The Foo Fighters
Date: 1944
Location: Worldwide
Throughout World War II, pilots reported seeing strange lights and objects in the sky. Such reports were so common that pilots started referring to these lights as “foo fighters.” The phenomenon was also witnessed by radar plotters, who would track unidentified targets on their radars and refer to them as “bogeys.” These blips would exceed seven hundred miles per hour, which made the operators think that these targets were supersonic Japanese aircraft. However, the Japanese were not in possession of such technology at the time.
In an article published by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Lieutenant Donald Meiers stated that he had come across three types of foo fighters, “red balls of fire that fly along at wing tip; a vertical row of three balls of fire that fly in front of the planes, and a group of about fifteen lights that appear off in the distance—like a Christmas tree up in the air and flicker on and off. ” 108
As we have seen in the previous chapters, it is not uncommon for UFOs to be spotted around military facilities. These UFOs, or foo fighters as they were called, seemed to have a particular interest in the global war happening at the time and mankind’s self-
destructive behaviors.
Foo Fighters at the Battle of Normandy
Starting in June 1944, the number of UFO reports made by aircraft pilots and army officials increased drastically. One of the earliest sightings of a foo fighter was made during the Battle of Normandy. Gunner Edward Breckel was on board the U.S.S. George E. Badger, which was anchored at Omaha Beach. Watching the skies from the deck of the vessel, Breckel noticed a dark cigar-shaped object cross the sky just five miles away. Breckel noted that the aircraft was at a low altitude, approximately fifteen feet above sea level, traveling a very smooth and circular course. The shape and characteristics of the object were very distinct; having no wings, windows or an apparent engine or fuselage. The object remained visible for three minutes before disappearing over the horizon.
In the last week of June 1944, a small cargo vessel was approaching Palmyra, a small island eight hundred miles off Hawaii. The executive officer of the vessel, Edward Ludwig, reported that the vessel had received a message from the Palmyra naval authorities asking for their assistance, as a navy patrol plane had been lost at sea. For hours, Ludwig and his colleagues cruised the body of water, however, they could not locate a single scrap of debris or an oil slick. Twenty-four hours later, the vessel was anchored at Palmyra. This is where the events took an even stranger twist.
As the night set in, Ludwig was on the ship’s bridge on watch when he noticed a bright light high up in the sky. At first, he thought that this was a shooting star, but the light then began to get larger in size and began descending toward the vessel. Wishfully thinking that this was the navy patrol plane returning, Ludwig grabbed his binoculars to get a better look, but to his surprise he noticed that the bright light had a round shape and was hovering silently above the vessel. For the next half hour, the object remained above the vessel, drifting silently and smoothly across the sky.
The following morning, Ludwig made a report to the naval lieutenant. He assumed that the UFO’s sighting was pertinent to the aircraft’s disappearance. Could it have been that the bright spherical light Ludwig had observed was a Japanese aircraft that had shot down the navy patrol plane? This did not make sense to Ludwig and the lieutenant, as they would have located debris. Further confirmations showed that there were no Japanese aircraft in the airspace at the time of the sighting, leaving Ludwig and the lieutenant to wonder what the unidentified flying object could have been. Was it one of the “flying saucers” many pilots had reported seeing in the sky?
The Sightings
The first official foo fighter sighting was made on November 23, 1944, at around 22:00, by Lieutenant Edward Schlueter, Lieutenant Donald Meiers, and Lieutenant Fred Ringwald. The three lieutenants had just left the air force base in Dijon, France, on board a Bristol Beaufighter of the 415th Night Fighter, with the intention of flying over Rhine, Germany. The sky was visibly clear and the lighting inside the cockpit was turned off to enhance their night vision. The pilot on board was Schlueter, whilst Meiers served as the aircraft’s radar operator and Ringwald as the intelligence officer and observer of the aircraft.
At one point during the flight, Ringwald noticed lights on the right side, which Schlueter assumed were lights coming from the hills. After a few minutes, the lights started getting closer to the aircraft, which is when the lieutenants on board noticed a row of eight or ten lights starting to emerge. The lights were similar to orange balls of fire and were moving at an incredible speed. In a matter of seconds, the lights veered to the left side and started imitating every turn and maneuver the Beaufighter executed. There was only one explanation: that the enemies were about to unleash an attack. To the three lieutenants’ surprise, the aircraft remained in the sky, maneuvering and imitating the fighter jet’s every move, only to disappear after a few minutes. Meiers later recounted the story to the St. Louis Post Dispatch: “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 will-o-the-wisps.” 109
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In August of 1944, Captain Alvah Reida was stationed at Kharagapur in India in the 468th Bomb Group. On August 10 around midnight, a total of fifty fighter jets were to fly over Palembang and drop bombs over the Indonesian city. At intervals of two minutes, each plane would fly over the city, drop a bomb and then drop a photo flash bomb to photograph the damage.
