in the navy during ww2 if a guy was too unpopular, he would be "lost" at sea

[BennyLlama]

It would be interesting to see just how many friendly fire incidents were due to grunts taking out incompetent "superiors". I mean, I don't know anything about leading military units, but I do know you *don't* piss off a bunch of guys carrying guns, explosives, and sharp, pointy knives/bayonets.

[lookinfishy]

My uncle deserted in Vietnam. He didn’t wanna go back so he didn’t show back up. He woke up to his house surrounded as he was put in handcuffs and shackles. And forced back into the war

[KrusherMike]

So... the "psychotic prankster" achievement in Fallout came from British soldiers in WWI, who in a disagreement with their NCO, reverse pickpocketed a live grenade into his inventory.

Legends.

[gcb]

During my service there a few people that I wanted to kill. And the feeling was mutual. But we never carried it out. Transfers have a way of keeping order and morale when you know that the enemy who wears the same uniform as yours, either leaves first... or you do.

[Davidlyle]

As a quality control professional I would point out that one of the more serious issues that businesses face is management that alienates internal personnel. Usually protest takes the form of quitting but dissatisfied personal are very often careless and inefficient (I.e. languishing.) it’s pretty serious, companies can go under in those conditions. Having a work force that is armed AND unable to quit. It’s less of a question of how often it’s happened but how often people have gotten away with it.