PROJECT 1947

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Washington, Jan 2–(UP)–Tokyo claimed today that a Japanese-manufactured robot bomb would make its debut soon giving Japan domination of the skies of the Pacific Ocean.

The broadcast beamed to Latin America and recorded by the FCC did not give any weapon, nor did it explain how the Japanese could hope to use them for such distances and against such tiny targets as American Pacific bases offer.

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Flying Disk reports reminded veteran Gerry Dumphy (23 Anyinger Ct., a student at the University of Wisconsin) of reports of mystery fireballs which supposedly attacked big planes on their missions over Japanese Islands in May and June 1945.

The first 'fireball' reported was during a raid against Tokyo on May 23, 1945.  Dumphy was a bombardier with the 52d Squadron of the 29th Bombing Group stationed at Guam.  He recalls how the 'fireballs' approached planes and followed them out to sea as they returned after dropping their bombs.

He described them as "round, speedy balls of fire, fast as a B-29, but not as maneuverable."  Or as "burning warheads suspended from parachutes," or as "molten chunks of steel."

"Often, excited gunners would fire on pursuing 'fireballs' missiles [which] ]would miss their targets and fall into the sea.  Reports came in from every B-29 base in the Marianas.  As time wore on, the fireballs "became more maneuverable and followed the super forts further out to sea".  None were reported seen during daylight hours.  One pilot, seeing a fireball, flew into a cloud formation.  It was still following when the plane emerged.  In this case the fireball was explained as the planet Venus, as its position remained at 9 o'clock.

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  Just Cause - June, 1992:

FIRST OFFICIAL FOO-FIGHTER RECORDS DISCOVERED

In January 1992, CAUS launched an effort to locate documentation relevant to the Foo-Fighter phenomenon of World War 2.  This has led to the first release of unit records giving specifics on these incidents.

For those unfamiliar with what Foo-Fighters were, we will explain.  During the later part of World War 2 pilots an both the allied and axis sides reported seeing strange balls of light flying with them while they were engaged in bombing and air defense missions in the European and Pacific theaters.  The balls were generally about a foot in diameter, bright, of varying colors and able to maneuver with ease in and about aircraft formations.

Word of the phenomenon leaked to the press in December 1944 and became widely known in America on January 2, 1945, through numerous newspaper reprintings of a wire service story summarizing pilot descriptions of what they saw.  In the press coverage it was assumed that the balls were Nazi secret weapons.  However, they did not seem to affect aircraft in any way, except to be a nuisance. Reports persisted until the end of January 1945, when the activity abated, though not completely.

Further mention of Foo-Fighters (which in fact was a nickname given to the strange balls by pilots of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron, based upon a frequent phrase used in the "Smokey Stover" comic strip of the day) disappeared from the press until December 1945, when the American Legion Magazine carried accounts by pilots of their experiences (see "The Foo Fighter Mystery" by Jo Chamberlin, American Legion Magazine, Dec. 1945).

From then on the Foo-Fighter reports surfaced much after the fact in various UFO publications over the years.

Clues as to the existence of wartime records of the Foo-Fighters appeared in declassified Air Force Intelligence files from 1947 and 1952.

As a result of UFO waves in those years several former bomber crew members had contacted the Air Force to advise them of their experiences with Foo-Fighters in the hope that this would somehow shed light on the flying saucers being sighted.

One record, an April 23, 1952 letter from Lt. Col. W.W. Ottinger of the Directorate of Intelligence's Evaluation Division, said that an evaluation of Foo-Fighters was done at the end of the war.  It was concluded that there was nothing to the phenomenon at all, though to this day the study has not been made public.

A majority of the published accounts of Foo-Fighters seemed to emanate from pilots of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron.  The 415th's job was to intercept and destroy Nazi aircraft, flying under the cover of night.

The fighters would be directed by Army radar stations which tracked the enemy aircraft.  The squadron logged an impressive record of kills through the skill and determination of its pilots.

Knowing that the U.S. Air Force Historical Research Center at Maxwell AFB, Alabama was a storage site for histories of old aircraft units, we had sent a detailed inquiry asking for the location of bombing mission reports, for definitions of acronyms given by witnesses attempting to direct Air Force Intelligence to citations of Foo-Fighter sightings, and of particular interest, the unit history of the 415th NFS.

Unfortunately, after telling us that a researcher would contact us in several months with results, a follow-up informed us that they didn't have the staff or the time to answer questions (some research center!).  Nevertheless, we were given the number of a microfilm roll containing the 415th's unit history. Upon receiving it we soon learned that the

Foo-Fighter sightings of the 415th were indeed documented, albeit briefly, by the squadron's historian.

We are concerned with two portions of the history - a unit summary, which gives an overview of the 415th's activities, and the "War Diary," which chronicled the day-by-day events.  Both had been classified "Secret."  Frame 1515 of the microfilm roll's summary touched upon the Foo-Fighters in this way:

"Another outstanding feature occured late in October.  While flying an intruder mission in the Rhine Valley, Capt. Edward Schlueter and Lt. Don Myers experienced contact with the first FooFighters, referred to as such by Lt. Myers for the lack of a better name and because of the eerie feeling it gave the crew.  At first these two officers were taunted by their buddies and began to wonder if they had developed combat fatigue.  However other crews began to report seeing FooFighters in the Rhine Valley at night, thus the FooFighters were definitely established as an existing phenomena."

