Friend or Foe?: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Are you friend or foe? You never can tell with some people."''|'''Ramba Ral''', ''[[Dynasty Warriors: Gundam|Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2]]''}}

{{quote|''"Neither enemy nor friend."''|'''Gray Fox''', ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]''}}

* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s [[Warhammer 40,000]] novel ''Titanicus'', Cally Samstag had the troopers [[You Are in Command Now|flee after one of them sent a message]]. They are still tracked down by skitarii. When they ask for them to [[Get It Over With]], the skitarii say they have sent for a rescue and then realizes that they thought it was an enemy.

* In [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s [[Ciaphas Cain]] novel ''Death or Glory'', when he made vox contact with Sergeant Tayber, Tayber refused to give him his position because he didn't know he was really a commissar, and went to meet him instead; this gives Cain hope that he has hit on a competent officer. Later, Lieutenant Piers is about to open fire on their [[Dressing as the Enemy|orkish vehicles]], and when Cain hails them, still demands that he prove it.

* In [[Graham McNeill]]'s [[Warhammer 40,000]] [[Horus Heresy]] novel ''False Gods'', Davin's moon is so mist bound that Loken is always bringing up his gun to shoot before he recognized an ally. More seriously, remembrancer Petronella Vivar takes it upon herself to go to the battlefield, and her shuttle goes unrecognized and is fired upon.

* In [[Graham McNeill]]'s [[Warhammer 40,000]] [[Ultramarines (novel)|Ultramarines]] novel ''Dead Sky, Black Sun'', after a fight, {{spoiler|the Unfleshed}} take Uriel and his companions prisoner because they might be friendly—though they think probably not.

* In [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[John Carter of Mars|The Gods of Mars]]'', John Carter, trying to escape, attacks the approaching jailor—only to realize that it wasn't the jailor, it was his own son. Briefly, he even thought he had killed him.

* In Jim Butcher's [[Dresden Files]] novel ''Dead Beat'', {{spoiler|[[Grand Theft Me]]}} makes this very difficult to figure out.

* In [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Lord of the Rings|The Return of the King]]'', the sight of the fleet causes panic in Gondor until its flag becomes clear.

* In ''[[The Children of Húrin|The Children of Hurin]]'', Turin, having been captured by Orcs {{spoiler|mistakes his best friend Beleg, who has come to rescue him, for one of his captors and kills him}}. This triggers a major [[Heroic BSOD]].

* In [[H. Beam Piper]]'s ''Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen'', Kalvan discusses [[Battle Cry|battle cries]] to keep their forces from attacking each other. At the battle itself, some of their foes attack others on their side; after it, Kalvan talks with one prisoner, who indignantly declares that he had been shouted his battle cry at the top of his lungs.

** Another example, in ''Discworld/Jingo''. While Vimes is having a talk with 71-hour Ahmed, they are attacked by a random Ankh-Morpork patrol.

* In [[C. S. Lewis|CS Lewis]]'s ''[[The Silver Chair]]'', having killed {{spoiler|the Lady of the Green Kirtle}}, they set out warily into her underground kingdom—her subjects are setting off firecrackers, and they fear signals—but once they capture one to question, {{spoiler|Rilian reveals that he killed "Her Ladyship", the subjects reveal they were under [[Mind Control]]}}, and matters are settled all around.

* In [[James Swallow]]'s [[Blood Angels]] novel ''Deus Encarmine'', many Blood Angels, driven into the Black Rage, fall blindly on each other—an effect that the survivors [[Heroic BSOD|actually admit]] [[Losing the Team Spirit|frightened them]]. When they counter-attack and take down the enemy ship, the Word-Bearers' helots are driven mad by the psykers' deaths and fall on each other—blocking the Word-Bearers' way, so they slaughter them, too.

