ACUFO indexHome 

Cette page en françaisCliquez!

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.

◀ Previous case Next case ▶

Germany, in the Winter of 1944 - 1945:

Case number:

ACUFO-1944-00-00-GERMANY-1

Summary:

In the 2000's, the NICAP Website in the USA published extracts of an article of the newspaper Dallas Times-Herald for July 10, 1947, in which appeared a letter sent to them by the former tail gunner with the 398th Bomber Group S/Sgt. C. A. Smith, 4327 Frank street, who reported having seen clusters of discs on two separate bombing missions over Germany during WWII, probably during the Winter of 1944-45. Smith wrote:

“These disc-shaped objects would be in clusters until they reached a certain altitude and then would break up and attach themselves to bomber formations as if a metallic force drew them toward the bombers.”

“I saw these disc-shaped objects only twice during my tour of duty, but both times we drew an unbelievable flak... into our formation, which accounted for several bombers.”

Smith said the action of the discs led them to believe they were some German radio-controlled radar devices.

“It was useless to try to lose them by a sudden burst of speed, or by evasive actions, because when attached to your formation and you couldn't shake them until the bombs were away. Then they would disappear at incredible speeds.”

Smith said the discs he saw appeared to be 5 or 6 feet in diameter and 2 or 3 feet thick.

Data:

Temporal data:

Date: Winter 1944 - 1945
Time: Probable day.
Duration: ?
First known report date: July 10, 1947
Reporting delay: 3 years.

Geographical data:

Country: Germany
State/Department:
City or place:

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses: ?
Number of known witnesses: ?
Number of named witnesses: 1

Ufology data:

Reporting channel: Newspaper.
Visibility conditions: Probable day.
UFO observed: Yes.
UFO arrival observed: ?
UFO departure observed: Yes.
UFO action: Fly along, go away.
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: 1 or more.
[ ] Airborne radar:
[ ] Directional ground radar:
[ ] Height finder ground radar:
[ ] Photo:
[ ] Film/video:
[ ] EM Effects:
[ ] Failures:
[ ] Damages:
Hynek: DD
Armed / unarmed: Armed, 5 7.62 machine guns.
Reliability 1-3: 2
Strangeness 1-3: 3
ACUFO: Possible extraterrestrial craft, sparse information.

Sources:

[Ref. nip5:] "DALLAS TIMES-HERALD", FROM THE NICAP ARCHIVE:

Scan.

DISCS SEEN IN GERMANY, FORMER TAIL GUNNER SAYS

(Flying discs are old stuff to a Dallas Army Air Forces veteran, etc. etc...)

In a letter to the Times-Herald, ex S/Sgt. C. A. Smith, 4327 Frank street, reported seeing clusters of discs on two separate bombing missions over Germany during the War (probably during the Winter of 1944-45, when other “foo-fighter” sightings were made). “These disc-shaped objects would be in clusters until they reached a certain altitude and then would break up and attach themselves to bomber formations as if a metallic force drew them toward the bombers,” the former tail gunner with the 398th Bomber Group wrote.

“I saw these disc-shaped objects only twice during my tour of duty, but both times we drew an unbelievable flack... into our formation, which accounted for (the loss, I suppose--trb) several bombers.”

Smith said the action of the discs (led them to believe they were some German radio-controlled radar devices.) “It was useless to try to lose them by a sudden burst of speed, or by evasive actions, because when attached to your formation and you couldn't shake them until the bombs were away. Then they would disappear at incredible speeds.”

Smith said the discs he saw appeared to be five or six feet in diameter and two or three feet thick.

He had suggested that the discs (reported recently in the U.S. might be radio-controlled range-finders developed by the Army.)

[Ref. prt1:] JAN ALDRICH - "PROJECT 1947":

Dallas, Texas, Times-Herald - 10 July, 1947

DISCS SEEN IN GERMANY, FORMER TAIL GUNNER SAYS

Flying discs are old stuff to a Dallas Army Air Forces veteran, S/Sgt Smith.

In a letter to the Times-Herald, ex S/Sgt. C. A. Smith, 4327 Frank street, reported seeing clusters of discs on two separate bombing missions over Germany during the War.

"These disc-shaped objects would be in clusters until they reached a certain altitude and then would break up and attach themselves to bomber formations as if a metallic force drew them toward the bombers," the former tail gunner with the 598th Bomber Group wrote.

"I saw these disc-shaped objects only twice during my tour of duty, but both times we drew an unbelievable flak... into our formation, which accounted for several bombers."

Smith said the action of the discs led them to believe they were some German radio-controlled radar devices.

"It was useless to try to lose them by a sudden burst of speed, or by evasive actions, because when attached to your formation you couldn't shake them until the bombs were away. Then they would disappear at incredible speed."

Smith said the discs he saw appeared to be five or six feet in diameter and two or three feet thick. He suggested that the discs reported recently in the U.S. might be radio-controlled range-finders developed by the Army.

Aircraft information:

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.

B-17 formation.

Discussion:

Map.

The 398th Bomb Group of the 8th U.S. Army Air Force 1st Air Division was one of many B-17 Bomb Groups during WWII. It was formed in the United States in 1943 and was stationed in Nuthampstead, England from April 1944 until June 1945.

The sighting by Kenneth Arnold on June 24, 1947 while he was piloting his plane over Washington state had been a trigger for an enormous press interest in what were then called “flying discs”; it was in this context that C. A. Smith, like others, also recounted his experiences, like many others who declared having seen mysterious flying machines before Kenneth Arnold, but had often said nothing about it, such events being beyond any reference.

The report is obviously not very detailed as to dates and places; the journalistic context then did not have these kinds of requirements. We will therefore note that a B-17 pilot of the U.S. Army Air Forces testified by name to observations of the presence in the skies of Germany in the winter 1944 - 1945 of unidentified flying objects, in the form of shiny balls, in broad daylight, which approached the bombers, accompanied them, then left. These objects were obviously not “Nazi devices”, although it is not surprising that this was assumed at the time.

Evaluation:

Possible extraterrestrial craft, sparse information.

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 October 29, 2023 Creation, [nip5].
1.0 Patrick Gross October 29, 2023 First published.
1.1 Patrick Gross July 4, 2024 Addition [prt1].

HTML5 validation



 Feedback  |  Top  |  Back  |  Forward  |  Map  |  List |  Home
This page was last updated on July 4, 2024.