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Emden, Germany, on December 11, 1943:

Case number:

ACUFO-1943-12-11-EMDEN-1

Summary:

In their 2002 book "Out of the Shadows", Dr. David Clarke and Andy Roberts indicated that their research in the archive of the British Public Records Office let them find that the December 31, 1943, issue of "Bang On", the newsletter of 115 Squadron, ran a short piece simply titled 'Phenomena'; which said:

"Under this heading there occur from time to time reports of weird and wonderful apparitions seen during our (and the American) attacks on Germany. We have asked our local Inner Circle bloke to comment on the latest species of wizardry. Here is his story... believe it or not..."

This 115 Squadron newsletter mentioned two sightings, one of them was:

"On the 11th December the Yanks paid one of their daylight visits to Emden. Visibility was GOOD and the weather clear. An unidentified object was seen in the target area. It was about the size of a Thunderbolt and passed 50/75 yards beneath the formation. It flew STRAIGHT AND LEVEL (no, chaps, it was not a Lane gone mad) at a terrific speed, leaving a streak like a vapour trail which was all white and which remained visible for a long time. The object passed so quickly that the observer could not determine it more accurately!"

Data:

Temporal data:

Geographical data:

Witnesses data:

Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

[Ref. prt4:] JAN ALDRICH - "PROJECT 1947":

[Ref. prt3:] JAN ALDRICH - "PROJECT 1947":

[Ref. dcr1:] DR. DAVID CLARKE AND ANDY ROBERTS:

The authors indicate that the December 31, 1943, issue of "Bang On", the newsletter of 115 Squadron, ran a short piece simply titled 'Phenomena'; which said:

The authors indicate that although the introductory paragraph made it clear that "weird and wonderful apparitions" were not uncommon, no one in 115 Squadron knew what their origin was and the editor wrote that "Suggestions will be welcome, serious ones, as to what this Loch Ness Monster of Emden might have been."

[Ref. dwn2:] DOMINIQUE WEINSTEIN:

[Ref. tgd1:] TIMOTHY GOOD:

This author indicates that according to a semi-humorous item in an RAF news sheet, classified secret, an unknown aircraft was observed during a USAAF daylight bombing raid on Emden on 11 December 1943. Visibility was good and the weather was clear. The report is cited by the editor:

An unidentified object was seen in the target area. It was about the size of a Thunderbolt and passed 50/75 yards beneath the formation. It flew STRAIGIIT AND LEVEL (No chaps it was not a lanc [Lancaster] gone mad) at a terrific speed, leaving ii streak like a vapour trail which was all white and which remained visible for a long time, The object passed so quickly that the observer could not determine it more accurately.

The source is indicated as the National Archive, AIR 14/2076, "Bang On", 115 shuqdron Gen, New Sheet, Number 1, December 31st 1943.

[Ref. tai1:] "THINK ABOUT IT" WEBSITE:

[Ref. nip1:] "THE NICAP WEBSITE":

The reference 1 is described at the end of the document as "Strange Company (2007), Keith Chester".

[Ref. get1:] GEORGE M. EBERHART:

[Ref. part5:] JAN ALDRICH - "PROJECT 1947":

Aircraft information:

Nothing is said about the plane in which the witnesses were, except that the report came from the "Yanks". i.e., US airmen. As the No 115 Squadron was a RAF night bombers squadron, it would be reasonable that the US airmen refered to were a USAAF daytime bomber crew, thus operating B-24 or B-17 bombers.

This incidentally supports that the sighting did take place during the day.

Discussion:

In their 2002 book [dcr1], Dr. David Clarke and Andy Roberts made some points about such kind of sightings:

• The pilots did not interpret them as anti-aircraft devices, radar shaff or German planes.
• The debriefing officers and the military Intelligence almost never interpret them as anti-aircraft devices, radar shaff or German planes, though sometimes rejecting such reports, from their offices chairs, as "imagination" or caused by war stress.
• The "objects" did not attack the bombers in any manner; intelligence officer Bentine is quoted with his remark that if they were German weapons, they were pretty ineffective.
• Such reports were numerous within the RAF and USAAF during the period 1943-1945.