A few remarks are needed here.  The summary makes reference to Capt. Schlueter and Lt. Myers encountering a Foo Fighter in late October.  But as we will see in the War Diary, the first report was in late November 1944 and no incident is listed for October.  Also one sees reactions very much reminiscent of later flying saucer stories in that the witnesses were ridiculed and began to doubt themselves until others reported the same thing.  The result in this case was that "Foo Fighters were definitely established as an existing phenomena."

On to the War Diary.  The 415th operated under what must be regarded as stressful conditions.  Certainly the stress from time to time had to be relieved.  The 415th was no different than any other unit in this respect.  A little insight into their pasttimes is reflected in the War Diary entry for November 24, 1944:

"The Squadron had a dance at the Cafe du Lark.  Both WACs (Women's Army Corp, Ed.) and French girls were invited.  A gay time was had by all until the WACs left at 1100 hours and then a very gay time was enjoyed."

I hope the reader understands that "gay" had a different connotation then than it does now.  Also, were WACs that bad or were French girls that much better?

Frame 1611 begins coverage of the first Foo Fighter incident from an intruder mission out of Longvic Air Rase in France:

November 27 - "The following weird excerpt comes from Lt. Schlueter's report of an intruder mission:  'Upon returning to base saw a red light flying through area about 35 miles ENE of Pt. A.  Came in to about 2000 feet off starboard and then it disappeared in a long red streak.'"

Comment: Interestingly, unless the War Diary omitted other incidents in late November, this account is quite different, from the "first incident" reported in American Legion Magazine.  This told of Schlueter and "Meiers" encountering eight to ten orange balls moving at terrific speed which disappeared, reappeared, stayed in view five minutes and then once again vanished.

About two weeks passed before the next encounter. This time the 415th had been moved to Ochey Air Base, France. Frame 1613 relates:

December 15 - "The following is an excerpt from the operations report:  'Saw a brilliant red light at 2000 feet going E at 200 MPH in the vicinity of Ernstein. Due to AI (Air Intercept radar) failure could not pick up contact but followed it by sight until it went out.  Could not get close enough to identify object before it went out.'"

A few days later there was more:

December 18 - "I quote from the operations report:  'In Rastatt area sighted five or six red and green lights in a 'T' shape which followed A/C thru turns and closed to 1000 feet.  Lights followed for several miles and then went out.  Our pilots have named these mysterious phenomena which they encounter over Germany at night 'Foo-Fighters.'"

The encounters continue on frame 1614:

December 23 - "More Foo-Fighters were in the air last night.  The Ops report says:  'In vicinity of Hagenau saw 2 lights coming toward A/C from ground.  After reaching the altitude of the A/C they leveled off and flew on tail of Beau (Beaufighter - their aircraft, Ed.) for 2 minutes and then peeled up and turned away.  8th mission - sighted 2 orange lights.  One light sighted at 10,000 feet the other climbed until it disappeared.'"

December 24 - "The Foo-Fighters were active again according to the pilot's report:  ’Observed a glowing, red object shooting straight up.  It changed suddenly to a plan view of an A/C doing a wing-over and going into a dive and disappearing.'"

December 28 - "The Ops report says:  '1st patrol saw 2 sets of 3 red and white lights.  One appeared on port side, the other on starboard at 1000 to 2000 feet to rear and closing in.  Beau peeled off and lights went out.  Nothing on GCI scope at the time.'  And then again:  'Observed lights suspended in air, moving slowly in no general direction and then disappeared.  Lights were orange, and appeared singly and in pairs.  These lights were observed 4 or 5 times throughout the period.'"

Comment: We can see how the level of activity escalated to such a point in December that it would be hard to keep a lid on the matter.  Thus the leak and press coverage in January.  The incidents of December 23-24 do agree with accounts in the American Legion Magazine article to the extent that the author must have seen the Ops report or War Diary without citing one or the other as a source, perhaps for security reasons.  However, the aircraft occupants were named in the article but not in the War Diary.

A final entry in the 415th's War Diary appears on frame 1619:

January 30 - "Foo-Fighters were at it again last night.  This is the operations report:

'Halfway between Wissenbourg and Langau sighted amber lights at 2000 feet.  One light was 20 to 50 feet above the other and of about 30 seconds duration.  Lights were about a foot in diameter, 1000 feet away and following Beaus.  Lights disappeared when Beaus turned into them.'"

What were Foo-Fighters?  Hallucinations?  Alien ships?  Natural phenomena?  The official records do not suggest what they were except that they were no threat to the aircraft of either side.

On February 21, 1952, Air Force Intelligence received a letter from one Albert Rosenthal of Washington, D.C. (In CAUS files):

"During the winter of 1944-45 I was a fighter controller with the 64th Fighter Wing supporting the 7th Army in France and Germany.  Flying under our control was the 415th Night Fighter Squadron, flying Beaufighters.  When there was no enemy air activities, they would engage in intruder sweeps into southwestern Germany.  We repeatedly received reports from the Beaufighter crews of similar phenomena, which they named 'foo-fighters.'  At times they seemed to be associated with concentrated flak, and at other times were reported to explode when pursued.  It was also asserted that they caused a slight response on A.I. radar."

"We never did solve the problem of what they were.  Theories propounded included 'St Elmo's Fire' (a form of static electricity); German barrage balloons; meteors; and gremlins from the Black Forest nearby.  And of course we suspected the possibility of some new secret weapon."

A previously unknown account has surfaced. Connecticut resident Louis Kiss has advised CAUS of his own experience with Foo-Fighters.

Kiss, then a Staff Sergeant, was a tall gunner on the "Phyllis Marie," a B-17 bomber of the 390th Bombardment Group, 3rd Division of the 8th Air Force.

