A certified public accountant who represented me to the IRS was a World War II vet.
He served aboard the Gato as the radar chief.
He told me that they were returning from patrol and we're going to port somewhere in Australia. Evidently the procedure was there was a certain area to surface and a heading that they were to follow. So they followed the SOP raised their colors and preceded on the correct adding. They were spotted by an Australian aircraft who preceded to make what appeared to be an attack. They immediately dove below the surface. After time passed they again surfaced and tried to precede to port again the aircraft dove on them and they submerged. On their third attempt when the aircraft dove on them they opened fire. The aircraft immediately broke off and was no longer a threat.
When they got to port they were told to report to their admiral so off goes the captain. They were asked to justify shooting at the pilot who was present. The captain of the Gato asked the pilot why he dove on their boat when they were following the SOP. The pilot answered he was just practicing. So the captain of the Gato replied so were they. And that was pretty much the end of the incident.
I recently read that we lost an average of 1500 men per month to friendly fire.
