0316 - Pilots - Foo Fighters
Strange Company: Military Encounters with UFOs in World War II
In a startling feat of historical research, Keith Chester's STRANGE COMPANY details an aspect of World War II that has been shrouded in ignorance for more than sixty years. Chester reveals that as the war gripped the world for six years, military personnel reported seeing numerous highly unconventional aircraft in all theaters of operation. These objects had extraordinary flight performance capabilities, came in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, and were able to travel at extraordinary speeds and avoid radar detection. The author recounts the reactions by military commands, their viewpoints, and theories as they struggled to make sense of the observations. A scientific panel convened by the CIA eight years after the war admitted that these unconventional objects were of unknown origin.
"In this eye-opening, thoroughly researched book, bristling with surprising revelations," writes UFO historian Jerome Clark in the foreword to the book, "Keith Chester challenges decades of conventional wisdom about the UFO phenomenon."
It's time to drop the pretense that UFOs were a rare sight before 1947, when pilot Kenneth Arnold witnessed nine "flying saucers" over Washington State. While Arnold's sighting is regarded by many as the beginning of the UFO phenomenon, Strange Company illustrates just how pervasive the phenomenon was years earlier--before, during, and after World War II. "What this work suggests," says author Keith Chester, "is that while an immense twentieth century war was raging on Earth, someone, or something, from somewhere else, was watching us."
Keith Chester is an artist and filmmaker living in Bel Air, Maryland. After witnessing a daytime UFO in the mid-1960s, he became fascinated with the phenomenon. By the late 1980s, he was devoting considerable time to research on UFOs.
After the famous Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting of 1947, the U.S. Air Force established the first-ever government office for investigating UFOs. However, it was not the first time that a U.S. government body had encountered reports of airborne anomalies. Throughout the Second World War, both Allied and German air crews saw strange, moving lights in the sky that they called “foo fighters.” The many extant reports of these things suggest that military brass was anything but unfamiliar with UFOs by the summer of 1947, and may have already had a plan in place to manage public perception of the UFO phenomenon.
It’s not possible to establish when exactly the first sighting of a “foo fighter” occurred, but a report from the British Royal Air Force, or RAF, from August 1940 indicated that Intelligence officers were already struggling to understand a number of “peculiar incidents” reported by crewmen, and wondered if the Germans were experimenting with new technologies.(1) In September of 1942, the Operational Research Section of the British Air Ministry produced a report on some recent “Pyrotechnic Activity” over Germany, and mentioned four distinct phenomena. One involved balls of fire that seemed to “drip” multicolored fragments for 30 seconds or so before burning out in the air. Another involved colored balls of light that flew 6 or 7 thousand feet into the air. The writers concluded that the Germans had been firing objects into the air with mortars, or on rockets, but noted that none of the launches had ever harmed a plane, or coincided with an enemy attack.(2)
On November 28th, 1942, an RAF bomber crew saw what seemed to be a solid object with four evenly-spaced pairs of red lights attached. The crew estimated it to be 2-300 feet long, and travelling up to 500 mph.(3) Another report from May of 1943 noted that one crew saw what they described as a reddish-orange “meteor” outside of Duisburg in Western Germany that flew from North to South, falling as it went. Three times during the observation, the object emitted a “burst” that produced a green “star.”(4)
In 1943, the Germans unveiled the V-2 Rocket, the world’s first long-range guided missile, and Allied aircrews and ground forces began seeing them immediately. Among the first reports on the new technology are a few reports of so-called “rockets” with some strange behaviours. An RAF ‘Raid Report’ from January 1st, 1944, noted that a British Mosquito pilot had seen two rockets between Halberstadt and Hanover that changed course and overtook his plane before disappearing in the sky. As one passed within 200 yards, the pilot saw a “fiery head” and a “blazing stern.”(5) Reports from January 28th and 29th, as well as February 3rd, described an elusive red light, the latter two of which left a trail of flames and black smoke.(6)
Some of the best-documented reports that we have of UFOs in the Second World War come from the U.S. Army Air Forces, the antecedent to the U.S. Air Force. In August 1943, the U.S. Eighth Air Force in England produced a report on stories of multi-colored explosions in the sky that they called “Pink Flak.” The author of the report makes it clear that the explosions were a “well-understood phenomenon” at the time, and laments the fact that many crews had likely kept silent on their experiences for fear of ridicule.(7)
The crew of a raid over Frankfurt on February 4th, 1944, said they saw a stationary, silver ball about 10 miles away that just hovered in the air.(8) On the night of February 19th, two different crews saw a “silver, cigar-shaped object like an airship.” The second crew noted that there seemed to be a line of windows along the bottom of the object. A few nights later, another crew saw three silver zeppelin-like objects moving in unison.(9)
There were many more sightings of unidentified balls and lights over the spring, summer, and fall. In November 1944, a newspaper in Minnesota quoted Lt. Col. Oris B. Johnson describing some “new gadgets” being thrown at Allied planes. These included what he described as a phosphorous bomb that dripped fire as it exploded, as well as burning pieces of dummy airplanes that appeared in front of bombers, but did no damage when struck.(10) Between the 1st and 5th of December, 1944, British bomber crews had encounters with fast-moving balls of light that seemed to explode when fired at, and that even exploded on their own. None of these lights were seen to follow planes, however.(11) Years after the war, Goerge Todt, an American columnist for the Los Angeles Herald, stated that he and another infantryman in France once saw a cherry-red light in the sky in August, 1944. It flew out from behind their lines, then stopped in the air for more than 12 minutes over the frontline, contracting and expanding again every few seconds, in a steady, rhythmic way. Todt also said that he’d seen another UFO over Paris in February.(12)
The first to refer to these lights as “foo fighters” was a radar operator named Donald J. Meiers of the American 415th Night Fighter Squadron. In American English in the 1930s and '40s, “foo” was a well-known nonsense word, made popular by a comic strip called Smokey Stover, which centered on a firefighter who referred to fire as “foo,” and to himself as a “foo fighter.” On a flight in November, 1944, Meiers and his pilot, Ed Schleuter, saw what they described as eight or ten orange or red balls of fire that hovered on the horizon, then disappeared when the plane turned towards them. The objects reappeared in the distance, moved horizontally for a while, then vanished. An intelligence officer who attended the debriefing said that Meiers was extremely rattled by the experience. He brought a copy of the comic strip to the meeting and slammed it down on the officer’s desk, shouting, “it was another one of those fuckin’ foo fighters!” before storming out of the room. A few nights later, another crew saw a huge red light flying over their plane at 200 mph.(13) “Fuckin’ foo fighters” became the term of choice for these lights in the 415th until the aircrews shared their stories with the press, and the expletive was removed.(14)
A string of entries in the squadron’s official War Diary show that there were more sightings in December and January. These and more were confirmed by an intelligence officer’s report to Tactical Air Command.(15) In December 1944, a crew saw a “brilliant red light” travelling at an estimated 200 mph. Though technical failure prevented the crew from tracking the object on radar, they watched it fly away until it just “went out.” A diary entry from two nights later notes that a crew saw five or six red and green lights arranged in a “T” shape that followed their plane through several miles of turns and closed to 1000 feet. The same entry was the first of many to use the term, “foo-fighter.” On December 24th, a crew saw a “glowing red object” shooting up into the air before doing a “wingover,” or a sort of U-turn in the air before diving out of sight. There were more sightings in late December, one of which involved a yellow streak of flame that seemed to fly alongside the plane.(16) None of the sightings were ever corroborated on radar.
Surprisingly, censors allowed reports of these foo-fighters to make it to the press, albeit with some redactions. On December 13th, 1944, the Eugene Register Guard reported that the Nazis had deployed “floating silver balls” in the air.(17) A concurrent report in the Twin Falls Telegram referred to a new German “air defense weapon” that looked like Christmas ball ornaments.(18) On December 31st, Robert Wilson, a young war correspondent with the Associated Press, spent the night with the airmen of the 415th, intending to write a New Year's story. After they told him of the sightings they’d been having, Wilson published a story on the “Eerie German ‘Foo-Fighter’” in the Texas Morning Avalanche.(19) Wilson quoted Meiers who identified three types of lights, and formations of lights, including a group of “about 15” which always appear in the distance, and flicker on and off. The article also shares quotes from other pilots who saw the things, and some versions of the story even listed names.
Despite the sensational nature of the story, Wilson’s piece received little notice in the papers, which by then were all focused on the battle against the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes forest. Aside from a few attempted armchair debunkings, and a summary of Wilson’s story in Time Magazine, there was no other public mention of the foo fighters for the remainder of the war.(20) But sightings continued.(21) In one of the last appearances to the 415th, the pilot turned into a group of foo fighters as soon as he saw them, and they disappeared immediately, only to reappear behind his plane. The pilot flew into a large cloud, and immediately dove two thousand feet while turning left. As he emerged from the bottom of the cloud, the foo fighters emerged with him, at the same relative position.(22)
As sightings of foo fighters over Germany were dwindling in February, 1945, they picked up with the American night fighters in Italy. An Operations Report from the 414th Night Fighter Squadron in Pontedera, Italy, made note of an encounter with two “very bright” lights on the night of February 16th. The night after that, a crew saw four bright lights around the Mantova area that burned out after two minutes, and a squadron in Pisa, Italy, noted recent sightings of “orange-red lights” near La Spezia and further inland.(23) On February 21st, another pilot saw two large red balls of fire, and the following night, a pilot watched a strong white light East of Parma for about four minutes.(24) On the 27th, there was another sighting of “balls of fire” around Bologna.(25)
In March, there were a few sightings in Belgium, and several more in Italy and Germany. On March 13th, the crew of a P-61 fighter saw “100 balls of orange fire,” and a second flight saw two. The last recorded sighting of a foo fighter over Italy was on the 18th: a Mosquito crew with the 416th chased a light for half an hour over Northwest Italy, only to see it suddenly disappear. The next night, the 415th had their last recorded sighting in Germany, and the last sighting in Europe.(26) As Jo Chamberlain claimed in his report on the Foo Fighters in American Legion Magazine, their appearances over Germany ceased when the Allied ground forces moved East of the Rhine in March of 1945.(27)
But just before the sightings started dropping off in Europe, they increased in the South Pacific. On January 10th, 1945, an American crew off the coast of Iwo Jima saw an amber light overtake them on their right, and disappear into the clouds ahead. In March, a crew saw a few lights that seemed to be anchored to an object follow them through a few turns before pulling away, and they even picked them up on radar.(28) On June 18th, a crew was tailed for about 42 minutes by a light that alternated between a bright red and a dim orange.(29) These are just a few of the many foo fighters seen in the South Pacific, however, and they weren’t the first. A report from August, 1944 noted several sightings over Sumatra, including a crew that saw reddish-orange balls of light and groups of light appear “out of nowhere” on their starboard side and explode into 4 or 5 fragments each. The crews guessed that they saw 250 or 300 separate explosions, and noted that firing at them had no effect.(30)
A Bomber Command Mission Report for the night of May 2nd, 1945 described three separate incidents: one involved eight intense flames of a light green color, one of which exploded in the air. Another involved several trails of red fire arranged in pairs that were each up to 5000 feet long.(31) A Report for May 14th, notes that a B-29 crew was followed by a red or flame-colored “ball of fire” that appeared immediately after bombs away.(32) Sightings in the South Pacific dwindled over the summer of 1945, and by the time of Japan’s surrender in August, they had all but ceased.
There was no resolution to the foo fighter mystery, but when people began talking about “flying saucers” after Kenneth Arnold’s UFO encounter in the summer of 1947, American air veterans immediately recalled their wartime experiences. Just two weeks after Arnold’s sighting, at least three different papers in the U.S. published quotes from American air veterans who believed that the foo fighters were secret German or Japanese weapons, and that the unidentified saucers were probably the same technology, deployed by another country.(33) In 2008, the British Ministry of Defense released a large batch of files on UFOs that included a “background briefing” on historical cases. This briefing confirmed that British pilots were also seeing “balls of fire” and “mysterious moving lights” that often tailed their planes, and that the Royal Air Force began formally collecting these reports in 1942. Though both British and American authorities assumed the foo fighters to be secret Axis weapons, they found no evidence of any such projects after the war. What’s more, Allied intelligence had learned that German pilots were seeing the same mysterious lights!(34)
So what were the foo fighters? After Bob Wilson’s story was published, some scientists in New York wrote to the paper to suggest that the crews were seeing instances of St. Elmo’s fire, an electrical phenomenon that can result in balls of fiery light that move in erratic ways.(35) But St. Elmo’s fire is a very rare, and often short-lived phenomenon, and could explain only a small fraction of sightings, at best. It’s possible that the observed phenomena were actually due to testing on secret weapons of war. But if this were the case, we would have to assume that both the Axis and the Allies independently deployed the same experimental technologies in perfect secrecy, and both successfully destroyed all records of their existence after abandoning them. One would also have to explain why none of the technologies ever managed to harm an enemy plane, or achieve any clear strategic advantage for the operator.
Though many UFO witnesses reported round, disc-shaped objects after the summer of 1947, many sightings of the late '40s and early '50s involved balls of light or fire very similar to the most common foo fighters. For example, in the case of the so-called “Flatwoods Monster” of 1952, a group of children saw a glowing red, pear-shaped object with a fiery tail. When some of the children saw it on the ground later that night, it was pulsating between a cherry red, and a pale orange.(36) And zeppelin or cigar-shaped objects have long been common, and are still seen today. There seems to have been a high degree of continuity between the UFO sightings of the Second World War and the more publicized sightings of the post-war period, especially in the evasive, almost playful behaviour of the objects. Some sightings could have been stress or fatigue-induced hallucinations, of course, but the vast number of reports, and the high degree of consistency between them suggest that some witnesses, at least, were seeing something that was actually there.
Given the sheer volume of UFO reports available to U.S. intelligence services by the end of the war, it’s likely that someone in the government had already devised a protocol for dealing with UFO reports by the time of Arnold’s sighting. Though the term “UFO” was not coined until 1952, and there was no neutral term with which to categorize truly unidentified aerial phenomena, there are many reasons to believe that U.S. intelligence would have taken an active interest in reports of foo fighters. America’s delicate alliance with the Soviet Union made both parties uneasy, and when it became clear that the foo fighters were not the work of the Germans or the Japanese, it would not have been a great leap in logic to assume that they were soviet spycraft.
It’s now known that there were many UFO sightings around the world between the war and Arnold’s sighting, including the so-called “ghost rockets” seen in Sweden in 1946.(37) While we don’t know if U.S. intelligence were tracking these kinds of sightings at the time, it’s clear that Arnold’s was far from the first tip-off to the UFO presence. Several ufologists, including Kenn Thomas and Richard Dolan, have suggested that some of the first UFO cases to make the news after Arnold’s sighting were staged, spun, or manipulated as part of a disinformation campaign to discredit UFO witnesses, and stigmatize UFO research. For example, Thomas has shown that U.S. intelligence services were involved in the Maury Island incident in several different ways, and that one of the two principal witnesses did work with the CIA. It’s possible that the then-burgeoning U.S. intelligence community, still searching for an explanation for the unresolved foo fighter sightings of the early 1940s, had already devised a plan to manage the public narrative on UFOs, and put it into action when Arnold’s sighting brought the subject to national attention.
Aircrews from England, Germany, and the U.S. were all witness to a wide variety of aerial phenomena that intensified in the closing years of the Second World War. The lights, spheres, fireballs, and cigar-shaped objects that they saw were reminiscent of the kinds of UFOs seen before and after Kenneth Arnold’s sighting in the summer of 1947, as well as those seen today. Whatever they were, it’s hard to imagine that U.S. intelligence was not taking note of further sightings by the time that Arnold’s story hit the papers. Exactly what any government knew about these aerial anomalies, however, is still unknown.
Notes & References
Notes:
1) Phenomena Connected with Enemy Night Tactics, August 11, 1940, AIR 2/5070, British National Archives, London, UK. This item is not available online, but the relevant sections are reproduced in “The Foo Fighters of World War II, part one of three parts,” Saturday Night Uforia. Accessed April 22, 2021: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html; Jo Chamberlain, “The Foo-Fighter Mystery,” The American Legion Magazine, December, 1945. After Arnold’s sighting, new stories came to light. Most of these however, were collected long after the fact, often anonymously, and with no supporting documentation. While there is little doubt that RAF crews were seeing foo-fighters too, we’re unlikely to recover many more details of these encounters. A notable exception is an RAF flight leader by the name of P. Wells who gave his story from December 1943 to a British researcher in the 1980s. Wells kept his flight log from the day, which noted a “Screaming Dog-fight with the light.”
2) Operational Research Section of the British Air Ministry. A Note On Recent Enemy Pyrotechnic Activity Over Germany, September 25, 1942, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html; Jo Chamberlain, “The Foo-Fighter Mystery” The American Legion Magazine, December, 1945. This article is reproduced in full at: http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
3) Report by Crew of 61 Squadron to Headquarters, from R. A. F. Station, Syerston, No. 5 Group, 2nd December, 1942, quoted in:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
4) British Royal Air Force, Flak Liaison Officer Report, no. 161, May 30, 1943, quoted in:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
5) British Royal Air Force, Raid Report from M/263 Squadron, January 1, 1944, quoted in:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
6) Report from Headquarters, MACAF, no. 23, January 28, 1944, quoted in:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
7) The relevant sections are reproduced in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
8) “Foo Fighters Part one,” Saturday Night Uforia: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
9) RAF Military Attache Report, Consolidated Liaison Flak Officer Report, March 7, 1944, quoted in:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
10) “Nazis Use Jet, Rocket Planes,” Evening Tribune (Albert Lea, Minnesota), November 7, 1944, page 1. This article is reproduced in:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
11) RAF Operational Research Section, A New Phenomenon, December 27, 1944, quoted in:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
12) George Todt, “First Look at UFO,” Los Angeles Herald, January 27, 1961. This article is reproduced in:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
13) Chamberlain, “Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
14) Jeffery A. Lindell, "Interviews with Harold Augspurger, Commander 415th Night Fighter Squadron; Frederic Ringwald, S-2 Intelligence Officer, 415th Night Fighter Squadron," 1991.
15) USAAF, Report to Tactical Air Command by intelligence officer Fred Ringwald, January 30, 1945, quoted at:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
16) These later details are from the Ringwald report of January 30, 1945, quoted in:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html;
Chamberlain, “Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
17) Associated Press, “Floating Silver Balls Latest Nazi Weapons,” Eugene Register Guard, December 13, 1944, reproduced in:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
18) “Secret Weapon Resembles Yule Decoration,” Twin Falls Telegram, December 14, 1944, page 1.
19) Robert Wilson, “Eerie German “Foo-Fighter” Stalks Yanks Over Naziland,” Morning Avalanche (Lubbock, Texas). January 2, 1945, page 1. This article is reproduced in full at https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
20) "Foo-Fighter," Time, 45, no. 3, January 15, 1945. This article is reproduced in full at:
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,775433,00.html.
21) Chamberlain, “Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
22) Chamberlain, “Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
23) USAAF 416th Night Fighter Squadron, Operations Report, February 18, 1945, quoted in:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
24) USAAF 416th Night Fighter Squadron, Operations Report, February 21, 1945; USAAF 416th Night Fighter Squadron, Operations Report, February 22, 1945, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
25) USAAF 414th Night Fighter Squadron, Operations Report, February 27, 1945, quoted in:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
26) “Foo Fighters Part Three,” Saturday Night Uforia: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
27) Chamberlain, “Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
28) USAAF, 549th Night Fighter Squadron Unit History, quoted in:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
29) These testimonies are found in The Global Twentieth: An Anthology of the 20th AF in WWII, Volume II, and History of the 9th Bomb Group, quoted in:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
30) USAAF, Tactical Mission Report, August 10/11, 1944, quoted in:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
31) USAAF Headquarters VII Bomber Command, Mission report no. 11 - 327, APO #244, 2 May 1945 (GCT), quoted in:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
32) “Foo Fighters Part Three,” Saturday Night Uforia: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
33) “Saucers May Be "Foo Fighters," Flier Suggests,” Times Herald (Olean, New York), July 8, 1947, page 3; The Associated Press, Morning Avalanche (Lubbock, Texas), July 8, 1947, page 10; Warren R. Jollymore, “Flying Discs Remind AAF Veteran of Pacific Area ‘Fireball’ Reports,” Wisconsin State Journal, July 8, 1947, page 5.
34) British National Archives, Ministry of Defence files on UFOs, quoted in “Foo Fighters Part One,” Saturday Night Uforia:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html; Chamberlain, “Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
35) Chamberlain, “The Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
36) For a comprehensive treatment of the Flatwoods Monster, see Frank Feschino, The Braxton County Monster Updated & Revised Edition The Cover-up of the "Flatwoods Monster" Revealed Expanded (Frank Feschino: August 25, 2013).
37) See NICAP’s summary of the ‘ghost rockets’: http://nicap.org/books/coufo/partI/chIV.htm.
Primary Sources:
(A. P.) “Saucers May Be "Foo Fighters," Flier Suggests.” Times Herald (Olean, New York). July 8, 1947, page 3.
