At Kiska 35,000 American and Canadian forces stormed the shore after a massive Naval bombardement. Only 21 troops were killed in the whole Op to recover the islands.
It could have been much worse - if there had been any Japanese on the Islands!
Hihihihi and who killed that 21 soldiers ,maybe they killed eachother. :lol: :lol:
ghosts of dead samurai killed them 8)
Yanks, they’re ace!!!
I heard a rumour that they had more casualties in the training for Desert Storm than actually on Desert Storm!!!
Well apart from the dead, they took over 200 casualties:
Here is the site I appraised my original post from:
Really if that true they are nuts.
In a current American journal I read about a soldier who cleaned his weapon and then accidentally blew his own head off!!!
according to this website, 21% of the US’s casualties in ww2 were from friendly fire…
I dont know how anyone can killed own soldier ,they are blind or what.
Can be quite easy depending on the situation.
Although the Americans seem to be excedingly good at it!!!
But they are also spending vast amounts of money to research new ways to prevent it.
i think that it would be quite easy to kill someone thats on your own side. if you see a soldier in front of you, and your not sure what side he is on are you going to wait and see if the soldier is on your side, potentially risking your life, or are you going to shoot?
It’s probably more instinct than it is thought, you have a point, if you don’t know what side he’s with, you probably don’t wanna sit and wait to find out, endagering yourself.
It’s probably more instinct than it is thought, you have a point, if you don’t know what side he’s with, you probably don’t wanna sit and wait to find out, endagering yourself.[/quote]
Instinct ? There are no instincts that make you raise, aim and shoot a weapon at an unknown target.
It’s called lack of skills and/or training.
This is why soldiers learn drills so they become second nature and help the troops work when the proverbial hits the fan.
One of the things about the British Army is the endless drills, practices and exercises that make up the majority of time not spent on Ops.
As to firing at a target you can’t identify, that’s a sure way of finding yourself in the dock defending a charge of murder - or if you’re persistent in this action, of collecting retribution from the target’s friends. Who may well be in your unit.
There again, this is in the American forum…
The Brits knew friendly fire, too:
6Sept1939. Early in the war, the ground radar operator believing he was coordinating an attack on enemy machines, RAF Spitfires from No.74 Squadron shot down two Hurricanes. There was no IFF equipment (Identification Friend or Foe) at this stage of the war.
At about the same time, ground anti-aircraft fire brought down an RAF Blenheim bomber. One pilot was killed. There were no German aircraft in the area at the time. This was the first time that Spitfires had fired their guns in anger. The Spitfire pilots were subsequently exonerated from any blame at a court martial and from then on the highest priority was given to the production of Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) equipment. http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/facts.html
During the period 1939 to 1942, twenty Blenheim fighter-bombers were shot down through mis-identification by RAF pilots and anti-aircraft fire (Seven were shot down by Hurricanes). This resulted in the deaths of thirty-two aircrew with seven others injured. Nineteen other aircraft were damaged by being fired upon by mistake.
Every Army have these types of incidents…Not Just US
In Iraq also: Two British soldiers were killed in a friendly-fire incident during an encounter with a British tank near Basra in southern Iraq.
The British Defense Ministry identified the men as Cpl. Stephen Allbutt, 35, a married father of two, and unmarried Trooper David Clarke, 19. They died Monday evening when their Challenger II tank was mistakenly targeted by another Challenger crew.
Aye, the Brits had their share of blue-on-blues too. I prefer that phrase to ‘friendly fire’ because it just isn’t !
I find it hard to understand that the pilots couldn’t identify the a/c they had been vectored to.
It’s slightly more understandable when it comes to AA but still reeks of bad skills, recognition should have been one of their major areas of trg.
Reference the IFF, it sent the gen that the a/c was friendly to the home radar stations and if the unit wasn’t switched on, (or if the pilot hit the auto-destruct instead,) the home chain would only see blips, not their nationality.
As 1000ydstare, (I think,) said elsewhere on this site, the US is pumping vast amounts of money into researching the causes of and finding the solutions to a very old and tragic problem.
Alot of people wouldnt understand the words “blue on blue” , sounds cool though heh 
There is a word cropping up far too many times on this site to describe things. :?
The Yanks commit more cases of fratricide for the reasons that cuts said.
They don’t train nearly as hard or as often as other Armies, in this case specifically the Brits.
They don’t exercise as often, and they don’t go on Ops as often.
The British Army has been operating in NI now for nearly 30 years, where shooting someone who wasn’t identified most certainly put the soldier in the dock, and there have been a few instances.
I watched a program about a whole company of soldier in Iraq who had never seen combat, from OC and CSM to the new butt bunch. They were still conducting NBC drill tests days before the attack!!!
Although I don’t have official records, i would defy anyone to find even a Section or even a fire fire team in the british army that was 100% green.
Also in some units I seriously doubt their professionalism.
On a range with the yanks, I saw them DANCING on the fireing point, waving their gats all over the place, before they had been cleared!!!
I’ve seen a guy clear his weapon when coming in from a patrol and leave the mag on. After the round had hit the sand, he took the mag off, and fired the round that had been chambered after the last in to the sand!!!
The incident with the cleaning of the weapon, the guy cleaned it, and was alledgedly carrying our some sort of drill to ensure the mechanism worked on his M-16. Why he had put the mag back on, and obviously cocked the weapon while the mag was on, and why he was pointing at his head was never explained.
Anyone with a military connection should.
Besides, as I mentioned; ‘friendly’ fire bloody well isn’t !
I can just see the last line in the armourer’s part of the incident report:
“Weapon and ammunition worked as designed.”
[quote=“Cuts”]
Anyone with a military connection should.
Besides, as I mentioned; ‘friendly’ fire bloody well isn’t ![/quote]
Yes i have heard of blue on blue before and more people would understand friendly fire then “blue on blue”, but still they both sound good. 8)