ACUFO:

GERMAN FIGHTER ACE RED BARON SHOT DOWN A UFO IN 1917!

DOGFIGHT between the Red Baron and a flying saucer in 1917. The UFO crashed in a ball of flame.

By JOE BERGER / Weekly World News

105 years old's story created a shockwave

BONN, Germany -- The flamboyant fighter pilot known as the Red Baron not only shot down 80 enemy planes for the Germans during World War I -- he also was the first human in history to gun down an alien spaceship!

That's the fascinating claim of former German Air Force ace Peter Waitzrik, who says he watched in astonishment as the deadeye fighter pilot shot a UFO with undulating orange lights out of the sky over Belgium in 1917.

Then, Waitzrik says, he stared in disbelief as two bruised and battered occupants of the downed craft climbed from their spaceship and scampered off into the woods -- apparently never to be seen again.

“The Baron and I gave a full report on the incident back at headquarters and they told us not to ever mention it again,” the feisty, 105-year-old retired airline pilot recently told a reporter.

“And except for my wife and grandkids, I never told a soul. But it's been over 80 years, so what difference could it possibly make now?”

The aging Waitzrik said he and Baron Manfred von Richtofen [sic] -- the renowned Red Baron -- were flying an early morning mission over western Belgium in the spring of 1917 when the UFO suddenly appeared in a clear, blue sky directly ahead of their Fokker triplanes.

“We were terrified because we'd never seen anything like it before,” recalled the easygoing great-great grandfather of five. “The U.S. had just entered the war, so we assumed it was something they'd sent up.”

“The Baron immediately opened fire and the thing went down like a rock, shearing off tree limbs as it crashed in the woods. Then the two little baldheaded guys climbed out and ran away.”

Waitzrik said he assumed the glittering silver spaceship was some sort of enemy invention until the flying saucer scare that began in the late 1940s convinced him that his buddy had shot down a UFO.

“The thing was maybe 40 meters (136 feet) in diameter and looked just like those saucer-shaped spaceships that everybody's been seeing for the last 50 years,” the awed oldster said.

“So there's no doubt in my mind now that that was no U.S. reconnaissance plane the Baron shot down, that was some kind of spacecraft from another planet -- and those little guys who ran off into the woods weren't Americans, they were space aliens of some kind.”

“You know, sometimes I wonder what ever became of those guys, anyway.”

1917

Belgium, in flight

(UFOWEB: The Red Baron is said to have shot down a UFO in 1917.) Bonn, Germany: The flamboyant fighter pilot known as the Red Baron not only shot down 80 enemy planes during the First World War but he was also the first human to shoot down an alien ship. This is according to a former German Air Force pilot, Peter Waitzrik, who says that he saw, with surprise, the fighter pilot shoot at a UFO, which had undulating orange lights, over Belgium in 1917. Then, two of the occupants of the downed UFO got out of their spacecraft and ran into the woods, apparently never to be seen again. “The Baron and I made a full report on the incident back at Headquarters and they told us never to mention this.” The 105-year-old former pilot recently spoke to a reporter. “And except to my wife and my grown children, I never said a word. But it's been 80 years now, so what would be the difference now?” He recounts that he and Baron Manfred von Richtofen [sic], nicknamed the Red Baron, were flying on an early morning mission over western Belgium in the summer of 1917 when a UFO suddenly appeared in the blue sky, directly overhead. above their Fokker triplane. “We were terrified because we had never seen anything like this before, the United States had just entered the war, so we assumed it was something they had sent. The Baron immediately opened up the fire and the thing fell like a rock, shearing the treetops as it crashed into the woods. Then two little bald-headed guys got out and ran away.” Waitzrik said he assumed that the spaceship, silver and shimmering, was some kind of enemy invention until the “flying saucer” panic that began in the 1940s convinced him that his colleague had shot down a UFO. “This thing must have been about 40 meters in diameter and looked exactly like those flying saucer-shaped spaceships that everyone has seen over the last 50 years.” he said, “so there's no doubt in my mind that it was some sort of spaceship from another planet, and these little guys running around in the woods were not Americans but some sort of extraterrestrials” “You know, sometimes I wonder what happened to these guys” (Source: Sighting / Jim Hickman Translation: Thierry Mallet (Mush) - THEM)$##

As the story goes, one day in the spring of 1917, with World War I raging across Western Europe, two Fokker triplanes of the German air force's Jagdstaffel Jasta 11 took off from their base in occupied France and headed for the skies above Belgium. They were looking for Allied warplanes.

One of the Fokkers was piloted by Captain Peter Waitzrik; the other by Captain Manfred von Richthofen, the famous “Red Baron.”

It was a clear morning, with few clouds and a bright blue sky. Von Richthofen was Germany's top fighter ace at the time. He'd already received the Blue Max, the country's highest military award, and within a month he would be leading his legendary Red Baron's Flying Circus.

Not long into their patrol, Waitzrik and von Richthofen spotted something in the sky ahead of them. It was not an enemy fighter. According to Waitzrik, it was a flying object more than 100 feet in diameter, bright silver in color and shaped like a saucer.

“We were terrified,” Waitzrik told the British tabloid the World Weekly News years later. “We had never seen anything like it. But the United States had just entered the war, so we assumed it was something they'd sent up.”

Von Richthofen immediately opened fire on the object, hitting it.

“The thing went down like a rock,” Waitzrik said. “It sheared off tree limbs as it crashed in the woods.”

Waitzrik and von Richthofen then watched as two occupants climbed out of the strange craft and escaped into the forest.

“The Baron and I gave a full report on the incident back at headquarters,” Waitzrik said. “But they told us not to mention it ever again.”