(A. P.) “‘Discs’ Said Found” Morning Avalanche (Lubbock, Texas). July 8, 1947, page 10."Foo-Fighter." Time 45, no. 3, 15 Jan 1945.
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,7601450115,00.html.
(A.P.) "Balls of Fire Stalk U.S. Fighters in Night Assaults Over Germany." New York Times. Jan 2, 1945, p. 1, 4.
(A. P.) “Nazis Use Jet, Rocket Planes.” Evening Tribune (Albert Lea, Minnesota). November 7, 1944, page 1.
(A. P.) “Floating Silver Balls Latest Nazi Weapons.” Eugene Register Guard. December 13, 1944
(A. P.) “Secret Weapon Resembles Yule Decoration.” Twin Falls Telegram. December 14, 1944, page 1.
Chamberlain, Jo. “The Foo-Fighter Mystery.” The American Legion Magazine. December, 1945. This article is reproduced in full in:
http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
Jollymore, Warren R.. “Flying Discs Remind AAF Veteran of Pacific Area ‘Fireball’ Reports.” Wisconsin State Journal. July 8, 1947, page 5.
Todt, George. “First Look at UFO.” Los Angeles Herald, January 27, 1961. The relevant sections are reproduced in:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
Wilkins, Harold T.. “The Strange Mystery of the Foo Fighters.” Fate 4, no. 6 (August/September 1951). Reproduced in:
http://project1947.com/articles/foowilkins.htm.
Wilson, Robert. “Eerie German “Foo-Fighter” Stalks Yanks Over Naziland.” Morning Avalanche (Lubbock, Texas). January 2, 1945, page 1. The article is reproduced in full in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
Secondary Sources:
“The Foo Fighters of World War Two.” Saturday Night Uforia. Parts 1 - 3:
https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
Other Sources: A great collection of Foo Fighter Documents reproduced at CUFON.org: http://cufon.org/cufon/foo.htm.
Schweinfurt, a Mystery Solved ?
by Andy Roberts
In 1990 I wrote an article entitled W.W.II Document Research - In Search of Foo-Fighters, which primarily dealt with the 'UFOs' allegedly seen in the 14th October 1943 Schweinfurt raid. [1] This has since been posted on the Project 1947 website [2] and now forms the background to the present article.
The tone of my 1990 piece was very sceptical of the case because, despite having gone to great lengths, I had been unable to track the source of the case down. The source was an alleged UK government document quoted in author Martin Caidin's Black Thursday, a book which dealt with the events of the bombing raid of Thursday 14th October 1943.[3]
Having done quite a bit of research into foo-fighters, and having a general interest in W.W.II, I have been quite obsessed by the story over the years. All avenues of enquiry seemed to lead nowhere, and in 1999 I went to the Public Records Office (PRO) at Kew and searched many files connected to the Schweinfurt raid. At that time I found nothing at all relating to Caidin's claims and this only strengthened my feelings it was a fabrication. However...
In July 2000 I spent another few of days at the PRO and this time hit pay-dirt. Besides finding several hitherto unseen references to what would later be termed 'foo-fighters', much new material on ghost rockets and 1950s UK government UFO research, I again went through all the available Schweinfurt related files and came across something of great relevance. But first here is how Martin Caidin reported the incident in Black Thursday.
"As the bombers of the 384th Group swung into the final bomb run after passing the Initial Point, the fighter attacks fell off. This point is vital, and pilots were queried extensively, as were other crew members, as to the position at that time of the German fighter planes. Every man interrogated was firm in his statement that "at the time there were no enemy aircraft above." At this moment the pilots and top turret gunners, as well as several crewmen in the Plexiglas noses of the bombers, reported a cluster of discs in the path of the 384th's formation and closing with the bombers. The startled exclamations focused attention on the phenomenon, and the crews talked back and forth, discussing and confirming the astonishing sight before them.
The discs in the cluster were agreed upon as being silver colored, about one inch thick and three inches in diameter. They were easily seen by the B-7 crewmen, gliding down slowly in a very uniform cluster.
And then the "impossible" happened. B-17 Number 026 closed rapidly with a cluster of discs; the pilot attempted to evade an imminent collision with the objects, but was unsuccessful in this manoeuvre. He reported at the intelligence debriefing that his "right wing went directly through a cluster with absolutely no effect on engines or plane surface."
The intelligence officers pressed their questioning, and the pilot stated further that one of the discs was heard to strike the tail assembly of his B-17, but that neither he nor any member of the crew heard or witnessed an explosion.
He further explained that about twenty feet from the discs the pilots sighted a mass of black debris of varying sizes in clusters of three by four feet.
The SECRET report added: "Also observed two other A/C flying through silver discs with no apparent damage. Observed discs and debris two other times but could not determine where it came from."
No further information on this baffling incident has been uncovered, with the exception that such discs were observed by pilots and crew members prior to, and after, Mission 115 of October 14, 1943.
Memorandum of October 24 1943, from Major E.R.T. Holmes, F.L.O., 1St Bombardment Division, Reference FLO/1BW/REP/126, to M.I. 15, War Office, Bombardment Division, London, S.W. (copy to Colonel E.W. Thompson, A-2, Pinetree)" [4]
Caidin's account of this event via the alleged UK document has existed in UFO legend for forty years without proof. Now I can reveal that the document exists and is almost as Caidin records it.
The document, which Caidin obviously based his account on, reads as follows. All spelling and punctuation is in the original. The file in which the document can be found is: AIR 40/464
At the top right of the document is a rubber stamp giving details of circulation to:
1. Col Kingman Douglas
2. A.I.3. ? (W/Cdr Smith)
3. A.I.2. ? (W/Cdr Heath)
(Author note: the ? refers to a squiggle or letter I cannot decipher, although it could well be 'to'. Also the background of the stamp on which the above was written says:
Received 17 Oct 1943
Copies sent to A.I.8 (USA)
The rest of the document is as follows:
Analysis
Presumably Caidin must have seen a copy of this document from one of the American recipients. The following points seem relevant:
I have tried to check the reference Caidin gives three times now at the PRO, once by using a professional researcher. It does not exist. However the AIR files were all re-numbered at some point prior to them being located at the PRO and it is possible the reference refers to the files' original designation.
It is also possible the reference pertains to the accompanying letter when it was sent to the USA. This is unlikely however, as the memo is stated to have been sent from one UK source to another and then on to the USA. The Rubber stamp clearly states it was received on 17 October, pre-dating Caidin's reference by seven days. But the sheer number of channels through which documents went could be the reason for this confusion, and now the original document has been located I don't think we need get hung up on the original reference any more.
I have found no record of most of the personnel listed. However a Squadron Leader Heath was involved in the UK's investigations of the Scandinavian 'ghost rockets' in 1946.
Besides the above, other than some possibly excusable authorial hype, Caidin has recorded the incident more or less as the document states.
Conclusion
At least we now know Caidin's reference exists! Besides that there is little to say really. The objects reported are intriguing but not completely mystifying. There were many types of flak being used by the Germans in W.W.II and several files in the PRO refer to coloured flak, flak which threw off unusual fragments, and so on. This explanation is made more likely by the fact that the 'F.L.O.' in Caidin's reference stands for 'Flak Liaison Officer', at least suggesting that the Air Ministry were treating it within a flak context.
The objects could also have been some kind of 'window' dropped by the Germans in an attempt to disrupt radar or radio communication among air crew. The explanation as to what the small objects were is now more of a task for the air historian than it is for the ufologist. What is clear from the original account is that the discs, whilst unusual, were clearly not any type of 'craft', under intelligent or purposeful control or dangerous to the air craft or crew.
In my opinion these objects do not belong in the category of sightings referred to as 'foo-fighters', both by their physical description and by their behaviour and characteristics. Although often lumped in with foo-fighter reports they are clearly different. This story has been a staple of UFO writers for the past three-four decades. Now we have further clarification and I believe that this particular mystery is more or less laid to rest. - © 2000 Andy Roberts
References
1. UFO Brigantia July 1990
2. http://www.project1947.com/arwwr.htm
3. Caidin, Martin. Black Thursday, Dell 1960
4. ibid
The Strange Mystery of the FOO FIGHTERS during the closing months of the war our fighters chased weird colored balls of fire that suddenly disappeared.
By Harold T. Wilkins - FATE - August-September 1951 - Vol. 4, No. 6
One of the most baffling mysteries of the second World War were strange aerial apparitions in the shape of blazing balls which were encountered over Truk Lagoon, in the skies of Japan, the West Rhine area of Alsace Lorraine and over the Bavarian Palatinate. They were met by U.S. night fighter pilots at night, by U.S. day bomber squadrons and, I am informed, by some British air pilots.
These weird balls were of fantastic and variable speeds, glowed from orange to red and white and back to orange, and appear to have been sighted first at 10 p.m. on November 23, 1944, by a U.S. pilot in the area north of Strasbourg in Alsace Lorraine. Three nights later they were again seen by a U.S. pilot flying in the same area. They were seen for a third time on the night of December 22-23, 1944, by a U.S. pilot flying a mission over the same area.
Just before the Allies overran and captured the secret German experimental stations east of the Rhine these balls vanished. But in no such station was the slightest clue discovered even hinting that the Nazi technicians had invented and flown these mysterious blazing balls.
Over Japan, Nipponese air pilots met the blazing balls and took them to be secret and mystifying aerial devices of the Americans or the Russians. On the other hand, equally mystified U.S. pilots supposed that the balls were a curious device thought up by Japan as a last-ditch expedient to stave off mass-bombing raids.
One pilot chatting in the mess with others who had met the balls on night flights — and had been “ribbed” by intelligence officers who heard their reports — had a brain wave. “Let's call the so and so’s foo fighters,” he said. The name stuck. It seems to have been suggested by a comic strip in which one “Smokey Stover” said: “Yeah, if there’s foo, there’s fire.” Probably the slang word foo is a corruption of the French word feu, or fire.
I myself have seen what may have been a foo fighter. I quote from my diary of November 2, 1950:
“At 6:20 p.m. I went into the garden of this house at Bexleyheath, Kent, which stands on a low hill and has a commanding view of a region of Kent just 12 miles from Charing Cross in central London. I merely sought a breath of fresh air and was looking for nothing. Glancing up casually into the starry sky, I suddenly saw a yellow luminous ball appear in the southern quadrant of the sky. It flew silently, with no gas or spark-emission, on a level trajectory and at no great velocity. It vanished into a belt of cumulus cloud near the zenith. It did not reappear. Was no sort of balloon, weather or cosmic. Was no meteor, and no sort of pyrotechnic. Its altitude was about 2,500 feet up and it shone with lunar brilliancy.”
Next morning I read in the “London Daily Telegraph” a report that on the same night but one hour 40 minutes later than the time of my own observation, people on the Herts-Bucks border, some 25 miles west, were mystified by a strange orange light flashing across the sky and visible for some seconds. Some 30 miles west of the Herts-Bucks border is the British Ministry of Supply’s atomic station of Harwell, Berks.
What I saw was, I believe, a foo fighter of the same type as that encountered six years before by U.S. pilots. Exactly three weeks earlier — October 12, 1950 — a woman cycling from Gloucester City, England, reached the Barnwood suburb of the town when, as she told the local newspaper:
I was startled at 11:15 p.m. that night to see four lights, like huge stars, stationary over Barnwood. After a few moments their lights began to wink in and out . . . Two friends tell me they saw these lights that same night and that two of them moved over a hill about two miles away. I refuse to believe they were airplanes. Can any reader tell me what they were?”
I told this woman that what she and her friends saw were probably foo fighters but it must be understood that probably not one English person in a million knows what is meant by foo fighters or has ever heard of them. My request to the Public Relations Branch of the British Air Ministry in Whitehall, London, inquiring what reports were made to intelligence officers by British pilots who are said to have met these weird balls on war missions remains without answer after four weeks.
It was at 10 p.m. on November 23, 1944, when Lieut. Edward Schlüter, U.S. pilot of the 415th Night Fighter squadron, stationed at Dijon, in south central France, took off from Dijon, on a routine patrol to intercept German planes west of the Rhine between Strasbourg and Mannheim. As the crow flies he had to fly 150 miles on a patrol that would take him east over the Vosges mountains, a very lonely, grim and isolated range buttressing the westward approaches to the Rhine.
Schlüter is a finely built man, the last word in aeronautical efficiency, and a very experienced night fighter of the second World War. He is a native of Oshkosh, Wis. With him, in the darkened cockpit of the plane, were the radar observer, Lieut. Donald J. Meiers, and an intelligence officer, Lieut. F. Ringwald. Nothing happened till their plane had crossed the Vosges and they had sighted the shining waters of the Rhine, rolling rapidly towards Mainz.
The sky that night was clear, with light clouds. Visibility was good and the moon was in the first quarter. U.S. radar stations, covering all U.S. pilots in that area, had not notified the crew of any other plane in the sky. Some way to the east, Schlüter could see the white steam jetted from the smokestack of a German freight locomotive, running in black-out conditions, with fire-box door clamped up and blinded.
At this time, in 1944, Germany stood at bay and the Allies were closing in on her. Some 20 miles north of Strasbourg, Lieutenant Ringwald, the U.S. intelligence officer, glanced to the west and noticed eight or ten balls of red fire moving at an amazing velocity. They seemed to be in formation and could be seen clearly from the darkened cockpit of the U.S. night fighter.
“Say,” said Ringwald to Schlüter, "look over there at the bright lights on those hills yonder. What are they?”
Schlüter: “Hell, buddy, there are no hills over there! I should say they were stars. You don’t need me to tell you that it is not easy to guess at the nature of lights you see on night flights. . . . Not when they are distant, as these are.”
Ringwald: “Stars, d’ye say? I don't reckon they are stars. Why, their speed is terrific!”
Schlüter: “Maybe they are just reflections from our own 'plane. We are going pretty fast.”
Ringwald: “I am certain, absolutely sure, that those lights are not reflected from us.”
Schlüter now gazed hard at the lights. They were now off his port wing. He got into radio telephone contact with one of the ground radar stations.
“There are about ten Heinie night fighters round here in the sky. Looks as if they are chasing us and their speed is high. I'll say it is!”
U.S. radar station: “You guys must be nuts! Nobody is up there but your own plane. Ain’t seein’ things, are you?”
Meiers in the plane glanced at the radarscope. No enemy planes showed up on the screen! Schlüter now maneuvered the fighter for action and headed toward the lights. They were blazing red. Suddenly they seemed to vanish into thin air! Two minutes later they reappeared but now a long way off. It looked as if they were aware of being chased. Six minutes later the balls did a glide, levelled out, and vanished.
None of the occupants of the U.S. night fighter could make out what the red balls were. Schlüter guessed they might be some German experimental devices like the red, green, blue, and white and yellow rockets that flashed up amid the flak of antiaircraft batteries when a big enemy night bomber raid was on. I have myself seen such rockets when on night patrol on the edge of London at the time of the big German bomber raids in 1942 and 1943. The Germans appear to have had these mystery devices, as had the British, but I have never been able to find out what purpose they served.
But the bewildered night fighter pilots did not let this mystery spoil their mission. Lieutenant Schlüter that night bombed hell out of eight fast German freight trains on the Rhine railroads. Back at the base at Dijon, knowing they would not be believed by intelligence higher-ups and might be charged with hallucinations and war neurosis, Schlüter and his two companions said nothing. They made no report to base at Dijon.
On November 27, 1944, another act in the foo fighter drama was staged. Lieutenant Henry Giblin, native of Santa Rosa, Calif., was flying a U.S. night fighter in the Alsace Lorraine region, south of Mannheim-am-Rhein. He had with him Lieutenant Walter Cleary of Worcester, Mass., as radar-observer. As they were approaching the German town of Speyer on the Rhine south of Mannheim, they got a shock. Some 1,500 feet above their own plane a “hell of a huge fierce, fiery orange light” shot across the night sky at an estimated speed of 250 miles per hour. Again U.S. ground radar stations reported when called: “No enemy machines in the vicinity. Only your own plane in the sky over there.”
Giblin and Cleary decided to say nothing to intelligence, fearing ridicule from higher quarters. It is not wise for a war-time flyer to take such a risk. Let some one else do the reporting!
No other observations of queer things in the sky came the way of the U.S. 415th Night Fighter squadron until three days before Christmas, 1944. On December 22, 1944, Lieutenant David McFalls, of Cliff-side, N. C., and Lieutenant Edward Raker, radar observer, of Hemat, Calif., were flying at 10,000 feet just south of Hagenau in the old German Reichsland. Hagenau is 20 miles north of Strasbourg and 16 miles west of the Rhine.
Here is the report of U.S. pilot Giblin:
“At 0600 (six p.m.), near Hagenau, at 10,000 feet altitude, two very bright lights climbed towards us from the ground. They levelled off and stayed on the tail of our plane. They were huge bright orange lights. They stayed there for two minutes. On my tail all the time. They were under perfect control. Then they turned away from us, and the fire seemed to go out.”
On the night of December 24, 1944, McFalls and Baker had another amazing experience. Here is their report:
“A glowing red ball shot straight up to us. It suddenly changed into an airplane which did a wing over! Then it dived and disappeared.”
The reader should note the sudden disappearance of this weird thing in the sky. “They,” if the reports are to be believed, would appear to hail from some phenomenal world of a different wavelength of visibility from our own. “They" — whoever these etherian beings are — can operate controlled machines which suddenly appear from nowhere, fly at vertiginous speeds, and as suddenly vanish into thin air. Yet, in our world of radiological science, in which we have but touched the threshold of the unseen rays in the invisible octaves of the solar spectrum, let the physicist pause before he dismisses these stories of picked men as hallucinations.
It is true that in both London and New York in the late 1920’s, a man on a stage was rendered invisible by warping light rays in a field of rapidly rotating magnetic poles. But the phenomena of these weird foo fighters are on a scale that transcends anything we have yet produced.
FATE’S readers (see the summer issue, 1948) may recall the strange experience of Kenneth Elders, of the Landing Aids Experimental Station at Arcata, Calif. He directed a C-47 pilot to fly to a certain location, because of the appearance on his radarscope of what are technically called “discontinuities.” There appeared to be three signals, denoting that three aircraft were passing over the airfield at Arcata. Yet, when the pilot reached the spot in the air, he saw nothing nor did his instruments record any electrical reactions.
So far in 1944 the pilots of the 415th squadron had seen these weird balls at night and despite the ridicule of the higher-ups and the medical and psychiatric skepticism, other reports began to be made. In the Pacific theatre pilots began to be warned before starting out on missions that if they met strange phenomena in the sky they need not conclude that they were suffering from hysteria, war-induced neuroses, or hallucinations. Pilots talking war “shop" in the messes called the balls krauts, or kraut balls. Two British night fighter pilots, whose names I have been unable to ascertain, thought the foo fighters were secret German experimental devices, perhaps intended to strike fear in a war of nerves. Some U.S. intelligence officers supposed they were radio-controlled objects sent up to baffle radar, in the same way of the foil “window” that was dropped by bombers to confuse the radar watchers.
Yet if they had been secret devices, no war department of any country would have risked sending them over hostile territory where they might be shot down or intercepted.
There is the case of a U.S. bomber pilot of the 8th U.S. Air Force. He reported that he saw 15 foo fighters following his plane at a distance, with their lights winking on and off. A U.S. P-47 pilot saw 15 foo fighters by day at or near Neustadt in the same Rhenish area, some 40 miles west of the Rhine and 55 miles northwest of Strasbourg.
Here is his report:
“We were flying west of Neustadt when a golden sphere, which shone with a metallic glitter, appeared, slowly moving through the sky. The sun was not far above the sky line, which made it difficult to say whether or no the sun’s rays were reflected from it or whether the glow came from within the ball itself.”
A second P-47 (Thunderbolt) pilot also saw the same or another “golden, or phosphorescent, ball which appeared to be about four or five feet in diameter flying 2,000 feet up.”
By this time the higher-ups in the U.S. Air Force had been forced to take notice of die increasing reports of level-headed pilot-observers. It was no longer enough to wave these reports away with a smile and half-serious reference to hallucination and combat-neuroses. Nor were the men satisfied at the explanation that they were flares. Whoever saw a flare that behaved as did the foo fighters? Flares are not maneuverable!
The final attempt at a brush-off came from New York, in January, 1945, when “scientists” insulted the intelligence of the men of 415th. The New York scientific wallahs said the men of the 415th and the 8th Air Force had been seeing St. Elmo’s lights! It may be noted that St. Elmo’s lights are seen on sea and land in times of electrical meteorological conditions. They have been seen at the top of Pike’s Peak, from ships’ mast-heads, and from the tops of towers and spires. In the days of Julius Caesar there was one occasion when these lights flashed from the tops of the spears of his legionaries. In our own time the White Star Liner Germanic, in mid-Atlantic, ran into a heavy thunderstorm at 1 a.m. Electrical flames one-and-a-half-inch long jetted from the foremast truck and small balls, one-half inch to two and one-half inches long, ran up and down the mast but were "tied” to it.
But what possible resemblance could there have been between these weird foo fighters, under intelligent control, and St. Elmo’s lights?