In late 1943, while on a daylight mission over central Germany, Kiss observed an odd-looking sphere approach the B-17 from behind and below.  He said it was about the size of a basketball and of a shimmery gold color.  The ball reached the aircraft and hovered just above one wing after slowly moving from the rear.  Soon it passed over the top of the aircraft to the other wing where it again hovered.  Sgt. Kiss was tempted to shoot at it with his machine gun but, considering the proximity of the ball to the B-17's gas tank, he thought better of it.

As Kiss watched, the ball moved toward the rear again, became caught in the B-17's backwash and rapidly disappeared into the remainder of the B-17 formation.  He never knew if anyone else in the group had seen the ball but he did officially report it to his intelligence officer.  Curiously, Kiss had never heard of Foo-Fighters until we had mentioned them to him.  His report does parallel several sources.  The War Diary of the 415th for December 23 told of Foo-Fighters climbing from below, much the same as Kiss described.  And the American Legion Magazine article told of a daylight sighting by a P-47 pilot of a "gold-colored ball with a metallic finish," again something reported by Kiss.

If one has questions about the credibility of Mr Kiss, we have included an extract from the 390th Veterans Association Foundation Newsletter, Fall-Winter 1991, attesting to his excellence as a combat flyer.

The 390th Veterans Association Foundation Newsletter, Fall-Winter 1991 On an 8 October 1943 raid over Bremen, Germany, SSGT. Louis Kiss established himself among the outstanding gunners of the 390th Bombardment Group by shooting down three enemy planes within five minutes.  He accomplished that achievement from his position as a tail gunner on the flying fortress “Phyllis Marie.” In describing the action, Sergeant Kiss reported, “I never saw the luftwaffe more bloodthirsty. They dove through their own flak to drive home their attacks.  I waited until they were within three hundred yards before I fired at them.  I couldn't miss.” Assigned to the 568th Bombardment Squadron, Sergeant Kiss later scored his fourth kill over Emden.  When he later returned to the states, he brought with him the distinguished flying cross and the air medal with eight oakleaf clusters for his achievements over the German homeland.

We hope that this is just the beginning of a flow of information on Foo-Fighters.  It was a peculiar footnote to World War 2 to say the least and far too little has been available on it.

Based upon the reports we have seen, we are inclined to think that Foo-Fighters were some form of rare electrical phenomenon related to ball lightning.  How they form in clear air is not understood.  Odd as well is the lack of reports in winters prior to 1944-45, with a few occassional exceptions.  Accessing new information from historical files may reveal more reports than we realized existed.  Could, for example, have Foo-Fighters been related to possible earthquake activity in southwestern Germany during this period with the balls of electrical energy having been attracted to the large formations of fighters and bombers overflying the territory?  Remember the reports of the balls flying up from the ground and the fact that there is no evidence that either side in the war had any such devices in their arsenals?

We will update this story as it develops.

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Just Cause - September, 1992:

On September 3, this editor visited the National Archives in Suitland, Maryland in an effort to locate additional records on Foo-Fighters.  Fifteen documents were found with fragments of new information.

The focus of the search were the records of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron, the same unit responsible for many of the Foo-Fighter sightings of the period. Of particular concern were the "Mission Reports.”  These were the source documents of the 415th's Unit History, which we discussed in the June Just Cause.  It was thought that perhaps more detail existed in these mission reports, elaborating upon the Unit History.

Archives personnel provided a large cardboard box holding three feet of file folders of the 415th NFS and affiliated bomber groups.  The period covered was late September 1944 - April 1945.  It was obvious that I would spend at least a full day scanning this bunch.  The records were not in the best condition, a fact which should be of great concern to those interested in the contents of old files, not just on this but on any subject.  Many of the papers were onion-skin copies, very fragile and yellowing.  Other reports were on coarse, brown paper which was very brittle, flakes of which were coming off on my hands.  It was no longer surprising why quite often when CAUS would request and receive government files the copies were difficult, and sometimes impossible, to read.  We are in a race against time as many government records are literally self-destructing on the shelf.  With the millions of copies for which the National Archives is responsible, there is simply not enough staff or resources to take care of it all.

What also became clear is that the staff of the National Archives are not absolute authorities on the records that we have obtained regarding UFOs.  The response I had to a request for help in locating a particular Air Force document with an identifying number was, "Good luck, we don't know."  Not that they were being fresh but that the Air Force had lost the inventory to that group of documents.  I had a new appreciation for the time delays in responding to FOIA requests as well.  It took me the best part of a day just to scan one box thoroughly.  I was in a room with about thirty to forty people, all of whom had their own agenda and own piles of paper to scan.  Factor in mail requests and the demands on the staff must be terrific.  I heard a complaint by one of having to pull hundreds of boxes himself to fulfill researchers’ requests just for that day.

The 415th's mission reports tended to be brief in their descriptions of everything.  There were reports of aircraft destroyed, buildings bombed, flak, vehicles destroyed; etc. Then, scattered amongst the information, were reports of strange lights in the sky.

