History of UK/US ‘friendly fire’ incidents

Factual Questions
1

I was listening to an author talk (on the radio) about background influences on (so-called) ‘friendly fire’ incidents – he’d written a book on the subject, not sure when.

Can’t recall his name (‘cept to say he was British, English I’d guess) and I’m almost certain the book had the word ‘backdoor’ or words ‘back door’ in the title.

More exactly, I’m interested in establishing the credibility of his statement that British forces have been subject to over 100 friendly fire incidents at the hands of US forces in 12 recent wars without any (US subject to UK friendly fire) coming the other way.

Facts in relation to his claim would be perfect but if anyone can help me identify the book itself, that would also be most helpful ?

2

Is this the book?

Backfire: A History of Friendly Fire from Ancient Warfare to the 21st Century. By Geoffrey Regan

3

Looks like an interesting read - the whole issue of friendly fire (particularly since we do seem to be on the receiving end of a lot of it) has always interested me too.

4

Kal, that looks to be exactly the right banana ! I bow to your superior online beavering abilities – but that’s enough about your personal life … Thank you very much !

5

Okay i’ve done a wee bit of beebling (googling the bbc site :slight_smile: ).

This list contains all the incidents of friendly fire they have reported on since 1991.

I’ve confined this list purely to incidents involving military personel and US, British or UN forces including and since the gulf war.

The list does not include “woundings” (With the exception of the Sierra Leone incident which i felt was major enough to be included) a lot of these incidents included wounding in some capacity and there were a couple of minor “friendly fire” incidents involving solely US personnel that resulted in wounds but no deaths.

It also does not include military vs civilian incidents - the four notable events excluded because of this are

  1. the US bombing of the Afgan wedding in the Anti-Taliban campaign.

  2. the refugee column in Bosnia bombed by US and UK planes

  3. a refugee column in Bosnia bombed by US planes despite alleged attempts by low-flying British harriers who had visually identified the column to “warn-off” the US planes. (“allegedly” because whilst i vividly remember reading this in both the Times and Guardian at the time i cannot, unfortunately, find a cite)

  4. A further refugee column in Bosnia bombed by US planes only.

The Bolded incident is the only recorded “Brit on Brit” friendly fire incident

okay, without further delay:

Friendly Fire Incidents resulting in fatalities as of 4th April 2003
Iraq, March 2003: US A-10 Thunderbolt kills attacks british armoured vehicles near Basra. 1 Briton killed.

Iraq, March 2003: 2 British pilots killed when US missile battery shoots down their Tornado

Iraq, March 2003: 2 Britons killed when their challenger is fired on by another challenger tank.

Afghanistan, June 2002: 3 Afghan allies killed by US troops

Afghanistan, April 2002: Four Canadian soldiers killed by US bomb during training exercise

Afghanistan, January 2002: 1 US soldier killed by own forces.
Dec 2001: Three US soldiers, six Afghan allies killed by US bomb from warplane

Dec 2000: No deaths but 4 Kenyan UN Peacekeepers accidentally wounded by Sierra Leonian army in Sierra Leonne

Persian Gulf, 1991: Nine Britons killed by US warplane strike 35 American soldiers killed in series of incidents involving “friendly fire”

6

And you can add the latest bombing of US special forces and kurdish troops by a US bomber to that list.