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Kaiserslautern, Germany, on April 25, 1945:

Case number:

ACUFO-1945-04-25-KAISERSLAUTERN-1

Summary:

In 2016, the Australian ufologist Keith Basterfield published, on his Website, details a case over Germany in 1945.

He explained that in 1967, the late (US scientist and ufologist) James E. McDonald visited Australia where he interviewed dozens of Australians about their UAP (Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena, aka UFOS) sightings, audio recordings of these interviews being archived in the Special Collections at the University of Arizona library, in the USA.

He explained that to listen to these recordings, one has to purchase a copy of them, and purchasers are not permitted to pass on copies to other people. Due to these restrictions, few Australian UAP researchers have ever been able to listen to these original and useful set of recordings.

He explained that during the last months of 2016, Sydney based researcher Anthony Clarke, of UFO Research New South Wales, and he, have listened to 58 of these recordings and took the time to make a summary of the contents of each. He announces that Anthony Clarke would shortly be making all the summaries available through the UFO Research New South Wales website for anyone to read.

Basterfield presented one of such cases:

At the time of this sighting, Kit Francis Williams was an Acting Squadron Leader in the 617 Bomber Squadron of the Royal Air Force based at Woodall Spa, East Lincolnshire, England.

On April 25, 1945, he was on a bombing mission for Bomber Command's Special Duties Squadron, piloting an Avro Lancaster bomber that was the wing finder in the flight group. This was the final bombing mission of the Squadron in the Second World War. The mission comprised 25 to 26 aircraft, and had been tasked to bomb “Hitler's hideout”, Berchtesgaden, Hitler's mountain retreat and headquarters at Obersalzberg, in the Bavarian Alps, Germany.

At 09:45 GMT just after a turn near Kaiserslautern in Germany on the final approach to Berchtesgaden, with the Lancaster at an altitude of 16,500 feet (5030 meters), the sky clear below with a solid cloud cover at 18,500 feet (5640 meters), with the nearest aircraft some two miles (three kilometers) to the port, and the main bomber group, referred to as the “Gaggle” ten to fifteen miles (16 to 24 kilometers) behind, Kit Francis Williams witnessed, without warning, what he described as “Like a great blanket, a woolly blanket” that may have been four to five miles wide (six to eight kilometers).

Kit Francis Williams explained that it “seemed to fill the whole of the windscreen,” and that it was of grey/brown color, like “an old army type blanket.”

The object appeared to be moving in the vertical direction past the windscreen of the aircraft, and was gone “in an instant.”

Immediately after this, the only bomb in the aircraft, a 12,000 pound (5443 kilograms) armour piercing type, known as a “Tallboy” broke loose, from its mounting, and “crashed” through the bomb bay door and out of the aircraft. The witness could hear and feel the vibration of the bomb crashing through the bomb bay doors.

At the same time as the bomb loss, the electrical power in the aircraft failed. This resulted in the four propeller engines losing power and therefore the aircraft could not be properly trimmed from the lift caused by the bomb's weight loss. All four engine revolution counters started to drop and all other electrically powered instruments ceased to function.

Kit Francis Williams said during the interview that it was “Obvious that my electrics had gone” and they were losing height.

The emergency action plan was commenced where the inboard port engine was; “feathered,” the other three engines continued, “windmilling.” The “feathered” engine was locked in its starting position and then started using the backup battery power system on the aircraft. The three other engines were successfully started using the same technique since “windmilling” engines could not be started without first being “feathered.”

The aircraft had dropped 4000 feet (1220 metere) to an altitude of 12,000 feet (3658 meters) due to the power loss.

At the same time as Kit was working on starting the first engine, he “Thought he had hit his head on something,” and had a “sudden sensation of a pounding headache”. This sensation continued.

Due to the damage caused by the detached bomb, the bomb bay door could not be closed, but there appeared to be no other damage to the aircraft. The other aircraft in the group continued with their bombing mission. Kit Francis Williams's aircraft returned to the base in England, since they were now without a bomb.

Another aircraft in the group apparently saw the bomb being dropped from Kit's aircraft and the loss of altitude, but they did not see the unidentified object.

Since the headache occurred, Kit Francis Williams was having difficulty getting his reflexes working normally and having to think about an action before its execution. He noticed that the Engineer and the Bomber appeared to be having the same headache experience. Kit commented that the bomber “gave the impression that someone had walked up behind him, and slapped him hard, between the shoulder blades,” adding that the Engineer had the same expression. After talking to all the crew he confirmed that they all had the same type of headache. The headaches were so debilitating that they were all taking a variety of pain relief medication that were in the emergency kits in the aircraft.

