I had the privelage to know an English korean war vet. He said the yanks used to mortar quite near to them a lot. Every time they went to command and complained, nothing happened, one day however, the yanks mortared too close and killed a 19 year old boy, the unit decided enough was enough and to take matters into their own hands by firing back with their own howitzers. he didn't tell me whether they hit or missed, but he said the yanks never fired their mortars near them ever again.

A very disturbing friendly fire incident was described in the WW2 memoire "With the Old Breed" by USMC veteran Eugene Sledge. During the battle of Peleliu, Marines were taking up positions in a heavily defended swamp one night. One Marine woke up screaming as he had lost his mind. Despite giving him morphine, punching him and trying to talk him down, the Marine kept screaming and thrashing, thinking the other Marines were Japanese troops. Not wanting their positions to be given away, someone hit him with an entrenching shovel to knock him out, but the sharp edge of the shovel went into his skull and killed him instantly. Everyone unanimously agreed it was better he was killed than risk everyone else's life and the murder wasn't too seriously questioned.

Those officers that were unpopular and died to their own troops never heard of Sun Tzu's "Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death."

There was an incident in Vietnam when a company of LRPs(later Rangers) got a new commander who tried to run the company by the book. Daily formations and inspections etc. He also tried to run their missions from the basecamp instead of allowing the team leader in the field to run it. One day he came out of his hooch and stepped on a "toe popper" mine. It was officially determined to be the work of VC sappers.

One problem with Vietnam was the so called "90 day wonder". Young officers that had never seen combat being put charge of battle harden soldiers. These young go by the book officers tended to get people killed. In Vietnam you had to throw away the book if you wanted to live. There is a scene in a movie that shows just how this worked. This new young officer gets off a helicopter. No one salutes him. He gets all mad and demands he be saluted. They salute him and down he goes. A sniper was just waiting for an officer to shoot and he found one. He went back on the same chopper he came in on. This kind of stuff happened a lot.

There's a Vietnam vet that my grandpa knew who "tripped" and "accidentally" shot his officer, killing him, after his group was ordered to march toward a very large group of NVA which they thought was a suicide mission. After he died they walked back to base.

I remember someone telling a story from his grandma about how her husband had fought in The Great War. He was serving under a coward and incompetent lieutenant who would order a daring charge, only to hide under a crater. Eventually, one of his men threw a grenade at the hole and carried on.

So... the "psychotic prankster" achievement in Fallout came from British soldiers in WWI, who in a disagreement with their NCO, reverse pickpocketed a live grenade into his inventory. Legends.

My grandfather told me the story of when he went to do is military service, which was mandatory here in France. There was this officer that liked messing with him, and disliked him for some reason. One night, my grandpa was affected to guard a hangar, in which were placed all of the bases bed sheets on lines for them to dry. So, there is this huge hangar and my grandfather watching over it, when in the middle of the night, there’s this guy sneaking in. My grandpa sees him, recognize his officer. Before this guy realizes, gramp takes his rifle by the cannon and smack his officer in the face with the butt. The man end up knocked unconscious, and when the others arrive to see what’s the commotion, my grandpa explains to them he warned the guy to identify himself, which he ignored so he went straight to violence (obviously there was no first steps to this story except straight fking vengeance) . He told me that after this incident, the officer kept himself from bullying though I highly doubt he liked my grandfather any more than prior to this.

"War does not determine who is right, only who is left." - Bertrand Russell

Had a great uncle that fought in WW2. Was Canadian with British commander. They were to take a bridge, with a German machine gun on the other side. The British officer wanted the men to march four abreast across the bridge. They were getting torn to pieces, my uncle was in line to march across when that officer was shot in the back of the head. As soon as that happened the second in charge pulled everyone back. That night they snuck through the river and took the machine gun out without losing another man.

My grandfather told me in the navy during ww2 if a guy was too unpopular, he would be "lost" at sea

Carlos Hathcock address this breifly in his book. Telling tales of how you didn't want to be an officer that 'accidentally' frogot to turn in his hand grenade. He spoke of how common it was for disgruntled men to toss them under an officers tent flap late at night. Spooky stuff.

At 1:34 they recreate the scene in Platoon where Barnes tries to kill Elias while mentioning fragging. Thing is the killing was to keep Elias from telling their superiors of Barnes' war crimes. It doesn't really goes with the fragging out of rebellion concept but is more in straight up murder.

8:05 amongus

I had a friend who had served in Vietnam. He said they got a lieutenant who lead them into unnecessary danger. He said they waited until the fighting was thick then they back away from him and left him isolated. The NVA killed him.