* At the end of ''A Good Clean Fight'' by [[Derek Robinson]], a (British) SAS patrol is ordered to intercept the survivors of a German bomber that landed out in the desert. They do, and capture the crew. A (also British) fighter squadron has recieved the same orders, but when they reach the bomber they see that someone's been there before them. They follow the tire tracks—and thoroughly strafe the SAS patrol and kill everyone they see. [[Truth in Television|It happened]].

* In Andy Hoare's [[White Scars]] novel ''Hunt for Voldorius'', the Raven Guard, seeing someone arrive, discuss the possibilities—not allies of the Chaos forces, since they arrived secretly, but they could be Chaos forces that are rivals, and they don't see any way they could be Imperial. It is fortunate that one White Scar scout made out some of the Raven Guard and voxed an abort to the Thunderbirds, and the Raven Guard intercepted it; there was nearly a fraticidial bloodbath.

* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[Prospero's Daughter]]'' trilogy, at one point, someone pursuing Miranda by boat suffers a fatal accident on rocks. Only later does she learn he was one of her brother's men, trying to warn her of somthing.

* In the [[Dark Tower]] series, Roland mentions that he and his best friend Cuthbert killed their friend Alain after mistaking him for an enemy scout.

* In [[Michael Flynn]]'s ''[[Spiral Arm|In The Lion's Mouth]]'', a secret espionage war has friendly fire accidents: one man is killed by another on his side, because of his cover. Later, Dominic Tight is targetted {{spoiler|in an actual fight, where his invisibility cloak hides his identity.}}

* In the finale of ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'', {{spoiler|in order to distinguish between friendly and enemy [[Robot Mooks|Centurions]], the colonials use the simple method of slapping a red sash of paint on their friendlies, which had the advantage of making them look even more [[Badass]]}}

* ''[[The X-Files]]'': Agent Scully, in an effort to salvage her career, is paired with a young up-and-coming FBI agent. Who shoots a murder suspect who turns out to be holding a camera. Not only that, the bullet goes through his body and hits Scully. One assumes his career took a nosedive after that.

** It's also a common trope for the show in general. The tagline is "Trust No 1" for a reason. It's very hard to keep track of who is friend and who is foe, especially since that changes from week to week.

* An episode of ''[[MASH]]'' ('<nowiki>C*A*V*E</nowiki>') dealt with the 4077th's issues with a well-meaning artillery barrage. It's not the only time it happens.

* In [[Deep Space 9]] the crew are taking a captured [[Jem Hedar]] ship on a covert mission when they are attacked by the Federation ship USS Centaur. Fortunately there is little damage on either side.

== [[Real Life]] ==

* "At least" would be appropriate. People playing "scenario" paintball (in the woods with ambushes and camo, as opposed to open field with team-colored shirts and short-range engagements) and airsoft realize very fast how ''the only thing more accurate then incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire'' indeed.

* During the Battle of Chalons in 451 AD, after the Visigothic King Theodoric had died, the Visigoths and Romans had managed to fight Attila the Hun to a standstill into the night. In the darkness, Thorismund, the new Visigothic king, was nearly killed when he rode toward Hunnic lines thinking they were his own soldiers. Luckily for him, he realized the truth in time and booked it. This was mere hours after his father died. The Visigoths almost lost two kings in a single battle.

* It has been estimated that during any particular war since the dawn of the gunpowder era, as much as ten percent of the causalities were the result of this trope.

* Confederate general Stonewall Jackson was shot by some of his own men and mortally wounded when they mistook him for a Yankee in the dusk when he returned from a reconnaissance ride late during the battle of Chancellorsville (1863).

** This was a real problem for much of [[The American Civil War]]. Confederate soldiers in particular tended to wear non-standard uniforms, due to their government generally being less organized and specifically having serious problems supplying the troops. If you didn't have an overcoat you might take one off a dead or captured Yankee. Combine that with poor communications in a pre-radio era and the huge amounts of smoke produced in combat, and the general confusion caused by combat, and Friend Or Foe happened many times.