Because of the condition caused by the headache, Kit had not been able to land the aircraft successfully and ran off the runway at the end, and onto a grass verge. After landing their Lancaster in England an ambulance was waiting for them.

At the time of the incident, Kit was 19 years old, the eldest of the flight crew, the Navigator, was 26.

Kit Francis Williams told James E. McDonald that after landing the crew and himself were taken for medical treatment and interrogation, over a period of eleven days. They were first transferred to the base hospital then to Wokingham, England, then to the “Guinea Pigs” hospital at Rauceby RAF, where all the medical specialists were located, and finally to High Wycombe, Bomber Command headquarters and then to the MI9 Enemy Intelligence and Interrogation Centre. The medical treatment consisted of various tests and the taking of medications to mitigate the headache, but none of these treatments were successful. Kit commented that he was in a poor state of health because of the incident.

Kit said on the eleventh day, “when the headache dispersed”, he found out that all the air crew except the rear gunner had ceased having headaches on the same day, within 12 hours of each other. The Rear Gunner took three weeks for the headache to dissipate.

The seven men in the Lancaster were all different physical builds, and apparently they were all equally effected by the headache. Kit commented to McDonald that he suspected that the unidentified object had caused the power loss in the aircraft, the headaches and loss of physical co-ordination.

Kit explained to McDonald that he knew of a similar event that occurred just after Christmas 1944 when a Hawker Tempest, piloted by John Dunk, lost power over the English Channel. The pilot had bailed out of the aircraft. Another similar event occurred in Nine Squadron during August 1944, when an aircraft lost power and the crew bailed out in the same area as Kit had lost power.

Kit claimed that there were other bomber crews at High Wycombe Bomber Command, at the same time he was there. He noticed that these crews were taken to the same sections in the Command buildings and he therefore speculated that they may have been there because they had similar experiences while flying.

Kit witnesses one other sighting on the 1 January 1955 in the central highlands of Malaysia. He “was advised that there was a peculiar aircraft flying around the area”, so he climbed, with others, at “Frasers Hill” to observe it. He was the Field Security Officer. He did not initially notice anything, but the Tamil who had seen the object previously climbed a tree to get a better view. Kit said that the Tamil, “right out of the blue he started screaming his head off” and came down the tree to point, and he observed, “a puff, looked like a puff of green like smoke, like you would see from a smoke bomb.“ The “puff” was six to seven hundred feet (180 to 210 meters) above the tops of the mountains.

As it expanded Kit took several photographs until it dispersed over a period of six or seven minutes. The colour of the “puff was described by Kit as being “Bright sea green.” Apparently, the Tamil has seen a flash of light before the “Puff.” At that time, he had the same feeling that the headache may reoccur, like the one he had in 1945. This discomfort lasted for about an hour and then dissipated. The Tamil had previously sighted the “peculiar aircraft” and described it as being like a flat shinny ball and without any noise.

Kit told Mc Donald that he resided at Ortolan Avenue, Broadmeadows, Victoria, and that his telephone number was 309 2468. Kit said that he had no lasting disability because of the incident in 1944. After leaving the hospital he commenced flying two weeks later with a doctor and another pilot on board to assess his ability for flying. He later joined the Tiger Force, in Burma, and after that he worked at London University. He went to Japan after their surrender, at the end of the Second World War, and eventually moved to Australia.

When he had the second headache in 1955 he “had the impression that one was around”, referring to the unidentified object.

Kit thought, at the meetings with other air crew, that talk of UFO activity is “conspicuous by absence.” He also claimed that religious people are not comfortable with discussing the reality of UFOs.

Basterfield added this update on February 5, 2021:

Research by Graeme Rendall, U-K., revealed that although nominally with 617 Bomber Squadron, Williams was at the time with the Number 9 Squadron.

Rendall located the April 1945 records for No. 9 Squadron and found that there was a Flying Officer A. F. Williams and he was on that actual raid.

Rendall wrote to Basterfield that “the details about the Tallboy bomb breaking free of its shackles and falling through the bomb bay doors are listed in the Operational Record Book “AIR 27/129/8.”; it is put down to 'suspected electrical failure' after selecting and fusing the weapon.”

Data:

Temporal data:

Geographical data:

Witnesses data:

Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

[Ref. kbd1:] KEITH BASTERFIELD:

This Australian ufologist details a case over Germany in 1945.