In 1945 the foo fighters made their appearance in the seas of the Far East — the other side of the globe from the German Rhine — over Japan, and over Truk Lagoon. Crews of U.S. B-29 bombers reported to intelligence that balls of fire of mysterious types came up from below their cockpits over Japan, hovered over the tails of their bombers, winked their lights from red to orange, then back from white to red. It was the same thing that had happened a few months before on the other side of the globe over the Rhine! Here too the weird balls were inoffensive — just nosey and exploratory, albeit unnerving.
One night a B-29 pilot rose into a cloud in order to shake off one of these balls of fire. When his plane emerged from the cloud-bank the ball was still following behind him! He said it looked to be about three and one-half feet wide and glowed with a strange red phosphorescence. It was spherical, with not one sign of any mechanical appendage such as wings, fins, or fuselage. It followed his bomber for five or six miles and he lost sight of it as the dawn light rose over Mount Fujiyama, some 60 miles southerly of Tokyo. Here it seemed to vanish into thin air!
The B-29’s found that even at top speed they could not outdistance these balls of fire. Some 12,000 feet up over Truk Lagoon in the Caroline archipelago, a pilot of a B-24 Liberator was startled by the sudden appearance of two glowing red lights that shot up from below and for 75 minutes followed on his tail. One flaming ball turned back while the other still dogged his bomber. It maneuvered in such a way as to suggest intelligent direction from some remote control. It came abreast of the Liberator, then it shot ahead, and for 1,500 yards held the lead. After that it fell behind. Its speed was immensely variable.
As dawn came, the strange ball climbed some 16,000 feet above him into the sunshine. In the night hours the pilot noticed changes in the colors of the ball, which were precisely what had been seen over the Rhine, in 1944. It was just a sphere with no appendages.
The pilot radioed to base and had the reply: “No: no enemy planes are near you. Your own bomber is the only one up there, as the radarscope shows.”
Now while the foo fighters were making their appearance in the Far Eastern theater, they were, at about the same time in January, 1945, again sighted by pilots of the U.S. 415th Night Fighter squadron. These pilots reported to U.S. intelligence at the Dijon base, that over Western Germany they had met the blazing balls alone, in pairs, and in formations. One pilot said that three formations of these lights, red and white in color, followed his plane. He suddenly reduced speed and apparently took them off guard. They came on with undiminished speed and then, to avoid any collision, also reduced speed and fell back, though still dogging him.
From ground radar came the usual reply: “Nothing up there but your own plane!”
On another occasion, when the queer formation of foo fighters got on the tail of a U.S. night fighter of 415th squadron, the perplexed and exasperated pilot swung his craft around and headed for them at top speed! As he came, the lights vanished into thin air. They simply were no longer there.
Note what this pilot reported:
“As I passed where they had been I’ll swear I felt the propeller backwash of invisible planes!”
Came the reply from a derisive ground radar station:
“Are you fellows all plum loco? You must be crazy! You’re up there all alone!”
The puzzled pilot flew on and, glancing back, was now startled to see that the balls had reappeared about half a mile astern of his plane. He thought to himself: “I’ll show these spook planes a trick!” The night was starry but, near the zenith, was a bank of cumulus cloud. He headed his plane at top speed right into the mass of cloud. Then he throttled back and glided down for about 1,800 feet. He turned the machine around and headed back from the cloud the way he had entered it, but on a much lower level. Sure enough, the balls had been caught napping! They emerged from the cloud ahead but now on a course opposite to his own!
It is true that, when the Allies overran Germany, no more foo fighters were seen. On the other hand, when secret German experimental stations were seized and their secrets examined by intelligence men, nothing was found blueprinting plans for blazing balls that can be made visible or invisible in the wink of an eyelid! Such a discovery would have been the most tremendous accomplishment of mid-twentieth-century science! It could not have been kept secret!
But the foo fighters, like other types of “flying saucers,” have been seen in other days!
Let us draw on the great reservoir of information of the late Charles Fort, so often tapped without acknowledgment. In his “Book of the Damned,” he cites Robert Mallet’s Catalogue (Rept. British Association, 1852): “Globes of light seen in the air over Swabia (S.W. Bavaria or Bayern, Germany), on May 22, 1732.”
1877: March 23. Dazzling balls of fire appeared from a cloud, and moved slowly over Venice, France. Visible for more than 1 hour. Similar balls seen in sky over Venice eight or ten years before. October 5. Mysterious balls like electric lights seen over West Wales coast. They appeared and vanished suddenly. High velocity.
1848: September 19. Two bright globular lights, blazing like stars, seen over sky of Inverness, Scotland. Sometimes stationary, sometimes moving with high velocity.
1880: July 30. At night, in a ravine near St. Petersburg (now Leningrad), Russia, a large sphere and two smaller ones, all illuminated, seen for three minutes moving along a ravine. They vanished noiselessly.
1893: May 23. Captain Charles J. Norcock, of H.M.S. Caroline, saw globular lights for two hours in sky at 10 p.m., between Shanghai and Japan in East China Sea. These balls of light were also seen the same night for 7½ hours by Captain Castle of H.M.S. Leander. He changed the ship’s course to chase them but they fled from him.
1896: A U.S. postal clerk saw a round red light rise 100 feet over a train he was in at night, at Trenton, Md. It rose higher and went north. At first it outsped the train, then it fell behind.
1950: October 30, from 10:50 to 11 p.m. Two brilliant blue spherical lights travelled at a terrific speed over Devon, England, from north to south. They came inland from over the Bristol Channel. Numerous eyewitnesses included naval men at Devonport.
December 2, in daytime. Noiseless globes of fire vanished in a flash of light over Towyn, Merioneth, Wales. At Penzance, Cornwall, players in football matches stopped play to watch a long black object, with a flaming tail four miles long, rush across the sky. At Looe, East Cornwall, a blue light, “like a sausage,” rushed across the sky.
December 7. Balls of light seen by farmers in Cumberland, England. All descriptions tally.
Authority in England and in the United States is all out to play down the phenomena and explain them away even if the “explanations” ignore or distort the full facts.
One thing it is safe to say: The derided flying saucers and other strange aerial phenomena will continue to be seen in the skies of Britain and in other parts of the world long after the one-sided talk has been forgotten. No amount of talk or conspiracy of silence can hide the truth.
The Foo Fighter Mystery
by Jo Chamberlin - The American Legion Magazine - December, 1945
DURING THE last months of the war the crews of many B-29s over Japan saw what they described as "balls of fire" which followed them, occasionally came up and almost sat on their tails, changed color from orange to red to white and back again, and yet never closed in to attack or crash, suicide-style.
One B-29 made evasive maneuvers inside a cloud, but when the B-29 emerged from it, the ball of fire was following in the same relative position. It seemed 500 yards off, three feet in diameter, and had a phosphorescent orange glow. No wing or fuselage suggesting an aerial bomb or plane was seen. The ball of fire followed the B-29 for several miles and then disappeared just as mysteriously as it had appeared in the dawn light over Fujiyama. Some B-29 crews said they could readily lose the ball of fire by evasive maneuvers, even though the ball kept up with them at top speed on a straight course; other B-29 crews reported just the opposite. Nobody could figure it out.
Far to the south, a B-24 Liberator was at 11,000 feet over Truk lagoon, when two red lights rose rapidly from below, and followed the B-24. After an hour, one light turned back. The other kept on – sometimes behind, sometimes alongside, sometimes ahead about 1,000 yards, until daybreak when it climbed to 15,000 feet and stayed in the sun, like a Jap fighter seeking game, but never came down. During the flight, the light changed from red to orange, then white, and back to orange, and appeared to be the size of a basketball. No wing or fuselage was observed. The B-24 radioed island radar stations to see if there were any enemy planes in the sky.
The answer was: "None."
A curious business, and one for which many solutions have been advanced, before the war was over, and since. None of them stand up. The important point is: No B-29 was harmed by the balls of fire, although what the future held, no one knew. The Japanese were desperately trying to bolster up their defense in every way possible against air attack, but without success. Our B-29s continued to rain destruction on Japanese military targets, and finally dropped the atomic bomb.
Naturally, U. S. Army authorities in Japan will endeavor to find the secret — but it may be hidden as well as it appears to be in Europe. The balls of fire continue to be a mystery — just as they were when first observed on the other side of the world — over eastern Germany.
This is the way they began.
At ten o'clock of a November evening, in late 1944, Lt. Ed Schlueter took off in his night fighter from Dijon, France, on what he thought would be a routine mission for the 415th Night Fighter Squadron.
Lt. Schlueter is a tall, competent young pilot from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, whose hazardous job was to search the night sky for German planes and shoot them down. He had done just this several times and had been decorated for it. As one of our best night fighters, he was used to handling all sorts of emergencies. With him as radar observer was Lt. Donald J. Meiers, and Lt. Fred Ringwald, intelligence officer of the 415th, who flew as an observer.
The trio began their search pattern, roaming the night skies on either side of the Rhine River north of Strasbourg – for centuries the abode of sirens, dwarfs, gnomes, and other supernatural characters that appealed strongly to the dramatic sense of the late A. Hitler. However, at this stage of the European war, the Rhine was no stage but a grim battleground, where the Germans were making their last great stand.
The night was reasonably clear, with some clouds and a quarter moon. There was fair visibility.
In some respects, a night fighter plane operates like a champion boxer whose eyesight isn't very good; he must rely on other senses to guide him to his opponent. The U. S. Army has ground radar stations, which track all planes across the sky, and tell the night fighter the whereabouts of any plane. The night fighter flies there, closes in by means of his own radar until usually he can see the enemy, and if the plane doesn't identify itself as friendly, he shoots it down.
Or, gets shot down himself, for the Germans operate their aircraft in much same way we did, and so did the Japanese.
Lt. Schlueter was flying low enough that he could detect the white steam of a blacked-out locomotive or the sinister bulk of a motor convoy, but he had to avoid smokestacks, barrage balloons, enemy searchlights, and flak batteries. He and Ringwald were on the alert, for there were mountains nearby. The inside of the plane was dark, for good night vision.
Lt. Ringwald said, "I wonder what those lights are, over there in the hills."
"Probably stars," said Schlueter, knowing from long experience that the size and character of lights are hard to estimate at night.
"No, I don't think so."
"Are you sure it's no reflection from us?"
"I'm positive."
Then Ringwald remembered – there weren't any hills over there. Yet the "lights" were still glowing – eight or ten of them in a row – orange balls of fire moving through the air at a terrific speed.
Then Schlueter saw them far off his left wing. Were enemy fighters pursuing him? He immediately checked by radio with Allied ground radar stations.
"Nobody up there but yourself," they reported. "Are you crazy?"
And no enemy plane showed in Lt. Meiers' radar.
Lt. Schlueter didn't know what he was facing – possibly some new and lethal German weapon – but he turned into the lights, ready for action. The lights disappeared – then reappeared far off. Five minutes later they went into a flat glide and vanished.
The puzzled airmen continued on their mission, and destroyed seven freight trains behind German lines. When they landed back at Dijon, they decided to do what any other prudent soldier would do – keep quiet for the moment. If you tried to explain everything strange that happened in a war, you'd do nothing else. Further, Schlueter and Meiers had nearly completed their required missions, and didn't want to chance being grounded by some skeptical flight surgeon for "combat fatigue."
Maybe they had been "seeing things."
But a few nights later, Lt. Henry Giblin, of Santa Rosa, California, pilot, and Lt. Walter Cleary, of Worcester, Massachusetts, radar-observer, were flying at 1,000 feet altitude when they saw a huge red light 1,000 feet above them, moving at 200 miles per hour. As the observation was made on an early winter evening, the men decided that perhaps they had eaten something at chow that didn't agree with them and did not rush to report their experience.
On December 22-23, 1944, another 415th night fighter squadron pilot and radar-observer were flying at 10,000 feet altitude near Hagenau. "At 0600 hours we saw two lights climbing toward us from the ground. Upon reaching our altitude, they leveled off and stayed on my tail. The lights appeared to be large orange glows. After staying with the plane for two minutes, they peeled off and turned away, flying under perfect control, and then went out."
The next night the same two men, flying at 10,000 feet, observed a single red flame. Lt. David L. McFalls, of Cliffside, N. C., pilot, and Lt. Ned Baker of Hemat, California, radar-observer, also saw: "A glowing red object shooting straight up, which suddenly changed to a view of an aircraft doing a wing-over, going into a dive and disappearing." This was the first and only suggestion of a controlled flying device.
By this time, the lights were reported by all members of the 415th who saw them. Most men poked fun at the observers, until they saw for themselves. Although confronted with a baffling situation, and one with lethal potentialities, the 415th continued its remarkable combat record. When the writer of this article visited and talked with them in Germany, he was impressed with the obvious fact that the 415th fliers were very normal airmen, whose primary interest was combat, and after that came pin-up girls, poker, doughnuts, and the derivatives of the grape.
The 415th had a splendid record.
The whole outfit took the mysterious lights or balls of fire with a sense of humor. Their reports were received in some higher quarters with smiles: "Sure, you must have seen something, and have you been getting enough sleep?" One day at chow a 415th pilot suggested that they give the lights a name. A reader of the comic strip "Smokey Stover" suggested that they be called "foo-fighters," since it was frequently and irrefutably stated in that strip that "Where there's foo, there's fire."
The name stuck.
What the 415th saw at night was borne out in part by day. West of Neustadt, a P-47 pilot saw "a gold-colored ball, with a metallic finish, which appeared to be moving slowly through the air. As the sun was low, it was impossible to tell whether the sun reflected off it, or the light came from within." Another P-47 pilot reported "a phosphorescent golden sphere, 3 to 5 feet in diameter, flying at 2,000 feet,"
Meanwhile, official reports of the "foo-fighters" had gone to group headquarters and were "noted." Now in the Army, when you "note" anything it means that you neither agree nor disagree, nor do you intend to do anything about it. It covers everything. Various explanations were offered for the phenomena – none of them satisfactory, and most of them irritating to the 415th.
It was said that the foo-fighters might be a new kind of flare.
A flare, said the 415th, does not dive, peel off, or turn.
Were they to frighten or confuse Allied pilots?
Well, if so, they were not succeeding – and yet the lights continued to appear.
Eighth Air Force bomber crews had reported seeing silver-colored spheres resembling huge Christmas tree ornaments in the sky – what about them?
Well, the silver spheres usually floated, and never followed a plane. They were presumably some idea the Germans tried in the unsuccessful effort to confuse our pilots or hinder our radar bombing devices.
What about jet planes?
No, the Germans had jet planes all right, but they didn't have an exhaust flame visible at any distance.
Could they be flying bombs of some sort, either with or without a pilot? Presumably not – with but one exception no one thought he observed a wing or fuselage.
Weather balloons?
No, the 415th was well aware of their behavior. They ascended almost vertically, and eventually burst.
Could the lights or balls of fire be the red, blue, and orange colored flak bursts that Eighth Air Force bomber crews had reported?
It was a nice idea, said the 415th, but there was no correlation between the foo-fighters they observed and the flak they encountered. And night flak was usually directed by German radar, not visually.
In short, no explanation stood up.
On Dec. 31, 1944, AP reporter Bob Wilson, was with the 415th and heard about the foo-fighters. He questioned the men until 4 a.m. in the best newspaper tradition until he got all the facts. His story passed the censors, and appeared in American newspapers on January 1, 1945, just in time to meet the customary crop of annual hangovers.
Some scientists in New York decided, apparently by remote control, that what the airmen had seen in Germany was St. Elmo's light – a well-known electrical phenomenon appearing like light or flame during stormy weather at the tips of church steeples, ships' masts, and tall trees. Being in the nature of an electrical discharge, St. Elmo's fire is reddish when positive, and blueish when negative.
The 415th blew up. It was thoroughly acquainted with St. Elmo's fire. The men snorted, "Just let the sons come over and fly a mission with us. We'll show em."
Through January, 1945, the 415th continued to see the "foo-fighters," and their conduct became increasingly mysterious. One aircrew observed lights, moving both singly and in pairs. On another occasion, three sets of lights, this time red and white in color, followed a plane, and when the plane suddenly pulled up, the lights continued on in the same direction, as though caught napping, and then sheepishly pulled up to follow.
The pilot checked with ground radar – he was alone in the sky.
This was true in every instance foo-fighters were observed.
The first real clue came with the last appearance of the exasperating and potentially deadly lights. They never kept 415th from fulfilling its missions, but they certainly were unnerving. The last time the foo-fighters appeared, the pilot turned into them at the earliest possible moment – and the lights disappeared. The pilot was sure that he felt prop wash, but when he checked with ground radar, there was no other airplane.
The pilot continued on his way, perturbed, even angry – when he noticed lights far to the rear. The night was clear and the pilot was approaching a huge cloud. Once in the cloud, he dropped down two thousand feet and made a 30 degree left turn. Just a few seconds later be emerged from the cloud – with his eye peeled to rear. Sure enough, coming out of the cloud in the same relative position was the foo-fighter, as though to thumb its nose at the pilot, and then disappear.
This was the last time the foo-fighters were seen in Germany, although it would have seemed fitting, if the lights had made one last gesture, grouping themselves so as to spell "Guess What" in the sky, and vanishing forever.
But they didn't.
The foo-fighters simply disappeared when Allied ground forces captured the area East of the Rhine. This was known to be the location of many German experimental stations. Since V-E day our Intelligence officers have put many such installations under guard. From them we hope to get valuable research information – including the solution to the foo-fighter mystery, but it has not appeared yet. It may be successfully hidden for years to come, possibly forever.
The members of the 415th hope Army Intelligence will find the answer. If it turns out that the Germans never had anything airborne in the area, they say, "We'll be all set for Section Eight psychiatric discharges."
Meanwhile, the foo-fighter mystery continues unsolved. The lights, or balls of fire, appeared and disappeared on the other side of the world, over Japan – and your guess as to what they were is just as good as mine, for nobody really knows.
PROJECT 1947 Comments: The author of "The Foo Fighter Mystery", Lieutenant Colonel Jo Chamberlin was an aide to one of the most powerful military men in World War II, Commanding General of the U. S. Army Air Forces, Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold.
In the spring of 1945 he traveled to Europe on an open special assignment. Among other duties, Lt. Col. Chamberlin wrote speeches for Gen. Arnold and fulfilled assorted public relations commitments. He wrote for various magazines on air power and the war, donating any monies he received from his articles to charities for war widows and orphans.
When Chamberlin arrived in Europe, the authorities issued him a .45 caliber pistol and a jeep with a driver. One of the first places he visited was the 415th Night Fighter Squadron (NFS). Nothing in Chamberlin's notes nor in an incomplete search of General Arnold's papers indicate that he was directed by Arnold to go to the 415th NFS. However, at about the same time General Arnold had assigned his scientific advisor, Dr. David T. Griggs, to investigate "foo-fighters" in Europe, the Pacific and elsewhere. It is a good possibility that one of Chamberlin's first stops, the 415th NFS, was ordered by General Arnold.
Chamberlin interviewed the 415th aircrews and obtained documents and reports about their "foo-fighter" encounters. He found that both Robert Wilson, Associated Press war correspondent and Sgt. Ed Clark, reporter for the military newspaper circulated to the troops overseas, The Stars and Stripes, had also met with and interviewed the aircrews who had witnessed the mysterious foo-fighters.
All three of these men based their writings on foo-fighters on direct contact with the witnesses, not press releases, secondhand accounts, or rumors.
Chamberlin encountered aircrews from other units who had also seen foo-fighters or had other daylight sightings of unknown objects.
On his return to the US, he asked for and was supplied with intelligence reports on foo-fighters, especially from the Pacific Theatre. His papers do not contain a written formal report to General Arnold on foo fighters, unlike Dr. Griggs who did make such a report – which is yet to be located. Chamberlin's ready access to Arnold might have allowed him to discuss the foo fighter issue informally without committing his ideas to paper.
He organized the material supplied by General Arnold's intelligence officers, and combined it with notes and documents he had obtained in Europe into an article on foo fighters.
Air Force Intelligence required three steps before allowing publication: the article had to undergo an intelligence review, he could not use his rank nor his position in connection with how he came to gather his information.
After the review, Chamberlin rewrote the article to its present form and submitted it to Major Harold Augspurger, commander of the 415th NFS for his comments. Later he sold his article to the American Legion magazine and once again donated his payment to charity.
With the huge post-World War II drawdown involving millions of military personnel returning to civilian life, Lt. Col. Chamberlin seemed to have been lost from the Air Force's institutional memory. As public reports and official interest in "flying saucers" took hold, Chamberlin's article on mysterious flying objects being seen by trained air crews during World War II was forgotten. No one brought it to the attention of the Project SIGN personnel nor to Capt Edward Ruppelt of Project Blue Book when he was scouring Air Force Intelligence records for every scrap of information about UFOs.
In 1952, World War II intelligence documents at Air Force headquarters were packed up and sent to Maxwell Air Force Base where they were unavailable to Ruppelt. This is probably why he talked about foo-fighters as being known only through witness accounts and not through official documents. The British author, Harold T. Wilkins, rediscovered Chamberlin's article and made it publicly known with an article in FATE magazine.
Chamberlin's USAAF papers are part of General Arnold's collection at the Library of Congress.