For years afterward, Waitzrik assumed the gleaming silver disk was some sort of Allied secret weapon - until the flying saucer craze of the late 1940s convinced him otherwise.

“That's when I realized this thing looked just like those saucer-shaped spaceships that everybody [started] seeing,” Waitzrik said. “It's been over eighty years now, so what difference could it possibly make? But there's no doubt in my mind that it was no U.S. reconnaissance plane the Baron shot down that day.

It was some kind of craft from another planet and those guys who ran off into the woods weren't Americans.”

Though he went on to shoot down a total of eighty Allied planes, von Richthofen would be dead within a year. Waitzrik survived the Great War and the next one, and became an airline pilot.

About his encounter with the strange aerial craft, he confided years later: “Except for my wife and grandkids, I never told a soul.”

Captain Waitzrik's famous companion was not the first combat pilot to shoot at a strange flying object during World War I. That had happened more than a year before. On January 31, 1916, British Royal Naval Air Service sublieutenant J. E. Morgan climbed into his BE2c fighter and took off from his base outside London. It was nighttime and Morgan was on the lookout for German zeppelins.

Did Fighter Ace The Red Baron Shoot Down A UFO During World War I?

Various legends about aliens and flying saucers have circulated about World War I - of which the most astonishing is that German fighter ace the Red Baron shot down a UFO.

The report - from Austrian news site OE24 - recounts rumours allegedly from fellow flyers who claim Baron Manfred von Richtofen [sic] shot down a flying saucer.

The witnesses claim that two 'aliens' fled from the downed craft after the fighter ace shot it down, according to reports recounted in Nigel Watson's book UFOs of the First World War.

Tireless alien-hunter Scott C Waring of UFO Sightings Daily says, 'Its possible that the Red Barons two front machine guns could have damaged not the UFO, but the airier antenna on the top center of the craft. If this antenna was hit by the Baron, then yes, a UFO would lose control and be forced to land to make repairs.

UFO fans also believe that aliens may have 'abducted' people from the battlefields of World War I - with a claim of hundreds of men 'vanishing' into a cloud during the Gallipoli campaign.

Fellow German pilot Peter Waitzrick said that fighters flying with the 'Red Baron' saw an aircraft like an upside down saucer, 'We were terrified because we'd never seen anything like it before. The Baron immediately opened fire and the thing went down like a rock, shearing off tree limbs as it crashed into the woods.

'There's no doubt in my mind that the Baron shot down some kind of spacecraft from another planet and those little guys who ran off into the woods were space aliens of some kind.

The story is highly dubious, however - given that Waitzrick didn't share his story until 80 years after the event, and chose to do so in the U.S. tabloid Weekly World News.

A recently published book - UFOs of the First World War - delves on the mysteries and paranormal sightings WWI soldiers and even the Red Baron himself encountered during the Great War a hundred years in the past.

According to this book, authored by Nigel Watson, more bizarre and more frightening things than fighter pilots patrolled the skies above the French battlefields during the said conflict. Throughout the First World War, there are existing accounts as told by soldiers and civilians about a paranormal encounters - encounters that even historians and UFO experts have long struggled to explain.

Here are some of these sightings (as featured in the above-mentioned book):

The Red Baron and UFOs

German pilot Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen who went down in history as the famous Red Baron is WWI's most famous pilot. No other human flyer could match his skills in flying and even fighting while up in the air. Apparently, neither could UFOs, too.

Accordingly, the Red Baron spotted an Unidentified Flying Object - described as a “looking like an upside down silver saucer with orange lights” - in the spring of 1917 while he was on an early morning mission in Belgium.

The account went on to say that another WWI German Air Force ace, Peter Waitzrick, witnessed the dogfight between his comrade and that of the UFO. Waitzrick described how they looked on with fear at the object as it was unlike anything they have seen before. The Red Baron immediately began firing on the said UFO and it went down crashing into the woods, mowing tree limbs on its way.

Allegedly, two occupants from the saucer-like flying object clambered out from the wreckage and ran into the trees.

The squadron, along with Waitzrick, initially believed that the UFO the Red Baron encountered was a secret US Army aircraft. However, when he read about UFOs and reports on flying saucers, the former undoubtedly maintained that what they saw and what the Red Baron fought off in the Belgian skies was one.

Nevertheless, Waitzrick waited eighty years after its occurrence before sharing the story, he was already 105 years old when he did open up about the encounter. The account made it into the pages of the Weekly World News August of 1999.

But historians are doubtful with Waitzrick's narration. According to them, it was not until months later after the encounter that the Fokker triplanes that the squadron were allegedly fighting when the incident occurred were put into operation service. That fact cast a shade on the WWI German pilot's story.

1917

Belgium, Europe - A 105 year-old former WW1 German Air Force Ace, Peter Waitzrik claimed Baron Manfred Von Richtofen (The Red Baron) had shot down a glittering silver UFO with undulating Orange Lights over Western Belgium. Circling, they then stared in disbelief as two bruised and battered baldheaded occupants climbed out of the downed craft and scampered into the woods, never to seen again. “The Baron and I gave a full report on the incident back at Headquarters and they told us never to mention it again”. “Apart from my Wife and Grandkids, I never told a soul”. Flying Fokker Triplanes, they were at first terrified as they had never seen anything like it before, but assumed it was an American enemy invention. “The thing was maybe 40 metres (131 feet) in diameter and looked just like those Saucer-shaped Spaceships that everybody's being seeing for the last 50 years”. “So there's no doubt in my mind now that it was no US reconnaissance plane the Baron shot down, that was some kind of spacecraft from another Planet and those little guys who ran off into the woods weren't Americans, they were Space Aliens of some kind.”