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The Worst Friendly Fire Incident Of World War II
A sad disaster with no clear answers
War is messy. That is one of the facts that is often lost when real events are translated into the history books. Massive invasions and sprawling plans are often boiled down to a few sentences that rarely do the actual event justice. One such event was Operation Husky, the Allied Invasion of Sicily during World War II. The Allies put over 150,000 troops on the beaches of Sicily in a matter of days. One thing that military planners learned during World War II was that amphibious landings were hectic, chaotic, and confusing.
Soldiers would be dumped ashore with hundreds of other people. Some of them were navy officers, some were recon specialists, and others were quartermasters tasked with separating barrels of oil from barrels of drinkable water. The result was that the beaches were pure chaos. It was against this backdrop that the worst friendly fire incident in World War II unfolded to the horror of everyone.
Paratrooper Trepidation
At this point in the war, aerial insertion operations had been a disaster. Paratroopers suffered high casualty rates. Pilots often got lost on the way to jump points. Paratroopers would land scattered and would often be unable to navigate to their intended targets. Many generals…