By Dr. David Clarke & Andy Roberts
The future was uncertain for those who joined the Royal Air Force at the start of World War II. All were volunteers and many looked upon their baptism into the world of flight and combat as an adventure which would bring experiences both good and bad. But none expected the strangest experience they would face would be unidentified flying objects that would play tag with their aircraft during raids on occupied Europe.
In recent years much has been written about UFOs seen during World War Two and although there is as yet no single work which deals comprehensively with the subject, many UFO books and magazines feature stories about the so-called ‘foo-fighters’. Unfortunately the majority of these are sensationalised or un- referenced accounts dealing solely with the American experience and until recently little was known of the experiences of RAF aircrews and the response of the British government to these reports.
In an attempt to redress that balance, since 1987 we have been digging deep into the foo-fighter mystery. There have been two, intertwined, strands to this approach. The first has been interviews with the many combat air crew who witnessed this perplexing aerial phenomena and the second has been research into studies of the phenomena by the Air Ministry.
During WWII the terms ‘UFO’ and ‘flying saucer’ were yet to be invented. But it is human nature to name the unknown in an attempt to make it explicable and thus hopefully to understand it better. The name which stuck to WWII aerial phenomena and which has become widely known was ‘foo-fighters’, a term given to them by an unknown American airman, probably in 1943. No-one is certain where the name came from but it may have originated in a popular 1940s U.S. cartoon strip featuring the character Smokey Stover, whose catch phrase was ‘where there’s foo, there’s fire’. Alternatively ‘foo’ may have derived from the French word for fire - ‘feu’ -, the phenomenon often being described as resembling a fireball.
Whatever its origin, ‘foo-fighter’ was a term specific to the United States Air Force, and appears not to have been used in a British context until March 1945. But our research has revealed that RAF air crew during WWII had their own names for the UFOs they saw. Based on information gleaned from interviews with surviving aircrew and details in log books, it appears that ‘The Light’ or ‘The Thing’ were the two most common terms used in RAF squadrons from 1942 onwards. One early contemporary example comes from December 14 1943, when Squadron Leader P. Wells wrote in his flight log of a, ‘Screaming dog-fight with the “light”’. In a 1987 interview we asked Wells if he was aware the American’s were seeing similar phenomena and if he knew of the term ‘foo-fighter’. He replied, ‘...foo-fighters is a new name to me, we always called them “The Light” in the squadrons in which I served in 1943-44’. Other air crew, baffled by the lights which pursued or paced them, rationalised their sightings as evidence of new jets or ‘rockets’ and referred to them in those terms in flight logs and at debriefings. However, the term ‘The Thing’ stuck in people’s minds and was being used by British witnesses and newspapers in relation to UFOs well into the 1960s when it was applied to the UFOs seen during the famous Warminster flap
No-one knows who the first RAF air crew to see a UFO in WWII was, but one of the earliest recorded RAF encounters comes from B.C. Lumsden who observed two classic foo-fighters while flying a Hurricane fighter over France in December 1942.
Lumsden had left England at seven p.m., for a mission over the French coast. An hour later, while cruising at 7,000 feet over the mouth of the River Somme, he discovered that he had company. Two steadily climbing orange-coloured lights, with one slightly above the other. Lumsden at first thought the lights may be tracer flak, but discarded the idea when he saw how slowly the objects were moving. He did a full turn and saw the lights astern and to port but now they were larger and brighter. At 7,000 feet they stopped climbing and stayed level with his Hurricane. The frightened pilot executed another full turn, only to discover that the objects had stayed with him. Lumsden nose-dived to 4,000 feet with the lights following his every manoeuvre. Finally they descended to about 1,000 feet below him until he leveled out, at which point they climbed again and resumed pursuit. The two lights seemed to maintain an even distance from each other and varied only slightly in relative height from time to time. One always remained a little lower than the other. At last, as Lumsden's speed reached 260 miles per hour, he was gradually able to outdistance the UFOs. ‘I found it hard to make other members of the squadron believe me when I told my story,’ Lumsden said, ‘but the following night one of the squadron flight commanders in the same area had a similar experience with a green light.’
Lumsden’s account was just one of a growing number which reached the Air Ministry during 1942. By early autumn enough sightings had been reported to warrant an official statement and on 25th September a report classified SECRET was issued by the Air Ministry’s Operation Research Section, entitled A Note On Recent Enemy Pyrotechnic Activity Over Germany. Baffled by the flood of reports, the report’s authors discussed the possible causes of the phenomenon. They concluded, not entirely convincingly, that the sightings were new or misperceived types of German anti-aircraft shells and referred to them as ‘Phenomena 1’ and ‘Phenomena 2’, suggesting that more suitable names be given them in a report being prepared by a branch of military intelligence, M.I. 14.»
This report was one of a series produced throughout the war by the Air Ministry. Although aircrew believed that the Intelligence departments were not taking the matter seriously enough, report after report was being carefully collected and thoroughly analysed. Documents recently discovered in the Public Record Office convincingly demonstrate that, rather than causing the Air Ministry to believe they were being visited by a strange and unknown phenomena, the reports were treated soberly and with caution. Just as today’s Ministry of Defence analyses UFO reports for their defence implications, so the besieged Air Ministry was concerned that the WWII sightings may have represented some new Axis weapon and they monitored the situation accordingly.
However, several well known UFO writers have suggested there was a top secret study conducted by the Air Ministry during WWII and which was the genesis of alleged ‘cover up’. We have conducted an in depth study of these claims and found them to be without foundation. Even the great UFO enthusiast and wartime pilot Air Marshall Sir Victor Goddard did not believe any such study existed, writing in 1978:
‘This implies Treasury sanction; it suggests that in the middle of the War against Germany when we had our hands full and it was far from certain that we could survive, the Air Ministry was concerned that a UFO menace existed: it most certainly was not….’
Yet the response by Air Intelligence to aircrew who reported UFOs during the wartime years appears baffling. Why did they appear to take so little interest? Why was there no detailed de-briefing of the witnesses? Why did they not send up observers to film or observe the phenomena for themselves? These and other questions frequently came up during our interviews with RAF aircrew who witnessed these phenomena. But the documentary evidence at the Public Record Office shows that the RAF had been taking a great deal of interest in the sightings. Files in the PRO reveal that Air Intelligence had a wealth of information on all kinds of unusual radar trackings, ‘mystery’ aircraft and unusual rockets and flak, gathered from all branches of the RAF. Each sighting was carefully analysed in the context of known weaponry, enemy tactics and the psychological problems of misperception.
The attitude displayed in these documents is best summed up by the late comedian and former Goon show star Michael Bentine:
‘When I was an intelligence officer in Bomber Command in the winter of 1943-44, I debriefed several crews about some lights that had attacked them when they were over the Baltic. They fired at the lights, which didn’t shoot back. These lights didn’t seem to do anything, just pulse and go round. We put it down to fatigue, but later, after I had sent the reports in, an American G2 Intelligence Officer told us that their bombers saw lights in the sky - ‘foo-fighters’ he called them.’
In another interview Bentine described how he debriefed a Polish bomber unit based in England. They claimed that silver-blue balls appeared near their wing on six missions during the autumn of 1943. These tailed the planes as they raided the Nazi V-weapons base at Peenemunde. The crews told Bentine it must be a new weapon. ‘But what did it do to you?’ Bentine inquired. ‘Nothing,’ they replied. "Well it was not a very effective weapon, was it?" he pointed out. Bentine’s last statement accurately sums up the conclusions reached by the Air Ministry during their study of these phenomena – whatever the ‘foo-fighters’ were, they did not constitute a threat to aircraft.
So, it seems that there has never been a ‘cover-up’ by the British Government of information about WWII UFOs, just a collection of baffling reports consigned to the dusty shelves of the Public Record Office. It is interesting however that some of the personnel who were involved with WWII UFO analysis, such as the Sir Henry Tizard and the Air Ministry’s Director of Intelligence, Dr R.V. Jones, were also involved in studies of Ghost Rockets in 1946 and the ‘flying saucer’ sightings from 1947 to the mid 1950s. Using their rigorous techniques of analysis, borne out of wartime necessity they continued to view UFO sightings with interest but ultimately regarded them as a modern myth based on misperception. Researchers who wish to trace the roots of the MOD’s current attitude to UFOs should seek out the files held by the PRO to discover how the conclusions which have endured for over fifty years, were originally formulated.
Witness accounts and documentary evidence indicates that the majority of WWII UFO sightings were of small spherical objects. However, two RAF sightings have come to our attention which indicates huge objects were also being seen by aircrew. Whilst it is possible that other foo-fighter sightings may have been new types of flak such as ‘scarecrow’, designed to mimic an aircraft in flames, flak tracer or jets such as the ME262, none of these prosaic explanations can account for the following sighting, which took place on the night of 28 November 1942.
The sighting was thought to be of such significance that it was sent to the headquarters of Bomber Command Recorded in a document, stamped ‘SECRET’. The covering letter, from the Air Vice Marshal of no. 5 Group. RAF, read, ‘Herewith a copy of a report received from a crew of a Lancaster after a raid on Turin. The crew refuses to be shaken in their story in the face of the usual banter and ridicule.’ »
The document referred to an unusual sighting made by the entire crew of aircraft ‘J’, piloted by Captain Lever of 61 Squadron, based at Syerston in Lincolnshire. If a sighting such as this were made by the whole crew of an aeroplane today it would make headline news in every country in the world. As it was it this fascinating report has remained hidden for over half a century deep in the heart of the Public Records Office. Written by an anonymous intelligence officer the account reads:
‘The object referred to above was seen by the entire crew of the above aircraft. They believe it to have been 200-300 feet in length and its width is estimated at 1/5th or 1/6th of its length. The speed was estimated at 500 m.p.h., and it had four pairs of red lights spaced at equal distances along its body. These lights did not appear in any way like exhaust flames; no trace was seen. The object kept a level course.
The crew saw the object twice during the raid, and brief details are given below:-
‘(i) After bombing, time 2240 hours, a/c height 11,000 feet. The aircraft at this time was some 10/15 miles south-west of Turin travelling in a north-westerly direction. The object was travelling south-east at the same height or slightly below the aircraft.
(ii) After bombing, time 2245 hours, a/c height 14,000 feet. the aircraft was approaching the Alps when the object was seen again travelling west-south-west up a valley in the Alps below the level of the peaks. The lights appeared to go out and the object disappeared from view.’
Had this incident been a one-off sighting it could perhaps have been dismissed, although as what we are not sure. But two distinct sightings of what appears to be the same object traveling in different directions raise more questions than answers. Even more baffling was the final paragraph which soberly stated:
‘The Captain of the aircraft also reports that he has seen a similar object about three months ago north of Amsterdam. In this instance it appeared to be on the ground and later traveling at high speed at a lower level than the heights given above along the coast for about two seconds; the lights then went out for the same period of time and came on again, and the object was still seen to be traveling in the same direction.’
It is difficult to know what to make of this sighting. Bomber Command was impressed by the sincerity of the report, and the fact that the crew was bold enough to repeat their fantastic story to their incredulous colleagues. The object resembles no known aerial craft and can not be easily attributed to misperception of astronomical or meteorological phenomena. The case remains one of the most unusual UFO mysteries of W.W.II on file at the Public Record Office.
We discovered another RAF account of a huge UFO in the files of the British UFO Research Association. Whilst this case is not, as yet, backed up by any documentary evidence the detailed account is worth relating here. Sgt Pilot G.N. Cockcroft of Bradford, West Yorkshire, who flew with a Halifax bomber squadron, recalled:
“On the night of 26/27 May 1943 we were to carry out an attack on the Krupps Armament Works at Essen. As I recall between 400/500 aircraft were involved in the raid. We experienced the usual flak, when crossing the Dutch coast….but fortunately sustained no serious damage. The barrage flak in the Ruhr Valley was extremely heavy, particularly in the last few minutes on the approach to the target. The first wave had already bombed and the general target area was well alight.
“It was in the two or three minutes before our final run-in, when we were at approximately 18,700 feet when we saw in front, but slightly to port and about the same height, a long cylindrical object, silvery gold colour, very sharply defined, hanging in the sky at an angle of approximately 45 degrees. There were, evenly spaced along the length of the object, a number of port holes. The first crew member to sight this object was the Captain, at that time Sgt/Pilot Ray Smith of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Besides Ray and myself other members of the crew to see the object, which was called to their attention by the Captain were the bomb aimer, the flight engineer, the mid-upper gunner and wireless operator.”
In fact, the only members of the crew not to see the object were the navigator and rear gunner who were both otherwise engaged in ensuring the bomber didn’t get lost or shot down. Cockcroft continues:
“I think that the first reaction of most of us was amazement because this object just had no right to be there. After a very short space of time, twenty to thirty seconds, it suddenly began moving and, retaining its attitude, climbed rapidly until it vanished from sight. The speed it attained seemed to us completely incredible. It was certainly into the thousands of mph! As it accelerated, the outline became blurred and the shape foreshortened. The size is more difficult to judge but it was very large, certainly very much bigger than our own aircraft, appearing at least as long as a king-sized cigarette or small cigar at arm’s length. We then completed our bomb run and returned to base.
“The intelligence officer de-briefing us was given a description of this object but we were unable to judge what importance was attached to it by the authorities and, quite frankly, it was just another unusual phenomenon which, since apparently harmless, was of far less importance to us than other wartime hazards.”
In their efforts to explain foo-fighter phenomena sceptics have suggested that some may have been examples of very bright, long lasting meteors known as a bolides. This may indeed be the case. But bolide meteors cannot account for the instances where bombers were ‘chased’ for long periods of time by foo-fighters. Perhaps the most remarkable case of an aircraft pursuit comes from the penultimate year of the war.
On the evening of 26th April 1944 Arthur Horton taxied his Lancaster bomber onto the runway at RAF Mildenhall in preparation for a raid to Essen in Germany. It was, he thought, just another routine, if terrifying, mission. When interviewed by us in 1987 Horton claimed he had not heard about any unusual aerial phenomena during the war and as usual was only concerned with the task in hand - find the target, drop the bombs and return home as quickly and safely as possible. He had no idea of the events which would unfold over the next few hours, and how ‘The Thing’, as he called it, would almost cost him and his crew their lives.
The raid went as exactly as planned despite the potentially fatal distractions of Luftwaffe night-fighters and the flak which sought them in the searchlight beams. Bombs dropped, the Lanc. turned for home and the crew allowed themselves to relax slightly. But shortly after leaving the target Horton’s intercom crackled into life with a panicky warning from his rear-gunner. Unidentified lights had appeared out of the darkness and were following the ‘plane. Horton asked the gunner if he was certain. Yes, he replied, four orange balls of light were tailing them, two on each side of the aircraft, accelerating in short, powerful, spurts. According to the frightened gunner they were about the size of large footballs and had a fiery glow to them. Intercom reports made it clear that other crew members could see them now, and Horton realised they must be real and not hallucinations brought on by combat fatigue. One gunner thought he could see small, stubby wings and possibly an exhaust glow from the rear of the objects. Now Horton was getting worried. He had never experienced anything like this before and whilst the unidentified flying objects were not displaying any signs of aggression he couldn’t take the risk. Forty three years after the event Arthur Horton clearly recalled exactly what he did next:
‘I of course immediately dropped the aircraft out of the sky. My gunners didn’t know what they were. Should they fire? By this time I was standing the aircraft on its tail and beginning a series of corkscrews and turns with the things following everything I did - but making no move to attack us. By this time we had the throttles ‘through the gate’, the gunners still asking what they should do. Apart from flying the thing I had to try and answer them. But were they some form of flying contraption that would explode at some specific distance from us, or on contact? Did they want us to fire at them to cause an explosion? Out of the kaleidoscope of thought the only answer was ‘If they are leaving us alone, leave them alone’....’ »
Horton’s term ‘through the gate’ refers to a technique by which Lancaster pilots could move the throttle sideways and forwards, breaking a wire, ‘the gate’, in the process. This would then give considerable extra power. But the strain on the engines was immense and three minutes was the maximum amount of time recommended. Horton continued evasive action for ten minutes, during which time all the crew except he and the bomb aimer saw the phenomena. Whatever the objects were they stayed close to the Lancaster, duplicating its every move, until they reached the Dutch coast when, in the words of one of the gunners, ‘they seemed to burn themselves out’.
Exhausted, but relieved, Horton flew the Lancaster back to England. His dramatic evasive manoeuvres had caused a serious mechanical fault which resulted in them having to land at a different airfield. Horton and his crew were baffled by their mystery visitors, and could only presume they had been chased by a German secret weapon, perhaps a radio-controlled anti-aircraft rocket or shell. Upon reporting their experience to the Intelligence Officers at de-briefing they were met not with interest but with ridicule and no explanation as to what they had experienced. But Horton stuck to his account and wouldn’t be persuaded that his crew had imagined the glowing orange balls.
We have been unable to locate reference to this sighting in PRO files but evidence it took place does exist. In his log book for the flight Horton recorded they had been ‘Chased by rockets -4’. Bernard Dye, the mid-upper gunner also noted the incident in his log-book as, ‘Rocket attacks lasting ten minutes...’.
Although Horton and his crew had never heard of anything similar before or since, the phenomena they witnessed are entirely consistent with other so-called ‘foo-fighter’ experiences. Perhaps if Horton’s rear-gunner had risked opening fire we may be a lot wiser about the nature of the foo-fighter phenomenon. But then again perhaps not. It was a risk Flt Lt Horton was not prepared to take.
Several other aircrew reported unusual aerial phenomena in terms of ‘rockets’. Yet post war research has demonstrated that the Axis forces did not have the capability to produce rockets which could twist and turn whilst following an airplane and certainly not for the lengths of time reported. Consider the following two accounts. Rockets? Or something more sinister?
Flt Lt Mortimer reported the following to intelligence officers at debriefing after a raid on the night of 2 January 1944:
‘Engaged by two rockets in vicinity of Halberstadt and later near Hanover, 90 degrees alteration of courses made and definitely established that rockets altered course. Overtook us slowly, appearing with a fiery head and blazing stern on a parallel course. Initial velocity seemed to be fairly great. Disappeared without explosion.’
Another, similar, incident took place on the 29 January 1944 when Pilot Officer Simpson submitted the following report to Air Intelligence:
‘At 52 32N 13 03E, 2037 hours, 20,500 ft, heading 082 degrees True. A red ball leaving trail of yellow/red flames and black smoke at about 1,000 yards and at the same time dead astern. It was seen closing in. I dived to starboard and the object followed, appearing to fizzle out and then immediately to reappear. I turned hard to port and it followed us round in a tighter turn than we were in. When within 100 yards or less of the aircraft, it finally fizzled out.’
German rocket? Bolide meteor? Or unexplained aerial phenomena – a UFO? The Air Intelligence officers at de-briefing dutifully logged these and many other sightings, sifting carefully through them in a number of ‘secret’ reports which analysed their characteristics in great detail. The conclusions reached in 1944-45 were no different to the conclusions reached by the MOD in the year 2002 – basically ‘no defence significance’. Once it had been ascertained that these UFOs did not explode, fire or display aggressive characteristics Air Intelligence was content to let the matter drop, maintaining a watching brief. There was a war on they could not afford to waste time and money chasing phantoms of the skies.
As with all other phases of the UFO enigma, argument has raged down the decades among ‘experts’ as to just what has been witnessed by those terrified and puzzled air crew. In that respect the foo-fighter enigma does not differ from sightings of phantom airships during the early twentieth century or observations of flying triangles during the last few years of the millennium. And, of course, it’s very easy for us as vicarious consumers of others’ experiences to pontificate about misperception of natural phenomena such as meteors and misidentification of enemy jet planes, rockets and flak. Speculation does not in any way diminish the effect these sightings had upon the witnesses. We are not, as yet, certain just what were the stimuli behind the ‘foo-fighter’ reports. But, as with all UFO sightings, the perceived experience is always radically different from the reality of the stimuli, and it is within that tension where the answer to the UFO problem lies. The problem is – are we prepared to accept the answers?
For a full list of references see chapter 1 of Out of the Shadows (London: Piatkus 2002)
Copyright David Clarke and Andy Roberts 2003
The RAF Experience
Dr. David Clarke & Andy Roberts - Originally published in UFO Magazine (UK) January 2003
The future was uncertain for those who joined the Royal Air Force at the start of World War II. All were volunteers and many looked upon their baptism into the world of flight and combat as an adventure which would bring experiences both good and bad. But none expected the strangest experience they would face would be unidentified flying objects that would play tag with their aircraft during raids on occupied Europe.
In recent years much has been written about UFOs seen during World War Two and although there is as yet no single work which deals comprehensively with the subject, many UFO books and magazines feature stories about the so-called ‘foo-fighters’. Unfortunately the majority of these are sensationalised or un- referenced accounts dealing solely with the American experience and until recently little was known of the experiences of RAF aircrews and the response of the British government to these reports.
In an attempt to redress that balance, since 1987 we have been digging deep into the foo-fighter mystery. There have been two, intertwined, strands to this approach. The first has been interviews with the many combat air crew who witnessed this perplexing aerial phenomena and the second has been research into studies of the phenomena by the Air Ministry.
