A Brief History
On April 5, 1943, B-17 Flying Fortress bombers of the American 8th Air Force proved once again that “Friendly fire is not friendly!” On several occasions, we have discussed incidents where one side in an armed conflict accidentally causes casualties to either their own people or the people of an allied nation. In this case, US bombs meant to attack a factory supplying engine parts for German warplanes hit a residential area of Mortsel, Belgium, killing 936 civilians, of which 209 were children under the age of 15.
Digging Deeper
The US aviators were convinced that daylight bombing by heavily armed bombers utilizing the most sophisticated bomb sight of World War II, the Norden Bombsight, could destroy targets with “precision” bombing. The reality was that ideal conditions did not exist for bombing in Europe, with clouds and other weather conditions not conducive to good visibility. Other factors limited accuracy had to do with the Germans. These Germans had the audacity to send numerous fighter planes to shoot down and harass bombers and ground based anti-aircraft fire (known as flak) made bombing runs a hellish proposal. Another factor was large formations of bombers could be spread over a large area themselves, meaning the pattern of bombs hitting the ground would mirror the spread of the bombers.
In the case of Mortsel, the target Erla factory was only about 1 kilometer from the residential area, only a tad over a half mile away. In World War II heavy bombing, a half mile is well within the expected zone covered by bombs. Only 2 bombs hit the target factory, but those 2 bombs were highly effective, starting fires that destroyed most of the factory. The other 245 tons of bombs dropped by the 82 B-17’s landed mostly on the town, causing devastating destruction. In addition to the 936 civilians killed, another 1600 were wounded, 600 of those seriously. This loss of life and injury to a friendly country was to be the deadliest single incident of World War II for the Belgians.
Today our jet bombers and fighter bombers drop precision guided weapons (bombs and missiles) that are expected to hit exactly what they are aimed at. Civilian casualties and friendly troops hit by our ordnance is considered a major failure. The public has an unrealistic expectation of surgical strikes that only kill bad guys, but on March 17, 2017, an airstrike by US airplanes against an ISIS terrorist target inadvertently killed at least 100 Iraqi civilians and as many as 209, with many more injured. It is unknown how many ISIS terrorists were killed in the attack. A tactic employed by ISIS has been to keep close to civilians in order to gain protection from US and Coalition attacks that attempt to avoid civilian casualties, making these civilians virtual “human shields.”
Despite mighty efforts, “friendly fire” incidents continue to happen, though rarely on the scale that World War II bombing mistakes caused. Question for students (and subscribers): How many civilian casualties are acceptable as “collateral damage” in war? Please share your opinions on this topic with your fellow readers in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Veranneman, Jean-Michel. Belgium in the Second World War. Pen and Sword Military, 2014.