"Friendly fire is never friendly, just like Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend once you've pulled the pin."

It would be interesting to see just how many friendly fire incidents were due to grunts taking out incompetent "superiors". I mean, I don't know anything about leading military units, but I do know you *don't* piss off a bunch of guys carrying guns, explosives, and sharp, pointy knives/bayonets.

One of the worst enemies an officer can make, is the men under him.

In the 50s, my grandpa had an officer who dove onto a live grenade someone had dropped during a training exercise, and saved my grandpa's (among others) life

One friendly fire scenario you left out is the firing on an enemy position without regard for the proximity of friendly troops because they were to be sacrificed. i.e. Longshanks orders his archers to fire vollys at the Scots who were intermingled with his own troops.

During my service there a few people that I wanted to kill. And the feeling was mutual. But we never carried it out. Transfers have a way of keeping order and morale when you know that the enemy who wears the same uniform as yours, either leaves first... or you do.

Afghanistan and Iraq saw a ton of deliberate green on blue friendly fire incidents; Afghan and Iraqi people signed up to be trained by US&coalition soldiers, went a long with it all until they got their hands on a weapon for shooting exercises, to then use the weapon instead to kill their foreign instructors. In Afghanistan one of these insider attacks even killed a US general, wounding more than a dozen people, among them also a German general.

I have always been amazed at how accurate the details are in the renderings and how there is actually a ton of loaded humor going on behind the script in these videos. I really enjoy these. As a “gun” guy your renderings are always spot on.

My grandfather is a Canadian Korean War vet and he recounted many times the American troops would bomb the hillside they were stationed on. Thankfully no one was ever killed from what I know but he did say it was quite the experience hearing the roar of their fighters and soon the sound of their bombs hitting the ground.

Say you're just a normal guy who gets drafted against his will to fight people who (normally) don't have anything against you or your country. They're forced to follow orders for some other high ranking people's gain. Who are you gonna wanna kill, the strangers or that captain who's been pissing you off ever since you were forced to interact with him?

I'm kinda shocked they never mentioned Pat Tillman, y'know the guy that got shot and killed by one of his guys from 90 feet away? It was clearly a case of deliberate friendly fire and I'd heavily recommend reading about it if you don't know about it already.

4:02 "They didn't express their enthusiam but instead expressed their opinion by sending a musket ball through his head" 🤣

As a quality control professional I would point out that one of the more serious issues that businesses face is management that alienates internal personnel. Usually protest takes the form of quitting but dissatisfied personal are very often careless and inefficient (I.e. languishing.) it’s pretty serious, companies can go under in those conditions. Having a work force that is armed AND unable to quit. It’s less of a question of how often it’s happened but how often people have gotten away with it.

“Bro it’s just a prank” The prank: 4:42

There was a ..... "game".... by some French viets veterans that goes like that : When you were stressed to the point of not being stressed anymore, when you could die at each step you took so you became insensitive to death, they gathered in a dark house, put something on the eyes of one dude with a loaded gun, and the others wandered around in the house. Then, one of them said "COUCOU !" (Hello !) and the blinded one needed to shoot in that direction while the other needed to dodge. In a completely dark room. Just to feel alive again. Weirdly enough, there weren't *that* many casualties. Just a rare few, most of them did get hurt though. Because they didn't want to kill their friend, they fired just a bit away from were they were *supposed* to be, but sometimes, well, it didn't miss Also, in operation, we did tome tactical shooting exercice, and one of my officer wanted to dual-wield Tomb Raider style, it was a fun, but extremely dumb idea. Guess who took 2 pistols and shooted while jumping backwards. Guess who shoot his feets. Yeah.... Sometimes officers are morons. Yeah I know, inconceivable, right ? I think shooting yourself can be considered friendly fire ? Lmao And not getting into detail, but almost got shot by a 105mm tank shell from my own tank group. Almost pissed myself (maybe one or two drops) and I'm pretty sure my buddy shat itself, but who can blame him... And last but not least """""fun fact""""" : Execution during war times due to desertion is still up in most militaries.

The thumbnail is really a real "deliberate friendly fire" 💀🍷

My uncle deserted in Vietnam. He didn’t wanna go back so he didn’t show back up. He woke up to his house surrounded as he was put in handcuffs and shackles. And forced back into the war

That is why it takes guts to be a true leader in the military. This video reminds me of Captain Sobel from band of brothers who was so hated by his men that many of the NCOs from his company resigned as they did not want to follow him in combat.

