World Battlefronts: MEN IN BATTLE: Needless Death

What unluckier death could there be than at the hands of blundering friends, destroying you in error? Yet it happens even in the best regulated wars, and much more commonly than is reported. Last week three such tragedies of errors came to light:

¶ British fighter planes, from a carrier protecting an Atlantic convoy, shot down an unarmed (cargo-carrying) American C-54 transport, mistaking it for a Focke-Wulf 200. Lost: a civilian crew of six.

¶During the invasion of Eniwetok, a U.S. destroyer, covering the landing, shelled three American landing craft (during bad weather when both vessels were slightly off their assigned positions). Lost: 13 dead, 45 wounded.

¶In the Southwest Pacific, Allied airmen who failed to recognize identification signals sank two American PT boats off New Britain. Lost: six.

¶A U.S. destroyer, bombarding the shore of northern Bougainville, sank a PT boat that strayed into its field of fire.