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Friendly Fire World Naval Ships Forums Archive

Friendly Fire

Posts 1 to 5

On 22nd February 1940 six German destroyers en route to their North Sea Stations were mistakenly attacked by their own air force. A Heinkel 111 on a mission to attack shipping along Britains East Coast spotted the wake of the destroyers . Believing them to be enemy merchant ships the plane attacked and the destroyer LEBERECHT MAAS was hit by two bombs breaking her in two. 60 of the crew survived whilst 282 were either drowned or killed in the bombing. The plane next attacked the MAX SCHULTZ but the destroyer hit a British laid mine and sank after a violent on board explosion. The entire crew of 308 men went down with the ship. A court of enquiry held later on the cruiser ADMIRAL HIPPER established that the tragedy was caused by the German Navy Group West’s failure to inform the Luftwaffe that its ships were at sea. John

One would like to think that with all the advances in technology, events such as this one couldn't happen now. Think again! Recall that at least 2 passenger planes have been shot down in recent years. And there were a few incidents in the Gulf War as well.

The "friendly fire" incident of the 22nd Feb.1940 was known as[B] OPERATION [/B][B]WIKINGER[/B]-full details are given in the link below. It does seem most unusual for the attacked ship(s) not make some sort of recognition signal. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wikinger[/url]

"A court of enquiry held later on the cruiser ADMIRAL HIPPER established that the tragedy was caused by the German Navy Group West’s failure to inform the Luftwaffe that its ships were at sea." I take it that the Heinkel crews were released without charge. Not being familiar with this incident, what was their fate? Regards

None of the responsible officers were called to account-see link #2 jainso31

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