Perhaps the strangest reports of UFO sightings occurred at the end of the Second World War. Pilots, who are usually rational and sensible persons, reported seeing fast moving round glowing objects following their aircraft while flying over Germany at night. Sometimes they were described as fiery, glowing red, white or orange. Pilots and their aircrew reported that these objects flew formation with their aircraft and behaved as if under intelligent control. Sometimes it seemed as if they were toying with them like playful dolphins riding in the slipstream of boats, making wild turns around them before simply vanishing. They could not be outmaneuvered or shot down. They became known as “Kraut fireballs” in the European Theater of War and were later dubbed as “Foo fighters” by Donald J Meiers of the 425th Night Fighter Squadron who was an avid fan of cartoonist Bill Holman who used the nonsense word “Foo” in his Smokey Stover fireman cartoons. The descriptions of sighting varied but all the pilots agreed that the mysterious lights followed their aircraft closely at high speed.
The reports from the Pacific Theater of War differed from the European sightings and the ball of fire was described as resembling a large burning sphere which “just hung in the sky” although sometimes it followed aircraft. As in the European Theater of War no aircraft was reported as having been attacked by these strange “Foo fighters”.
Some explanations were put forward. One was that it was a device operated by special SS units. The device was a Jet-propelled flak mine that flew by means of gas jets and spun like a Catherine Wheel around the fuselage. Miniature klystron tubes inside the device would give out electrostatic discharges interfering with the ignition systems of the bombers’ engines and would have a distracting and disruptive effect on the pilots. Other theories were firstly that it could be a type of electrical discharge from airplanes’ wings called St Elmo’s fire. Secondly ball lightning or thirdly caused by aviators vertigo experienced in night flights.
At first, witnesses often assumed that the foo fighters were secret weapons employed by the enemy and the jet propelled flak mines is the most generally accepted answer today, but doubts can be thrown on this theory by the fact that they were also reported by German and Japanese pilots.
During WWII the foo fighter experiences of pilots were taken very seriously, and accounts were presented to heavyweight scientists but the phenomenon has never been satisfactorily explained and most of the information about this issue has never been released by military intelligence.
Do they know more than they are divulging? Are they hiding facts because they are afraid of the effect it would have on the general public if it were made known? I like to think that there are other life forms in the universe and that perhaps they are monitoring our progress. When we finally grow up and stop killing each other they may be inclined to contact us
Perhaps the strangest reports of UFO sightings occurred at the end of the Second World War. Pilots, who are usually rational and sensible persons, reported seeing fast moving round glowing objects following their aircraft while flying over Germany at night. Sometimes they were described as fiery, glowing red, white or orange. Pilots and their aircrew reported that these objects flew formation with their aircraft and behaved as if under intelligent control. Sometimes it seemed as if they were toying with them like playful dolphins riding in the slipstream of boats, making wild turns around them before simply vanishing. They could not be outmanoeuvred or shot down. They became known as “Kraut fireballs” in the European Theatre of War and were later dubbed as “Foo fighters” by Donald J Meiers of the 425th Night Fighter Squadron who was an avid fan of cartoonist Bill Holman who used the nonsense word “Foo” in his Smokey Stover fireman cartoons. The descriptions of sighting varied but all the pilots agreed that the mysterious lights followed their aircraft closely at high speed.
The reports from the Pacific Theater of War differed from the European sightings and the ball of fire was described as resembling a large burning sphere which “just hung in the sky” although sometimes it followed aircraft. As in the European Theater of War no aircraft was reported as having been attacked by these strange “Foo fighters”.
At first, witnesses often assumed that the foo fighters were secret weapons employed by the enemy but later it was found that they were also reported by German and Japanese pilots.
During WWII the foo fighter experiences of pilots were taken very seriously, and accounts were presented to heavyweight scientists but the phenomenon was never explained and most of the information about this issue has never been released by military intelligence.
Some explanations were put forward. One was that it was a device operated by special SS units. Jet-propelled flak mine that flew by means of gas jets and spun like a Catherine Wheel around the fuselage. Miniature klystron tubes inside the device would give out electrostatic discharges interfering with the ignition systems of the bombers’ engines and would have a distracting and disruptive effect on the pilots. Other theories were firstly that it could be a type of electrical discharge from airplanes’ wings called St Elmo’s fire. Secondly ball lightning or thirdly caused by aviators vertigo experienced in night flights.
Do they know more than they are divulging? Are they hiding facts because they are afraid of the effect it would have on the general public if it were made known?
It sounds far fetched I know, but I like to think that there are other life forms in the universe and that perhaps they are monitoring our progress. Perhaps like the Altairians in my book “The Grail of the Unicorn Planet” they think that Earth is a primitive planet. They are waiting for us to grow up and stop killing each other and then they may be inclined to contact us