Since there is such a wealth of knowledge here ... anyone have any info on aircraft "accidently" lost to either friendly or enemy arty/mortar fire? I would have to guess that this has to have happened during CAS missions but I don't ever recall reading/hearing about it. Did a brief search on Google but couldn't think of any good search criteria to narrow down the results into something useful and decided to ask here <I'm freekin lazy>.
I can't say specifically about whether or not this has happened, but I do know that pilots get awfully nervous when they have to fly into areas where arty and mortars are shooting. Somehow they just don't like the term "big sky, little bullet." On the other hand, I know a former helicopter pilot whose aircraft was shot down by the VC using a tree branch and an old tire innertube.
Skeld Wrote:Since there is such a wealth of knowledge here ... anyone have any info on aircraft "accidently" lost to either friendly or enemy arty/mortar fire? I would have to guess that this has to have happened during CAS missions but I don't ever recall reading/hearing about it. Did a brief search on Google but couldn't think of any good search criteria to narrow down the results into something useful and decided to ask here <I'm freekin lazy>.
I have a vague recollection of reading about the JU52's flying in the German Mountain troops at Maleme, Crete 1941 being mortared by ANZACs when they first arrived. You will need to check that out though - it was a while since I think I read that.:)
That would probably be a reference to the planes actually landing/landed at Maleme, not while they were flying...
When I was younger, we almost shot down a helocopter when it flew over us during a demolition shoot in a steel pit... does almost count :)
I remember having read about an incident in which a Finnish WWI-era 203mm howitzer shot down a Soviet postal plane. It was somewhere between 1942 and 1944, which was time of trench warfare in Russo-Finnish front.
I guess these artillery guys had a little too much time and also a genius among them. The Soviet plane flew pass the frontline daily, same route, same time every day. So these guys started to make calculations on distance, speed etc. to hit the plane with a single heavy shell...so once they were ready and went for it, they hit the plane which disappeared completely in a huge explosion in the sky :cool2:...unfortunately I cannot remember the source where I read this but it was of type I could trust , even if this sounds unbelieveable.
Not lost to arty and certainly not accidentally but interesting enough to note here:
"... In the next attack, a Thunderbolt was shot down at close range (the explosive shell detonated right in the airplane, about 60 meters from the barrel of an 8.8 flak gun). There was a tremendous explosion; scraps of aluminium flew everywhere."
This was from an 88 of the Flak unit of FJD 5. protecting the Roth bridge over the Our during the Ardennnes battle.
Source: R. Gaul, The battle of the Bulge in Luxembourg Vol I. p 223.
Possible origin of "going postal"? ;)
Friendly Fire
http://www.c-7acaribou.com/album/photos/photo02.htm
This haunting photograph, which graced every Caribou briefing room, was a grim reminder that the Viet Cong and the NVA were not the only problem for pilots in Vietnam. This incident occurred in August of 1967 when the Caribou (tail number 62-4161) flew into the line of fire of a 155mm howitzer. This was early in the transition of the Caribou from the Army to the Air Force and highlighted the need for far better coordination amongst the services.
This photo is from book of photographs by combat photographers called Requiem. The photo credit is as follows:
HIROMICHI MINE
Ha Phan (sic), Vietnam, 1967
A U.S. twin-engine transport Caribou crashes after being hit by American artillery near Duc Pho on August 3, 1967. U.S. artillery accidentally shot down the ammunition-laden plane, which crossed a firing zone while trying to land at the U.S. Special Forces camp. All three crewman died in the crash.
Henry