The following is an accounting of these reports:

December 14/15, 1944 - Mission 1 - 1735-1915 - Saw light which appeared to be 4 or 5 times larger than a star going about 700 MPH near Erstein.  Couldn't get sighting - Poor visibility. December 16/17, 1944 - Mission 5 - 0040 - Fired at lights in Lichtenau - No results observed.  0130 - Fired at lights in OCS (R-3522) - No results observed. December 16/17, 1944 - Mission 6 - 0155-0345 - Lichtenau-Buhl area.  Saw lights in Neufreistett (R-1407), guns would not fire so returned to base. December 22/23, 1944 - Mission 1 - 1705-1850 - Put on bogie by Blunder at 1750 hours, had A.I. [air intercept radar -ed.] contact 4 miles range at Q-7372.  Overshot and could not pick up contact again. A.I. went out and weather started closing in so returned to base.  Observed 2 lights, one of which seemed to be going on and off at Q—2411. December 22/23, 1944 - Mission 7 - 0350-0730 - Patrolled 10,000 feet Strasbourg - Sarrebourg.  At 0600 saw ? lights coming toward a/c from south.  Turned away after about 2 minutes when near Hagenau. Saw orange glow and thought it might possibly be jet a/c. December 22/23, 1944 - Mission 8 - 0535-0750 - Patrol Sarrebourg - R-4559. Saw lights from plane and orange glow.  Thought it possible jet a/c. January 1/2, 1945 - Mission 3 - 1810/2010 - Patrol North and East of base. Was vectored toward Rogey - No contact. January 1/2, 1945 - Mission 5 - 2045/2145 - Patrol.  Saw red flares off port wing 10 miles south of base. A.I.  [air intercept radar -ed.] went U/S; so returned to base. January 1/2, 1945 - Mission 8 - 0230/0600 - Patrol.  Vectored on to Bogey when at angels 11.  Could not get closer than 7 miles. Lost contact when Bogey entered IAZ. February 13/14, 1945 - Mission 2 - 1800-2000 - About 1910, between Rastatt and Bishwiller, encountered lights at 3000 feet, two sets of them, turned into them, one set went out and the other went straight up 2-3000 feet, then went out.  Turned back to base and looked back and saw lights in their original position again. February 14/15, 1945 - Mission 2 - 1940-2140 - String of lights north of Freiburg, (1 red one in center, 4 white ones on each side) blinking on and off. March 14/15, 1945 - Mission 1 - 1845-2030 - Patrolled 7th Army Front from R-1108 to Hagenau - artillery flashes seen.  Before leaving, saw floo fire (3 red lights) 3 miles away at 3000 feet stationary. March 19/20, 1945 - Mission 9 - 0045-0355 - At Speyer saw 2 "Foo" Fighters - 1 orange ball and 1 green one - seemed to be closing in from portside. Evaded them and lost them. March 26/27, 1945 - Mission 5 - 2230-0130 - Patrol.  Patrol Worms area.  Saw an orange ball that came up from ground and disappeared before it reached the Beau. April 23/24, 1945 - Mission 5 - 0105-0320 - P-61 Patrol - Wisenburg-Ludwigsburg Area.  At Rhine River, R-9593, observed 4 lights arranged in a square.  Lights went out as plane approached.

One frustrating feature of these reports is their brevity.  It is difficult to form a hypothesis on the origin of Foo-Fighters when such fragmentary information is available.  It is sometimes hard to tell whether reports of "lights" by the pilots were in the air or on the ground so one should exercise caution when reading reports where this is not clear.

The reports involving the 415th rather stretch beyond the time previously thought to encompass all of the known sightings from that unit.

In our June issue, we had indicated that sightings ranged from late October 1944 through the end of January 1945. We can now see that the 415th experienced encounters to nearly the end of the war.

Readers of our previous Foo-Fighter report will note too that the various mission reports cited here are different, less detailed than the "Operations Reports" quoted in the 415th's Unit History. These will be the next target of a records search.

Finally, the document on page 5 is a record found separately from the 415th's reports.  This involves the 4th Fighter/Bomber group in France.  The pilot reported "100 yellow, semi-transparent balloons" measuring 1 foot in diameter seen during his mission.  Nothing more is said.  Was this a mass Foo-Fighter invasion, or real balloons, individual descriptions of which rather disturbingly resemble some reported Foo-Fighter incidents?

Much work remains on this issue. Our files contain references to other units whose records have not yet been searched.  We expect to obtain more detailed inventories of such records and will proceed to locate them.

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Security and Intellegence Division
Sixth Service Command
Chicago, Illinois

15 January 1945        

SPJIB 000.5-6

Subject : Japanese Balloons

Summary of information:

The following information was obtained from another federal investigative agency:

"On December 28, 1944 Mr Richard Slusser, who has recently been appointed to the military academy at Annapolis, advised the following:

While he was a Naval Cadet at the Chamberlain Municipal Field, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he, in the presence of approximately 15 other cadets observed a situation which was more forcefully brought to his attention with the recent publicity given the Japanese balloon that was discovered in the western part of the country. He went on the say that in July 1943, while at the Field, he and the others referred to above, observed a burst of flame in the sky in the vicinity of the field. He stated that it was his opinion that this happened about three and a half miles from the field and was from 1000 to 2000 feet in the air. At the sight of the burst of flame in the sky, a number of planes were sent out from the field in an effort to ascertain just what had happened. However, this search resulted in negative findings. At the time he observed the flame in the sky he stated it was his opinion it was an airplane that had exploded, but upon reading a recent issue of Time Magazine, he altered his opinion a bit to the extent that it may have been a balloon drifting in that area.

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CONFIDENTIAL   

Western Defense Command

4 January 1945              

CONFIDENTIAL NOTE TO EDITORS AND BROADCASTERS,

NOT FOR PUBLICATION OR BROADCAST.

