What is the worst friendly fire incident you could ever think in WW2 and Korean War?

For me though i remember the worst friendly fire incident was Operation Cobra.

In my opinion, Operation Cobra was the worst where USAAF 8th Air Force bombers dropped bombs a short near Normandy ended up killing a highest-ranking US general and killing over 200 US troops in two days. I also remember some Australian P-51s accidentally destroyed a train ended up killing some US and South Korean troops.

What is the worst friendly fire incident in WW2 to your opinion?

reply to post by Paulioetc15



In my mind, the worst "Friendly Fire" incident of WW2, the Korean War or, for that matter, any war has to be the
Bombing of Dresden.

Between February 13th and 15th of 1945, over 3500 planes and heavy bombers took part in raids on the ancient Baroque city and capital of Saxony, Dresden. Dresden was supposed to be of no military importance and, furthermore, it was considered an "Open City". That is, it housed tens of thousands of refugees: German, Eastern European and it was even the location of POW camps for American, British an Canadian soldiers.

Winston Churchill had promised to spare Dresden as a safe-haven for German refugees. The city of 650,000 million had swelled to an estimated two million prior to the bombing. The attack was largely hidden from the American population for two and a half decades. It wasn’t until the 1969 movie “Slaughterhouse Five” about US POWs in Dresden shocked American audiences, who had never heard of the bombing before. The movie was based on a book by Kurt Vonnegut and cited the death toll at 135,000. Kurt Vonnegut was not only a famous novelist, but was an American POW that witnessed the bombing firsthand. Tens of thousands of American, British, and Canadian POWs were being held in Dresden. As many as 4,000 died in the bombing. A little known investigation by the US government declared that 50,000 had perished. However, a large list of major historians have consistently put the death toll at well over 100,000. Some German historians claim a quarter of a million killed. Most of the victims were homeless refugees fleeing from the Soviet Army. After the bombing, Winston Churchill appeared ashamed of it and repeatedly tried to distance himself from the attack. An American investigation into why Dresden was bombed blamed the attack on the Soviet Union. Stating that the US was obligated to bomb Dresden at the request of the Soviets due to a pre-existing agreement. Now the German government has declared that only 25,000 people died, and that larger figures are “right-wing propaganda.” The laughable report does not even count the Allied POWs who died in Dresden. Even the United States government has previously published the death toll at 50,000. The German government justifies the 25,000 figure by using a tally of known Dresden residents who died. It does consider that most of those who perished were non-resident refugees. The report is transparently disingenuous and a hypocritical double standard when it comes to the application of German law protecting the memory of those who died in atrocities. SOURCE

Subsequent post war inquiries regarding the massive loss of civilian lives -- not to mention allied military personnel being held as POWs -- found that the bombings were "justified". Frankly, after quite a bit of research, much of the material seems vague and even contradictory. And while this might not be what one could strictly define as friendly fire, considering that as many as 4,000 Allied military personnel perished, I would have to add this event to any discussion on this topic.

reply to post by benevolent tyrant


Sorry for the late comment. iI i can remember the lot of friendly civilians were killed by Allied bombing raid during the Battle of Caen.