9. Arthur Conan Doyle witnessed and reported friendly fire casualties during the Boer War
Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, served as a medic during the Boer War. While there he witnessed numerous instances of British and Australian troops firing upon each other, sometimes at the direction of their officers. They occurred with such alarming frequency that he recommended officers be equipped with better telescopes and binoculars. The Boer War was one of the earliest in which infantry advanced while machine guns to their rear supported them. Both machine guns and more rapidly fire artillery cut down British troops as they moved forward, and communications of error proved wholly inadequate to the circumstances. Doyle, as well as Rudyard Kipling and Baden Powell, lamented the incidents and called for the means to avoid them in future conflict.
All three demanded the army address the problem, as well as provide better training for non-commissioned officers in the field. The British Army denied the problem existed on the scale claimed by Doyle. Winston Churchill covered the war as a correspondent, and agreed with the army. Doyle also pointed out the high rate of civilian casualties, on both sides, as a result of indiscriminate fire. He claimed the officer corps presented an attitude of firing upon perceived targets when they were sighted, rather than when they were clearly identified. Doyle also pointed out that German advisers and equipment, used against the British, gave them extensive information on how to engage the British Army in future conflicts. World War One proved him correct.