ANY BALLOONS APPROACHING THE UNITED STATES FROM OUTSIDE ITS BORDERS CAN BE ENEMY ATTACKS AGAINST THE NATION. SUCH ATTACKS INVOLVE MILITARY SECURITY. INFORMATION THAT THE BALLOONS HAVE REACHED THIS COUNTRY AND PARTICULARY WHAT SECTION THEY HAVE REACHED IS INFORMATION OF VALUE TO THE ENEMY. THE WAR DEPARTMENT IS APPROPRIATE AUTHORITY FOR SUCH INFORMATION. PLEASE DO NOT AID THE ENEMY BY PUBLISHING OR BROADCASTING SUCH INFORMATION WITHOUT APPROPRIATE AUTHORITY.

BYRON PRICE,
DIRECTOR,
OFFICE OF CENSORSHIP.

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  XII Tactical Air Command Intelligence Information Bulletin,
No. 6, January 28, 1945

"Flak Developments":

There have however been several reports of the phenomenon which is described as "silver balls", seen mainly below 10,000 feet; tentative suggestions have been made as to their origin and purpose, but as yet no satisfactory explanation has been found.  The bulletin for June 4, 1945, discusses reports from Japan:

DON'T LOOK NOW, BUT --:

Mention has previously been made in these pages to the existence of German airborne controlled missiles Hs.298, Hs.293, X4 and Hs.117.  Many reports have been received from Bomber Command crews of flaming missiles being directed at, and sometimes following the aircraft, suggesting the use of remote control and/or homing devices.  It is known that the Germans kept their Japanese Allies informed of technical developments and the following report, taken verbatim from Headquarters, U. S. A. F. P. O. A. G.2 Periodic Report No. 67, further suggests that the Japanese are using similar weapons to those reported by our own crews:

"During the course of a raid by Super-Fortresses on the Tachikawa aircraft plant, and the industrial area of Kawasaki, both in the Tokyo area, a number of Super-Fortresses reported having been followed or pursued by "red balls of fire" described as being approximately the size of a basketball with a phosphorescent glow.  Some were reported to have tails of blinking light.  These "balls" appeared generally out of nowhere, only one having been seen to ascend from a relatively low altitude to the rear of a B-29.  No accurate estimate could be reached as to the distance between the balls and the B-29's.  No amount of evasion of the most violent nature succeeded in shaking the balls.  They succeeded in following the Super-Fortresses through rapid changes of altitude and speed and sharp turns, and held B-29s' courses through clouds.  One B-29 reported outdistancing a ball only by accelerating to 295 mph, after which the pursuing ball turned around and headed back to land.

Individual pursuits lasted as long as six minutes, and one ball followed a Super-Fortress 30 miles out to sea.  The origin of the balls is not known.  Indication points to some form of radio-direction, either from the ground or following enemy aircraft.  The apparent objective of the balls, no doubt, is destruction of the Super-Fortresses by contact.  Both interception and AA [anti-aircraft] have proved entirely ineffective, the enemy has apparently developed a new weapon with which to attempt countering our thrusts."

(SOURCE: RAF, Fighter Command Intelligence and Operational Summary No. 30, dated 15 May 1945).

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A letter from a former Army Air Force Staff Sargeant radar operator in the 96th Bomber Squadron (H), 11th Bomb Group, to the Air Force Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) dated 5 April 1952 related an interesting war time experience. (There are some parts of the microfilm which are blurred and difficult to read.)

"....Below is a report I made in diary form which I did not enter in [the] combat report when I made [sic]of the mission, in the extent that I make it here:

      "Feb. 22, 1945; B-24, #501, 98th Bomb group; Night mission with Lt Togner over CHI CHI JIMA. Bomb Load 4x500 M29 Butterfly Bombs. Target: SUSAKI AIRFIELD. 35 bombs observed to hit target area. Radar Approach: 152 degrees form NISHI JIMA. 20 bursts of accurate flack. No Searchlights. A night fighter apparently on our tail. O'Hara saw 2 exhausts. Picked up an indication on our own radar, (SCR 717C). Landed at 0930: no damage to us. Mission at 9300'. Marines having hard time at IWO (JIMA),. We could see flashes coming back.'

     "That was my full report. The other reports of that mission you undoubtedly have access to for your own analysis. There are two things that I do not like about this report:

(1) The Iwo Airfields at the time were closed to all Jap flying, because the Marines were on hand.

(2) Susaki was not large enough to [?] anything more than pea-shooters.

(3) BETTY'S (Japanese Mitsubishi G4M bomber) were the only enemy aircraft, to my knowledge, that were ever sighted in that area, that would fit the discription of our own sighting -- and these had not been sighted for a good month and a half before we made this contact. We did have 'pacers' in daytime over Iwo, but never at night, and they never followed us after a mission was over as this one was supposed to have done.

(4) I first saw this 'pip' just outside of our altitude circle, the direct radar return from the ground, after O'Hara spotted it. It never came inside this altitude circle, but followed us for maybe 20 miles after bombs away, then disappeared from the screen as suddenly as it had come. That is why I want to finish out the report that I....[illegible]"

 

This report is interesting for three reasons.  First, it is an early radar-visual report although details are lacking.  Second, it is a pre-1947 which was in the Air Force files with a reference that could be used to establish it occurred before 1947. Third, the term "foo-fighter" is not used.

This letter was contained in a Project Blue Book file entitled "Public Response to the April 1952 LIFE magazine article", a catchall file which contained letters received from the public from 1952 to '53.  Generally no action was taken on these letters.  Dr. Herbert Strentz received this file from ATIC when he was working on his PhD dissertation. Several of the letters report sightings before 1947; they stated that the sightings were also reported or recorded when they were made. The records like the diary cited above included a ship's log, newspapers, observatories, and guard records.  Since these letters were not investigated or treated as official reports, Blue Book at the time (1952-3) did not indicate pre-1947 reports in any statistics.


