INDEPTH: FRIENDLY FIRE
The fog of war: Casualties of friendly fire
CBC News Online | Updated October 22, 2003
One of the injured Canadian soldiers |
The U.S. bombing that killed four Canadian soldiers and injured eight others in Afghanistan has been called a "terrible accident" and a "shocking tragedy."
One Canadian soldier in Kandahar was quoted as saying, "We all expected a mine strike at some point; we never expected this."
But this isn't the first case of friendly fire or accidental attacks since the war in Afghanistan began in October.
- On December 5, an American B-52 bomber missed its target and dropped a bomb instead on ground troops who were directing air strikes against nearby Taliban targets. Three U.S. soldiers and five Afghan opposition soldiers were killed and about 40 others were injured. The investigation isn't complete, but officials believe there were errors in transmitting target co-ordinates to the B-52.
- In January, U.S. forces killed 16 people and captured another 27 only to discover later that they were not members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
- On March 12, a training accident in the Kuwaiti desert killed five American soldiers and one officer from New Zealand when a pilot was mistakenly given the signal to bomb an observation post.
- It's now believed that U.S. special forces soldier Stanley Harriman and several Afghan fighters, who died on March 2, were killed not by al-Qaeda forces but by a U.S. gunship that engaged what it thought was an enemy convoy.
- And Canadians had a close call in March when they joined U.S. forces in Operation Harpoon, a search for Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters on a mountain known as "the Whale." An American fighter pilot mistakenly identified Canadian troops on the mountain as the enemy. His commanders later realized the mistake and called off the bombing five minutes before it was to begin.
Casualties due to friendly fire are nothing new. In fact, they are an unfortunate part of war.
During World War Two, more than 160 Canadian and Polish soldiers were killed and about 250 were wounded in Normandy when a U.S. aircraft accidentally dropped bombs on them.
In the Korean War, Canadian officer Dan Loomis called in mortar fire to help Canadian troops being pursued by Chinese forces, but the fire hit his own men after he mistakenly transmitted the wrong map co-ordinates.
In the Persian Gulf War, 35 of the 146 combat deaths among U.S. soldiers have been blamed on friendly fire.
But the exact number of military deaths due to friendly fire, in total or in a specific war or battle, is impossible to count because you can't establish the facts in every case.
"Unless there is a discrete incident, a separate measurable incident, as there was when bombs fell short in Normandy and landed among Canadians troops, most of the time the confusion of war is such that you cannot separate out the casualties from friendly fire from those inflicted by the enemy," says Jack Granatstein, a historian and former director of the Canadian War Museum.
"Artillery will fall short. Planes will drop their bombs in the wrong place. A soldier will lift his head up when someone behind him shoots his rifle," he says. "It's very hard to track the casualties and the causes of them in action."
Besides battlefield confusion, low visibility (due to conditions such as heavy rains, darkness or sandstorms) is a major cause of friendly fire.
In the recent case of friendly fire, the Canadian soldiers were taking part in a live-fire training exercise in the middle of the night. The darkness no doubt played a role in the American pilot believing he was under attack, and bombing the area as a result.
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The deaths in Afghanistan are the first Canadian combat deaths since the Korean War.
However, 111 Canadian soldiers have been killed in peacekeeping missions since then.
The last Canadian killed by hostile fire was Cpl. Daniel Gunther in Bosnia in 1993.
LOOKING BACK:
A number of Canadians died in live-fire training exercises in England in the run up to battle in the early 1940s.
After authorizing the use of live rounds during training, Senior General H.D.G. Crerar wrote in a letter on June 4, 1942, that "The importance of practising with actual fire support is so great, that legitimate risks must be run."
It has been noted in Canadian military books that these exercises "occasionally caused casualties."
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Friendly fire
In casualty reporting, a casualty circumstance applicable to persons killed in action or wounded in action mistakenly or accidentally by friendly forces actively engaged with the enemy, who are directing fire at a hostile force or what is thought to be a hostile force.
– From the U.S. Department of Defense
Look up more military terms
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