teecee Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Bear in mind that this link is going to take you to an English newspaper,. It seems that we have never really known the truth about the "Dam Buster "raid. A very sad tale. />http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2047476/Revealed-70-years-Dambusters-legend-shot-BRITISH-airman-mistook-German.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Revenant Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 That is a real shame. Harsh realities often come out years after an event Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gandy Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 The other thing about English newspapers is that they are not required by law to tell the truth and the Daily Mail i think is on that list of papers that have been know to invent a story or two and fear munger over minor things etc.... Still one of the things about war is that accidents/mistakes can happen even a sad one like that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlennH Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Gibson was shot down over a year AFTER the actual Dambusters Raid (as correctly stated in the paper, in a Mosquito in 1944)....now it would seem by his own side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotspot Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Thanks teecee for the link - unfortunately 'friendly fire' is an integral part of armed conflict - in the 'first' Iraq war (circa 1990) close to one quarter of US casualties resulted from friendly fire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CathyH Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 This was very common. I recall reading amemoir by a Lanc navigator. He recalls one one mission over Germanys seeing a Lanc from thier Squadron struck by the bombs of abother plane bombing from a higher altitude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Kane Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Friendly Fire is a part of any war and still happens today. The outset of the Afghanistan War we saw 4 Canadian solders killed and 8 Canadian solders wounded when an American F-16 dropped a laser-guided 225-kg bomb on the Canadians who were on an exercise in a marked area.....Even today with all of our technology this still happens. Back then they didn't have the technology we have today so that made matters worse. That is called Fog of War. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfieP Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 Some years ago I was able to interview a rear gunner from a lancaster Fred Whitfield DFC for a CFS website, He was in No9 squadron Lancaster's, he told me that this was a very common occurrence. The Mosquito was often mistaken for a German twin engine. As most of the RAF raids were at night it was somewhat inevitable that this would happen. On one occasion their plane was fired on by our ground anti aircraft gunners while returning from a raid. Its a sad consequence of every war. Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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