The LIFE magazine file was apparently not made available to the scientists at Battelle Memorial Institute.  The Institute's study report of UFOs from 1947 to 1952 in Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 states the following on page 4:

Sightings alleged to have occurred prior to 1947 were not considered, since they were not reported to official sources until after public interest in 'flying saucers' had been stimulated by the popular press.

However, had the Battelle scientists had access to the letters in this file, the investigators would have recognized that these people were trying to "establish their priority" in the same way that scientists establish their priority when making a new discovery.  Scientists often use notebooks, diaries, letters, and reports to other organizations to establish the time of a discovery.

This brings up another problem with previous scientific evaluations of the UFO problem. The Battelle study, the Robertson panel, and the Condon committee, all contractors of the Air Force, were presented data by the Air Force which the Air Force thought was significant. A study of UFOs requires access to all data not just material that some records custodian feels is relevant.

Finally, a number of researchers have written to archives in the United States, Canada, and Britain requesting information on "foo-fighters."  The archives' answers almost always state that no information can be found under the foo-fighters heading. Researchers would get the same answer if they requested information on "Charlie" when referring to the Viet Cong. As Jeff Lindell, a long-time investigator of war time night lights found, some operations and intelligence reports might refer to foo-fighters, robombs (robot bombs), baka bombers and balls of light.  Most reporters and higher headquarters believed the sightings were the result of enemy secret devices, jets, rockets, or flares.  Reports of German or Japan secret weapons sightings are probably what should be investigated. - J.L.A.

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An extract from the March 1945 INTELLIGENCE AND OPERATIONS section of the 549th Night Fighter Squadron Unit History:

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Combat Air Patrols were flown on the 22nd, 24th, 26th, 28th and 30 March. On 26 March Lieutenant Calvin P. Lamb, Pilot, Lieutenant James G. Holmes, Radar Observer, and Sergeant John W. McIsaac, Gunner, saw what they described as lights on an airborne object. The lights followed them through a few turns but turned away as the crew orbited north of Iwo Jima. A chase was made, with slight radar contact on the airborne set, and then the object pulled out of sight. The similar lighted object was again seen the next night of patrol by Lieutenant William F. Sill, Pilot, Flight Officer George W. Hayden, Radar Observer, and Private First Class William Brasvell, Gunner.

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NOTE:   There were many reports of Japanese planes which dropped aluminum "windows" (i.e. aluminum foil strips) at night when chased by U.S. aircraft. This foil confused radar signals. However, in some of the chases recounted in this unit history, this does not seem to have been the case. Also, the "bogies" seem to have been able to accelerate to much higher speeds to get away from the night fighters. Most Japanese night flight operations around Iwo Jima seemed to be "lurking" intelligence gathering missions. US Pilots reported aircraft like the "Betty" (Mitsubishi G4M long-range medium bomber) escorting but not firing on bombers making their run on Iwo Jima and the surrounding Islands at night.-- J.L.A.

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  Louisville, Kentucky,  Times - 14 April, 1945

A Meteor?'

   To the editor:  Tuesday night at eleven o'clock I walked out on my front porch.  Straight ahead, high in the sky, I beheld the most beautiful light I had ever seen.  It was straight east and looked as if it were directly over Fisherville, three miles east.

   It seemed to be the size of a large cantaloupe and glowed and receded in brilliance like a heart throb.  It seemed to be coming straight at our front porch and I suggested to my wife we had better get aside because if it missed the barn I felt sure it would strike the house head on.  It cast a light downward like a lamp shade over the earth.  First we thought of a plane with some new signal device, but there was just brilliant light and no flame.

   After about ten minutes it went out like a snuffed candle.  I found one man in Jeffersontown who had seen it and he thinks it was a meteor.  No, Mr. Editor, I don't drink a drop.  I'm bone dry.

   – JAMES L. LANDRY, Jeffersontown, Ky.

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17 April 1945      MEMORANDUM FOR GENERAL H.H. ARNOLD:     1.     Cameramen from the 18th AF Base Unit exposed 900 feet of black and white and 700 feet of color film during the funeral services of President Roosevelt at Hyde Park.  Since the news reels have about ten thousand feet of film there is some doubt if any Air Force material will be included.  However, part of the material is being considered for the AAF Weekly Digest.   2.     In connection with the "Balls of Fire" observed in the Pacific Ocean Areas, information has been submitted to the Twentieth Air Force of the development by the Signal Corps of the infra red viewer.  This device can reproduce a picture of objects illuminated by an infra red source so that the number and placement of heat sources can be determined.  A few of these are available for shipment to the XXI Bomber Command for trial.                   JAMES P. HODGES, Major General, U. S.  Army Assistant Chief of Air Staff,     Intelligence