In this case, the short observation distance of 50 - 70 meters and the mention that the object was the size of a "Thunderbolt", mean that the object should not have been "flak" nor glitter to deceive the radars.

"Thunderbolt" was the name of the American single-seat fighter plane Republic P-47; its wingspan was 12.40 meters and its length was 11.03 meters. It was bulkier than other fighter planes, so that this remark in the report would mean that the UFO was just a bit over the usual size of a fighter plane.

It also suggests that, although mysterious, marvelous, this object was of the nature of a plane.

The mention of the white trail that remained visible for a long time is undoubtedly what motivated Dominique Weinstein's idea that it was probably a German jet plane.

It is therefore up to me to draw up an inventory of German aircraft which could have emitted a trail by jet engine or rocket engine near Emden in December 1943.

• The Heinkel He-162 "Volksj ger" or "Salamander" made its first flight on December 6, 1944.
• Operations of the Messerschmitt Me-262 "Schwalbe" began in July 1944.
• The Arado Ar-234 "Blitz" received its engines in February 1943, first flight on June 15, 1943.
• The Messerschmitt P.1101 variable geometry jet, of which only one prototype was built, never flew.
• The Focke-Wulf Ta 183 "Huckebein" and Ta-283 fighter planes never flew, they were only the inspiration for post-war Russian and Argentinian fighter planes.
• The Heinkel He-280 jet was abandoned for the Messerschmitt Me-262. The Heinkel He-280 four-jet never flew.
• The Henschel Hs-132 jet fighter never flew.
• The Horten flying wings, like the Horten Ho-229, were never operational.
• The Junkers aircraft projects, Ef-128 and Ju-287, led to nothing operational.
• Engineer Lippisch's ramjet project, such as the "P31a" and the "P31b", never saw the light of day.
• The Bachem Ba-349 "Natter", a small wooden rocket plane: but its first flight took place in February 1945.
• The DFS 228 rocket planes were only two prototypes, never operational.
• The DFS 346 rocket plane only existed as a single unfinished prototype seized by the Russians.
• The Focke-Wulf "Triebfl gel" with rotor-mounted ramjets and rockets were never built.
• The Fieseler Fi-103 "Reichenberg" was simply a piloted version of the V1 pulse-jet flying bomb. It was supposed to serve as a "Kamikaze" plane, but the Germans abandoned it.
• The Heinkel He-176 was Germany's first rocket plane, but was never operational.

Germany attempted to develop a number of surface-to-air missile systems: Enzian (radio-controlled, 1943), Rheintochter (solid fuel rocket, first tests in August 1943), Henschel Hs-117 "Schmetterling" (radio controlled, first tests May 1944), "Wasserfall" (somewhat similar to the V2, first tests March 1943, failure) "Feuerlilie" F25 and F55 (first test launches in mid 1944). None of them saw operational use, not even at the end of World War II.

None were flying "straight and level."

There is no shortage of more or less successful projects for strange German flying machines which, due to their reactors or rockets, could be suspected of being considered as causing "lights", but here, only one remains to be seen. consider, the Messerschmitt Me-163 "Komet", the only operational rocket fighter plane during World War II, which was put into service only in April 1944.

But tests began in May 1941, in Peenem nde.

The concept began in 1937, the idea was to use a classic glider, but equipped with a rocket engine. The plane would be based on the Lippisch Delta IV "DFS 39" wooden glider, but it was ultimately Messerschmitt who would build the first airframe, metallic. This was completed at the beginning of 1940 and it was sent to Peenem nde-West to receive its rocket engine. The wingspan was 9.32 m.

The first test flight took place on September 1, 1941, with success. The 2nd took place on October 2, 1941, and broke the world speed record by flying at 1004 km/h (624.2 mph) without damage. The dates of the following tests are poorly documented, but we can think that there may have been one on December 11, 1943.