Reida was piloting the last plane, flying at an altitude of fourteen thousand feet. As Reida and the rest of the squadron were flying back to base, about twenty minutes into the flight, his copilot informed him that an unidentified bright object was flying at an incredible speed, just five hundred yards off the wing. In his official witness report, Reida described the object as follows: “At that distance it appeared as a spherical object, probably five or six feet in diameter, of a very bright and intense red or orange color. It seemed to have a halo effect.” 110
Having just bombed a city, Reida and his copilot assumed that this object was being radio controlled and sent to shoot down the fighter jets. Going immediately into action, Reida constantly changed direction, at times making sharp ninety degree turns and ascending and descending by two thousand feet. Just like the previous report, the unidentified flying object imitated every move for eight whole minutes. It managed to copy each and every maneuver and turn, always maintaining a five hundred-yard distance. After eight minutes, the object made a sharp ninety-degree turn and accelerated rapidly, disappearing into the overcast above.
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One way of keeping records during wartime was through war diaries. Each diary entry refers to the administration and the execution of an operation, which is later used as a reference by the military to improve its training and tactics, as well as to keep an official record of operations. A diary entry written by the 415th Night Fighter Squadron stationed at the Ochey Air Force Base in France, dated December 2, 1944, makes reference to a foo fighter sighting, which reads as follows: “More Foo-Fighters were in the air last night. The Ops. Report says: ‘In vicinity of Hagenau saw two lights coming. Toward A/C from ground. After reaching the altitude of the A/C they leveled off and flew on the tail of Beau for two minutes. And they peeled up and turned away. Eighth mission—sighted two orange lights. One light sighted at ten thousand the other climbed until it disappeared.” 111
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The most well-known foo fighter sighting took place on December 22, 1944. In an article published in the American Legion Magazine in 1945, Lieutenant David McFalls and Lieutenant Ned Baker provided a detailed account of their encounters with the unknown.
The two lieutenants were flying at an altitude of ten thousand feet over Hagenau in Germany. It was around 06:00 when Baker noticed two bright lights ascending from the ground. The lights appeared to be large orange glowing balls of light, and upon reaching the altitude of the aircraft, they remained at their tail, mirroring every move. For two whole minutes, Baker and McFalls made sharp turns. However, each time they maneuvered, the objects would keep up, until they steered off and accelerated toward the opposite direction. In their statements, both Baker and McFalls were convinced that whatever the bright objects were, they were being piloted by an intelligent being who had perfect control of the aircraft.
McFalls and Baker’s encounter with the unknown did not end there. Just the following day, the two men were once again flying at ten thousand feet when they witnessed a singular bright spherical object “shooting straight up, which suddenly changed to a view of an aircraft doing a wing-over, going into a dive and disappearing.” 112 If these aircraft were terrestrial, then they were most definitely being controlled remotely. The maneuverability and speed could not have been carried out or withstood by a human being.
Explanations
St. Elmo’s Fire
Although the foo fighter sightings remain unexplained to this day, a number of explanations have been proposed. The first theory we will analyze is the one provided by the Condon Committee. In the Condon Report, Martin Altschuler, a research assistant for the National Center for Atmospheric Research, stated that the foo fighter sightings were St. Elmo’s fire or ball lightning: “The primary difference between ball lightning and St. Elmo’s fire is that St. Elmo’s fire remains near a conductor. It has been observed to move along wires and aircraft surfaces, sometimes pulsating. Foo-fighters are probably a manifestation of St. Elmo’s fire.” 113
This explanation may seem credible and conclusive, most especially if one is not familiar with the reports made or with the characteristics of St. Elmo’s fire. The following are characteristics that were common amongst all foo fighter sightings:
1. The UFOs were spherical and had a bright orange glow.
2. The UFOs appeared from nowhere and disappeared into thin air.
3. The UFOs mirrored every move carried out by the fighter jets.
4. All pilots who encountered a foo fighter were convinced that the aircraft was either being piloted by an intelligent conscious being, or was controlled remotely.
When we compare these characteristics to St. Elmo’s fire, there is a clear and evident discrepancy. The latter consists of luminous plasma that is usually a bright blue or violet. In no case has it been reported that a St. Elmo’s fire ascended from the ground and carried out maneuvers identical to that of a fighter jet. Another substantial discrepancy is the general shape and color of the foo fighters, which had a spherical shape and a bright orange glow. It is also unheard of that any weather phenomenon follows fighter-jets for eight straight minutes, disappearing into thin air shortly thereafter.
