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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Kawasaki, Japan, on April 15, 1945:

Case number:

ACUFO-1945-04-15-KAWASAKI-1

Summary:

In his 2011 book “1001 B-29s Avenge Pearl Harbour - Memoirs of a Flight Engineer”, Donald Cotner tells of his memories of WWI when he was a flight engineer on a US Air Forces B-29.

He tells of his memories of his B-29 crew's third mission over Kawasaki Urban Area on April 15, 1945. It was a low altitude night bombing raid. Lt. Karl Pattison was the Airplane Commander. George Warn (“Warn”) was the left gunner. The pilot was Charles Taylor. The unit was 99th Squadron, 9th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy).

A part of the book titled “Fuselage philosophy” tells of the talks of the B-29 aircrew when operating the mission. Crew members would discuss about raids events and life in general.

Left gunner George Warn told that he had seen a fireballs chasing them, that he tried his best to shoot it, but it was closing so fast that he could not hit it. He felt sure that the ball of fire was going to “get them”, but the B-29 entered into a smoke area, and he never saw it after that, as if the ball of fire has lost their plane.

Cotner added that they used to laugh when George Warn told them he saw a fireball, but, he said, enough gunners have reported seeing them, that even the Wing-level brass believed the Japs may have some new weapon.

Data:

Temporal data:

Date:	April 15, 1945
Time:	Night.
Duration:	?
First known report date:	2011
Reporting delay:	7 decades.

Geographical data:

Country:	Japan
State/Department:	Kanagawa
City or place:	Kawasaki

Witnesses data:

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

Ufology data:

Reporting channel:	War memories book.
Visibility conditions:	Night.
UFO observed:	Yes.
UFO arrival observed:	Yes.
UFO departure observed:	No.
UFO action:	Closed in fast.
Witnesses action:	Fired.
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 [ ] Airborne radar: [ ] Directional ground radar: [ ] Height finder ground radar: [ ] Photo: [ ] Film/video: [ ] EM Effects: [ ] Failures: [ ] Damages:
Hynek:	NL
Armed / unarmed:	Armed, 12 Browning M2 12,7 mm machine guns.
Reliability 1-3:	2
Strangeness 1-3:	2
ACUFO:	Unidentified.

Sources:

[Ref. dcr1:] DONALD COTNER:

The book by Donald Cotner contains his memories of his B-29 crew's third mission over Kawasaki Urban Area on April 15, 1945. It was a low altitude night bombing raid. Lt. Karl Pattison was the Airplane Commander. George Warn (“Warn”) was the left gunner. The pilot was Charles Taylor, Don Cotner, author of the book, was Flight Engineer. The unit was 99th Squadron, 9th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy).

The part of the book titled “Fuselage philosophy” tells of the talk of the B-29 aircrew when operating the mission. Crew members would discuss about raids events and life in general. A part of the conversation was:

Warn. There was one of chose dang fireballs chasin' us. I tried my dangdest to shoot it, but it was closin' so dang-nab fast I couldn't crack it. It was dang sure for gettin' us, 'til we went into that dang smoke, I never saw it again after that. Guess it lost us. Dang-well it did.

We used to laugh when George told us he saw a dang fireball; but, enough gunners have reported seeing them, that even the Wing-level brass believe the Japs may have some new weapon. We hope they never build many of them.

Aircraft information:

The Boeing B-29 “Superfortress” was the heaviest bomber of the U.S. Army Air Forces, used in operations from May 8, 1944 and on. Its maximum speed was 574 km/h.

Its defensive armament was 12 Browning M2 12.7 mm machine guns.

Discussion:

An assessment of what the “ball of fire” was is very difficult. The strangeness rests on the words of the gunner, who apparently did not think it was the ordinary attack of an ordinary Japanese fighter plane.

But one can imagine that it was a Japanese fighter equipped with a searchlight - the Japanese air force fighters sometimes did this - and that it closed in while gradualling directing itself to the B-29; so that its light would rapidly grow bigger. In this setup, it would appear as something not quite ordinary, a ball of fire closing in faster that a fighter plane would.

Of course, this is speculation, so, I let the case as “unidentified”.

Evaluation:

Unidentified.

Sources references:

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

[dcr1] * "1001 B-29s Avenge Pearl Harbour - Memoirs of a Flight Engineer", book by Donald Cotner, iUniverse publishers, pp 65-66, 2011.

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	May 3, 2024	Creation, [dcr1].
1.0	Patrick Gross	May 3, 2024	First published.

This page was last updated on May 3, 2024.