The tests, notably for reasons of very strict secrecy, had all taken place in Peenem nde, on the north-eastern coast of Germany, while Emden is located on the western border, 430 km from Peenem nde. The "Komet" had a flight autonomy of a few minutes, before having to land by gliding, and it is therefore excluded that it could have flown from Peenem nde towards Emden at the end of 1943.

However, the first active unit in charge of testing the "Komet" in operational conditions, the Erprobungskommando 16 (Service Test Unit 16, EK 16) had received a first copy, and was based at the Bad Zwischenahn airfield from August 1943 to August 1944.

And it turns out that this Bad Zwischenahn airfield is only 58 km southwest of Emden.

So I think entirely possible that what the aviators saw was a Messerchmitt 163A "Komet" with the trail of its rocket engine, white and clearly visible in broad daylight.

Let s read again:

"Visibility was good and the weather was clear. An unidentified object was seen in the target area. It was about the size of a Thunderbolt and passed 50/75 meters below the formation. It was flying STRAIGHT AND FLAT (no, guys, it wasn't a Lanc [Lancaster] gone crazy) at a terrible speed, leaving a trail like a vapor trail that was all white and remained visible for a long time. passed so quickly that the observer could not determine it more precisely!"

The report describes very accurately the passage of a Me-163 Komet, thus I make it the probable explanation for this observation.

I still have to explain why I do no think it was an Arado Ar-234 "Blitz", as it made its first flight on June 15, 1943.

• It was a twin-engine jet plane, each engine on a wing, it would clearly have left two trails and not one, visible when seen at 50 - 75 meters.
• Its trails, from conventional reactors, only exist under certain atmospheric conditions, while that of the "Komet", a rocket plane, is systematic.
• Its shape is that of a classic twin-engine plane, quite recognizable, while that of the "Komet" is much more unusual.
• Its speed, 742 km/h, is much lower than that of the Komet.
• I have no trace of an Arado "Blitz" flight in the Emden sector at the date of the sighting; the first two prototypes V5 and V7 were sent to France to the German base at Juvincourt, in Aisne, on July 25, 1944.

Evaluation:

Probable Messerschmitt Me-163A "Komet".

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.

• [bon1] ? Article in Bang On, 115 Squadron newsletter, U-K., No 1, December 31, 1943.
• [prt4] * "ACUFOE in World War II", catalogue by Jan Aldrich, Project 1947, USA, October 9, 1999, at http://www.project1947.com/47cats/acupdt.htm
• [prt3] * "Notes, references, and comments on ACUFOE and related matters", on the Project 1947 website, Jan Aldrich, USA, not dated, the 2000's, at http://www.project1947.com/47cats/acu2.htm
• [kcr1] ? "Strange Company - Military Encounters with UFOs in World War II", book by Keith Chester, Anomalist Book publishers, USA, page 51, 2007.
• [dcr1] * "Out of the Shadows", book by Dr. David Clarke and Andy Roberts, Piatkus publishers, U-K., pp 15-16, 2002.
• [dwn2] * "The Foofighters Files (1) Catalogue of Unconventional Aerial Phenomena Reported by Allied pilots during WW II (1943-1945)", catalogue by Dominique Weinstein, France, October 2009.
• [tgd1] * "Need to Know - UFOs, the Military and Intelligence", book by Timothy Good, Pan Macmillan publishers, U-K., page 21, 2012.
• [tai1] * "1943: UFO & Alien Sightings", web page of the Think About It website, USA, as of January 1, 2016, at https://www.thinkaboutitdocs.com/1943-ufo-alien-sightings
• [nip1] * "UFO Sighting Chronology - 1939-1945; The WWII Years & 'Foo-Fighters'", on the ufology Website The NICAP Website, USA, created December 18, 2006, updated December 5, 2017, at http://www.nicap.org/chronos/1939-1945.htm
• [get1] * "UFOs and Intelligence: A Timeline", electronic document compiled by George M. Eberhart, 2022.
• [prt5] * "PROJECT 1947 UFO REPORTS - 1943", on the Project 1947 ufology Website, Jan Aldrich, USA, not dated, as of 2023, at https://www.project1947.com/fig/1943a.htm

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This page was last updated on November 3, 2023.