During WWII the terms ‘UFO’ and ‘flying saucer’ were yet to be invented. But it is human nature to name the unknown in an attempt to make it explicable and thus hopefully to understand it better. The name which stuck to WWII aerial phenomena and which has become widely known was ‘foo-fighters’, a term given to them by an unknown American airman, probably in 1943. No-one is certain where the name came from but it may have originated in a popular 1940s U.S. cartoon strip featuring the character Smokey Stover, whose catch phrase was ‘where there’s foo, there’s fire’. Alternatively ‘foo’ may have derived from the French word for fire - ‘feu’ -, the phenomenon often being described as resembling a fireball.
Whatever its origin, ‘foo-fighter’ was a term specific to the United States Air Force, and appears not to have been used in a British context until March 1945. But our research has revealed that RAF air crew during WWII had their own names for the UFOs they saw. Based on information gleaned from interviews with surviving aircrew and details in log books, it appears that ‘The Light’ or ‘The Thing’ were the two most common terms used in RAF squadrons from 1942 onwards. One early contemporary example comes from December 14 1943, when Squadron Leader P. Wells wrote in his flight log of a, ‘Screaming dog-fight with the “light”’. In a 1987 interview we asked Wells if he was aware the American’s were seeing similar phenomena and if he knew of the term ‘foo-fighter’. He replied, ‘...foo-fighters is a new name to me, we always called them “The Light” in the squadrons in which I served in 1943-44’. Other air crew, baffled by the lights which pursued or paced them, rationalised their sightings as evidence of new jets or ‘rockets’ and referred to them in those terms in flight logs and at debriefings. However, the term ‘The Thing’ stuck in people’s minds and was being used by British witnesses and newspapers in relation to UFOs well into the 1960s when it was applied to the UFOs seen during the famous Warminster flap
No-one knows who the first RAF air crew to see a UFO in WWII was, but one of the earliest recorded RAF encounters comes from B.C. Lumsden who observed two classic foo-fighters while flying a Hurricane fighter over France in December 1942.
Lumsden had left England at seven p.m., for a mission over the French coast. An hour later, while cruising at 7,000 feet over the mouth of the River Somme, he discovered that he had company. Two steadily climbing orange-coloured lights, with one slightly above the other. Lumsden at first thought the lights may be tracer flak, but discarded the idea when he saw how slowly the objects were moving. He did a full turn and saw the lights astern and to port but now they were larger and brighter. At 7,000 feet they stopped climbing and stayed level with his Hurricane. The frightened pilot executed another full turn, only to discover that the objects had stayed with him. Lumsden nose-dived to 4,000 feet with the lights following his every manoeuvre. Finally they descended to about 1,000 feet below him until he leveled out, at which point they climbed again and resumed pursuit. The two lights seemed to maintain an even distance from each other and varied only slightly in relative height from time to time. One always remained a little lower than the other. At last, as Lumsden's speed reached 260 miles per hour, he was gradually able to outdistance the UFOs. ‘I found it hard to make other members of the squadron believe me when I told my story,’ Lumsden said, ‘but the following night one of the squadron flight commanders in the same area had a similar experience with a green light.’
Lumsden’s account was just one of a growing number which reached the Air Ministry during 1942. By early autumn enough sightings had been reported to warrant an official statement and on 25th September a report classified SECRET was issued by the Air Ministry’s Operation Research Section, entitled A Note On Recent Enemy Pyrotechnic Activity Over Germany. Baffled by the flood of reports, the report’s authors discussed the possible causes of the phenomenon. They concluded, not entirely convincingly, that the sightings were new or misperceived types of German anti-aircraft shells and referred to them as ‘Phenomena 1’ and ‘Phenomena 2’, suggesting that more suitable names be given them in a report being prepared by a branch of military intelligence, M.I. 14.»
This report was one of a series produced throughout the war by the Air Ministry. Although aircrew believed that the Intelligence departments were not taking the matter seriously enough, report after report was being carefully collected and thoroughly analysed. Documents recently discovered in the Public Record Office convincingly demonstrate that, rather than causing the Air Ministry to believe they were being visited by a strange and unknown phenomena, the reports were treated soberly and with caution. Just as today’s Ministry of Defence analyses UFO reports for their defence implications, so the besieged Air Ministry was concerned that the WWII sightings may have represented some new Axis weapon and they monitored the situation accordingly.
However, several well known UFO writers have suggested there was a top secret study conducted by the Air Ministry during WWII and which was the genesis of alleged ‘cover up’. We have conducted an in depth study of these claims and found them to be without foundation. Even the great UFO enthusiast and wartime pilot Air Marshall Sir Victor Goddard did not believe any such study existed, writing in 1978:
‘This implies Treasury sanction; it suggests that in the middle of the War against Germany when we had our hands full and it was far from certain that we could survive, the Air Ministry was concerned that a UFO menace existed: it most certainly was not….’
Yet the response by Air Intelligence to aircrew who reported UFOs during the wartime years appears baffling. Why did they appear to take so little interest? Why was there no detailed de-briefing of the witnesses? Why did they not send up observers to film or observe the phenomena for themselves? These and other questions frequently came up during our interviews with RAF aircrew who witnessed these phenomena. But the documentary evidence at the Public Record Office shows that the RAF had been taking a great deal of interest in the sightings. Files in the PRO reveal that Air Intelligence had a wealth of information on all kinds of unusual radar trackings, ‘mystery’ aircraft and unusual rockets and flak, gathered from all branches of the RAF. Each sighting was carefully analysed in the context of known weaponry, enemy tactics and the psychological problems of misperception.
The attitude displayed in these documents is best summed up by the late comedian and former Goon show star Michael Bentine:
‘When I was an intelligence officer in Bomber Command in the winter of 1943-44, I debriefed several crews about some lights that had attacked them when they were over the Baltic. They fired at the lights, which didn’t shoot back. These lights didn’t seem to do anything, just pulse and go round. We put it down to fatigue, but later, after I had sent the reports in, an American G2 Intelligence Officer told us that their bombers saw lights in the sky - ‘foo-fighters’ he called them.’
In another interview Bentine described how he debriefed a Polish bomber unit based in England. They claimed that silver-blue balls appeared near their wing on six missions during the autumn of 1943. These tailed the planes as they raided the Nazi V-weapons base at Peenemunde. The crews told Bentine it must be a new weapon. ‘But what did it do to you?’ Bentine inquired. ‘Nothing,’ they replied. "Well it was not a very effective weapon, was it?" he pointed out. Bentine’s last statement accurately sums up the conclusions reached by the Air Ministry during their study of these phenomena – whatever the ‘foo-fighters’ were, they did not constitute a threat to aircraft.
So, it seems that there has never been a ‘cover-up’ by the British Government of information about WWII UFOs, just a collection of baffling reports consigned to the dusty shelves of the Public Record Office. It is interesting however that some of the personnel who were involved with WWII UFO analysis, such as the Sir Henry Tizard and the Air Ministry’s Director of Intelligence, Dr R.V. Jones, were also involved in studies of Ghost Rockets in 1946 and the ‘flying saucer’ sightings from 1947 to the mid 1950s. Using their rigorous techniques of analysis, borne out of wartime necessity they continued to view UFO sightings with interest but ultimately regarded them as a modern myth based on misperception. Researchers who wish to trace the roots of the MOD’s current attitude to UFOs should seek out the files held by the PRO to discover how the conclusions which have endured for over fifty years, were originally formulated.
Witness accounts and documentary evidence indicates that the majority of WWII UFO sightings were of small spherical objects. However, two RAF sightings have come to our attention which indicates huge objects were also being seen by aircrew. Whilst it is possible that other foo-fighter sightings may have been new types of flak such as ‘scarecrow’, designed to mimic an aircraft in flames, flak tracer or jets such as the ME262, none of these prosaic explanations can account for the following sighting, which took place on the night of 28 November 1942.
The sighting was thought to be of such significance that it was sent to the headquarters of Bomber Command Recorded in a document, stamped ‘SECRET’. The covering letter, from the Air Vice Marshal of no. 5 Group. RAF, read, ‘Herewith a copy of a report received from a crew of a Lancaster after a raid on Turin. The crew refuses to be shaken in their story in the face of the usual banter and ridicule.’ »
The document referred to an unusual sighting made by the entire crew of aircraft ‘J’, piloted by Captain Lever of 61 Squadron, based at Syerston in Lincolnshire. If a sighting such as this were made by the whole crew of an aeroplane today it would make headline news in every country in the world. As it was it this fascinating report has remained hidden for over half a century deep in the heart of the Public Records Office. Written by an anonymous intelligence officer the account reads:
‘The object referred to above was seen by the entire crew of the above aircraft. They believe it to have been 200-300 feet in length and its width is estimated at 1/5th or 1/6th of its length. The speed was estimated at 500 m.p.h., and it had four pairs of red lights spaced at equal distances along its body. These lights did not appear in any way like exhaust flames; no trace was seen. The object kept a level course.
The crew saw the object twice during the raid, and brief details are given below:-
‘(i) After bombing, time 2240 hours, a/c height 11,000 feet. The aircraft at this time was some 10/15 miles south-west of Turin travelling in a north-westerly direction. The object was travelling south-east at the same height or slightly below the aircraft.
(ii) After bombing, time 2245 hours, a/c height 14,000 feet. the aircraft was approaching the Alps when the object was seen again travelling west-south-west up a valley in the Alps below the level of the peaks. The lights appeared to go out and the object disappeared from view.’
Had this incident been a one-off sighting it could perhaps have been dismissed, although as what we are not sure. But two distinct sightings of what appears to be the same object traveling in different directions raise more questions than answers. Even more baffling was the final paragraph which soberly stated:
‘The Captain of the aircraft also reports that he has seen a similar object about three months ago north of Amsterdam. In this instance it appeared to be on the ground and later traveling at high speed at a lower level than the heights given above along the coast for about two seconds; the lights then went out for the same period of time and came on again, and the object was still seen to be traveling in the same direction.’
It is difficult to know what to make of this sighting. Bomber Command was impressed by the sincerity of the report, and the fact that the crew was bold enough to repeat their fantastic story to their incredulous colleagues. The object resembles no known aerial craft and can not be easily attributed to misperception of astronomical or meteorological phenomena. The case remains one of the most unusual UFO mysteries of W.W.II on file at the Public Record Office.
We discovered another RAF account of a huge UFO in the files of the British UFO Research Association. Whilst this case is not, as yet, backed up by any documentary evidence the detailed account is worth relating here. Sgt Pilot G.N. Cockcroft of Bradford, West Yorkshire, who flew with a Halifax bomber squadron, recalled:
“On the night of 26/27 May 1943 we were to carry out an attack on the Krupps Armament Works at Essen. As I recall between 400/500 aircraft were involved in the raid. We experienced the usual flak, when crossing the Dutch coast….but fortunately sustained no serious damage. The barrage flak in the Ruhr Valley was extremely heavy, particularly in the last few minutes on the approach to the target. The first wave had already bombed and the general target area was well alight.
“It was in the two or three minutes before our final run-in, when we were at approximately 18,700 feet when we saw in front, but slightly to port and about the same height, a long cylindrical object, silvery gold colour, very sharply defined, hanging in the sky at an angle of approximately 45 degrees. There were, evenly spaced along the length of the object, a number of port holes. The first crew member to sight this object was the Captain, at that time Sgt/Pilot Ray Smith of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Besides Ray and myself other members of the crew to see the object, which was called to their attention by the Captain were the bomb aimer, the flight engineer, the mid-upper gunner and wireless operator.”
In fact, the only members of the crew not to see the object were the navigator and rear gunner who were both otherwise engaged in ensuring the bomber didn’t get lost or shot down. Cockcroft continues:
“I think that the first reaction of most of us was amazement because this object just had no right to be there. After a very short space of time, twenty to thirty seconds, it suddenly began moving and, retaining its attitude, climbed rapidly until it vanished from sight. The speed it attained seemed to us completely incredible. It was certainly into the thousands of mph! As it accelerated, the outline became blurred and the shape foreshortened. The size is more difficult to judge but it was very large, certainly very much bigger than our own aircraft, appearing at least as long as a king-sized cigarette or small cigar at arm’s length. We then completed our bomb run and returned to base.
“The intelligence officer de-briefing us was given a description of this object but we were unable to judge what importance was attached to it by the authorities and, quite frankly, it was just another unusual phenomenon which, since apparently harmless, was of far less importance to us than other wartime hazards.”
In their efforts to explain foo-fighter phenomena sceptics have suggested that some may have been examples of very bright, long lasting meteors known as a bolides. This may indeed be the case. But bolide meteors cannot account for the instances where bombers were ‘chased’ for long periods of time by foo-fighters. Perhaps the most remarkable case of an aircraft pursuit comes from the penultimate year of the war.
On the evening of 26th April 1944 Arthur Horton taxied his Lancaster bomber onto the runway at RAF Mildenhall in preparation for a raid to Essen in Germany. It was, he thought, just another routine, if terrifying, mission. When interviewed by us in 1987 Horton claimed he had not heard about any unusual aerial phenomena during the war and as usual was only concerned with the task in hand - find the target, drop the bombs and return home as quickly and safely as possible. He had no idea of the events which would unfold over the next few hours, and how ‘The Thing’, as he called it, would almost cost him and his crew their lives.
The raid went as exactly as planned despite the potentially fatal distractions of Luftwaffe night-fighters and the flak which sought them in the searchlight beams. Bombs dropped, the Lanc. turned for home and the crew allowed themselves to relax slightly. But shortly after leaving the target Horton’s intercom crackled into life with a panicky warning from his rear-gunner. Unidentified lights had appeared out of the darkness and were following the ‘plane. Horton asked the gunner if he was certain. Yes, he replied, four orange balls of light were tailing them, two on each side of the aircraft, accelerating in short, powerful, spurts. According to the frightened gunner they were about the size of large footballs and had a fiery glow to them. Intercom reports made it clear that other crew members could see them now, and Horton realised they must be real and not hallucinations brought on by combat fatigue. One gunner thought he could see small, stubby wings and possibly an exhaust glow from the rear of the objects. Now Horton was getting worried. He had never experienced anything like this before and whilst the unidentified flying objects were not displaying any signs of aggression he couldn’t take the risk. Forty three years after the event Arthur Horton clearly recalled exactly what he did next:
‘I of course immediately dropped the aircraft out of the sky. My gunners didn’t know what they were. Should they fire? By this time I was standing the aircraft on its tail and beginning a series of corkscrews and turns with the things following everything I did - but making no move to attack us. By this time we had the throttles ‘through the gate’, the gunners still asking what they should do. Apart from flying the thing I had to try and answer them. But were they some form of flying contraption that would explode at some specific distance from us, or on contact? Did they want us to fire at them to cause an explosion? Out of the kaleidoscope of thought the only answer was ‘If they are leaving us alone, leave them alone’....’ »
Horton’s term ‘through the gate’ refers to a technique by which Lancaster pilots could move the throttle sideways and forwards, breaking a wire, ‘the gate’, in the process. This would then give considerable extra power. But the strain on the engines was immense and three minutes was the maximum amount of time recommended. Horton continued evasive action for ten minutes, during which time all the crew except he and the bomb aimer saw the phenomena. Whatever the objects were they stayed close to the Lancaster, duplicating its every move, until they reached the Dutch coast when, in the words of one of the gunners, ‘they seemed to burn themselves out’.
Exhausted, but relieved, Horton flew the Lancaster back to England. His dramatic evasive manoeuvres had caused a serious mechanical fault which resulted in them having to land at a different airfield. Horton and his crew were baffled by their mystery visitors, and could only presume they had been chased by a German secret weapon, perhaps a radio-controlled anti-aircraft rocket or shell. Upon reporting their experience to the Intelligence Officers at de-briefing they were met not with interest but with ridicule and no explanation as to what they had experienced. But Horton stuck to his account and wouldn’t be persuaded that his crew had imagined the glowing orange balls.
We have been unable to locate reference to this sighting in PRO files but evidence it took place does exist. In his log book for the flight Horton recorded they had been ‘Chased by rockets -4’. Bernard Dye, the mid-upper gunner also noted the incident in his log-book as, ‘Rocket attacks lasting ten minutes...’.
Although Horton and his crew had never heard of anything similar before or since, the phenomena they witnessed are entirely consistent with other so-called ‘foo-fighter’ experiences. Perhaps if Horton’s rear-gunner had risked opening fire we may be a lot wiser about the nature of the foo-fighter phenomenon. But then again perhaps not. It was a risk Flt Lt Horton was not prepared to take.
Several other aircrew reported unusual aerial phenomena in terms of ‘rockets’. Yet post war research has demonstrated that the Axis forces did not have the capability to produce rockets which could twist and turn whilst following an airplane and certainly not for the lengths of time reported. Consider the following two accounts. Rockets? Or something more sinister?
Flt Lt Mortimer reported the following to intelligence officers at debriefing after a raid on the night of 2 January 1944:
‘Engaged by two rockets in vicinity of Halberstadt and later near Hanover, 90 degrees alteration of courses made and definitely established that rockets altered course. Overtook us slowly, appearing with a fiery head and blazing stern on a parallel course. Initial velocity seemed to be fairly great. Disappeared without explosion.’
Another, similar, incident took place on the 29 January 1944 when Pilot Officer Simpson submitted the following report to Air Intelligence:
‘At 52 32N 13 03E, 2037 hours, 20,500 ft, heading 082 degrees True. A red ball leaving trail of yellow/red flames and black smoke at about 1,000 yards and at the same time dead astern. It was seen closing in. I dived to starboard and the object followed, appearing to fizzle out and then immediately to reappear. I turned hard to port and it followed us round in a tighter turn than we were in. When within 100 yards or less of the aircraft, it finally fizzled out.’
German rocket? Bolide meteor? Or unexplained aerial phenomena – a UFO? The Air Intelligence officers at de-briefing dutifully logged these and many other sightings, sifting carefully through them in a number of ‘secret’ reports which analysed their characteristics in great detail. The conclusions reached in 1944-45 were no different to the conclusions reached by the MOD in the year 2002 – basically ‘no defence significance’. Once it had been ascertained that these UFOs did not explode, fire or display aggressive characteristics Air Intelligence was content to let the matter drop, maintaining a watching brief. There was a war on they could not afford to waste time and money chasing phantoms of the skies.
As with all other phases of the UFO enigma, argument has raged down the decades among ‘experts’ as to just what has been witnessed by those terrified and puzzled air crew. In that respect the foo-fighter enigma does not differ from sightings of phantom airships during the early twentieth century or observations of flying triangles during the last few years of the millennium. And, of course, it’s very easy for us as vicarious consumers of others’ experiences to pontificate about misperception of natural phenomena such as meteors and misidentification of enemy jet planes, rockets and flak. Speculation does not in any way diminish the effect these sightings had upon the witnesses. We are not, as yet, certain just what were the stimuli behind the ‘foo-fighter’ reports. But, as with all UFO sightings, the perceived experience is always radically different from the reality of the stimuli, and it is within that tension where the answer to the UFO problem lies. The problem is – are we prepared to accept the answers?
For a full list of references see chapter 1 of Out of the Shadows (London: Piatkus 2002)
A Historical and Physiological Perspective of the Foo Fighters of WWII
By Jeffery A. Lindell
B.A. Indiana University Folklore Institute
Electronic Warfare Systems Analyst USAF (Ret.)
In late August of 1991, I embarked on a research project in folklore that would eventually take me half way across the country in search of documents and hundreds of airmen who had seen spectacular displays of lights on night missions over Axis territories in WW II. These airmen were ordinary men who have laid claim to some of the most unusual events to occur during the war. When I first stumbled onto this phenomenon I was reviewing the mammoth works of the UFO Folklorist Dr. Thomas (Eddie) Bullard. In his Doctoral Thesis, UFO's, "The Mystery is in the Eye of the Beholder" he detailed several documented encounters with what were know in the UFO community as foo fighters. I was enthralled by these cursory descriptions of "balls of fire" chasing American Night Fighters on missions over the Third Reich.
I knew then, that I would be the folklorist to uncover this mystery and bring it to life. This time period fascinated me to no end. Having served in the US Air Force as an Electronic Warfare Systems Analyst, I had a keen intrest in the technological advancements of avionics during the war. The foo fighters were a golden opportunity for me to explore both the folklore of WW II aviators and the advanced technologies of the most sophisticated combat units to see action during the war, the Night Fighters.
At this time I was also interested in scholarly works on the folklore of the supernatural. The Folklorist Dr. David Hufford had just recently published his research on the influence of Sleep Terror Paralysis on the formation of supernatural belief legends in, The Terror that Comes in the Night. In this work, Dr. Hufford successfully concluded that many ghost legends may be the result of anomalies in sleep behavior. The Psychologist, Dr. Robert Baker had taken this research one step further showing the relationship between sleep disorders and UFO abduction cases. These two men have profoundly influenced my interpretations of supernatural belief legends. At this time, I was studying under the Folklorist Dr. John Johnson who had inspired me with a historical perspective on the UFO phenomenon. I was determined to uncover the foo fighter's history as well as examine their folkloric and psychological components. After about a year of intense research I discovered the works of Drs. Ashton Greybeil, Brant Clark and Edgar Vinacke. These men formed the core of the US Navy's Bureau of Medicine (BUMED) project X-148 -AV-4-3, which was formed in April of 1945. This project pioneered the study of illusions experienced by night time aviators. It was these works which inspired my interpretations of foo fighter-like encounters as experienced by night time combat aviators. A vast majority of the sightings of apparently intelligently controlled "balls of fire" took place at night, thus I limited my research to night fighter outfits and bomber crews which flew night missions. I'm positive there were daylight sightings of anomalous objects, but these seemed to be very rare. Thus, my research was confined, by intent, to nocturnal sightings during the war. This approach yielded a mountain of data.