In Nam, my grandpa kept hearing from a friend that their CO was horrible. While said CO wasn't *great* he wasn't horrible, at least in my grandpa's eyes. They were all stressed. Until the friend took a fist to the jaw and a trip for the Medic for accidentally damaging a machine gun. That night, there was an explosion and they all snapped to attention, running to stations. There was no further gunfire. They found my grandpa's friend chainsmoking outside the barracks, and the CO soaking into his bedsheets. Those frags are nasty when they're 2 feet under your lower back.

0:42 neat fact, the warthog has zero targeting equipment they use binoculars to spot targets, and radios to confirm them. They've killed more friendlies than foes.

That little Platoon reference is probably the best case of "Deliberate Friendly Fire" I've ever seen in any movie.

Hi, just wanted to share some info on the blocking detachments and order 227. Order 227, only applied to officers who fell back from occupied positions. If they were caugh they would be sent to a military tribunal where they would have to prove to the court if the retreat they ordered was the right choice, then they were safe. If they deemed the order was not the right choice then they would either be sent to the penal battalion (which was more likely) or in rare cases they would be executed by a firing squad. Even the political commissars that were in charge of the blocking detachments were hesitant to perform summary execution on the battlefield as it meant they would have to justify their actions in court, which would also require the testimony of the soldiers that were following their officers. In the end it is also pointed out in the video that there was no need for such order as the soldiers were fighting like crazy. It was just that The Red Army was still suffering greatly from Stalin's purges that most of the experienced military personnel were sent to the gulags or killed.

I knew a marine that said the first thing he'd do in a combat operation is shoot the officer in charge. His reasoning was that whenever he was training, officers ordered a frontal assault, while sergeants ran enveloping attacks. The former looks good to superior officers, where as the latter suffered fewer casualties.

Friendly fire, the incident that never stops in war. I also like how the word "among us" was a normal word before 2020. Here is the timestamp where the narrator said "among us": @8:05

A childhood friend's father loved to tell stories about his younger life, fighting, hunting and war. He was one of the meanest toughest old men I ever met, but once you proved your worth, he was as good as gold to you. One story I never forgot was a story about Vietnam. Apparently he and another marine spent all afternoon building a giant foxhole, dug into the side of a hill. It provided more protection than a typical foxhole, because it was larger and instead of being just a hole, it went into the hillside and turned a bit. As the story goes; as soon as they were finished with the hole, they're superior officers releived them of their newly dug positions. This did not sit well with him, as he was NOT one to be toyed with. So he and his friend are forced to start digging a new foxhole, which they do, just above their old foxhole. Apparently they weren't even done digging their new hole, when a firefight kicked off. Then he says..."wouldn't ya know it, first thing that happened, a grenade landed in the officers foxhole. Poor guy" I have no way of knowing the truth of his story, but I will say, several other things he mentioned, which I thought untrue at the time, have proven to be true. For example he referenced the Skyhook program by name and I had no idea what he was talking about. A decade later I randomly come across a video about it and it was just as he had described.

4:01 for whatever reason this made me chuckle

That mistrust of officers stuff is no joke. Unless the officer was prior enlisted, no one trusted his judgement. Once while my buddy was under fire in Kabul, a Lt Col made it out to them, asked where the enemy was shooting from, and shot in that direction once with his service pistol. He then left my buddy and the rest there to resume fighting. It was all so he could get a CAB. (Combat Action Badge)

*The video is very good, the historical knowledge about the war is good and easy to absorb. I hope the channel grows more and more🤗🤗🤗🤗*

Although fragging was common amongst US troops in Vietnam there was only one recorded case in the Australian army. I happened to meet the soldier who was assigned as escort to the perpetrator, who told him he couldn’t remember doing it! He had been drinking heavily and his mates had egged him on to do it, but as so often happens under extreme intoxication there is no memory of what had happened the night before. One other deliberate blue on blue in the Australian army in Vietnam was when a disgruntled private had been drinking to excess and threatened to kill an nco. Since everyone was armed in case of an enemy attack, they took his rifle off him. However in an unguarded moment he managed to find where they had put his rifle and returning, shot two soldiers.

4:32 Death: the Ultimate Prank!