** During the Battle of Shiloh, one Union major{{Context|reason=Who?}} not only got separated from his troops, but as he described it to General Grant, was so turned around that just ten minutes before, he'd found himself trying to report to a '''Confederate''' brigadier general.

* During [[World War I]], being shelled by your own side's artillery was such a big and common hazard, that in the German army there was a much-used saying: "Der schlimmste Feind der Infanterie/Das ist die eigene Artillerie" (The worst enemy of the infantry is the own artillery).

* [[World War Two]] also had its share of incidents:

** The United states did field tests of the practicality of camouflage uniforms. By this I mean they took a handful of infantry, fitted them with uniforms, put them on the front and see how things turned out. Well the germans were the only ones in the theater that had their infantry use camouflage uniforms in appreciable numbers. With that knowledge and the fact that it's on this page, it shouldn't be surprising that most of the infantry involved in the test decided to trade in their experimental uniform for the standard issue.

** In Antony Beevor's book ''D-Day: The Battle for Normandy'', he retells a German joke made at the expense of the USAAF (and the Luftwaffe):

{{quote|"If British planes appear, we duck. If American planes come over, everyone ducks. And if the Luftwaffe appears, nobody ducks."}}

** A very awkward battle from Estonia: As it happened, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were both invaders. While the Soviets forcefully conscripted Estonians, the Nazis only took volunteers; either way, there were entire units of Estonians on both sides. During a particularly dark night, one of the Soviet-Estonian companies encountered a Nazi-Estonian company while marching through the forest.

Since both sides spoke Estonian, neither unit realized they were marching with the enemy—but when they did, all hell broke loose. Due to low visibility, the soldiers dropped their weapons, grabbed bayonets or knives and then held their weapon in one hand and with the other reached to touch each others' heads under the helmets. This is because the Soviet conscripts had shaven heads while the German army let the volunteers' hair be—so they determined who was friend or foe by haircut.

You could say it was the most awkward and largest [[Knife Fight]] in military history.

** Operation Husky: 144 C-47s were on approach for a night-time landing operation in Sicily but were fired upon first by allied ships and then ground forces. A german air attack had occurred just minutes before the C-47s were arriving near the island and the naval AA gunners were simply too nervous to think first and shoot later.

** Operation Baseplate: 900 German fighters and fighter-bombers were launched in a surprise attack to destroy allied airfields in the Low Countries. The attack had failed with 300 planes and 237 pilots lost. Many of the casualties were caused by the secretive nature of the operation which resulted in much of the German Army and Navy in not being informed of a German Air Offensive which in turn led to many German AA batteries opening fire on their own planes.

* A number of friendly fire incidents have happened in Afghanistan during the [[War On Terror]]:

** American-on-Canadian: The Tarnak Farm incident of April 2002. A U.S. Air National Guard F-16 mistook Canadian Army soldiers for Taliban fighters with anti-aircraft weapons. The farm had previously been used as a firing range by the Taliban, but was now being used by the Canadians for anti-tank and machine gun exercises. Although denied permission to attack by the controlling [[Voice with an Internet Connection|AWACS]], Major Harry Schmidt believed the soldiers on the ground were targeting his flight leader, and bombed them in response. This cost the lives of four soldiers while wounding eight others.

** British/American-on-Afghani: During April 2006, British convoy called in an airstrike from American warplanes on Afghanistan police officers, mistaking them for attacking Taliban forces, killing one and wounding twelve. Note that in this case, the U.S. pilots were attacking as specified by the British, and not making an error of judgment of their own.

** British-on-British: In Sangin Province during August 2006, an RAF Harrier was called in to assist British troops during a firefight with the Taliban. The Harrier strafed the British instead, missing the enemy by 200 meters. This angered Major James Loden of 3 PARA, who called the RAF "Completely incompetent and utterly, utterly useless in protecting ground troops in Afghanistan." Some British paratroopers have even said they prefer American air support to the Royal Air Force.

