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Alfonsine, Italy, on August 18, 1944:

Case number:

ACUFO-1944-08-18-ALFONSINE-1

Summary:

In 1999, the American ufologist Jan Aldrich, leader of the historical ufology Website Project 1947, indicated that there was a sighting in the vicinity of Alfonsine, in Italy, on October 18, 1944, of a shower of silver objects about the size of silver dollars. These objects were seen floating at 10,500 feet and descending slowly.

Jan Aldrich indicated that this appeared in the Special Flak Report of the Headquarters of the 42d Bomb Wing for September - October 1944.

This document was found in the U.S. National Archive by Barry Greenwood, who published it in 1998.

Jan Aldrich wondered whether these objects may have been “Window”, i.e. radar chaff.

Data:

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Ufology data:

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Sources:

[Ref. bgd1:] BARRY GREENWOOD - U.S. ARMY AIR FORCES:

This Flak report reported on the various types of Flak: AA guns, flares, etc., each in its own section The above was in also a clearly separate section, "Miscellaneous Phenomena".

[Ref. jah1:] JAN ALDRICH - "PROJECT 1947":

This ufologist indicated that his Project 1947 learned more about the UFOs of the World War II era. He recalls that Martin Caidin, in his “Black Thursday” book of 1960 told of silver discs encountered during the 1943 Schweinfurt raid, that archivists at the National Archives had been unable to locate confirmation of this report. But other references to small silver discs were found under the heading “Miscellaneous Phenomena,” in a report of A-2 Section of the 42d Bomb Wing. The following is quoted:

“Also, on 18 October (1944), a shower of silver objects about the size of silver dollars was reported in the vicinity of Alfonsine. These objects were seen floating at 10,500 feet and descending very slowly.”

[Ref. prt4:] JAN ALDRICH - "PROJECT 1947":

Aircraft information:

The Martin B-26 “Marauder” (above) was an American twin-engined medium bomber built from 1939 on, active in operations in 1941, used during World War II in Europe and the Pacific.

Its armament was 11 Browning M2 12.7 mm machine guns, 6 in fixed position on the fuselage, 2 in the dorsal turret and 2 in the rear turret.

Discussion:

The 42d Bombardment Wing of the U.S. Army Air Forces was a dive bombardment unit constituted in February 1943, activated on February 6, 1943, the redesignated 42d Bombardment Wing (Medium), transferred overseas without personnel and equipment, and assigned to Twelfth Army Air Force on July 31, 1943. It served in combat in the Mediterranean and European theaters until the end WWII.

At the time of this sighting, they used Martin B-26 “Marauder” bombers.

Jan Aldrich added the note “Windows?” to the case. “Window” was the code name for British radar chaff.

The principle of “Window” was to drop from aircraft a cloud of thin pieces of aluminum, metallized glass fiber or plastic, which either appears as a cluster of primary targets on radar screens or swamped the radar screens with multiple returns.

What is described in the report is very consistent with such an explanation. There is some oddity, though. The U.S. Army Air Forces could have dropped radar chaff in the vicinity of the raid to disturb the Germans; but the B-26 crews should have been informed about it, and it should thus not have appeared in the military report on flak operations. Surely there was some sort of mix-up, or wording that did not make it clear that this “phenomenon” was understood, not unidentified.

Below: British radar chaff.

Evaluation:

Probable radar chaff.

Sources references:

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

• [bgd1] * "Special Flak Report for September - October 1944", 42d Bomb Wing, A-2, septembre - octobre 1944, declassified document presented by Barry Greenwood through the Computer UFO Network, USA, 1998, at https://www.cufon.org/cufon/foo.htm
• [jah1] * "Project 1947: An inquiry into the beginning of the UFO era", article by Jan Aldrich, in the ufology magazine International UFO Reporter, of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), USA, Volume 21, No. 2, page 19, Summer 1996.
• [jah1] * "Project 1947: An inquiry into the beginning of the UFO era", article by Jan Aldrich, on his Project 1947 Historical ufology website, USA, circa 2020, at https://www.project1947.com/articles/cufos96.htm
• [prt4] * "ACUFOE in World War II", catalogue by Jan Aldrich, Project 1947, USA, October 9, 1999, at http://www.project1947.com/47cats/acupdt.htm

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