He explains that in 1967, the late (US scientist and ufologist) James E. McDonald visited Australia where he interviewed dozens of Australians about their UAP sightings, audio recordings of these interviews being archived in the Special Collections at the University of Arizona library, in the USA.

He explains that to listen to these recordings, one has to purchase a copy of them, and purchasers are not permitted to pass on copies to other people. Due to these restrictions, few Australian UAP researchers have ever been able to listen to these original and useful set of recordings.

He explains that during the last months of 2016, Sydney based researcher Anthony Clarke, of UFO Research New South Wales, and he, have listened to 58 of these recordings and took the time to make a summary of the contents of each. He announces that Anthony Clarke would shortly be making all the summaries available through the UFO Research New South Wales website for anyone to read.

Basterfield presents one of such cases:

At the time of this sighting, Kit Francis Williams was an Acting Squadron Leader in the 617 Bomber Squadron of the Royal Air Force based at Woodall Spa, East Lincolnshire, England.

On April 25, 1945, he was on a bombing mission for Bomber Command's Special Duties Squadron, piloting an Avro Lancaster bomber that was the wing finder in the flight group. This was the final bombing mission of the Squadron in the Second World War. The mission comprised 25 to 26 aircraft, and had been tasked to bomb “Hitler's hideout”, Berchtesgaden, Hitler's mountain retreat and headquarters at Obersalzberg, in the Bavarian Alps, Germany.

At 09:45 GMT just after a turn near Kaiserslautern in Germany on the final approach to Berchtesgaden, with the Lancaster at an altitude of 16,500 feet (5030 metres), the sky clear below with a solid cloud cover at 18,500 feet (5640 metres), with the nearest aircraft some two miles (three kilometres) to the port, and the main bomber group, referred to as the “Gaggle” ten to fifteen miles (16 to 24 kilometres) behind, Kit Francis Williams witnessed, without warning, what he described as “Like a great blanket, a woolly blanket” that may have been four to five miles wide (six to eight kilometres).

Kit Francis Williams explained that it “seemed to fill the whole of the windscreen,” and that it was of grey/brown colour, like “an old army type blanket.”

The object appeared to be moving in the vertical direction past the windscreen of the aircraft, and was gone “in an instant.”

Immediately after this, the only bomb in the aircraft, a 12,000 pound (5443 kilograms) armour piercing type, known as a “Tallboy” broke loose, from its mounting, and “crashed” through the bomb bay door and out of the aircraft. The witness could hear and feel the vibration of the bomb crashing through the bomb bay doors.

At the same time as the bomb loss, the electrical power in the aircraft failed. This resulted in the four propeller engines losing power and therefore the aircraft could not be properly trimmed from the lift caused by the bomb's weight loss. All four engine revolution counters started to drop and all other electrically powered instruments ceased to function.

Kit Francis Williams said during the interview that it was “Obvious that my electrics had gone” and they were losing height.

The emergency action plan was commenced where the inboard port engine was; “feathered,” the other three engines continued, “windmilling.” The “feathered” engine was locked in its starting position and then started using the backup battery power system on the aircraft. The three other engines were successfully started using the same technique since “windmilling” engines could not be started without first being “feathered.”

The aircraft had dropped 4000 feet (1220 metres) to an altitude of 12,000 feet (3658 metres) due to the power loss.

At the same time as Kit was working on starting the first engine, he “Thought he had hit his head on something,” and had a “sudden sensation of a pounding headache”. This sensation continued.

Due to the damage caused by the detached bomb, the bomb bay door could not be closed, but there appeared to be no other damage to the aircraft. The other aircraft in the group continued with their bombing mission. Kit Francis Williams's aircraft returned to the base in England, since they were now without a bomb.

Another aircraft in the group apparently saw the bomb being dropped from Kit's aircraft and the loss of altitude, but they did not see the unidentified object.

Since the headache occurred, Kit Francis Williams was having difficulty getting his reflexes working normally and having to think about an action before its execution. He noticed that the Engineer and the Bomber appeared to be having the same headache experience. Kit commented that the bomber “gave the impression that someone had walked up behind him, and slapped him hard, between the shoulder blades,” adding that the Engineer had the same expression. After talking to all the crew he confirmed that they all had the same type of headache. The headaches were so debilitating that they were all taking a variety of pain relief medication that were in the emergency kits in the aircraft.

