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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Barstow, California, USA, on July 1947:

Case number:

ACUFO-1947-07-00-BARSTOW-1

Summary:

In his "1947 July 7th - July 10th - Supplemental Notes" of his monographs, U.S. ufologist Loren E. Gross shared a July 1947 newspaper article of the Printer-Review, Barstow, California, for which he regretted that there is no exact day for this item.

Titled "Planes Shoot Tracer Bullets At Saucers," the article told that a group of high school youths of Barstow climbed Block B hill on Saturday afternoon. About 4:30 p.m., they saw a group of mysterious objects, discs flying in formation that were being chased by pursuing planes who were firing tracing bullets at them.

We are told the saucers with the planes in pursuit disappeared over the horizon.

So far I found no other source for the alleged incident, and no trace that any of the necessarily involved pilot reported this.

Data:

Temporal data:

Date:	July 1947
Time:	04:30 p.m.
Duration:	?
First known report date:	July 1947
Reporting delay:	Hours, days.

Geographical data:

Country:	USA
State/Department:
City or place:	Barstow, California, USA

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses:	Several.
Number of known witnesses:	?
Number of named witnesses:	0

Ufology data:

Reporting channel:	The Press.
Visibility conditions:	Day.
UFO observed:	Yes.
UFO arrival observed:	?
UFO departure observed:	Yes.
UFO action:	Fly away.
Witnesses action:	Fire tracing bullets at the UFOS.
Photographs:	No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es):	No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es):	No.
Witness(es) feelings:	?
Witnesses interpretation:	?

Classifications:

Sensors:	[ ] Visual: ? [ ] Airborne radar: [ ] Directional ground radar: [ ] Height finder ground radar: [ ] Photo: [ ] Film/video: [ ] EM Effects: [ ] Failures: [ ] Damages:
Hynek:	DD
Armed / unarmed:	Armed, machine guns or guns.
Reliability 1-3:	1
Strangeness 1-3:	2
ACUFO:	Unknown credibility.

Sources:

[Ref. lgs1:] LOREN GROSS:

? Barstow, California. (about 4:30p.m.)

Unfortunately we have no exact day for this item. "Planes shoot at saucer?" (See clipping) (xx.)

(xx.) Barstow, California. Printer-Review. July (no day) 1947.

Planes Shoot Tracer Bullets At Saucers

More flying saucers were reported seen over Barstow during the weekend.

A group of high school youths climbed Block B hill on Saturday afternoon. bout 4:30 p.m., they saw a group of discs flying in formation. The mysterious objects were being chased by pursuing planes who were firing tracing bullets at the discs.

The saucers with the planes in pursuit disappeared over the horizon.

Aircraft information:

There is no information about the aircraft involved, other than that they were military aircraft that fired tracer bullets.

Discussion:

I was unable to find the newspaper article displayed in [lgs1], and unable to find any mention of the alleged incident in any other Press or ufology source so far.

If the report was true, it was an aircraft / UFO encounter.

But:

The credibility of the report is unknown; the youths may have invented it entirely.
It is not entirely excluded that it was some sort of military drill - Muroc Field (now Edwards AFB is only 70 kilometers West of Barstow..
I found no corroboration of this alleged incident anywhere so far.

Possible dates, the Saturday of July 1947, are the 5, 12, 19 or 26 of July 1947.

Evaluation:

Unknown credibility.

Sources references:

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

[lgs1] * "UFOs: a History - 1947 July 7th - July 10th - Supplemental Notes", monograph by Loren E. Gross, USA, Arcturus Book Service publishers, page 59, 2001.

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	July 9, 2026	Creation, [lgs1].
1.0	Patrick Gross	July 9, 2026	First published.

This page was last updated on July 9, 2026.