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Italy, in 1945:

Case number:

ACUFO-1945-00-00-ITALY-1

Summary:

The image below appears in several dozens of Websites, the earliest I found was dated 2013.

Sometimes, the image has a caption, for example in this 2012 publication on the Web board Reddit:

“'Foo-Fighters' following a formation of Allied bombers over Italy, 1945. The phenomenon was observed by airmen in both the European and Pacific theaters and was never explained.”

Most of the time, the only caption is “Italy 1945”, added at the bottom of the image.

Most of the time, the image is shown as “illustration” of sensation UFO articles, and in no case, the image appeared on any serious ufology Website or serious ufology paper sources.

A “skeptical” Web article about “UFO hoaxes” shows the image among others, without any information, and the comments that all the photos they show may be artefacts and hoaxes. There is no specific demonstration about the image discussed here.

(montaigne.altervista.org/bestiario-delle-bufale-sugli-ufo)

Of course several Websites propagating disinformation of the “Nazi saucers” kind, or on the contrary, aimed at dismissing this theory, show this image, without source and without information, in illustration of the thesis that UFOs in WWII or UFOs in general were “nazi flying saucers”, or the opposite thesis.

The image also appeared on several Youtube videos supposed to show or discuss the Foo-Fighters of WWII, but without any source information except “Italy 1945”.

It also appeared in 2022 in a French UFO book about the “Foo-Fighters”, with this caption:

“Foo-Fighters circling around an American squadron, photographed in the sky.”

Data:

Temporal data:

Geographical data:

Witnesses data:

Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

[Ref. jsn1:] JEAN-CLAUDE SIDOUN:

Aircraft information:

The planes on the image are U.S. B-17 heavy bombers, in use in the U.S. Air Forces and the Royal Air Force during WWII.

The U.S. B-17 “Flying Fortress” was a heavy bomber fitted with five 7.62 machine guns for its defense against enemy fighter planes.

Discussion:

In at least one other such “Foo-Fighter photo”, someone just added the “Foo-fighters” to an existing, authentic WWII photograph. So, I tried to find an Historical source showing this photo and did not find it, so far at least. Of course, it may have been a frame of some footage.

The image may be vintage but the three light dots are most likely not Foo-Fighters or UFOs, because:

• I didn't find any absolutely no source which would give the slightest indication that anyone at the time made any report on what we see there.
• There is not one serious UFO source either that would mention that this would be a real sighting.
• Hundreds of images and videos taken by American aviators during World War II seem to show things that would be no more or less astonishing than this. Between the parachutes, the reflections of plane windows, other planes such as enemy planes high in the sky and lit by the sun, there is no shortage of possible ordinary explanations.
• On such an image of the Web, there is no sense in claiming that we see anything “circling around” planes.

To keep it short: this kind of image only allows us to learn one thing: the unashamed sensationalism of those who publish it without any comment or context.

Evaluation:

Insufficient information, low strangeness, no credibility.

Sources references:

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

• [jsn1] * "L'Enigme des Foo-Fighters", book by Jean-Claude Sidoun, JMG publisher, France, page 88, 2022.

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This page was last updated on June 12, 2024.