4 incidents of friendly fire causing the most casualties in World War II

Friendly fire incidents have long been a part of the history of warfare, but with the increasing lethality of modern weapons, the consequences of these incidents became more catastrophic, especially during World War II.

Commentator Kenny Cheung ofListverseList the four "our troops attacking our own troops" incidents that caused the most casualties in the war.

The sinking of an Allied prisoner ship

On May 3, 1945, just one day before Nazi Germany surrendered, three Nazi transport ships, Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland, were sunk by Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets in the Baltic Sea.

However, the British pilots did not know that these three ships were carrying thousands of Allied prisoners of war and survivors from Nazi concentration camps.

Many Allied prisoners desperately called for help in the hold as the transports sank under fire from British fighter planes. Many SS guards were rescued by German fishing boats, but all the prisoners were left behind, some shot by British planes as they tried to swim to shore. An estimated 4,000 Allied prisoners died in the mistaken attack.

Operation Cobra

After successfully landing on the beaches of Normandy, France on June 6, 1944, the Allies organized Operation Cobra to intensify attacks on German troops deep inland.

On 24 July 1944, the first wave of heavy bombers was ordered to take off, but due to thick clouds the operation commander decided to postpone the operation for a day. However, this notice did not reach the entire Allied bomber force. 300 aircraft still took off as planned and bombed the Saint-Lô-Periers road.

The air raid hit both American and German positions on both sides of the road, causing 156 American casualties.The next day, 3,000 fighters and bombers continued to drop 4,000 tons of bombs to destroy the German Panzer Lehr Division, but once again the bombs fell on American positions., causing 601 casualties. Among the dead was Lieutenant General Lesley McNair, the highest-ranking American officer to die in Europe.

Viking Campaign

On February 19, 1940, six German destroyers were dispatched to chase away severalBritish fishing boats off the banks of the Dogger River. As these boats were passing through the minefield on the river,A German bomber without identification equipment flew over, causing the crew to mistake it for a British spy plane and open fire.

The bomber, by mistake, also attacked in return,sank the Leberecht Maass. As the remaining five ships moved to rescue survivors, the Max Schultz exploded after hitting a mine, throwing the entire formation into chaos. The incident cost a total of578 German sailors died.

Exercise Tiger

On April 28, 1944, eight Allied landing ships entered the bay.Lyme to conduct the first phase of Exercise Tiger in preparation for the Normandy landings. However, theThis fleet was discovered and attacked by nine Nazi German patrol boats equipped with torpedoes. Two shipsLST-507 and LST-531 sank with 600 American soldiers.

Despite this incident, the exercise continued with the remaining six landing ships. As the American troops landed on the beach, a British cruiser used live ammunition to fire on the shore to "train the soldiers' morale" according to the idea of ​​tGeneral Dwight D. Eisenhower, then Supreme Allied Commander.

However, the American soldiers landed in the wrong area where British artillery shells were expected to fall. Disaster struck when the naval gunfire rained down on the American troops that had just reached the shore,308 soldiers died.