ACUFO:

ACUFO is my comprehensive catalog of cases of encounters between aircraft and UFOs, whether they are “explained” or “unexplained”.

The ACUFO catalog is made of case files with a case number, summary, quantitative information (date, location, number of witnesses...), classifications, all sources mentioning the case with their references, a discussion of the case in order to evaluate its causes, and a history of the changes made to the file.

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Europe, in the winter of 1944:

Case number:

ACUFO-1944-00-00-EUROPE-3

Summary:

In 2019, this image appeared on the Web:

It illustrated an article about the “Foo-Fighters” of World War II, a “skeptical” article; it was not accompanied by any information of place, date, or any indication of its origin, nor by any story or testimony.

It then appeared in a French book about the “Foo-Fighters”, in 2022, in which it was said that it shows “luminous balls” which “escort American Superfortresses above Europe during the winter of 1944.”

I show in this file that this is false.

Data:

Temporal data:

Date:	Winter 1944
Time:	Day.
Duration:	?
First known report date:	2022
Reporting delay:	8 decades.

Geographical data:

Country:
State/Department:
City or place:	Europe

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses:	0
Number of known witnesses:	0
Number of named witnesses:	0

Ufology data:

Reporting channel:	Recent UFO book.
Visibility conditions:	Day.
UFO observed:	No.
UFO arrival observed:	N/A.
UFO departure observed:	N/A.
UFO action:	N/A.
Witnesses action:	N/A.
Photographs:	Yes.
Sketch(s) by witness(es):	N/A.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es):	N/A.
Witness(es) feelings:	N/A.
Witnesses interpretation:	N/A.

Classifications:

Sensors:	[ ] Visual: [ ] Airborne radar: [ ] Directional ground radar: [ ] Height finder ground radar: [X] Photo: 1. [ ] Film/video: [ ] EM Effects: [ ] Failures: [ ] Damages:
Hynek:	DD
Armed / unarmed:	?
Reliability 1-3:	1
Strangeness 1-3:	1
ACUFO:	Fabricated image.

Sources:

[Ref. who1:] "WAR HISTORY ONLINE":

The image appears on top of a “skeptical” article by one “Jay Hemmings, Guest Author” about the WWII “Foo-Fighters”:

The image has no caption, no credit, and is not discussed in the article.

[Ref. jsn1:] JEAN-CLAUDE SIDOUN:

Always present, luminous balls escorted American superfortresses above Europe during the winter of 1944.

Aircraft information:

See the Discussion below.

Discussion:

I was first able to find the original image on the Tatar version of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, in their page about the B-29:

https://tt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-29_Superfortress

Their image actually came from the Wikipedia Commons image bank, below, at upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Olive-drab_painted_B-29_superfortress.jpg

On Wikipedia Commons, we are told:

“Rare color photograph of olive-drab painted B-29 superfortress. They are two YB-29-BWs, and closest to the camera is 41-36960, the seventh YB-29 built.”

We are told that the photo was taken by an American aviator, that it had been published on www.af.mil but that it is no longer there.

We therefore see that the image presented as a photo of “luminous balls” is simply the work of a prankster or an illustrator who added the so-called “luminous balls” to an authentic photo that did not show any such things.

Wikipedia Commons speaks of a “rare” photo. It's simply that during World War II, B-29s were rarely painted olive green, they were generally left in their metallic silver color.

We learn from historical sources that these two planes are not B-29s but YB-29s. The nuance is that the YB-29 is a “service test aircraft”, an aircraft for carrying out tests, not an aircraft sent to combat. According to sources, this was the 7th YB-29 built, which would make it the 10th of the B-29 family built. It was commissioned in 1941, was based at “Plant 2,” Whichita, and was used for equipment testing and training. It was also used in Marietta, Georgia, to see if, fully loaded and weighing 120,000 pounds, it would damage the runway when towed.

It was obviously never “over Europe during the winter of 1944,” this is pure invention.

Note that “winter 1944” is a clumsy dating. It would be either “winter 1943-1944” or “winter 1944-1945”.

In the book “The B-29 - A Comprehensive Registry of the Planes and Their Missions”, we learn that it was built in Whichita, manufacturer number “3331”, Block Number “BW”.

Other photos of the same plane can be found on the Web, for example at
https://www.worldwarphotos.info/gallery/usa/aircrafts-2-3/b-29/yb-29-41-36960

On:
www.worldwarphotos.info/gallery/usa/aircrafts-2-3/b29/yb-29-41-36960-2
we are told that 41-36960's nickname was “Dauntless Dotty”; I think this is a mistake, “Dauntless Dotty” is well known as a B-29-40-BW which led the first B-29 raids on Tokyo on November 24, 1944.

Evaluation:

Fabricated image.

Sources references:

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

[who1] * "Foo Fighters Learn to Fly: UFOs of WWII", article by "Jay Hemmings, Guest Author", on the War History Online website, USA, March 23, 2019, at https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/foo-fighters-learn-to-fly-ufos.html
[jsn1] * "L'Enigme des Foo-Fighters", book by Jean-Claude Sidoun, JMG publisher, France, page 97, 2022.

File history:

Authoring:

Main author:	Patrick Gross
Contributors:	None
Reviewers:	None
Editor:	Patrick Gross

Changes history:

Version:	Create/changed by:	Date:	Description:
0.1	Patrick Gross	June 15, 2024	Creation, [who1], [jsn1].
1.0	Patrick Gross	June 15, 2024	First published.

This page was last updated on June 15, 2024.