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Kärnten, Austria, in May 1944:

Case number:

ACUFO-1944-05-00-KARNTEN-1

Summary:

In 1975, Gianfranco de Turris, Italian journalist, and Sebastiano Fusco, published a book containing numerous so-called UFO photos.

One of them was presented as taken in May 1944, and would show, according to them, the clearest photo of a “foo fighter”, which would have been photographed during a war action by a German pilot of unknown name, flying “near the town of Kärnten” in Germany:

Subsequently, I found the most informative source on this image, a 1997 article by the erudite Italian ufologist Giuspeppe Stilo.

He gave the story's primary source, the less than credible magazine UFO Nachrichten. Its creator Karl Veit published the photo on page 1 of issue 37 of September 1959, saying that the photo had been given to them by an aviator responsible for carrying out a mission in Munich during May 1944. There had been an attack by enemy planes, he was unable to accomplish his mission and, as he was originally from Carinthia, he preferred to take refuge in the mountains of his native region. In his escape, he discovered the object in the photo, thought that this object would not attack him, took his camera and photographed it.

Giuseppe Stilo also noted other later sources with their errors: Carinthia, region of Austria, becomes “the German city of Kaernten”; the plane sometimes becomes an Allied plane, and even a “Focke Wulf returning from a mission in Norway”.

Data:

Temporal data:

Geographical data:

Witnesses data:

Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

[Ref. unn1:] "UFO NACHRICHETEN":

Soit:

[Ref. rpi1:] ROBERTO PINOTTI:

Image caption:

[Ref. rpi2:] ROBERTO PINOTTI:

Soit:

[Ref. tfo1:] GIANFRANCO DE TURRIS ET SEBASTIANO FUSCO:

Soit:

Note: The 1952 New York photo said to show the same object is:

[Ref. muc1:] "MUFON - CES":

Image caption:

I.e.:

[Ref. ibl1:] ILLOBRAND VON LUDWIGER:

[Ref. lwr1:] DR. LOUIS WINKLER:

[Ref. gso1:] GIUSEPPE STILO:

This Italian UFO researcher discusses alleged “Foo-Fighter“ photos which would come from Japanese aviation during the Second World War, which were published in numerous books giving no source. He explains that ufologists specializing in «Foo-Fighter» are not aware of any well-documented reports that would be linked to these photos, and that consultations with these ufologists revealed that they have a unique and very questionable source.

The source, dating from 1963 and 1964, was the Japanese “contactee” group “Cosmic Brotherhood Association”, led by Yusuke J. Matsumura. They had published numerous photos, none of which had a source from Western ufology.

A first series was published by the CBA in the second issue of the 1963 newsletter Flying Saucer News.

Stilo commented the above picture:

[Ref. rpi3:] ROBERTO PINOTTI:

Aircraft information:

All that is known from the report is that the plane was a German war plane of WWII.

However, I found no WWII German plane with pods so far on the wings.

Discussion:

There is no town named “Kärnten” in Germany; “Kärnten” is a region of Austria, Carinthia in English.

Update on July 16, 2024:

Having found the 1997 article by Giuseppe Stilo [gso1], I was able to greatly complete the file, in particular with the primary source UFO Nachrichten. It was a journal concocted by the German Karl Veit in the 1950s, which indeed gave a large place to the “contactees” stories.

In addition to the ufology sources I collected in this file, there are of course many publication of the same photo on crackpots Websites in the 2000's - 2020's. The image appears on at list 50 Web pages. For example, one of those claims that the photo shows “Seifenblasen” (“Soap Bubbles”) which “were weather balloons with a metallic coating and carrying metal strips to confuse Allied radar. When spotted in the daylight sun or moonlit night the reflecting Seifenblasen gave the appearance of a Feuerball. They were derived from the Kriegsmarine's U-boat secret weapon “Afrodita” (Aphrodite) anti-radar balloons, used as a decoy against patrolling Allied anti-submarine aircraft.” These “Seifenblasen” were invented by one UFO buff names Rob Arndt, who gives a totally whimsical description of the alleged device, as “jet-powered silver discs radio-controlled from the ground” and used as a “psychological weapon”, and later “producing an electromagnetic field” that allegedly caused the Allied plane's engines to fail. Because this was silly, others proponents of “nazi saucers” copied the “Seifenblasen” name and described it as a radar decoy balloon.

It is used to illustrate an article about the “Foo-Fighters” on the History Channel website
(www.history.com/news/wwii-ufos-allied-airmen-orange-lights-foo-fighters)
as a photo that “is said to show a 'Foo-Fighter' observed by a German pilot in May 1945, near Karnten, Germany.”

J. Miranda and P. Mercado, cited by Giuseppe Silo, caliming the plane of the photo was a Junkers 88, are the Sanish authors of the famous “Luft46.com” Website; which is about “secret weapons of the Luftwaffe”, with both historical and fictional information. The authors imagine what aircraft and devices that the German Luftwaffe could have brought to existence it they were still fighting in 1946.

The aircraft is certainly a twin-engine aircraft, but cannot be a Junkers Ju-88 because, as shown in the photo below, the position of the crew, including the nose position, is such that the engine on the wing would appear much more in the photo. It could be that the alleged UFO photo was taken from another plane, and then heavily cropped. In this case the story would obviously be false since it only involved one plane.

Evaluation:

Dubious credibility.

Sources references:

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

• [unn1] * Karl Veit, in the UFO Magazine UFO Nachrichten, Germany, No. 37, page 1, September 1959.
• [rpi1] * "L'Enigma dei 'Foo - Fighters'", article by Roberto Pinotti, in the ufology magazine Notiziario UFO, Italy, No. 45, page 4, May - June 1972.
• [rpi2] * "L'Enigma dei 'Foo - Fighters'", part II, article by Roberto Pinotti, in the ufology magazine Notiziario UFO, Italy, No. 46, pp 11-12, July - August 1972.
• [tfo1] * "Obiettivo sugli UFO - Fotostoria dei dischi volanti", book by Gianfranco de Turris and Sebastiano Fusco, Mediterranee publishers, Italy, page 38, 1975.
• [muc1] * Cover image of "Ungewöhnliche Eingeschaften Nicht Identifizierbarer Licherscheinungen", by I. Brand, ufology group MUFON-CES, Germany, 1978.
• [ibl1] * "MUFON CES Bericht - No 06 - 1979 - Ungewöhnliche Eigenschaften nichtidentifizierbarere Lichterscheinungen", study by "I. Brand" (Illobrand von Ludwiger), PhD, Tübingen University, Germany, Mutual UFO Network - Central European section (MUFON-CES), page 111, Fall 1978.
• [lwr1] * "Catalog/database, and analysis, of pre-1947 'UFO-like phenomena'", report by Dr. Louis Winkler, astronomer, Pennsylvania State University, for the Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR), USA, page 59, 1982-1984.
• [gso1] * "Il ritorno di foo fighters, article by Giuseppe Stilo, in the ufology magazine Rivista UFO, Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici (CISU), Italy, No. 20, pp 7-8, December 1997.
• [jbz1] ? "Los Visitantes", book by Juan José Benitez, Editorial Pianeta publishers, Spain, page 26, 2002.
• [rpi3] * "Ufo e Vaticano, book by Roberto Pinotti, Mondadori publishers, Italy, 2016.

File history:

Authoring:

Changes history:

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This page was last updated on July 27, 2024.