Friendly Fire by John Armatys
John is one of the foremost experts on low level tactics of the 20th Century.
The article illustrates that friendly fire incidents do happen at sea. The Fletcher Pratt game is the only naval game I have played where friendly fire (aimed or just bad range estimates) happen as the players are spread out in the hall. The two times I have used aircraft (moved by the umpire) both sides have immediately opened fire on them regardless of the model used on the aircraft stand.
The piece was first published in the Nugget, number 199, May 2006 p33 as 'The Royal Navy and the RAF
Whilst researching "On a Wing and a Prayer", I read Bomber Offensive by Marshal of the R.A.F. Sir Arthur ('Bomber') Harris. The following extract is from page 61 of the Greenhill Books edition - Harris is sailing to the US on board HMS Rodney:
'I think it was on the second night out when we were at dinner in the Admiral's flat we heard a tremendous racket and roar overhead. There was also a shower of white paint and cork fragments off the deckhead above; the "Chicago piano" or multiple pom-pom anti-aircraft guns on the quarter deck had opened fire. The Navy run these things so well that I felt quite sure they would not open fire while we were having dinner down below merely in order to practice.
Admiral Sir Charles Little, the head of the Naval Mission to the United States, who was also present, suggested that I should go up and see the fun. But the figure of a duffle-coated snotty appeared in the doorway and reported without a blink at my presence; "The Captain's compliments, sir, but we are only firing at friendly aircraft." This seemed so normal to me that I required no further reassurance, but as a matter of curiosity we went up to have a look. A poor innocent old Whitley was than circling round that part of the Atlantic; it appeared that she had come out of the low clouds and been received in the usual manner by the Navy, and no questions asked. I must say it annoyed me a little; the airman is shot at by everybody, and usually without the slightest justification. Certainly there can be no mistaking the Whitley; its design was so cock-eyed that it always flew in the most astonishing and unusual attitude with its tail right up behind its ears....'
No mention of the embarrassing tendency of British aircrew to mis-identify and then attack the ships of the Royal Navy.