At 10:00 mark really stands out to me. I knew an old Aussie Vietnam vet who shot his lieutenant for this exact reason. The officer was attempting to order an advance while outnumbered over 10:1 within 1km from the NVA. He received no battle commendations but a bullet instead. Naturally old Greg was court-marshaled but then acquitted.

during the final days of ww2, 2 soviet armies were racing to berlin. both armies would deliberately fire artillery at each other to slow the other army down. both generals wanted the 'glory' of capturing berlin

5:30 YOOO ENGLISH STALIN

“During the war of the Spanish succession, British regiment o’ Foot were sent to Germany” People who don’t study History: “What?”

Fragging was a good argument for ending the draft

My grandfather was an MP in the 2nd Marines stationed at Khe Sanh during the siege. He was in charge of guarding the brig on the base, and one morning he woke up to a grenade underneath his pillow, still with the pin in it though.

Recommend the documentary "Sir, no sir" describing "fragging" of company CO during the Vietnam War.

An old German soldier told me of an incident, during the invasion of Poland. An officer made them round up civilians and put them in a barn which was then set on fire, and anyone running out shot. During the units next attack, that officer was "accidentally" shot in the back. Not all Germans were nazis, and didn't like what they were made to do.

There is also a form of "sacrificial" deliberate friendly fire. Cases where air strikes or artillery are called down right on top of friendly troops, because enemy forces and friendlies are in close proximity. In this case, if a position is being overrun officers may call down artillery or air strikes on their own position... In other cases, brass will realize a line is breaking, and just poor artillery into the hole to stop any advance while moving troops up... this kind of strike often kills or injures friendly troops too.

Another friendly fire story from Eugene Sledge's book With the old breed is when in Peleliu they were sleeping in fox holes and two japanese soldiers infiltrated them at night. One of the marines ended up leaving his fox hole and was shot and wounded badly. To make matters worse, after the incident was over, in the pitch black night one of the marines went to the wounded marine, thinking he was a wounded japanese infiltrator and shot him in the head point blank, killing him instantly. Only in the morning they found out it was one of their own.

Archers and javelin men did this often in ancient warfare

this is exactly what my friends do to me in video games lmao

Can’t forget Luigi Cadorna’s order to practice decimation (killing one of every ten men in a unit) against his own Italian troops during WW1. His entire ideology was “If you don’t win this war, you don’t love your country. It doesn’t matter how much better or worse the enemy is. If you even look back, you’re a coward.”

You can never keep your troops in line with violence and tyranny. Nor can you be their friend. You command through respect, harsh but fair discipline and while cliche never ordering a soldier to do something you wouldn't

i recall this was also a problem for the french army in ww1, its been awhile since i read poilu but i recall barthas describing incidents of french commanders shooting insubordinant soldiers.

Loved that platoon reference

my dad's vote is the only reason his Lieutenant survived vietnam. He tried to make them charge a rice patty that had enemy machine gun firing at them. And the sgt belayed the order saying " we don't charge sir, we will have the air force take the position out before we risk a marine"... My dad said they voted on wether or not to frag him that night and it was his vote that broke the tie breaker...

I was told by a Canadian officer that the pistol he carried was not for the enemy but for his own troops, since the pistol is not much use on the battlefield because of its short range.i believed him.

The A10 warthog actually has one of the highest blue on blue incident records because the plane has nearly no electronics in it and IFF detection via binoculars is really hard.

4:29 I thought the thumbnail was just click bait. I did not know it really happened that way.

If anyone ever gets the chance and are in the UK, go visit The Durham Light Infantry Museum in Durham City, NE England. The museum tells of the horrors of war and how soldiers were treated by their own superiors. I visited for the first time and took my young son along. It was a quiet day and staff were awesome. They took my son and dressed him up as a soldier, showed him guns and basically spoiled him rotten. I stood to one side and began reading the museum displays. At that time I'd never even considered how superiors behaved toward soldiers and I kid ye not by the end of my museum wander I was in floods of tears. I tried questioning staff about the behavior toward soldiers and they all nodded at me. I was speechless. Obviously my son had a great time that day but I left mentally scarred by it all. War is a terrible thing that brings out the worst in humans - even at their own side.

1:45 platoon in a parallel universe

My grandfather served in Vietnam as a dog handler, he told me about how when officers screwed up the men would sometimes throw live grenades under their bunks while the officers where sleeping to try to kill them/send a message for putting everyone in danger.

1:35 Willem Dafoe made it into Simple History. Amazing.

