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**Dauphin** · June 29, 2007, 15:42

There was a Kirk Douglas film called Paths of Glory that showed a French general order artillery fire on his own troops. Loosely based on a true story:

Géraud Réveilhac - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A9raud_R%C3%A9veilhac

Géraud François Gustave Réveilhac

In February 1915, after three attempts to take a strong German position failed, showing sovereign contempt of the life of his men,[4] he ordered artillery to shell a French trench, to force his troops to attack. Fortunately, the artillery commander refused to obey without a written order.

**Arrian** · June 29, 2007, 16:29

http://www.ww2pacific.com/friendly.html

Trying to find out if this is real...

In the reoccupation of Kiska, Alaska, to retake that island from the Japanese, 35,000 US Army and Navy units along with Canadian attacked and fought for three days in fogbound crags suffering 25 killed, 31 wounded. The Japanese had already evacuated their 5,000 men from the island. All the fighting was between friendly units.

-Arrian

**Arrian** · June 29, 2007, 16:34

From wiki:

[edit] Friendly fire in the U.S. military
Pentagon estimates of U.S. friendly fire deaths, as a percentage of total U.S. deaths:

American Civil War
Confederate Genereal Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson died as a cause of friendly fire.
World War II: 21,000 (16%)[citation needed] Figures have run anywhere from 2% to 12% depending upon the source.
Highest-ranking U.S. loss of the war, Lieutenant General Lesley J. McNair
Sinking of the submarine FS Surcouf. This was initially attributed to a collision with the U.S. freighter Thompson Lykes, but a later report stated that the Surcouf was mistaken for a U-boat and destroyed by U.S. planes. Historians differ on which account is true.
Sinking of the submarine USS Dorado by U.S. planes.
Damage to the light cruiser USS Atlanta by the cruiser USS San Francisco.
Near damage of the battleship USS Iowa (with President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard) by the destroyer USS William D. Porter. This incident led to the “Willie D.” being greeted with the hail, “Don’t shoot, we’re Republicans!”
Viet Nam War: 8,000 (14%)
Operation Desert Storm (1991: 35 (23%)
Invasion of Afghanistan (2002): 4 (13%) fatalities were Canadian soldiers. A U.S. fighter pilot dropped a 500 lb (228 kg) bomb on Canadian soldiers performing a live-fire exercise on April 17, 2002 [3]
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.

I'm guessing that sunken subs might have the highest total death tolls because, well, generally people don't survive that.

edit: oof, this is pretty bad:

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.

-Arrian

**Arrian** · June 29, 2007, 16:43

Originally posted by Arrian

http://www.ww2pacific.com/friendly.html

Trying to find out if this is real...

-Arrian

According to this:

404 Error Page

http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/wwii/Guard-US/ch11.htm

As on Attu, complete surprise seemed to have been achieved. All through the first night and the next day, and for several days afterward, American and Canadian patrols probed deeper into the island, occasionally hearing the noise of gunfire, but never encountering any Japanese. Kiska was an uninhabited island. The only guns that fired were those of friend against friend, and partly on that account casualties ashore during the first four days of the operation numbered 21 dead and 121 sick or wounded.

-Arrian

**BeBMan** · June 30, 2007, 08:44

Some cases

That guy ordering to attack his own soldiers should have been shot for treason.

But this is my favorite

Near damage of the battleship USS Iowa (with President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard) by the destroyer USS William D. Porter. This incident led to the “Willie D.” being greeted with the hail, “Don’t shoot, we’re Republicans!”

One rather prominent example from a German perpective is "Operation Bodenplatte" ("ground plate" - stupid name), the last ditch effort of the Luftwaffe to prove itself useful on the Western front in WWII. Originally planned in Dec 1944 as massive surprise attack on Allied airfields in France, Belgium and the Netherlands to support the Ardennenoffensive (Battle of the Bulge), the op had to be postponed due to bad weather.

Finally it was launched on Jan 1 45, with over 1000 planes - quite an effort for the Luftwaffe that late in the war. These were mainly fighters used in the fighter bomber role, which were thought to be more useful in achieving the surprise effect than standard level bombers. The strike was somewhat successful, destroyed over 450 Allied planes and knocked out several airfields at least temporarily, but on the way back it turned out nobody had informed various German AA batteries, which then did their best to decimate the returning fighters. Of the 304 Luftwaffe planes lost in that op, 84 fell victim to friendly fire, leaving the German air force weaker than ever, because unlike the Allies Germany couldn't afford such losses in planes, and esp. not in pilots at that time.

Operation Bodenplatte - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unternehmen_Bodenplatte#Operation_Hermann