ACUFO-1944-00-00-ITALY-2
In his 1974 book “UFOs: Interplanetary Visitors”, U.S. ufologist Raymond E. Fowler told that his personal friend and business associate Floyd Thompson, engineer, former World War II fighter-bomber pilot, told him that his squadron was trailed by a whitish oval object during a bombing run over Italy.
Floyd Thompson said that he had seen it following their formation and watched it hover as the squadron circled while waiting for a break in the clouds before making their bombing run. After the mission was completed, the aircraft regrouped and split into separate formations to evade possible interceptors. The object was still maneuvering in plain sight, seemingly observing their every move.
No one reported seeing it during radio conversation. However, during the mission's Intelligence debriefing, it was discussed. Floyd Thompson remarked that at first, no one mentioned the object to G-2 (Intelligence), but after a while someone hesitatingly asked whether anyone had seen something unusual during the mission, and only then, quite a few pilots admitted they saw the strange device.
| Date: | In 1944 or 1945 |
|---|---|
| Time: | ? |
| Duration: | ? |
| First known report date: | 1974 |
| Reporting delay: | 3 decades. |
| Country: | Italy |
|---|---|
| State/Department: | |
| City or place: |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | Several. |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 1 |
| Reporting channel: | Told to ufologist friend Raymond E. Fowler. |
|---|---|
| Visibility conditions: | Clouds. |
| UFO observed: | Yes. |
| UFO arrival observed: | ? |
| UFO departure observed: | ? |
| UFO action: | Followed. |
| Witnesses action: | |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | Puzzled. |
| Witnesses interpretation: | ? |
| Sensors: |
[X] Visual: Several.
[ ] Airborne radar: [ ] Directional ground radar: [ ] Height finder ground radar: [ ] Photo: [ ] Film/video: [ ] EM Effects: [ ] Failures: [ ] Damages: |
|---|---|
| Hynek: | ? |
| Armed / unarmed: | Armed, machine guns and / or light guns. |
| Reliability 1-3: | 2 |
| Strangeness 1-3: | 2 |
| ACUFO: | Unidentified, insufficient information. |
[Ref. rfr1:] RAYMOND E. FOWLER:
Floyd Thompson, a personal friend and business associate, is an engineer and former World War II fighter-bomber pilot. He told me that his squadron was trailed by a whitish oval object during a bombing run over Italy. Floyd said that he had seen it following their formation and watched it hover as the squadron circled while waiting for a break in the clouds before making their bombing run. After the mission was completed, the aircraft regrouped and split into separate formations to evade possible interceptors. The object was still maneuvering in plain sight, seemingly observing their every move. No one reported seeing it during radio conversation. However, during the mission's intelligence debriefing, it was discussed. Floyd remarked that at first no one mentioned the object to G-2, but after a while someone hesitatingly asked if anyone had seen something unusual during the mission. It was only then that quite a few pilots admitted sighting the strange device. No one wanted to be accused of hallucinating! These strange objects were dubbed “foo-fighters” from a maxim in the then well-known “Smokey Stover” comic strip: “Where there's foo, there's fire.”
[Ref. ibl1:] ILLOBRAND VON LUDWIGER:
Floyd Thompson, personal friend and business partner of famous American UFO researcher Raymond E. Fowler, remembers the days of World War II when he was an engineer and fighter and bomber pilot. During one of his missions over Italy, his squadron was followed by a whitish oval object. As the planes flew a few loops and waited for a hole to open in the thick cloud cover, the unknown object remained above the bombers' formation. After the planes finally completed their mission, the planes regrouped and flew in different formations to provide little attack surface for possible enemy fighters. The unidentified objects still seemed to follow the squadron's every move. No one mentioned it in the pilots' mutual radio conversations. Only after landing did some of them make statements to Air Force Intelligence when specifically questioned about it.
Apparently, no one wanted to talk about it alone, probably for fear of being considered a victim of hallucination (Fowler 1974).
All that is known so far is that Thompson was a “fighter-bomber” pilot and was an American.
Thus the planes may have been Mosquitos or Beaufighters, for example.
|
The story has no obvious ordinary explanation, but unfortunately essential information and details are missing; this would make even the slightest assessment uncertain.
Unidentified, insufficient information.
* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.
| Main author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | July 21, 2024 | Creation, [rfr1], [ibl1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | July 21, 2024 | First published. |
