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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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Aachen, Germany, Verviers, Belgium, from August 11 to 12, 1942:

Case number:

ACUFO-1942-08-11-AACHEN-1

Summary:

In a synthetic report by the Royal Air Force Operational Research Section for December 26, 1942, about the operations of the German anti-aircraft defenses, we read about a “phenomenon” reported by a number of aircraft in the approximate area Aachen (Germany) - Verviers (Belgium), “12 miles South-West of Spa-Aachen”, on the night of August, 11-12, 1942.

The report said that “although it has only once been reported since and should therefore strictly be classified as an isolated “freak”, the interest it aroused warrants the inclusion of a description of its behavior”.

The phenomenon was described as such:

“A bright white light rose from the ground to 8,000 feet, where it flew approximately level for about two minutes; a few crews reported that it appeared to zig-zag along the ground before taking off in a climbing turn. Brilliant white periodic bursts occurred which may have caused a change of course; some crews thought that it subdivided when the bursts took place. Other crews thought that it flew on a circular course, the radius of which was about one mile. Burning pieces were shed from it like a meteor. The color eventually faded to orange and the object was last seen heading toward the ground where some crews thought that it burnt on impact. The display lasted about five minutes.”

The report commented that the scarcity of information about this phenomenon, which “may well have been in the nature of an experiment”, it is difficult to submit an explanation. The report considers it was possibly “a miniature aircraft structure carrying a number of rockets and an explosive charge”, with its change of course were “probably predetermined, radio control being thought improbable owing to the cost of production, the small chance of directing such a projectile on to a bomber, and the fact that it would be virtually impossible to bring it to land intact by night.”

Data:

Temporal data:

Date: From August 11 to 12, 1942
Time: Night.
Duration: 5 minutes.
First known report date: December 26, 1942
Reporting delay: Hours, 4 months.

Geographical data:

Country: Germany, Belgium
State/Department: Cologne (Germany) Liege (Belgium)
City or place: Aachen, Verviers, Spa

Witnesses data:

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

Ufology data:

Reporting channel: R.A.F. summary report.
Visibility conditions: Night.
UFO observed: Yes.
UFO arrival observed: ?
UFO departure observed: Yes.
UFO action: Approached, circled, crashed.
Witnesses action: ?
Photographs: No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es): No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): No.
Witness(es) feelings: ?
Witnesses interpretation: ?

Classifications:

Sensors: [X] Visual: Numerous.
[ ] Airborne radar: N/A.
[ ] Directional ground radar:
[ ] Height finder ground radar:
[ ] Photo:
[ ] Film/video:
[ ] EM Effects:
[ ] Failures:
[ ] Damages:
Hynek: ?
Armed / unarmed: ?
Reliability 1-3: 1
Strangeness 1-3: 2
ACUFO: Unidentified, possible mix of different events.

Sources:

[Ref. raf1:] ROYAL AIR FORCE:

Scan.

“Meteor” projectiles

This phenomenon was reported by a number of aircraft in the approximate area Aachen-Verviers - 12 miles S.W. of Spa-Aachen on the night of 11-12 August, 1942. Although it has only once been reported since and should therefore strictly be classified as an isolated “freak”, the interest it aroused warrants the inclusion of a description of its behavior.

A bright white light rose from the ground to 8,000 feet, where it flew approximately level for about two minutes; a few crews reported that it appeared to zig-zag along the ground before taking off in a climbing turn. Brilliant white periodic bursts occurred which may have caused a change of course; some crews thought that it subdivided when the bursts took place. Other crews thought that it flew on a circular course, the radius of which was about one mile. Burning pieces were shed from it like a meteor. The color eventually faded to orange and the object was last seen heading toward the ground where some crews thought that it burnt on impact. The display lasted about five minutes.

Owing to the scarcity of information about this phenomenon, which may well have been in the nature of an experiment, it is difficult to submit an explanation. It is possibly a miniature aircraft structure carrying a number of rockets and an explosive charge. Its change of course are probably predetermined, radio control being thought improbable owing to the cost of production, the small chance of directing such a projectile on to a bomber, and the fact that it would be virtually impossible to bring it to land intact by night.