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CONFIDENTIAL   

FROM : COMITRITERRON FIVE FOUR NINE       18 April 1945 TO :      COMFITERCOM SEVEN ATTN :  A-2 549TH NIGHT FIGHTER SQUADRON MISSION REPORT NUMBER 4-28 1. A. One (1) P-61-B     B. Unknown 2. A. None     B. None 3. Combat Sortie. 4. PILOT: Lt. F. L. Williams (Laughing Boy Blue 2)     RADAR OBSERVER: Lt. J. H. Richardson     GUNNER: Sgt. S. Forman TAKE-OFF: 0022          LAND: 0415       On routine patrol until 0300 and then on practice interception when GCI reported possible bogie between Blue 1 and Blue 2 but Blue could not make any contact.   A little later GCI gave another vector and possible bogie at Angel 2 and AI contact was made at 7 miles.  Bogie made normal target on screen and after chase of 5 minutes lost bogie off starboard side then picked it up at about 4 miles on port side.   Held target at about that distance for a few minutes at speed of 200 mph while bogie took mild evasive action.  Finally closed to 2.500 feet when bogie faded to starboard and when it was again picked up it was to the port side at about 3 miles and gaining speed.  Bogie increased distance and Blue 2 was forced to abandon chase by shortage of gasoline. 5. WEATHER: 6/10 coverage, tops 3,000, base 2,000 : visibility good.     Communications: Good 6. None. 7. No ammo :  750 gallons of gasoline expended 8. At close range bogie appeared on scope as two (2) blips. Gunner saw reddish round light and correctly reported its movements to R/O who was following it on scope. GCI's report of "possible bogie" confusing as to whether he meant he was uncertain as to contact or as to indentity of contact. Archie Beattle    1Lt., Air Corps    Asst. Intelligence Officer

CONFIDENTIAL   

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USAAF Seventh Bomber Command Mission Reports - 2 MAY, 1945 Fala Island, Truk Atoll, Central Pacific



Map Showing Location of Truk Atoll in the Caroline Islands Archipelago


Fala-Beguets Island, (now known as Fanapanges) in the Truk Atoll,
location of the B-24 UFO sighting.

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       NUMBER 40                                1 JUNE 1945

Summary f(Sat) 11-8-75 (1030) H. T. WILKINS: "FLYING SAUCERS FROM THE MOON" C. 1954 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Q. Why don't British date their books? Purchased Summer 1974, Weinstein $10.00 Hollywood ------------------------------------------------------------------------ As I told Barbara Barth in my summary of 25 basic books for FS study, this book has probably the best reference in one source for "FOO-FIGHTERS"--WWII aerial phenomena (Chapter II).  He concentrated on the ETO scene, but writes about the Pacific Theatre on p. 28, of great interest to me. My first exposure to something like this occurred during a mission by our B-29 bomber crew on the Japanese city of SASEBO.  We were flying at approx. 9000 feet when the "Foo" appeared to join us and "fly formation" abeam our left horizontal stabilizer.  Our rear gunner reported it first.  It followed us for many miles.  Our airplane commander (AC) ordered a burst of gunfire after we were sure it was not another B-29.  (This was a single sortie bomber stream type of mission).  The tracers were seen to appear to hit the blob of light but nothing happened.  Sometime later, the Foo broke formation, swooped under the B-29 and vanished in the distance at approx. the 2 o'clock position which is when I was about to observe it from my position on the right side of the nose sections.  (I was the Flight Engineer on the crew.) It was impossible to estimate accurately the distance separating the FOO and our airplane as there was nothing to compare with in the dark night sky. --------- (To repeat, this is where all this UFO stuff began for me, i.e., en route to SASEBO, July 1945, at 9000 feet) ---------- It was a big ball of fuzzy orange-red light and nothing more. ---------- We reported it to Intelligence at our de-briefing next morning. --------- Not long after the whole crew was sent to rest camp at Hickam Field Hawaii (OAHU) coincidence /or war nerves? ------------------------------------------------------------------ This book is an excellent compendium of early sightings and contains a lot of detail long forgotten by current waves of sightings and speculation. PAD (Sat) 11-8-75