Now, are the foo fighters supernatural belief legends? No, but they fall within the category of belief legends because they involve beliefs in a reality that is unexplained by using traditional scientific rhetoric. To clarify things, a "belief legend" can tend to be a highly biased and convoluted concept which implies that the "belief" in question is false, or rather, mistaken. I do not consider the foo fighters as being any single phenomenon, hence beliefs will vary as will the contexts of the sightings. There is no single "belief" which I consider to be more correct than another, although I do insist that the entire phenomenon can be explained outside of the realms of "belief." The very nature of "belief legends," such as tales about ghosts, devils and the fairy people of antiquity, implies a greater reality than that which can be explained by using a natural and scientific method, thus it is labled as "super-" natural. In this sense the foo fighters are of a supernatural variety but they do not imply beliefs in the supernatural as such. Many beliefs which have been implied by the foo fighters point to historical beliefs in real German and Japanese weapons. These types of beliefs fall within the genre of folklore known as belief legends, more precisely, technological belief legends. After all, isn't a UFO by it's very nature a technological belief as opposed to a belief in demons, spirits and a netherworld?
From this perspective, the foo fighters can be seen as an arising form of technological beliefs from a highly evolved and technological culture. It is no accident that these beliefs arose among the sophisticated and highly trained airmen of the Night Fighter forces. In due course, I would like to demonstrate that the foo fighters are the incarnation of this new and evolving form of technological folk-belief, where technology is rapidly replacing magic and the supernatural. The same types of encounters these airmen experienced during the war were known in antiquity as the Will-o'-the wisp lights or more popularly, the Jack-o'-lantern. "Jack," a pseudonym for the devil, usually appears in folklore as a "ball of fire" known to chase night travelers. Very often, in these folkloric texts, this "ball of fire" is pursued by a night traveler to no avail. I did a brief survey of the names of the Will-o'-the-wisp from around a hundred sources in the IU library's Folklore collection and came up with about 650 names for this phenomenon in 15 European languages. Over half of these names are phonological variations of a few popular belief traditions with a good portion of these names having polygenetic origins, or rather, multiple names which allude to unique stories about strange moving terrestrial and heavenly lights. Because of the fact that there are so many names for this phenomenon exemplifies the exact nature of the difficulties that are encountered in assigning these experiences into the proper categories. The foo fighters of WW II are a direct descendent of these tales.
Now let us proceed with the history of the foo fighters. Early in October of 1944, British, Canadian and American Night Fighters and Bomber Crews began to report strange, intelligently controlled "balls of light" and "jets" operating in various formations and conducting rather spectacular manoeuvres over the night skies of Belgium, Holland and Western Germany. Later in February of 1945, American and British Night Fighters also began to report encounters with "balls of light" and "jets" over the Po Valley of Northern Italy. From early April until late May of 1945, hundreds of sightings of these mysterious "balls of light" were made by Bomber Crews of the 20th Air Force over the night skies of Japan. The Army Air Force Intelligence services were also perplexed by the mass sightings of this nature. General Henry Huglin, Commander of the 9th Bomb Group, 20th Air Force, who had served under General Curtis LeMay in the 20th Air Force and later at Headquarters Strategic Air Command in the 1950's had asked General LeMay after the war was over if he had ever found out what those "balls of light" were. General LeMay reportedly professed ignorance.
In the European Theater as early as September and October of 1944, rumors began to spread rapidly among Allied Night Fighters and their Ground Control Radar sites concerning encounters with these "balls of light." A Capt. Robert O. Elmore and Lt. Leonard F. Mapes of the American 422nd Night Fighter Squadron (NFS) encountered the unit's first "jet," believed to be a Me163, on a night patrol over Germany. (Pape) According to one of Lt. Mapes' good friends, a Lt. John W. Anderson, this "jet" appeared as a "ball of light" which chased their aircraft through a variety of high speed combat manoeuvres until they had finally ditched it when they flew into a cloud formation. Lt. Mapes was "terrified and appeared as white as a ghost," Lt. Anderson commented upon Mapes' return from this mission. "Something up there sure scared the hell out of him, he was nearly frantic when he got out of his aircraft," Lt. Anderson remarked.
Soon after this encounter, Lts. Herman E. Ernst and Edward H. Kopsel of the 422nd NFS also reported the first Me262 sighting on a night patrol over Aachen, Germany and later reported two encounters with Me163 rocket fighters. (Pape) Earlier in 1944, Allied daylight fighters and bombers began to report sightings of jets all over the Western theater, but these sightings in October of 1944 were the first sightings of "jets" at night. According to seven pilots and radar operators I have interviewed from the 422nd NFS, all have described these "Jets" as "balls of light," and according to the 422nd's Assistance Intelligence Officer, Phillip Guba, Jr., "At first we thought they (the pilots) were seeing things, and they kept saying that these things were chasing them around. Whether they actually identified... not while I was on duty, they did not identify a jet as such." According to Oris (Obie) B. Johnson, Major-General (Ret.) Commander of the 422 NFS, "They saw something, of that I am convinced." On 7 November of 1944, the Associated Press Corps in Paris released this statement concerning an interview with Lt. Col. Obie Johnson of the 422nd NFS:
New Aerial Weapons Used By Germans
PARIS (AP) The Germans are using jet and rocket propelled planes and various other "newfangled" gadgets against Allied night fighters, Lieut. Col. B. Johnson, Natchitoches, La., commander of a P-61 Black Widow group, said today. "In recent nights we've counted 15 to 20 jet planes," Johnson said. "They sometimes fly in formations of four, but more often they fly alone."
~The Day, New London, Connecticut
The 422 NFS earlier that year had been accredited with five nocturnal "kills" on V-1 Buzz Bombs flying to their targets in England. Of all of the pilots and radar operators who had sighted and destroyed V-1s, none had mentioned any similarities whatsoever with these "balls of light." Pilots who had both encountered V-1s and "balls of light" attest to the fact that these were completely different experiences. In the same light, many Night Fighters had also experienced St. Elmo's fire, and again they have stated that there is a world of difference between these static electric discharges from their aircraft and their encounters with these apparently controlled "balls of light." So far as "jamming" devices were concerned, none of the Radar operators I interviewed saw any evidence of jamming, in fact, they never reported having any Radar contact whatsoever.
By late November and early December of 1944 the 415th, 417th and 425th NFS's stationed in France began reporting similar encounters with "balls of light." On the 27th of November one of the most popular sightings in UFO history during the war occurred; the following weird excerpt comes from Lt. Schlueter's report of an intruded mission:
Upon returning to base saw a red light through area about 35 miles ENE of point A. Came in to about 2000 feet off starboard and then it disappeared in a long red streak.
~27 Nov. 1944, 415th historical data. U.S. Army
This sighting of "a red light" flying through the air was made by Lts. Edward A. Schlueter and Donald J. Meiers, and was the first encounter with what Lt. Meiers would later refer to as a "foo fighter." On December 31st, Bob Wilson, an Associated Press corps correspondent, visited and interviewed members of the 415th NFS at their base in Dijon, France. On the 2nd of January the AP syndicate article hit all of the major U.S. newspapers. The Chicago Tribune ran the story as, "Mystery Flares Tag Along with U.S. Night Pilots; Yanks call Nazi Weapon a 'Foo Fighter." The St. Louis Post Dispatch ran it as, "Mysterious 'Foo Fighters,' Balls of Fire, Trail U.S. Night Flyers." and The Indy News spiced it up as, "Foo Fighters' Are New German Secret Weapon." The New York Times ran the story as, "Balls of Fire Stalk U.S. Fighters in Night Assaults Over Germany." and in it was Lt. Meiers' description of the "Mysterious" foo fighters:
A foo fighter picked me up at 700 feet and chased me 20 miles down the Rhine Valley," Meiers said. "I turned to starboard and two balls of fire turned with me. We were going 260 miles an hour and the balls were keeping right up with us. On another occasion when a foo fighter picked us up, I dived at 360 miles an hour. It kept right off our wing tips for awhile and then zoomed into the sky. When I first saw the things, I had the horrible thought that a German on the ground was ready to press a button and explode them. But they didn't explode or attack us. They just seem to follow us like the Will-o'-the-wisp.
~N.Y. Times, 2 Jan. 1945
Now by February of 1945 these sightings had spread from Belgium and France to the US Night Fighter bases at Pontedera and Pisa, Italy. The 416th NFS stationed in Pisa also began to spot "foo fighters" in February of 1945. Here are some excerpts from the 416th NFS' historical data:
Our crews are beginning to report mysterious orange-red lights in the sky near La Spezia and also inland. These "foo fighters" have been pursued, but no one has been able to make contact. G.C.I. (Ground Control Radar) and intelligence profess to be mystified by these ghostly apparitions. The hypothesis that the foo-fighters are a post-cognac manifestation has been disproved. Even the teetotallers have observed the strange and mysterious foo-fighters which have also been observed in France and in Belgium.
~17 Feb. 1945, 416th historical data. U.S.Army
Three patrols were also flown, and several foo-fighters were observed.
~18 Feb. 1945, 416th historical data. U.S. Army
At just about the same time the 416th NFS was reporting "foo fighters" the 414th NFS based out of Pontedera began spotting these "balls of fire" early in the month of February. Here is an encounter with what is believed to be a jet propelled aircraft, primarily the Me262:
At 0150 hours, fighter saw a spurt of flame, which went out immediately just west of Viareggio. This spurt of flame appeared to be between 10,000 and 13,000 ft. Fighter gave chase immediately. During chase two more spurts of flame were observed with last spurt of flame continuing until it was lost in clouds below 6,000 ft. This believed to be jet propelled aircraft made two 290 degree turns then continued on a strait course and losing altitude during chase. Fighter chased the jet propelled aircraft for fifty miles out to sea west of Pisa, on a 240 and 270 deg. heading where aircraft was lost in clouds. Due to shortage of gas, fighter broke off chase at 0215 hours and returned to base. During chase, on a straight and level course, fighter was indicating an air speed of 290 M.P.H. (ground speed of approximately 350 - 360 M.P.H.) and as fighter dove to 6000 feet, he indicated an air speed of 400 M.P.H. Fighter was unable to obtain A.I. contact. (A.I. is an Aircraft Intercept Radar)
~12AF-AB1-H2, 16 Feb. 1945, Operations Report, 414th Night Fighter Squadron
And yet another encounter the 414th NFS had with "balls of fire:"
Five of our Widows patrolled front lines in the area north and south of Bologna for a total of 12:05 hours without incident last night. Between 2200 hours and midnight Lt. Gordon and F/O ( Field Officer-- who served as the Radar operator) Gigerrich , Lt. Dohrman and F/O Beam saw 'balls of fire' north and north west of Bologna ranging from 10,000 ft. to 5,000 ft.
~12AF-AB1-H2, 27 Feb. 1945, Operations Report, 414th Night Fighter Squadron
Of key importance in understanding the 414th's sightings of "jets" is the fact that a detachment of six P-61s and 26 Officers from the 414th were sent to Florennes, Belgium on the 27th of January of 1945 to complete their conversion training from the British Beaufighter to the P-61 Black Widow. They received this conversion training from none other than the 422nd NFS. Of the pilots I spoke with from the 414th, they all recalled having heard stories from 422nd pilots concerning the sightings of "jets." Trained P-61 Crews began arriving back in Pontedera, Italy on the 8th of February, 1945. Within days the 414th was also spotting these "balls of fire" and on the 16th spotted the unit's first "jet." Something very similar occurred with 416th pilots right about the same time frame. On the 16th of December, 1944, the Germans began their thrust into the Ardennes in Southern Belgium, known as the Bulge. This operation was planned by the Germans at this time because of bad weather so that the Allies could not use their air power to thwart the offensive. The only aircraft the Allies could fly in this weather was their night fighter force, hence the 416th was ordered to send a small detachment of Mosquito aircraft from Pisa, Italy to Etain, France to assist the 425th NFS. Upon their rotations back to Italy in early February, several crews from the 416th's detachment made a stop at the 415th NFS in Dijon, France to gas their aircraft, make minor repairs and visit friends. It was at this time that the 416th pilots became familiar with the foo fighter. After their return to Italy, on the night of 17 February of 1945, the first foo fighter was reported over the Po Valley by Lts. George Schultz and Frankie Robinson. I verified these facts with these two men during interviews.
These facts necessitate an investigation into the German Jet night fighter operations during the period of October 1944 to February of 1945. The only operational German Jet Night Fighter unit, 10/NJG/11 was only beginning operations in mid-December of 1944 just 50 miles south of Berlin. Adolf Hitler personally assigned this unit with the task of defending Berlin, and Berlin only! Fritz Wendel, the chief test pilot of the Me262 paid a visit to 10/NJG/11 at its station in Burg bei Magdeburg. His report on the 19th of February of 1945 continues:
The NJG 11 (Night Fighter Squadron) has been stationed in Burg bei Magdeburg for the last few weeks, this unit belonging to Kommando Welter. Oberleutnant Kurt Welter is at the moment carrying out night flying operations using the method "Wilde Sau" with the Me262. (This night fighting method incorporated the use of a day fighter, not equipped with air intercept radar, and large detachments of ground searchlight batteries to illuminate Allied bombers.) He is using the standard Me262 type with some additions: a UV-light, map reading light and an emergency turn indicator. Welter is the only one flying this type of operation at this time, and using the said system has shot down five enemy aircraft. The other five pilots under his command at the moment are being retrained. The unit has six aircraft, and all should be operational within a few days.
~Morgan
Kurt Welter was appointed to form the first Me 262 Night Fighter test detachment (Erprobungs-Kommando) on 2 November of 1944. This was the only German Jet Night Fighting outfit in WWII and until the last week in February of 1945, Kurt Welter was the only pilot flying the Me 262 aircraft at night. Welter's detachment did not become operational until mid-December of 1944 with only two Me 262 1-a's. His orders were to intercept the nightly assaults of Mosquito bombers hitting Berlin known as the "Berlin Express." These facts allow Welter very little time to organize, recruit, equip and fly all of the missions which Allied pilots claim were flown. No night missions were ever flown by either the Me262 or the Me163 in the Italian theater of operation. (Morgan)
Based on interviews with ten members of the 422 NFS who either saw jets or were in positions of authority within the unit, none have mentioned the fact that search lights were seen in conjunction with the sightings of Me262s. Welter's unit flew exclusively with the support of searchlight batteries until March of 1945 when the first Radar equipped Me262-1a/U1 arrived at his base south of Berlin. (Morgan) This still leaves us with the question of the Me163 rocket fighter. The Second Squadron of Jagdgeschwader (JG) 400, the first and only Me163 Combat Wing, was stationed at Venlo airfield in the Netherlands and saw limited action until it was withdrawn to the home wing in Brandis, south of Leipzig, in July of 1944. At Brandis, JG 400 saw it's peak of operational performance on the 28th of September of 1944 when it was able to scramble 9 Me163s in order to intercept an Allied day-light bombing raid. This rocket fighter was only used as a day interceptor for bombers, no records exist concerning the night testing of the Me163 at the German experimental airfield, E-Stelle Rechlin, which is where all of the experimental aircraft were tested for night flying. (Morgan, Price, Ziegler.)
Mano Zeigler who flew as one of the chief test pilots assigned to Erprobungs-Kommando 16 and later a Rocket pilot in JG 400 commented on the practicability of flying such a nocturnal mission in a Me163, "Trying to land in the dark you'd spread yourself in small pieces around the countryside!" (Ziegler) This aircraft also had an effective combat radius of no more than 25 miles under perfect visual conditions and thus limited JG 400's operations to the Leipzig area for the duration of the war. So far as I have been able to research, I have found no Allied night sightings of "jets" in either the greater Berlin or Leipzig areas.
The Italian sightings of "jets" and "foo fighters" are very important from the standpoint that these events were reported only after the pilots had made contact with their sister squadrons in France and Belgium. Of the Pilots and Radar operators I have spoken with from the 414th and 416th NFSs, these men recall hearing about these encounters from members of the 415th and 422nd NFS and not from Air Intelligence (S-2) officers in their own squadrons nor from 12th Air Force intelligence briefs. Because of the fact that both the 422nd and 415th NFSs sightings were taken seriously enough for their Squadron Intelligence officers to report them to 9th Air Force Intelligence, this made it a little more easier for pilots to report these "weird" experiences without fear of retribution. Of the 23 pilots and radar operators I have interviewed from the 415th and 416th NFSs that had reported seeing foo fighters, none could be convinced of the fact that these were sightings of "jets." Even from our historical perspective today, which conclusively shows the lack of any documented evidence that either the Me163 or the Me262 flew night missions over the Rhine or Po Valleys from October of 1944 until March of 1945, pilots from the 414th and 422nd NFSs are at a loss to explain their encounters with "jets." I asked those veterans who had flown in All-Weather fighters after the war if they could relate their sightings of jets with more contempory sightings of jets at night. This stirred a little confusion, these pilots could not say for a fact that these were similar events.
As I have stated earlier, not only American Night Fighters were making sightings of this nature. British and Canadian Night Fighter crews were spotting foo fighters and "Balls of fire" pacing their aircraft on Intruder Missions over the Reich. Canadian aircrews flying in British Lancasters (Lancs) in Bomber Command reported encounters with what they called "scarecrows," which were believed to be "intelligently" controlled flares designed to terrify RAF and RCAF bomber crews on nocturnal incendiary missions. Interesting enough, after the war, British Scientific Intelligence, MI6, learned that Axis airmen also reported encounters with advanced weapons similar to "foo fighters." (Jones) That the British Lancaster bomber crews were familiar with the term "foo fighter" seems positive. I was able to track down an American pilot, Walter Sherrell, who flew a Lancaster for British Bomber Command until he was asked (forced under threat of revoking his US citizenship) to join the US Army Air Corps. Walt Sherrell informed me that the first time he had heard of the term foo fighter was from other British Lanc crews who had sighted them over Germany on night missions. Walt later learned of the foo fighters first hand, this time he was flying an American B-29 on a night incendiary raid over Tokyo:
He heard his co-pilot Orlo Hall exclaim, 'Oh, my God!' Sherrell turned his head just in time to see a shadowy shape with a fiery tail hit a B-29, after which the B-29 went down flaming. Seeing a thin cloud layer ahead, he flew into it, seeking cover. He had barely emerged on the other side when one of the gunners reported a shadow trailing the right. Sherrell put "Southern Belle" into a screaming dive and, with his airspeed indicator reading well over 300 mph, pulled out after loosing about 3,000 feet of altitude. Another possible Baka was sighted, this time on the left. Sherrell racked the B-29, at full power, into a steep climbing turn to the right and into some clouds. After several more dives and climbs, they saw no more 'foofighters.
~Kerr
Not only did I track down the commander of "Southern Belle," Walt Sherrell, but I was also able to interview other crewmen: Edward Ososky, navigator; Ernest Rasmussen, flight engineer; Eugene Horton, left gunner; Don Thrane, right gunner and Leland Sawyer, tail gunner. They all confessed to seeing several foo fighters that morning, I have approximately four hours of taped narratives from these crew members. This is perhaps one of the best multiple-sightings that I have collected concerning the foo fighters. The crew also calls the "ball of fire" which they saw chasing their plane a "Baka" bomb. In the Pacific this phenomena rarely went by the name of foo fighter, but was more commonly known as "balls of fire," "balls of light," "robombs," "baka bombs," "kamikazes" and "search light fighters." Here is an excerpt from the 499th Bomb Group's consolidated mission report of 20 April of 1945 concerning the sighting of a "robomb:"
At 1412z (Zulu time) a "robomb" attack came from the nose, 500' above and several hundred feet to the right, as reported by one A/C. (Aircraft Commander) it was a large red ball of fire seen first at 1000 yards, and passing overhead directly to the rear. This occurred just prior to bomb release.
~20 Apr. 1945, Consolidated Mission Report, 499th B.G.
Although the term "robomb" appears to have been isolated to the 499th Bomb Group at this time, hundreds of other sightings of "baka bombs," "kamikazes" and "balls of fire" were reported by all 20 Bomb Groups in 20th Air Force on night raids over Japan during the months of April and May of 1945. The documentary evidence of these encounters litter the Bomb Group records housed at the National Archives, Record Group 18. When I made a research trip to the National Archives in 1992, I had anticipated it would take several days of searching Bomb Group records from the 20th Air Force before I would find anything substantial on these "balls of light." Well, the very first day I was in the archives I soon realized that I was going to be swamped with sightings of this nature. The 504th Bomb Group alone had 40 sightings of the awesome baka bomb just on the May 25th mission alone. Most of the sightings made by 20th Air Force over Japan center on the May 23rd and May 25th incendiary raids on Tokyo with almost every description of baka bombs being that of a "ball of fire," or a "ball of light."
