Friendly fire

Friendly fire is when a soldier accidentally injures or kills someone from their own military or a soldier who is on neither side. If civilians are killed and not soldiers, it is called collateral damage.

According to Paul R. Syms, friendly fire is a very old phenomenon. He cites early descriptions of conflicts and events that were documented in Ancient Greece. He and other historians also point out that friendly-fire losses were significantly enhanced by weaponry like firearms, artillery, and airplanes.

Friendly Fire Media

• 

  An American B-17 Flying Fortress "Miss Donna Mae II" is damaged by bombs after drifting under the American bomber flying above it during the bombing of Berlin in 1944. The damage to the horizontal stabilizer caused the plane to go into an uncontrollable spin and crash, killing all 11 crew members.

• 

  Soldiers perform a night assault at Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center during Bold Quest 2011, a combat assessment exercise to test the interoperability of target identification systems of different allied nations to reduce friendly fire incidents.