Nazi Technology
“Floating Mystery Ball is New Nazi Air Weapon” was one of many headlines published in 1944 and 1945 attributing the foo fighter sightings to advanced Nazi technology. This particular article, published in the New York Times on December 14,1944, goes on to say that “the new device, apparently an air defense weapon resembles the huge glaze balls that adorn Christmas trees.” 114
This hypothesis is supported by the fact that many of the reported foo fighter cases were made at the same time the Germans began launching V-1 flying bombs. The V-1 bomb, also known as the Nazi flying bombs, consisted of a warhead that weighed more than four thousand pounds and was twenty-seven feet long. The cruise missile was launched from French and Dutch coast facilities and had a range of 160 miles. The V-1 flying bombs were designed specifically to bomb London.
The question is, could the foo fighters have been V-1 bombs? Many newspapers and pilots believed so, however, there are no official military records to support this theory. Apart from that, it is important to note that all witnesses reported that the unidentified objects mirrored every maneuver the fighter jet performed. Although the V-1 bombs were controlled using inertial navigation systems, these missiles did not have the maneuverability the foo fighters seemed to possess. We must also consider the fact that the V-1 engine could be heard from over ten miles away and also had a very apparent exhaust plume that would have been visible from a long distance.
After eight minutes of imitating every maneuver the fighter jet carried out, the foo fighters would simply vanish into thin air. Naturally, if these unidentified objects were the V-1 bombs, this would not have occurred. The bombs would have remained visible in the sky until they gradually went out of sight or until they impacted on the ground. Reports also stated that, prior to their disappearance, the foo fighters would make sharp ninety-
degree turns. In September of 1944, the Germans launched the V-2 rocket, which flew on a ballistic arc of more than fifty miles in altitude. These missiles were far superior than their predecessor, as they were almost impossible to shoot down. However, this theory has the same limitations as the V-1 explanation. In actual fact, the V-2 rockets had less maneuverability and were significantly louder and larger.
In reality, we cannot say that the foo fighters were definitely not Nazi aircraft or missiles. We cannot come to a definite conclusion due to the lack of evidence. However, from the reports made by the witnesses, this theory does not sufficiently explain the numerous sightings.
Interplanetary Flying Objects
The final explanation we will examine is the idea that the foo fighters were extraterrestrial in nature. They were aircraft that were either remotely controlled or were being piloted by an intelligent being. This explanation seems to make the most sense when we take into consideration the behavior and the characteristics of these UFOs.
Firstly, the general appearance is coherent to other UFO reports. The spherical shape and glowing light are perhaps one of the most common characteristics of a UFO. Apart from that, if we consider the previous chapters, interplanetary flying objects usually appear from nowhere and disappear in the same fashion. There is no gradual disappearance and the maneuvers carried out are erratic. The fact that the foo fighters mirrored every move of the fighter jet is also a very common characteristic. As we have seen in chapter 12, the UFOs reported over Kaikoura maneuvered in a similar manner; they mirrored every maneuver the aircraft carried out, and this characteristic will remain a common occurrence in the subsequent chapters.
The main reason why this explanation is the most plausible one is due to the fact that there were no known terrestrial aircraft or missiles that could maneuver the way these unidentified aircraft did. Moreover, they displayed characteristics that terrestrial aircraft simply could not possess, such as the absence of an exhaust plume and the lack of wings and engines. This seemed to be a sentiment shared by the pilots as well: “It was said that the foo fighters might be a new kind of flare. A flare, said the 415th [fighter squadron], 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.” 115
108. “Mysterious ‘Foo Fighters,’ Balls of Fire, Trail U.S. Night Flyers,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, January 2, 1945.
109. “Mysterious ‘Foo Fighters,’ Balls of Fire, Trail U.S. Night Flyers,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, January 2, 1945.
110. National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, The UFO Evidence
111. “War Diary 415th Night Fighters Squadron Ochey Air Base, France December 1944,” CUFON, entry 23, http://www.cufon.org/cufon/foo.htm.
112. Jo Chamberlin, “The Foo Fighter Mystery,” The American Legion Magazine, December 1945, 44.
113. Condon Committee Report, January 1968, 173.
114. “Floating Mystery Ball Is New Nazi Air Weapon,” New York Times, December 14, 1944, https://www.nytimes.com/1944/12/14/archives/floating-mystery-ball-is-new-nazi-air-weapon.html.
115. Chamberlin, “The Foo Fighter Mystery,” 44.