Because of the condition caused by the headache, Kit had not been able to land the aircraft successfully and ran off the runway at the end, and onto a grass verge. After landing their Lancaster in England an ambulance was waiting for them.

At the time of the incident, Kit was 19 years old, the eldest of the flight crew, the Navigator, was 26.

Kit Francis Williams told James E. McDonald that after landing the crew and himself were taken for medical treatment and interrogation, over a period of eleven days. They were first transferred to the base hospital then to Wokingham, England, then to the “Guinea Pigs” hospital at Rauceby RAF, where all the medical specialists were located, and finally to High Wycombe, Bomber Command headquarters and then to the MI9 Enemy Intelligence and Interrogation Centre. The medical treatment consisted of various tests and the taking of medications to mitigate the headache, but none of these treatments were successful. Kit commented that he was in a poor state of health because of the incident.

Kit said on the eleventh day, “when the headache dispersed”, he found out that all the air crew except the rear gunner had ceased having headaches on the same day, within 12 hours of each other. The Rear Gunner took three weeks for the headache to dissipate.

The seven men in the Lancaster were all different physical builds, and apparently they were all equally effected by the headache. Kit commented to McDonald that he suspected that the unidentified object had caused the power loss in the aircraft, the headaches and loss of physical co-ordination.

Kit explained to McDonald that he knew of a similar event that occurred just after Christmas 1944 when a Hawker Tempest, piloted by John Dunk, lost power over the English Channel. The pilot had bailed out of the aircraft. Another similar event occurred in Nine Squadron during August 1944, when an aircraft lost power and the crew bailed out in the same area as Kit had lost power.

Kit claimed that there were other bomber crews at High Wycombe Bomber Command, at the same time he was there. He noticed that these crews were taken to the same sections in the Command buildings and he therefore speculated that they may have been there because they had similar experiences while flying.

Kit witnesses one other sighting on the 1 January 1955 in the central highlands of Malaysia. He “was advised that there was a peculiar aircraft flying around the area”, so he climbed, with others, at “Frasers Hill” to observe it. He was the Field Security Officer. He did not initially notice anything, but the Tamil who had seen the object previously climbed a tree to get a better view. Kit said that the Tamil, “right out of the blue he started screaming his head off” and came down the tree to point, and he observed, “a puff, looked like a puff of green like smoke, like you would see from a smoke bomb.” The “puff” was six to seven hundred feet (180 to 210 metres) above the tops of the mountains.

As it expanded Kit took several photographs until it dispersed over a period of six or seven minutes. The colour of the “puff was described by Kit as being “Bright sea green.” Apparently, the Tamil has seen a flash of light before the “Puff.” At that time, he had the same feeling that the headache may reoccur, like the one he had in 1945. This discomfort lasted for about an hour and then dissipated. The Tamil had previously sighted the “peculiar aircraft” and described it as being like a flat shinny ball and without any noise.

Kit told Mc Donald that he resided at Ortolan Avenue, Broadmeadows, Victoria, and that his telephone number was 309 2468. Kit said that he had no lasting disability because of the incident in 1944. After leaving the hospital he commenced flying two weeks later with a doctor and another pilot on board to assess his ability for flying. He later joined the Tiger Force, in Burma, and after that he worked at London University. He went to Japan after their surrender, at the end of the Second World War, and eventually moved to Australia.

When he had the second headache in 1955 he “had the impression that one was around”, referring to the unidentified object.

Kit thought, at the meetings with other air crew, that talk of UFO activity is “conspicuous by absence.” He also claimed that religious people are not comfortable with discussing the reality of UFOs.

Basterfield added this update on February 5, 2021:

Research by Graeme Rendall, U-K., revealed that although nominally with 617 Bomber Squadron, Williams was at the time with the Number 9 Squadron.

Rendall located the April 1945 records for No. 9 Squadron and found that there was a Flying Officer A. F. Williams and he was on that actual raid.

Rendall wrote to Basterfield that “the details about the Tallboy bomb breaking free of its shackles and falling through the bomb bay doors are listed in the Operational Record Book “AIR 27/129/8.”; it is put down to 'suspected electrical failure' after selecting and fusing the weapon.”

(Ref. nip1:) "THE NICAP WEBSITE":

[Ref. get1:] GEORGE M. EBERHART:

Aircraft information:

The Avro 683 Lancaster was a four-engine night bomber built in more than 7,000 units and it became, with the Handley Page Halifax, the main bomber of the Royal Air Force from 1942 on.