** American-on-British: In a case of [[Poor Communication Kills]], one of two American F-15Es called in to support a platoon from 1 R ANGLIAN dropped a bomb on top of the unit, killing three soldiers. The forward air controller in the platoon, Sergeant Mark Perren, was not issued a noise-reduction headset; the platoon was under heavy fire by the Taliban, making it hard to hear radio transmissions. When the F-15E pilot repeated misheard target coordinates for confirmation, Sergeant Perren wound up confirming his own location as the target.

** British-on-Danish: In Helmand Province during September 2007, British soldiers fired Javelin missiles at a unit of Royal Life Guards, killing two of them. The British soldiers had mistakenly identified the Royal Life Guards' camp as a Taliban hideout, and requested permission to attack. The Royal Life Guards, not realizing ''they'' were the ones being targeted, granted permission.

** Dutch-on-Dutch/Afghani: During January 2008 in the Uruzgan Province, a unit of the Dutch Army attacked a composite group of Dutch and Afghan soldiers that they had mistaken for the Taliban. Two Dutch and two Afghani soldiers were killed before the firefight ended.

** American-on-British: In January 2008, two Apaches, one British and one American, were called in to support a unit of Grenadier Guards and Afghan forces fighting the Taliban in the Helmand Province. The British Apache opened fire on the Taliban, while the American Apache attacked the Grenadiers. Only one person was wounded. After the incident, a high ranking British Army officer claimed that in contrast to the UK's full-time professional air forces, most American pilots are merely reservists, implying that this is why British-on-American friendly fire incidents never happen.

** British-on-British: Later that year in July, a British WAH-64 Apache was called in to support a unit from 2 PARA against Taliban fighters. After attacking the Taliban positions, the Apache mistook the 2 PARA unit for more Taliban and opened fire, wounding nine of them.

** German-on-Afghani: In early 2010, a unit of German soldiers arriving at the scene of an earlier firefight where the Taliban had ambushed a bridge-laying and mine-clearing operation encountered Afghan Army soldiers in civilian vehicles. After the Afghanis ignored an order to stop, the Germans fired on them, killing six of the soldiers.

** American-on-Pakistani: In November 2011, a joint 150-man U.S. and Afghani unit came under fire and called in an airstrike. Miscommunication between U.S., NATO, and Pakistani forces led to two Pakistani border posts being destroyed, killing 25 Pakistani soldiers.

* Some stages in the [[Gauntlet (1985 video game)]] series of games had this, where your shots could either stun or even harm other players.

* ''[[Star Fox 64]]'' had a mission on Katina that, in addition to being a [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[Independence Day]]'', involved assisting a Cornerian Defense Force base's fighter compliment in fending off Andross' forces. The problem—Andross' fighters are designed nearly identically to the CDF "greenies", and they are both easy to destroy with the Arwing's lasers. Fox's CDF friend Bill will not hesitate to [[What the Hell, Hero?|call Fox out]] if he shoots down a CDF fighter.

Though rare, it's possible for the ''rest'' of the Star Fox team to shoot down the CDF fighters as well.

* This is a major danger in the [[Total War]] series, particularly with siege units.

* In ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'', the hunting team takes part in a "blind stalk", in which they hunt in total darkness, guided only by their sense of smell. Vin, a jealous member of the team, tries to get revenge on Rudy by putting prey pheremones on him, and Rudy manages to avoid his teammates long enough to lure in a deer (who mistakes him for a doe) and take his antlers. It initially appears that Vin [[Hoist by His Own Petard|was mistakenly eaten by Rudy's teammmates]], but it is later revealed that he [[He Knows Too Much|was abducted after stumbling onto the Great Bird Conspiracy]].

* [[The Wild Thornberrys]] had this in one episode, where for a battle, Eliza and Darwin placed two groups of monkeys, one with long tails and one with short, in coconut-shell armor. When the monkeys went to fight, they couldn't tell friends from foes and attacked both, to prove Eliza's point that they weren't that different, and the whole "Tails vs. No tails" thing was completely ridiculous.