“Friendly Fire”, new and old. First read this from Iraq:
xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,3888-2284965,00.html
Then this from the UK:
Hundreds Of U.S. Troops Killed
In WWII Mistake In England
Note - The story of the accidental slaughter of hundreds, perhaps more, of American soldiers off and on the beaches of England in a catastrophic mistake during 1944 has been rumored for years. More information is now emerging from the shadows of time. Apparently, during a nightime practice amphibious assault exercise on the English coast, one or more German E Boats came across the flotilla of ‘invasion’ ships lying just off the target beach. The German boats opened fire and total chaos broke out, including the use of friendly British fire, using live ammunition, from shore aimed at the American forces involved in the practice landing. The carnage was withering and by morning, according to at least one witness, the beaches were littered with the bodies of hundreds of dead Americans with hundreds more still bobbing in the adjacent waters. Here is a new report on the tragedy from the Newspaper, Western Morning News in England:
IS this field the site of a mass grave of scores of American soldiers who died in a World War Two friendly fire incident in South Devon?
Rumours of a secret grave of US troops in the South Hams have persisted since wartime exercises involving tens of thousands of soldiers were carried out in 1944 to prepare men for the Normandy landings later that year.
Now corroborating eyewitness accounts obtained by the WMN suggest that scores of soldiers were killed in a series of friendly fire incidents and their bodies buried nearby.
Although the US authorities have admitted that more than 600 men were killed during the exercises in a surprise E-boat attack, these revelations will stun relatives of the dead who have always been led to believe that all the deaths were caused by enemy fire.
Suspicions that American servicemen were buried in South Devon arose in the 1980s when Stoke Fleming woman Dorothy Seekings broke her wartime vow of silence to US military forces, revealing how she had witnessed soldiers’ bodies being buried in a mass grave in the nearby hills.
Now the Western Morning News has uncovered an independent source who has given an eyewitness account of graves being dug in the same field near the South Hams village of Blackawton, near Dartmouth, in 1944.
Ugborough farmer Francis John Burden saw a huge pit between one and two acres in area with boxes the shape of coffins stacked beside it. Today a mound marks the site in a field belonging to farmer Nolan Tope, who told the WMN: “I know the whole story, but I have sworn not to tell anyone. These chaps gave their lives for you.”
Meanwhile former American serviceman Harold McAulley has revealed how he buried bodies - their faces black with oil and burns - in the South Hams. He said: “We hauled them off the beach and took a couple of (truck) loads inland and just threw them in.”
Evidence for a friendly fire incident is compelling, with a number of US soldiers giving key statements.
While Lieutenant Colonel Edwin Wolf watched troops debarking from landing craft on Slapton Sands in April, 1944 he heard several “zings” close to his ear. “Infantrymen on the beach fell down and remained motionless on the shingle - the exercise ‘defenders’ were using live ammunition,” he said.
American military driver Hank Aaron watched the same exercises from Strete Beach. Suddenly bullets began passing around his head and he scrambled from the action zone. When he looked up, five men nearby had been killed by the firing.
East Devon landowner Gordon Hallet has told how, in 1944, he pulled the drenched bodies of American servicemen from the sea off Exmouth, saying they looked like “sick mannequins”.
Witnesses tell how during the 1950s skulls and bones appearing to date from the end of World War Two were found buried beneath Blackpool Sands and surrounding beaches.
Then, in the 1970s, the skeletal remains of what appear to be an American serviceman’s leg, complete with boot, were found in the back garden of a house in the South Hams village of Strete.
Exeter-based Richard Bass, a wartime historian who has been studying the Westcountry D-Day exercises for 10 years, said: “Evidence is coming to light which reveals that a number of covered-up incidents occurred during the exercises. Now is the time for the truth to come out.”
rense.com/political/wwII.htm
edition.cnn.com/US/9511/veterans_day/memory/
I saw a ITV documentary about Slapton, that is how I came to hear about it. Veterans of Slapton appeared on it, one of them was coxswain of an LST. These veterans openly cried when describing how they were pinned down on the beach by friendly fire. They even described from what direction the machine gun was firing. Dozens of men were killed and apparently were posted as being killed in action. In my own personal opinion this is where the cover up came in. From the author: I hope my American friends will forgive me but this seems to be “nothing new”. How many times do we hear of US forces bombing Allies and their own? Gulf War - all British losses down to “friendly fire” and Afghanistan - how many “friendly” deaths? I suspect that the “dozens” of US soldiers that allegedly died by friendly fire can only be resolved by exhuming bodies and checking for bullets - I doubt if survivors of these families would like to find that out! Apparently some American soldiers were also killed by Royal Naval gunfire when they crossed lines they were supposed to remain behind - or did their officers not pass the orders on? More mystery?
But don’t worry, America is always happy to have the Brits beside us in a war. We need 
somebody just got bitch-slapped. sit yo’ ass down.[/quote]