Its defense against German fighter planes was 8 7.62 mm machine guns.

Discussion:

There is really a commercial Audio CD, “33 56.4 CD51 3T16S1 James McDonald interviews Kit Francis Williams”, See:

https://www.ufor.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/James-E-McDonalds-1967-Australian-UFO-Witnesses-Audio-File-Index.pdf

Another catalogue indicates that there was a tape recording:

Disk 51

Tape 16 Side 1 & 2
3 inch Reel
Speed: 1 7/8 ips
Time: 70:22

Dr. James McDonald Interviews

1. Kit Francis Williams (Acting Squadron Leader Unit 617 RAF) WWII UFO Sighting, April 25, 1945, Woodhall Spa, [... others...]

“Kit Francis Williams” was actually Royal Australian Air Force Sergeant (later Acting Squadron Leader) Norman Francis Williams (1943 photo below).

Norman Francis Williams had the double distinction of being the RAAF's most highly decorated non-commissioned officer of World War II and also the RAAF's only non-fighter pilot “ace”. An air gunner serving with No. 10 Squadron RAF of Bomber Command, Norman Williams was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal (DFM) in November 1942 for gallantry during a raid on the German city of Bremen in September of that year. In May of the following year he was awarded a Bar to the DFM for gallantry and devotion to duty during a number of raids, including operations to Turin and Genoa in Italy; and Hamburg, Cologne and Essen in Germany. Following his thirty-mission tour with No. 10 Squadron, Norman Williams was posted to No. 35 Squadron.

During a raid on Düsseldorf in June 1943 his aircraft was severely damaged, his turret jammed and one wing was set on fire. While the crew was preparing to bail out, the Captain heard Williams call urgently to him to turn to starboard as a night fighter had located them. The captain carried out the turn and Williams was able to bring his guns to bear on the German fighter and destroy it. Although having taken bullet wounds in the stomach and legs, and been paralysed from the waist down, Williams shot down a second fighter which attacked his aircraft. Due to Williams' wounds the captain elected to try to reach England, rather than bail out, and the crippled Halifax managed to make it back to friendly soil and crash land. The damage to the aircraft was so severe that Williams' turret had first to be cut from the fuselage and lifted out before he himself could be cut out of his turret.

For his incredible action, Norman Williams was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal (Flying). This was an extremely rare honour, with only 103 awards being made between 1943 and 1945, and only ten to the RAAF. Norman Williams' personal score of six German aircraft destroyed qualified him as an 'ace', the RAAF's only non-fighter pilot member to achieve this distinction.

Following months of medical treatment and convalescence, Williams was repatriated to Australia, where he was offered an instructional post. Declining this position, Williams was posted to No. 23 Squadron RAAF, where he served out the war as a gunner on B-24 Liberators. Following the war Norman Williams served with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan until he was demobilized in 1948. He returned to the RAAF in 1952 on a short-service commission and served as an air traffic controller during the Malayan Emergency and the Korean War, before he left the RAAF for good in September 1954 in the rank of acting Squadron Leader.

Norman Francis Williams is so well-known as RAAF officer that he appears in the English Wikipedia, at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Williams_(RAAF_officer)

Dr. James E. McDonald was an expert meteorologist and atmospherics physicist who devoted much of his life to the UFO problem, concluding that for some cases, the “least worst” explanation was extraterrestrial visitors. Between June 24, 1967, and July 10, 1967, he was in Australia, having asked local UFO investigators to get him to meet UFO witnesses. He met several serious Australian UFO investigators, and many witnesses; including Norman Francis Williams. As explained by Keith Basterfield [kbd1], many interviews were tape-recorded.

Several writings by Dr. James E. McDonald can be read on my website here, and the best information about him is the excellent 2003 book by Ann Druffel, “Firestorm - Dr. James E. McDonald's Fight for UFO Science”.

Evaluation:

Possible extraterrestrial craft.

Sources references:

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

• [kbd1] * "Observation by pilot over Germany - 1945", Web page by Keith Basterfield, Australia, November 14, 2016, at https://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com/2016/11/observation-by-australian-pilot-over.html
• [nip1] * "UFO Sighting Chronology - 1939-1945; The WWII Years & 'Foo-Fighters'", on the ufology Website The NICAP Website, USA, created December 18, 2006, updated December 5, 2017, at http://www.nicap.org/chronos/1939-1945.htm
• [get1] * "UFOs and Intelligence: A Timeline", electronic document by George M. Eberhart, USA, May 31, 2022.

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