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THE NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN MAGAZINE - OCT 30, 1966 Joe Thompson and the Foo-Fighters By Max York Nashville's Joe Thompson in the cockpit of a photo reconnaissance plane in World War II  IT WASN'T until 1947, when the stories about flying saucers hit page one, that Nashville's Joe Thompson Jr. gave much thought to those strange objects he saw in World War II.    Now an insurance man, Thompson was a photo reconnaissance pilot in the war.    He and his wing man were on a mission over the Rhine Valley, photographing German troop movements, when he saw them.    "We had made some pictures, and I was looking ahead to our next photo target," Thompson recalls, "when my wing man broke radio silence and said, 'Bogeys at 9 o'clock!'" (A bogey, in air force parlance, is an unidentified flying object — UFO — which could turn out to be either friendly or hostile.)    "Off my wing. a little below us, in the direction of Cologne, I saw four or five objects that looked like silvery footballs," he says.    "They didn't seem to be moving. but they must have been, for they stayed even with us    "It flashed through my mind that they were something the Germans had put up there.    "I watched to see what they would do, but they didn't do anything. "As we turned away, I thought they must not be of much value to the Germans.    "That's the last I saw of them.  I turned my attention to the next photo target, where the Germans were already sending up flak to let us know they were waiting for us."    It wasn't until later that Thompson learned that captured intelligence reports said the Germans had seen the objects, too – and thought they were put up there by the Americans!    Thompson wasn't the first U.S. pilot to see the strange objects over the Rhine Valley.    They were first spotted by the pilots of Black Widow night fighters, who said they glowed in the dark.  The night fighters shot at them a few times, but the fire was never returned.    He believes the night fighters gave the UFOs the nickname that stuck: "Foo-Fighters," a term picked up from the Smokey Stover comic strip that still runs in several newspapers.    At the time, Thompson was a major in the 109th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron.  He commanded approximately 45 pilots who flew P-51 Mustangs equipped with powerful aerial cameras and four 50-caliber machine guns.    Most of the sightings of Foo-Fighters took place between December, 1944, and March, 1945.    "When the weather was too bad for flying, I'd go around and talk with the pilots, asking them about the things they had seen on their missions," Thompson recalls.    Ever so often, some one would say he had seen "some of those Foo-Fighters."    What did they look like?    A Californian, Capt Frank Robinson, said they resembled "a smashed beer can."  Others said a tennis ball or a football – only much larger.  The descriptions were of shape, not size.  Captain Robinson – who said he saw them rising up as from the ground – called them "Kraut balls." Everybody thought they were German.    There was speculation about their purpose.    "At first, we thought they might be attached to wires, like barrage balloons, Thompson says.  "But they were moving, and they were too high."    "Then we got the idea that the Germans might be using them to detect the altitude of our planes so they could place their anti-aircraft fire more accurately."    Then Thompson saw them for himself that day over the Rhine Valley.    "They didn't look like what Captain Robinson had said — a smashed beer can," he remembers.    How big were they?    "I really couldn't tell," he says. "It would put depend on how far away they were.  They may have been as close as 1500 feet, in which event they would be no bigger than an open umbrella.  But they could have been two miles away in which case they would be quite large. They looked as though they were made of aluminum."    What were they?    "I don't really know," he says.  "I saw something — I still don't know what it was."    He reported the sighting to the squadron intelligence officer when he returned from the mission, and let it drop.    The men of the 109th never tried to pursue the objects, Thompson says, because they were not bothering us."    Today, it is difficult to understand why wartime pilots were not more excited about these Foo-Fighters so many of them saw over Germany.  In retrospect, they seem prophetic of the "flying saucer" reports that began to come in profusion after the war.    The wartime lack of excitement is easier to understand in light of the conditions under which Thompson and his fellow pilots flew.    The Foo-Fighters just didn't seem important, he explains.  What was important was to complete the mission and stay alive, with so many people on the ground and in the air dedicated to your destruction.    For example, Thompson came back from a mission with 150 holes in his plane — flak. There was even a hole in his camera.  Just as he touched ground, the engine quit.    There were several other such examples in the squadron, which lost more planes to flak than to enemy planes — and more planes to weather than to flak and enemy planes combined.    The squadron flew first from England and then, after the invasion, from an air strip in Normandy and, still later, in Belgium.  It was from the tiny Belgian village of Gosselies that they went on missions when they saw the Foo-Fighters.    (Two years ago, Thompson took his wife, Martha, to Gosselies for a sentimental visit.  He saw several people he had known there during the war.)    "From Gosselies it was a 20 or 30-minute flight to the Rhine Valley," he says.  "We would cruise around for a couple of hours.  We were looking for patterns of troop movement, trucks, tanks on the move – anything that might be of use to intelligence.  Our bombers might knock out a bridge.  They would send us in to see how much damage was done."    The first missions went out with the first light, hoping to catch the enemy still on the move from the night before.  The last missions were out at dusk.  Perhaps an over-eager enemy would start the next night's journey early.    The pilots flew in twos, changing altitude all the time, trying to make a difficult target for enemy guns.  Survival meant spotting an enemy plane before he spotted you.  Their eyes made Ms [sic] scanning the skies for anything that wasn't friendly.  They learned to know instantly if a dot on the horizon was friend or foe.    Across the Rhine, Thompson sometimes saw a sobering sight.    If you were in the right place at the right time, you could see what looked like a telephone pole taking off into the sky," he says.  "You could follow the trail until it disappeared up and out of sight.  This was the V-2 rocket.    "I spent a five-day leave in London and saw these rockets landing in Hyde Park.  They made holes three stories deep."    After the war, when flying saucers became the rage, Thompson developed into something of a buff on the subject, reading everything he could find.  Sometimes he spoke at civic clubs.    Afterwards people would come up and wonder excitedly if the Foo-Fighters could have been sent from somewhere in space to observe the war in Europe, and, possibly, to gauge the threat of V-2 weapons to their own world.    "The whole problem is to separate fact from fiction," he says of UFOs.  "How much of it is imagination?  How much is hallucination?" Most of these sightings can be explained.  Some can't.  A lot of authors could explain some of the incidents they write about, but if they did, their books wouldn't sell as well.    "It is encouraging that scientists are beginning to study the phenomenon.  I think the time has come when they can study flying saucers without being suspected of lunacy.    "There are three general groups of people who are concerned with UFOs.    "The first group are those whom we might describe as the insecure, the neurotics.  Certainly the things they see are colored by their own troubles and exaggerated speculations.    "The second group are the skeptics who recognize that something must have caused such a multitude of sightings, but they demand unequivocal evidence.    "And then there is a third and growing group of people who, while they do not present any final answer, are willing to state they have seen these objects and have carefully examined the plausible record of other confirmed sightings and feel there must be some sensible explanation.    "The federal government just granted $300,000 to the University of Colorado to investigate, along with some other universities, the sources of unexplained phenomena.  I would hope that this amount of money is not being spent just to quiet the fears of the neurotic fringe.    "I think we will have the answer to UFOs within 10 years.    "We have been flying on this planet only 63 years," Thompson says, "and we are now planning to send an astronaut to the moon.  This is a long way to go in 63 years, but we still don't know all the answers."

SECRET

carried out by the Germans which can resemble the "Ball of Fire", there is the possibility that the propellant used in the guided missiles and rocket-type planes may show up as "Balls of Fire" or large flames to members of air-crews.

Sincerely,

- 4 -
SECRET

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