One combat veteran from the 52nd Squadron, 29th Bomb Group, 20th A.F., Fred Pawlikawski, recounted to me his experience with what he called a "ball of fire." His account is accurate and was checked with other crew members of his B-29, "The Fire Bug." Fred stated that he has no idea of what this thing was and would not speculate even though he had heard several speculations from fellow crew members. The "ball of fire" that followed their aircraft did not seem to pose a threat. He refused to believe that they were bakas etc., he knew of several other crews in the 29th Bomb Group who had also had this happen. I did verify this also. I have the greatest respect for this man because he has lived 50+ years after this experience and still has not found an explanation, UFOs included, which is satisfactory to him. He is not aware of anything that can move like the "ball of fire" he saw on the May 25th incendiary mission over Tokyo.
Many aircrew members claim that what they were encountering were the "Baka" bombs, or "Crazy" bombs. The Fuji MXY-8, Model 11, Oka, or the Allied code name "Baka" bomb was a glider packed with a 2,645 pound warhead in the nose. It was first used against the US Navy in the Battle for Okinawa with minimal success. On the 27th of May the New York Times reported that the Japanese had used several baka bombs against the B-29 formations that previous night over Tokyo. Several bakas were claimed shot down by B-29 gunners although none, that I'm aware of, were ever verified. (27 May 1945, N.Y. Times) The baka bomb was designed by the Japanese Navy as an anti-ship or costal defense weapon. Its guidance system was usually a twenty to twenty-five year old kamikaze, the glider was equipped with three small solid rocket engines with a total thrust of 1800 pounds over a ten second period. This weapon was flown to about two to three miles from its target by a G4M3 Betty bomber and released into a glide slope. While in this 50 degree decent the three rockets could be fired individually to gain a maximum speed of approximately 500 MPH. A total of 755 Oka 11's were built by the First Naval Technical Arsenal at Yokosuka and the First Naval Air Depot at Kasumigaura. After its failure in the Battle of Okinawa, the Oka 11 was discontinued and superseded by the Oka 22. Fifty of these suicide bombs were planned for production at the First Naval Technical Air Arsenal at Yokosuka and an additional 200 at the Aichi Aircraft Company at Nagoya. Before the war ended only 50 of these were ever produced with only one test flight in July of 1945. During the flight test of the first Oka 22 the rockets failed causing the bomb to go into a stall from which the pilot never recovered. (U.S.S.B.S. )
Now let's look at this key report made by a crew from the 500th Bomb Group, 20th A.F. on a raid on the Tichikawa aircraft plant, Tokyo, Mission No.# 38, 3 April 1945:
On this mission mysterious 'Balls of Fire' were observed by various crews during the course of the mission. Lt. Althoff and crew in Z Square 19 observed one near land's end at 9000 feet at about 0147. The 'Ball of Fire' was first seen at 5:00 level about 300 yards behind the B-29. As near as can be determined, the 'Ball of Fire' was about the size of a basketball. When evasive action was taken by the B-29 in the form of turns, the 'Ball of Fire' turned inside the B-29 and kept following. It appeared that each time the B-29 made a turn, the 'Ball of Fire' fell behind, but on the straightaway, it would catch up. The B-29 lost altitude, going down to 6000 feet, in order to gain speed and finally an air speed of 295, at which speed the 'Ball of Fire' followed for about five or six minutes. One crew member thought that he was able to see a wing in connection with the 'ball,' and that the wing had a navigation light on at the tip.
~3 April, 1945. Consolidated Mission Report, Mission no.# 38, 500th Bomb Group
This report was funnelled up to the 73rd Bomb Wing Intelligence, then to 20th A.F. and then passed on to the Director of Intelligence, Army Air Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas. The resultant report published through this office on 7 April 1945 was titled: "B-29s observed on 3 April 1945 a 'BALL OF FIRE' which was subject to some definite control. This is an attempt to describe the phenomenon and to define it with an eye toward the most recent Japanese fields of interest and development." Now read the conclusion of this report:
The three probabilities discussed are based on the interest the Japanese have held in the German development of jet units. It is impossible from the fragmentary evidence of an initial experience with this weapon to be more definite.
Unfortunately, this mild disclaimer was not circulated back to the Bomb Groups. The individual unit intelligence officers were sent detailed information on the baka bombs and pictures and diagrams of the bakas captured on the Island of Okinawa. Several officers from the baka unit on Okinawa were captured and interrogated. These interrogation reports were redistributed and teletyped messages were received by the individual Bomb Groups. This report entitled "Another Rocket?" was dispatched to the Bomb Groups' S-2 Intelligence officers on 22 May 1945 from the Office of the Chief of Counter Intelligence, GHQ, Air Forces Pacific Command:
The probable existence of a second Japanese rocket-propelled plane has been disclosed in prisoner of war interrogation. The first was BAKA. The new plane is described as designed for interceptor duties, in particular to combat B-29s. It has an extraordinarily high rate of climb, and is reputed to be capable of reaching 30,000 feet in approximately three minutes. This figure is matched only by the German Me163 rocket propelled interceptor. In general appearance the new plane is said to resemble BAKA, being approximately 20 feet long and 20 feet in wing span. Its weight is approximately 3,000 pounds.
According to the POW two 20 mm cannon are fixed in the nose and propulsion is achieved by means of solid rockets, with the possibility that jet control is available to increase maneuverability. The plane is launched from the ground and is said to be airborne in about 100 feet. No landing gear or skids are fitted. Maximum flight time is limited to seven minutes, compared to 10-12 minutes for the Me163 at full power.
~Extract From Daily Intelligence Summary -22 May 1945, Office of the Chief of Counter Intelligence, GHQ, AFPAC
In a post war interview with the director of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Yasujiro Okana laid out Japan's attempt to duplicate the German Me163 which was named the Oka 22, the next in the series to the Oka 11. This was accomplished be receiving the German technical data for this rocket fighter and simply attempting a duplication. The result was two experimental aircraft, the J8M1 Shusui and the Ki-201. The J8M1 was flight tested without an engine on the 8th of January of 1945 with limited success. It was not until the 7th of July of 1945, however, that it was tested with a rocket engine. It crashed upon take-off, ending abruptly the Japanese rocket fighter program. (U.S.S.B.S., Appendix 5)
So far as I have been able to determine, no bakas were ever used against any American bombers. Too many of the crews who had experienced these sightings could not swallow the notion that a glider with a one ton warhead packed into its nose could chase a bomber, in some cases up to 500 miles and at night! During the months of April and May of 1945, the 20th Air Force intelligence offices were wracking their brains trying to understand what all of these bomber crews were seeing. No real answers were ever reported back to the individual Bomb Groups and then the war ended. These airmen were sent home with no real answers as to what these mysterious "balls of fire" were. This phenomenon was at near epidemic proportion in late May of 1945 and on one occasion a B-29 crew who had reported one of these "balls of fire" was sent to Hawaii on leave for their refusal to believe that what they had seen was a Japanese suicide bomb. Many crews were told that what they had seen chasing them, and in many cases what their gunners were firing on, was none other than the planet Venus. Many men had bought the Venus interpretation but many more did not. Even if it could suffice that Venus was spooking the hell out of aircrews over the Pacific, how do we explain what had happened in Europe.
With the foo fighters over Europe and the baka bombs over Japan no real answers were ever supplied to the witnesses as to what they had really seen. Perhaps the Army Air Corps really had no idea of what was going on, this seems to be the most accurate conclusion. Concerning the ease at which I was able to locate official unit histories, intelligence records and de-classified mission reports, the Army Air Corps really made no effort to cover-up their ignorance. Thus, any "cover-up" conspiracy is really out of the question. At the time, the intelligence services had no real way of tracking such a huge phenomena, especially from theater to theater, and because these encounters lacked any real threat, they were discounted in favor of doing their job and fighting the war. Not even a year had passed after the foo fighters had made their appearance over the night skies of Europe, when, in November of 1945, an Adjutant from General Harold (Hap) Arnold's office delivered a sealed packet, of then classified documents, to a Journalist for the American Legion Magazine, Jo Chamberlin. Chamberlin was the first journalist to publish any real information on the sightings of the foo fighters in his December of 1945 article, "The Foo Fighter Mystery." In an interview I had with Mr. Chamberlin, he acknowledged that those documents were still in his basement, untouched since 1945 and that he promised never to circulate them. After the war was over and these men returned to their civilian roles in life, none of them really heard anything more about this mystery, that is, until the sightings of strange UFOs began to appear in their daily newspapers. Many of these veterans began to believe that these foo fighters they had seen during the war were UFOs.
So why have I gone through so much trouble to undermine the validity of "historical" sightings of Me163s, Me262's and Baka bombs? I'm certain some Allied airmen may have spotted Me262s over the Berlin area at night, but the absolute number of such encounters may only be in the tens of sightings. As one Canadian Night Fighter told me, those who were unlucky enough to have seen a Me262 over Berlin may not have lived long enough to tell about it. Originally, when I began collecting narratives concerning "jets" sighted at night, I wanted to contrast them with foo fighter sightings, that is, dividing them into separate events. Soon afterwards, I began to realize that either the foo fighters were naive descriptions of "jets" or vice versa. The problem at this point was in finding someone with rank to verify these "jet" sightings. This was questionable at best, in the 422nd in Belgium, both the Commanding Officer and the Assistant Intelligence Officer were in serious doubt as to the validity of the "jet" hypothesis, while the Commander of the 414th in Italy was fairly certain that these events were "jets." This, to me, seemed to be backwards.
There was a greater likelihood of night fighters flying over North-West Germany of sighting "jets" than there was over Northern Italy. Given the historical facts, I have come to the conclusion that "if" the Me262 was flown in North-West Germany or the Po Valley of Northern Italy, it was only a very small number of times. This still leaves a rather large majority of "jet" sightings unaccounted. My absolute aim here is for historical accuracy, and no other ulterior motive, simply the truth. This has been a hard decision for me to make, I do not feel comfortable in taking away the laurels of many highly decorated airmen. I have also consulted with other aviation historians and they too doubt the sheer volume of claims.
If we can begin to accept the fact that neither the Me163, the Me262 or the Baka flew night missions over the areas where aircrews reported seeing them, we must understand that these airmen did, in fact, see something. What did they see? The variety of sightings are indeed complex, some reports are of single lights being spotted while other airmen reported formations of lights. When I interviewed members of crews that reported these events, the individual descriptions were very different as were their individual beliefs as to what they had seen. Very rarely did aircrews fully agree on exactly "what" they had seen, in other words, these sightings tended to be highly subjective. In the case of Donald J. Meiers' sighting of foo fighters, his pilot, Ed Schlueter could not verify for certian what Don was seeing. These men were in the same aircraft and yet they had completely different experiences. Of all of the sightings I have collected, very few of them are lone sightings, primarily, these objects were sighted by two or more airmen aboard the same aircraft simultaniously. But I must clarify the fact that there is little, if any, agreement among all of the airmen I interviewed as to what they had seen.
The first and foremost conclusion which is typically made by people who have read about the foo fighters, and not seen them, is that these are sightings of UFOs. Many of the veterans who had seen foo fighters will admit to the fact that these were sightings of UFOs. The majority of the veterans, however, believe that what they had seen were real German and Japanese weapons. The prevailing winds of belief among these WW II vets points towards attempted "rationalizations" of these events. Of all of the sightings I have explored, none can be positively identified as anything other than an encounter with a "ball(s) of light" which seemed to be under intelligent control. That is the bottom line. The rest is conjecture not fact. Thus, anyone may speculate whatever they may, it's a free world. A Leonard Wirkus of the 416th NFS told me he believed that the foo fighters were Nazi flying saucers. Today, there is a popular movement towards this belief. And yes indeed, I classify this as a technological belief legend. I personally don't give the Nazi's that much credit. Also, the Nazi flying saucer theory has one major flaw, it fails to address the hundreds of sightings made over Japan.
As a Folklorist, I have to place stories into categories. Some stories resemble others, in such instances we call them a "version" of a tale. But some stories resemble known types of stories, but differ to an extent that the story may be labled as a "variant" of that type. The foo fighters can be labled as both variants of UFO legends or Will-o'-the wisp legends, they resemble both to some degree. So what comes first, the chicken or the egg? As the foo fighter is a continuation and modification of the Will-o'-the-wisp legend, it rightly stands alone as it's own variant. Thus, the foo fighter is it's own legend type with versions such as the Me163, the Me262 and the Baka bomb. The Baka bomb itself may be further broken down into it's own versions such as "balls of light,""kamekazies," "robombs," "Betty bombers," "searchlight fighters" and the "planet Venus." So what does this all mean? Humans tell stories about their unusual experiences and they rarely ever agree upon the exact nature of those experiences. Stories concerning "supernatural" experiences follow a similar path in that they tend to sub-divide into a variety of differing interpretations. That the foo fighters and the Will-o'-the-wisp lights resemble this dynamic story type structure indicates that what is being described is a real and recurring "natural" phenomenon.
So what is this "natural" phenomenon? Nearly all of the stories I have collected concerning the foo fighters and the Will-o'-the-wisp lights involve speculations as to the nature of the "ball of light" being observed. In all instances this "ball of light" is described to move in an apparently intelligent manner. Thus, the movement of the light in question should be considered to be of paramount intrest. In 1799, the phenomenon of the autokinetic illusion was discovered by an astronomer, Alexander Von Humbolt. He noticed that if one stared at a bright star or a planet with the naked eye, it would begin to swing in a back and forth motion. He named this phenomenon, "Sternschwanken" or "Swinging Stars." He assumed that this was an astronomical occurrence but yet was at a loss on how this was possible. From 1799 until 1857 this phenomenon was treated as a real and physical attribute of some stars, that is until a Dr. G. Schweitzer discovered that this swinging motion could be observed with terrestrial borne lights also. (Schweitzer)
Dr. Schweitzer then embarked upon a search to find other such instances where terrestrial lights were observed to have this swinging motion. He was soon flooded with written accounts from all over Europe concerning the "Irrlicht" or rather, the German version of the Will-o'-the wisp. One such version of the tale had a headless ghost wandering around the countryside swinging a lantern back and forth searching for his severed head. The English version has Jack, a devil, as the bearer of the swinging lantern, hence Jack of the Lantern, or Jack-o'-lantern. In this tale, Jack roams the countryside swinging a lantern in search of his head. In almost all of the tales the "swinging" lantern is a constant and recurring description. Dosn't it sound strange that a headless ghost would need a lantern to search for it's head? It's eyes are on it's head, so why would the ghost roam the countryside swinging a lantern to and fro unless this is truely a core description of what is being seen. In French this phenomenon goes by the name of "Feu Follet" or a fiery lunatic. This name is derived from the apparently random movement of this "ball of fire." In Latin the name for this phenomenon is ignis erraticus, or an erratic fire.
It was popularly believed that if one tried to follow this ghostly lantern, this devil would lead him astray and drown him in a swamp. This was known as "lantern-led" or "pixie-led" or "pixilated," which is to be led astray by a Pixie whom also carried a swinging lantern. It was because of this type of folklore that led Dr. Schweitzer to conduct experiments in a laboratory that observed this random swinging motion of a point of light. Through these experiments Dr. Schweizer conclusively demonstrated that this movement was a subjective phenomenon and that the stars themselves did not move. In 1887 H. Aubert coined the term "autokinetische Empfindung," or, "the autokinetic sensation." (Adams) Here, one such Dutch term for the Will-o'-the-wisp, "dwaalster", or a "wandering star," is of great interest. Here are a few Dutch names for the Will-o'-the-wisp that are very revealing: Dwaallicht --wandering light; Wildelanteern --wandering lantern; Spooklicht --spook light; Dwarloch --wandering light; Wandelende Kaars --wandering candles. These names alone decry the fact that the legends concerning the Will-o'-the-wisp have had, and do have a relationship with visual and perceptual illusions of motion, especially when viewing lights at night. Almost all of the pilots I have interviewed who had encountered the foo fighters remarked that the lights seemed "to play with them." The Latin base of the word illusion is illudere, meaning to play with or to mock.
The study of the auto kinetic illusion was primarily isolated to the laboratory that is, until April of 1944 when Drs. Ashton Graybiel and Brant Clark began to experiment with this illusion on airmen flying at night. It was discovered that this illusion had a huge impact upon aviators flying at night. In particular this illusion would occur when airmen began to form up on stars, planets or bright ground lights mistaking them for other aircraft. Pilots who had witnessed the random auto kinetic movements of bright lights in the night sky very often mistook them for aircraft and would begin a pursuit. Because the airmen were not aware of the fact that they were suffering from false visual cues and illusions they would begin to interpret these visual sensations as "real" movement and would thus begin to believe that an otherwise stationary light was making remarkable manouvers. In fact, naive pilots were not the only ones to observe these illusory sensations in night flying, pilots were also trained on how to initiate illusory fixations on stationary lights with these pilots also suffering from extensive illusory sensations. In other words, the auto kinetic illusion had both a sever impact on trained and untrained observers, suggesting that even highly trained night fighters would also be likely to suffer from extensive illusory sensations during night flights. (Graybiel)
The auto kinetic illusion was not the only illusion studied by the US Navy, other illusions were discovered to impact night flying, such as the oculorgyral and oculargravic illusions. These illusions were discovered to impact a pilot's vision in even slight and undetectable angular and gravical manouvers. Heavy turns and archs made by a night flyer were discovered to initiate impressive illusions where a stationary light would appear to wander across the pilot's field of vision. Thus, because a pilot flying at night may not be aware of the fact that they are in an ideal environment for producing illusions it is very natural for them to interpret the anomalous movement of a bright light as being characteristic of the light and not an illusory sensation in and of itself. This type of niave observations is among the most hazardous of conditions which can be experienced by night flyers simply because they are "not" aware of the fact that they are suffering from illusions. The false visual cues produced by the above illusions are among several key factors that can lead a pilot into a more complex state of disorientation. During the time frame of the foo fighters, no such research on the impact of illusions were avalible to any of the organizations who were operating extensively at night.
Because of the fact that pilots who fly by the seat of their pants tend to relate illusory experiences with vertigo, I also interviewed pilots who have professed experiencing vertigo in night flying. Many of these stories bore a striking similarity with other pilots' experiences with the foo fighters. In particular, I found that many experienced night fighters had several tales about following ground lights and stars which appeared to move like aircraft. It was only when these "lights" began to manoeuvre in a remarkable fashion that the pilots broke off pursuit and recognized the experience as vertigo. Not all pilots, however, have this level of training, the pilots whom had claimed experiencing vertigo were high ranking and experienced night fighters. Not all high ranking and experienced pilots were able to make these types of distinctions though. When I asked pilots who had seen foo fighters if they had ever experienced vertigo in night flying, they offered me typical disorientation types of experiences and not stories involving illusions in flight. When I inquired about their experiences with illusions they offered a variety of different experiences but none which involved the illusory perceptions of lights moving like aircraft.
In the pursuit of fairness I tracked down a Col. Bill O'Dell who was the commander of the only US night fighter training facility at Orlando Florida. In an interview, Col. O'Dell professed the fact that there was absolutely no training given to any of the aircrews concerning vertigo or illusions in night flying. There just wasn't anything about vertigo in general academic or medical literature during this time period. I have scoured both aviation and medical literature in an attempt to outline a brief history of the study of vertigo and illusions in night flying and have found nothing that could be considered as a systemic analysis of these problems in night flying prior to 1945. In June of 1945, the very first attempt to study illusions experienced by nighttime aviators had been undertaken by Drs. Ashton Graybiel and Brant Clark at the US Naval School of Aviation Medicine. The generic title "Project X-148-AV-4-3" was given to the Navy BUMED study of visual and perceptual illusions as experienced by nighttime aviators. By 1957 the last of 47 reports totalling over some 400 pages were published. Within this study several new illusions were discovered which had a direct impact on vestibularly induces illusions in night flying. In almost all aviation and related materials concerning the study of vertigo, they almost all refer to this original research project which pioneered the study of Aviator's Vertigo. After X-148, Dr. Ashton Graybiel went over to NASA to head the medical research division for space flight. Today, the Spatial Orientation Laboratory at Brandeis University, Boston is named in his honor.
Apologetics aside, is a foo fighter a naive sighting of a real, historical weapon? No, it is absolutely not. Is it a Nazi flying saucer or an extraterrestrial spaceship? I'm afraid not, but these theories sell magazines and make lots of bucks. Many Ufologists have been very receptive to my refutation of the "jet" hypothysis because it tends to support their own claims of alien visitors. My intentions from the outset have been to resolve this mystery using a rational, although unorthodox, scientific method. It is my stern belief that what these airmen were reporting was an intensely real set of illusory experiences which have become associated with disorientation-vertigo syndromes in night flying. Perhaps one of the most steadfast reasons that Allied intelligence services were so baffled by these "encounters" was due to the fact that no studies existed at the time concerning vertigo, especially when night flying was involved.