8:05 GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD

"It's just a prank bro" The prank:

I am a little disapointed that you had not mentioned the tird reason for deliberate friendly fire: MEDICAL DISCHARGE. A seriously injured soldier (shot, stabbed and so on) would be sent back home to heal, or at least back to base. So there were many reported cases of soldiers shooting theyr comrades in the legs or shoulder, so they could be sent back home. Very ofthen captured weapons were used, to mask the truth. During WWI the French and British Armies had to create special penal codes in order to punish the men that did it. If they were sent to jail others could start to see this as a prize (leaving the trenches), and the cases would start to ballon out of control; if they were shot, the soldiers would see this as murder, because killing a defenseless injured man is a cowardice, and the officers could end up with a rebellion in theyr hands. More ofthen than not, this cases ended up with the men sent to foward sentry posts, doing patrols or other jobs that would make them easy targets for the enemy.

In WW2, the 325th Fighter Group, stationed in Africa was flying P-40's. They often got "bounced" by P-38 groups, whose pilots mistook the single engine fighters for German aircraft. Col. Bob Baseler, the 325th's CO decided to get even. He took a captured BF-109 (nicknamed "Hoiman") over the offending fighter group's airfield at noon, at very low level. The men were at mess. Trays flew. The P-38 pilots got the point.

the thumbnail 💀

“We Have Blue On Blue!!!" “Blue On Blue!!!"

Can’t even imagine the ways people kill their own in the military in modern times. Like maybe asking a soldier to walk down range to grab something and “accidently” catching a bullet.

Lest we forget the greatest single case of friendly fire. The "Assassination" of Emperor Lucius Aurelianus. "The Restorer of the World" Killed by his officers because of a falsified document that implied the Emperor would have them killed, which was proved to be fake after the officers committed the killing. Those responsible were punished severely by the Legionaries who loved and adored their Emperor who brought the Romans and the Empire back from the brink of Death.

Interesting as always 👍

My dad served in Thailand during Vietnam (Air FOrce) the base he was at was also home to covert operations conducted by US, Thai, Korean, and Australian special forces. One evening a Thai soldier decided he'd had enough of his officers and rolled a live grenade into the Officer's club, killed one of them and injured about a dozen others in the club at the time.

RIP Pat Tillman

10:43 Bro, he killed grandfather Tate?!😅.Andrew must me angry

1:40 I love how you remade the seen from “platoon”

- War is a tragedy without limits. Well said Simple History !

"War is where the young and stupid are tricked by the old and bitter into killing eachother." - Niko Belic

In my unit, the maintenance Sargent asked the commander not to issue ammo to his men. He was worried that he would be shot by his men. But nothing happened, was on watch for any issues

3:56 made me burst out laughing ngl.

3:06 Oh my gosh, he just disappeared. That's so strange.

I love the use of movie scenes in your art style for the videos. So cool

1:48 I love how the officer does a nervous smile in this clip, which shows that he is nervous and knows something is up as the soldier can clearly see he's not the enemy yet he's still pointing the gun at him

Having better officers with better training other than being rich would have helped a lot. Most armies didn't like raising men up from the ranks even though those that were tended to be better officers. They new how to fight and when to fall back.

1:34 that visual reference to Sgt. Barnes and Sgt. Elias from Platoon was perfect. Love that scene.

I love your channel so much- As an animator I highly respect the attention to detail in every episode. Keep making great content!

The A-10 is every Soldier's Best Friend and the Worst Enemy.

We had a Brigade Commander (COL) who had supposedly lost one of his balls in Vietnam as a Butter-Bar because one of his own troops shot it off because he was generally hated by his own Platoon. I can believe it because he was such a weenie that we generally hated him ourselves and was very happy when he was finally reassigned elsewhere.

I am aware of three times officers ordered artillery on own troop positions during WWII. Two of those officers ordered the artillery on their own positions, Lieutenant Audie Murphy and Lieutenant Fox. The third case, a platoon had gotten into a planned ladder barrage area and when it was discovered they were ordered out and before they reported that they were out the barrage was ordered. Fortunately the platoon had cleared the area. No one in the platoon was injured. Lieutenant Fox was killed and Lieutenant Audie Murphy was injured.

There is a reason why warrior Kings like Alexander the Great or beloved by the soldiers under their command and that is because the warrior Kings would literally fight alongside their own troops in war. Hence why the word warrior is attached to the title of King.

Great video, really interesting. I love the comments in which people either tell their own story, second hand story or just stories they read about. Thanks for the upload and comments with more stories 🧡

"War is all about eliminating the enemy before he eliminates you." No, that's combat. War is a means to subdue your enemy and force them to do what you want. I believe it was Sun Tzu that said "the greatest warrior can win a battle without drawing blood," or something to that effect.

Excellent content.