[Ref. nip1:] "THE NICAP WEBSITE":

Aug. 11/12, 1942; Nr. Aachen, Germany
A phenomenon described as a bright white light (Page 29-30 Ref. 1)

[...]

References:

Ref. 1, Strange Company (2007), Keith Chester

[Ref. dwn2:] DOMINIQUE WEINSTEIN:

Scan.

Case 4
August 11/12, 1942

Near Aachen, Germany

On the evening, British bomber crews flying in Aachen area observed a phenomenon described as a bright white light rising from the ground. Tt reached approximately 8,000 feet, then it flew on a more or less level course for about two minutes. It was brilliant white in color. Several crews reported that these “rockets” were zigzagging along the ground before taking off in a climbing turn. Some crews said that the brilliant white periodic bursts occurred which may have caused a change of course. Other crews reported that it flew in circular course. The color eventually faded to an orange and the object was last seen heading toward the ground.

Source: Strange Company, Keith Chester, 2007

[Ref. pmy1:] PAT MALONEY:

There were scattered reports of similarly strange aerial encounters during the rest of 1942. British bomber crews witnessed weird lights over Aachen, Germany, on the night of August 11, then again over Osnabrück on August 17 and over the Somme in occupied France in December.

Aircraft information:

No detail on the involved planes is available. However, they had “crews”, it was at night, the report speculates about the Germans targeting their bombers; so, obviously, the planes were night bombers, maybe Wellingtons, as those were the most used by the Bomber Command then.

British night bombers at that time were not equipped with airborne radar.

Discussion:

Map.

Map.

The location is not very precise. “12 miles southwest of Spa - Aachen” is a somewhat weird indication since Spa is 35 kilometers southwest of Aachen.

There is also a mention of Verviers, which, like Spa, is in Belgium. It therefore seems likely that the phenomenon did not take place over Germany, but over Belgium, and that the municipality should be given as Verviers.

I have retained Aachen to designate this file so that the reader can see that this is the case so designated by the other sources.

The report has me dumbfounded. Of course if I were the author of the report at that time, I would have written a quite similar comment, speculating on some German Anti-aircraft new device being experimented - without much success.

It came from the ground, went up to the bombers, apparently had some problems (“Burning pieces were shed from it like a meteor...”) and crashed on the ground.

All this does not suggest to me that it was an extraterrestrial craft. It suggests to me that it was not.

So, I revised what is known on German devices to check what it could have been.

All German jet aircraft must be excluded:

Then we have some other types of aircraft:

Germany tried to develop a number of surface-to-air missile systems: Enzian (radio-controlled, 1943), Rheintochter (solid-fuel rocket, first tests August 1943), Henschel Hs-117 “Schmetterling” (radio-controlled, first tests May 1944), “Wasserfall” (somehow similar to the V2, first tests March 1943, failed) Feuerlilie F25 and F55 (first flights mid 1944). None of them has been used operationally, not even at the end of the WWII.

There is no lack of more or less successful projects of German odd flying craft which by their reactor or rocket could be suspected to be seen as a “light”, but almost none was in operation in 1942.

So, in my opinion, this “phenomenon” had nothing extraterrestrial, but no German device explanation seems to fit.

I see one escape, however.

I think it is possible that the synthesis report by the RAF Operational Research Section is flawed by mixing different incidents into one “phenomenon”. A clue to this is the weird location indication I mentioned. Another clue is that “some crews thought that it subdivided when the bursts took place. Other crews thought that it flew on a circular course.” This is not compatible. So, if the RAF report is a mix-up of different sightings, it makes it hard to explain. It could even be a meteor incident mixed with something else.

So I would rest the case, as long as more information does not surface, as “unidentified” due to probably unreliable data.

Evaluation:

Unidentified, possible mix of different events.

Sources references:

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

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 September 27, 2023 Creation, [raf1], [nip1], [dwn2], [pmy1].
1.0 Patrick Gross September 27, 2023 First published.

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This page was last updated on September 27, 2023.