In conclusion, a foo fighter is a class of events, or rather, a collection of illusory sensations, which tends to mislead an airman, believing that a distant "light," either airborne or terrestrial, is another aircraft. It has been well proven that these instances of mistaking stationary ground lights, bright stars or planets gives the pilot of an aircraft conflicting sensory information which can lead to both visually and perceptually induced veritgo syndromes. Once a pilot has fallen under such a state, the light will seem to manoeuvre in a remarkable fashion, one that will defy all of the airman's attempts to "rationalize" the light's behavior. This is why most of the airmen I interviewed tended to believe that the "balls of light" they had witnessed seemed to be under "intelligent control." Although this interpretation lacks any greater implications, such as being tracked, tagged and disected by an alien race for tens of generations or that the Nazis themselves had invented flying saucers, it seeks out the mundane and familiar as a root cause. The mechanisms of our human nocturnal vision differ drastically from that of our diurnal counterpart. Now throw an airman, who six months earlier was operation farm machinery, with this unknown mechanism of nocturnal vision into a high speed aircraft flying at night over enemy territory. What do you get? A foo fighter! It only seems natural that they reported seeing things, if it wasn't for the foo fighter these events probably would have gone virtually unnoticed in the annals of history as jets and baka bombs with their validity never being contested. Perhaps, now that we have a better understanding of how the foo fighters were created we can begin to better understand the advent of the UFO era Foo-Fighters
Bibliography:
Chamberlin, Jo. "The Foo Fighter Mystery." American Legion Magazine. Dec.1945.
Jones, R.V. 1978. The Wizard War: British Scientific Intelligence, 1939-1945. Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc. New York.
Kerr, E. Bartlett. 1991. Flames Over Tokyo: The U.S. Army Air Forces' Incendiary Campaign Against Japan, 1944-45. Donald I.Fine Inc. New York.
Morgan, Hugh. 1994. Me 262: Stormbird Rising. Motorbooks International Publishers & Wholesalers. Osceola, Wi.
Pape, Gary R. 1992. Queen of the Midnight Skies: The Story of America's Air Force Night Fighters. Schiffer Publishing Ltd.Atglen, Pa. .
Price, Alfred. 1991. The Last Year of the Luftwaffe - May 1944 to May 1945. Motorbooks International Publishers & Wholesalers. Osceola, Wi.
United States Strategic Bombing Survey: Aircraft Division, The Japanese Aircraft Industry. May 1947.
Ziegler, Mano. 1961. Rocket Fighter: The Story of the Messerschmitt Me163. Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc.,Warren Michigan.
Illusions in Night Flying:
Adams, Henry Foster. 1912. The Autokinetic Sensations." Psychological Monographs. 15:1-44.
Graybiel, Aston and Clark, Brant. 29 April 1944. "A Preliminary Report on Studies Dealing with the Autokinetic Illusion." Report No.# 1, U.S. Naval School of Aviation Medicine, Project (X-148-Av-4-3).
Graybiel, Ashton and Clark, Brant. 1945. "The Autokinetic Illusion and its Significance in Night Flying." Journal of Aviation Medicine. June: 111-151. Reprinted from U.S. Naval School of Aviation Medicine, Report No.#3. 7 Feb. 1945. Project (X-148-Av-4-3).
Graybiel, Ashton and Hupp, Dorothy.1946."The Oculo-Gyral Illusion: A form of apparent motion which may be observed following stimulation of the semicircular canals." Journal of Aviation Medicine. February: 3-27. Reprinted from U.S. Naval School of Aviation Medicine, Report No.#4. 1 Nov. 1945. Project (X-148-Av-4-3).
Imus, Henry A., Graybiel, Ashton., Brown Robert H., and Niven, Jorma I. 1951. "Visual Illusions in Night Flying." American Journal of Ophthalmology. 34: 35-41.
Schweizer,G.1857. "Ueber das Sternschwanken." Bulletin del'Universit'e Imp'erial des Naturalistes de Moscou. 30:440-457; 31:477-500.
Vinacke, Edgar. 8 May 1946. "The Concept of Aviator's 'Vertigo." Report No.#7. U.S. Naval School of Aviation Medicine, Project (X-148-Av-4-3). Reprinted in Journal of Aviation Medicine. 1948. 19: 158-190.
Vinacke, Edgar. 1947. "Illusions Experienced by Aircraft Pilots While Flying." Journal of Aviation Medicine. 18: 308-325. Reprinted from U.S. Naval School of Aviation Medicine, Report No.#9. 31 May 1947. Project (X-148-Av-4-3).
National Archives and Records Administration [NARA]
Opflash Report, CG IX ADC, 422nd N.F.S. 11 Nov.- 30 Nov. 1944.
Opflash Air Mission Summaries, Aircraft no.#s 5547, 5564, 5557, 5564, 5589, 5557, 5540, 5564, 5547, 5564, 5573, 5589, 5564, 5564, 5565, 5564. 422nd N.F.S.
Report to the Commanding General, Ninth Air Force, Section k.2.c (Enemy Aircraft Encountered: Jets) 19 January 1945. 422nd N.F.S.
Office of the Chief of Counter Intelligence, GHQ, Air Forces Pacific Command. Extract from the daily intelligence summary - 22 May 1945. "Another Rocket?"
Headquarters Army Air Forces, Pacific Ocean Areas, Office of the Director of Intelligence, 7 April 1945. Air Intelligence Branch, Director of Intelligence, "B-29's observed on 3 April 1945 a 'BALL OF FIRE' which was subject to some definite control. This is an attempt to describe the phenomenon and to define it with an eye toward the most recent Japanese fields of interest and developments."
Historical Data; 415th Night Fighter Squadron, U.S. Army. 10 February 1943 thru 1 September 1947.
Historical Data; 416th Night Fighter Squadron, U.S. Army. 20 February 1943 thru 9 November 1946.
Personal Communications and Notes:
Lindell, Jeffery A., "Notes and Extracts from Communications and Interviews." Correspondences with: Wesley Galliger, Associated Press[Ret.] and Roger Pineau, Japanese Aviation Historian.
Interviews with 20th Air Force:
Lt. Gen. James V. Edmundson, Commander 498th (Bomb Group) BG; Maj. Gen. Henry Huglin, Commander 9th BG; Chester W. Marshall, 20th Air Force Historian; Glen McClure, 73rd Bomb Wing Historian; Hurth Tompkins, Historian 500th BG; Herbert Hobler, 9th BG Historian; Jack Burton, Historian 29 BG, 6 SQ; Edmond Sullivan, Combat Intelligence Officer, 444th BG; Christopher Williston, Combat Intelligence Officer, 314th Wing and 20th A.F. Intelligence. Crew members of "Southern Belle" 498th BG, 874th Sq: Walter Sherrell, Aircraft Commander; Edward Ososky, Navigator; Ernest Rasmussen, Flight Engineer; Eugene Horton, Left Gunner; Don Thrane, Right Gunner; and Leland Sawyer, Tail Gunner. Rennie Fontham, Aircraft Commander "The Fire Bug" 29th BG, 52nd Sq; Fred Pawlikawski, "The Fire Bug" 29th BG, 52nd Sq; James Ferrell, Aircraft Commander "Hell's Belle" 505th BG, 482nd Sq; Sam Greenwood, Tail Gunner "Hell's Belle" 505th BG, 482nd Sq; A. T. Early, CFC Gunner "Hell's Belle" 505th BG, 482nd Sq; James Pattillo, Aircraft Commander "Bengal Lancer" 468th BG, 792nd Sq; Ian Boggs, Aircraft Commander 19th BG, 28th Sq.
Interviews with 9th Air Force:
415th Night Fighter Sq.; Harold F. Augspurger, Sq. Commander; Charlie Horne, Operations Officer; Frederick B. Ringwald, Intelligence Officer; Murphy C. Painter Jr., Pilot; Edward A. Schlueter, Pilot; David McFalls, Pilot; Raymond Neyer, Radar Operator; Richard Urich, Radar Operator; Warren Rodick, Radar Operator; Samual Krasney, Radar Operator. 422nd Night Fighter Sq.; Oris (Obie) B. Johnson, Maj. Gen., Sq. Commander; Phillip M. Guba Jr., Assistant Intelligence Officer; Charles McEwen, 422 NFS Historian; Robert Tierney, Radar Operator; John W. Anderson, Pilot; Robert G. Bolinder, Pilot; Alfred F. Dorner, Radar Operator; Robert F.(Shorty) Graham, Radar Operator; Theodore I. Jones, Pilot; James W. Mogan, Radar Operator.
Interviews with 12th Air Force:
Carl Morrison, Commander 416th NFS; Leonard Wirkus, Radar Operator 416th NFS; Frankie Robinson, Pilot 416th NFS; George Schultz, Radar Operator 416th NFS; Carroll H. Bolender, General, Sq. Commander 414th NFS; Jack Gordon, Pilot 414th NFS.
Special thanks to the 20th Air Force Association and the World War Two Night Fighter's Association
The Story So Far
by Andy Roberts
The subject of Foo-Fighters, the mysterious aerial phenomenon seen by aircrew during W.W.II, is probably the most neglected area of study in the field of ufology. Once ufologists realised that their world did not in fact begin on June 24th 1947 with Arnold's infamous sighting, it has become fashionable to conduct research into "historical" UFO's which has led to some useful insights into the nature of the UFO phenomenon as a whole.
IGNORED
The pre-Great War Airship and between the wars Mystery Flier Waves plus the post-war Mystery Rocket waves have all been admirably covered by researchers in the UK, USA and Sweden, but foo-fighters have been virtually ignored. With this in mind I began in 1987 to seek out all material extant relating to foo- fighters to try and put the subject into much-needed perspective and with the hopeful intention of publishing the end results in book form as a reference tool for other ufologists. This is some way off yet and so I think it may be worthwhile detailing the progress made and the problems encountered so far.
Neglected as an area of study they may be but every ufologist has at least heard of foo-fighters and almost every writer on the subject has mentioned them. Therefore you would think a mass of information would exist on the subject. Unfortunately this is just not the case. Look in any UFO book and you will find that foo-fighters are just given a few lines, at most in some rare cases a few pages and in only one or two instances a whole chapter.
This is pathetic really for an area of UFO activity which immediately preceeded the modern era and one which, if we are to believe the more "enthusiastic" ufologists, was the start of the so-called "Government Cover-Up". The history of foo-fighters as represented within the subject of ufology is riddled with problems which have put foo fighters in the historical niche they occupy today. These problems need stating and dealing with before the foo-fighter phenomenon can be seen in anything approaching a clear perspective.
For a start even the name `foo-fighter' is problematic; did it come from the old Smokey Stover cartoon character saying "Where there's foo there's fire"; or was it from the French word feu, meaning fire, or was it, according to one ex-B17 waist gunner I spoke to, from "phooey". Needless to say, he didn't believe they existed! Also, what exactly is the definition of a "foo-fighter"? It usually depends on what obscure theory a particular writer is trying to prove. For the purposes of my study I have used the criteria of any unexplained light source seen in conjunction with an aircraft either from the air or from the ground. This is deliberately descriptive as to include all war-time UFO's, which are as diverse as the ones we report nowadays, would need many years research itself.
RE-ARRANGED
Firstly, when considering the written sources in the literature, it should be made known that almost every author who has mentioned the subject, in a book or a magazine article, has literally stolen his or her material from someone else and invariably left it unreferenced to create, no doubt, the illusion that the author in question discovered the facts themselves. Furthermore even the copied facts are often misquoted or conveniently "rearranged" to suit the author's particular argument and all obviously done without checking the salient facts at source.
For instance, if we constructed a "family tram" of foo-fighter material we would find, almost without exception, that the "grandpappy of them all" is the 1945 American Legion Magazine article, written by Jo Chamberlin. This article forms the substance of almost every piece written on the subject of foo-fighters. Fortunately this article is based on accounts which can be (has been) checked with squadron records and appears largely correct but its incessant copying has precluded any original work being done on the subject and has subsequently led to many writers extrapolating generalisations about the foo subject as a whole, most of which are demonstrably untrue. Examples of this armchair theorising are legion but for instance; many items dealing with foo-fighters state almost as an article of faith that foo-fighters only appeared in the later stages of the war, specifically around the winter of `44/'45.
SECRET WEAPON
This is a direct result of Chamberlin's article and has led to further speculation that perhaps they were Nazi secret weapons pulled out of the hat at the last minute, or even perhaps that the foo were extraterrestrials keeping an eye on us before we used the atomic bomb. This time scaling is false and the first record I have of a foo-fighter being seen comes from 1940 and they were seen often throughout all the war years.
Another false fact of the foo-fanciers faith is that the phenomena was mainly seen over the European theatre of war and just occasionally over the Pacific. This is again false and the product of sloppy research. So far I have accounts of foo- fighters being seen over Norway, Germany, France, Italy, Sicily, The Pacific, Burma, Tunisia, and all the sea areas adjoining these countries. It was clearly an international phenomenon.
Still another mistake is the statement made by many authors that the axis pilots also were seeing the phenomena and that they thought, just as our pilots did, that it was an allied secret weapon. This may yet be proved true but I have so far to find an original reference made by an axis pilot, or authority, that this was the case. The statement seems to be ufological canard employed on the basis of `well if our boys saw them they must have too', and again has been used to support the ETH argument. The facts behind the rumour must await further verification. Axis aircrew were in fact seeing unexplained aerial phenomena but as yet most of their accounts await translation.
HOAX
We have at least one outright hoax too in foo-fighter lore. For years rumours had been flying round that the Germans had been fully aware of the foo-fighter phenomenon (perhaps that's where the above canard originated) and that they had a special study group formed to look into the problem under the name of "Project Uranus," backed by a shadowy group by the name of Sonderburo 13 (reminds you of Majestic 12 doesn't it?). This was first detailed in La Livres Noir De Soucupes Volantes (The Black Book of Flying Saucers- 1970) by French ufologist Henry Durrant. The rumour spread in Europe and eventually took physical form in the English language in Tim Good's acclaimed book `Above Top Secret' where it is used to help substantiate further vague rumours of an Anglo/American foo-fighter study. Good had not checked his facts and had in fact just copied the information direct from Durrant's book.
When I checked this out with Durrant he informed me that the whole "Project Uranus" affair was a hoax which he had inserted in his book precisely to see who would copy it without checking. The hoax apparently had been revealed in France some years before but hadn't percolated its way through to English speaking ufologists. Perhaps other foo hoaxes await discovery.
I could go on listing mistake after mistake and misquote after misquote from which we have drawn the current idea of foo-fighters. The quality of research and writing on the subject of foo-fighters has been truly appalling. Once these primary problems were realised I found trying to research the subject from within the UFO literature was pointless and incestuous and so attempted to get back to the source material -- the pilots and crew themselves and the official records.
FRESH REPORTS
With this in mind I wrote to every air-related magazine in the UK with a request for information from ex-aircrew. To date I have had some thirty replies from pilots and crew detailing their experiences with strange balls of light (incidentally not one of them knew them by the name "foo-fighters," or any other name for that matter). I will be repeating the procedure this year both in the UK and the US to draw in more fresh reports. None of these respondents connected their sighting in any way with the modern idea of UFO's and their information is so much the better and clearer for that. In many cases I have copies of entries made in log-books immediately after the flight which details what took place.
BALLS OF LIGHT
In the main, the descriptions are similar to the many already portrayed in the literature. Balls of light of varying colour (mainly orange) and number would appear from nowhere and play tag with aircraft for up to forty minutes. They were not hallucinations, being in some cases seen by the entire crew of a Lancaster bomber, and were not reflections as they were seen from many different angles or from two `planes at once.
Evasive action to shake them off was of no use. In one case a Lancaster almost burnt its engine out, going "through the gate," a slang term used by pilots to denote pushing the engine to its limits, in an effort to lose its incandescent follower, but to no avail.
None of my respondents had fired on the phenomena, in some cases fearing it to be a secret weapon which would explode when fired upon and in others just attempting to evade it on the basis that as long as it wasn't firing at them they weren't going to antagonise it. Having said this I have heard an unsubstantiated tape of an interview with an American gunner which cites a case in which a foo was fired on ... and the shells went straight through it! Interesting and supportive of the unexplained atmospheric phenomenon theory. Although some books note the (unreferenced!) fact that some foo's appeared inside the planes or affected the electrics etc. I have found no record of that taking place. Nor is there any verified account of foo-fighters showing up on ground radar. The phenomena whatever it was, clearly distinguished by the aircrew from common natural phenomena such as St. Elmo's Fire, and was a separate entity from the 'plane they were in. It appears to have been totally independent and able to change shape, speed and position at will.
LACK OF INTEREST
Clearly something was being seen. A few pilots and crew chose not to report their experience at the time for fear of ridicule or for fear of being grounded for having hallucinations. Many though did record and report what they saw however and the response of the intelligence de-briefing staff varied considerably from total disinterest or hilarity to, in one case only, great interest and a further interview by intelligence officers. This apparent lack of interest on the part of the intelligence services begs the question of whether any official RAF or US 8th AF study was ever actually undertaken. It vas certainly claimed to have, instigated by the untraceable Massey in the UK and Eisenhower in the US. Although my sample of respondents is small is seems odd that only one crew out of thirty or more were actually de-briefed at length specifically on the subject.
This was more than likely to be concerned with the possibility that the crew had seen one of the new German jets than anything else. In view of the amount of time, effort and expertise needed it seems unlikely that any nation during the hard pressed times of W.W.II took the time out to study what was essentially an ephemeral, elusive and ultimately harmless phenomenon. This will not please cover-up aficionado's but it seems to be the case on current evidence.
My research so far with the RAF/MOD/PRO in the UK has drawn a total blank regarding official documentation and investigation of the subject, as have preliminary investigations in the USA. UFO skeptics will of course say that this is because it doesn't exist, proponents, especially cover-up buffs, will say it is because it is being kept secret.
The simple facts are that if documentation does exist in the UK I am unlikely to be able to get at it easily because of our archaic proceedures for obtaining any government documents. We are not blessed by a FOI Act as is the USA, and obtaining any document depends on whether a department can be bothered to answer your letters or if so, can be bothered to undertake a meaningful search of their records. The situation is further complicated by the fact that many records in our Public Records Office are hard to locate due to how it is organised and furthermore are subject to "rules" such as the 30 year rule whereby information is not available for 30 years from date of classification. Worse still many W.W.II records are languishing under a 75 year rule for reasons I have not yet fathomed! In addition to this fact I have spoken to some ex-wartime RAF intelligence people in the UK and they claim no knowledge of the phenomena.
This area is clearly a matter for further study but, as with contemporary UFO research it should be borne in mind that whilst there any many rumours of government interest and intervention regarding foo-fighters the actual hard evidence cannot be found. I do not think this points to a `cover-up' in any way. The situation in the US may yet turn out to be different as regards obtaining official documentation and I would welcome help from any US readers who have an interest in the foo-phenomenon.
NOT VALID
The German secret weapon hypothesis (GSWH) promoted by such writers as Renato Vesco is unlikely to be valid. The reports are too widely spaced throughout the war and come from too many differing theatres for them to be a secret weapon of any kind. Certainly the Germans were experimenting with saucer-shaped craft, flying wings, etc., but they had not got very far beyond the drawing board and model stage. In addition, if foo-fighters were a weapon they were clearly ineffective as one. The GSWH can be seen in the same light vis a vis Foo-fighters as the way many people relate modern UFO sightings to alien craft. It is a cultural or, in the case of foo-fighters, an occupational artefact which when seen in retrospect (as will the ETH no doubt) can be identified and discounted.
CONCLUSION
Out of all this some clear facts are apparent. Hundreds of aircrew saw and recorded what we now call foo-fighters during W.W.II. There must be many thousands of ex-aircrew who have stories to tell. The problem is finding them and the odd ad. or article is only going to draw a few out and I have yet to attempt to get to American information from squadron survivors units etc. The situation regarding German information is further complicated by a language barrier but it is only a matter of time.
I firmly believe that foo-fighters were a real, although non- solid phenomena and I reject the hallucination/misperception hypothesis almost entirely. These people's lives depended on being able to see and identify aerial objects very quickly. One mistake and it was their last. Some crew have admitted misperceiving Venus etc., but realising it in seconds, and certainly not a whole crew being fooled for any length of time.
Foo-fighter reports give us a "genuine" UFO report, uncluttered by contemporary ideas about aliens, saucers and the like and which, as appear to be many `genuine' UFO reports when they are stripped of cultural bias, consists basically of rudimentary light sources performing odd manoevres in the sky. My research has a long way to go yet but I would offer the suggestion that foo-fighters and their pre and antecedents which are still being seen today by people both pilots and ground observers are a type of natural phenomena, possibly related to ball or bead lightning, but equally possibly not. They may be something as yet totally undiscovered. They are also the stimulus for many of today's UFO reports which are subsequently overlaid by the prevailing cultural perceptions, i.e. alien craft. Mystery Airships, Ghost Fliers, Foo-Fighters, Flying Saucers - they may well all turn out to be different facets of the same phenomena.
Information about foo-fighters is, as can be seen, in short supply and at best fragmentary and I appeal to any readers with information on any aspect of the subject, however trivial or bizzarre, to contact me, Andy Roberts, at: AndyRoberts@ancientassociates.fsnet.co.uk