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Sasebo, Japan, on July 7, 1945:

Case number:

ACUFO-1945-06-00-SASEBO-1

Summary:

In 1964, the American ufology group National Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) published their book “The UFO Evidence”, compiled by ufologist Richard Hall. Among the cases included therein, it explained that at the headquarters of the Strategic Air Command of the US Air Forces in 1958, a group of officers, airmen and missile engineers had observed an elongated UFO with satellite objects for about 20 minutes. This case was reported to NICAP by Major Paul A. Duich, USAF (Ret.), one of the witnesses, who was then on active duty. Until then, Major Duich had been an Air Force Master Navigator, accumulating 4000 flying hours and 300 combat hours.

Duich also informed NICAP in 1961 or earlier that during World War II, he was one of the airmen who saw the “foo-fighters,” while crew member of a B-29 making bomb runs on Japan.

After retiring from the Air Force, Major Duich became a member of NICAP.

On a double 33 rpm vinyl titled “Factual eyewitness testimony of UFO encounters”, in 1978, Paul A. Duich recounted in 2 minutes 7 seconds almost at the start of the first disc that in July 1945, his B-29 bomber had been followed during a night flight over Japan by a “Foo Fighter” seen by the entire crew. He said:

“The foo fighter that my crew first saw was orange in color. It followed our plane for miles and miles. It was close to the tail of the aircraft, on the left. It was hard to tell how far away it was because it was a night flight. Around us, it was total darkness except for the lights that could be seen further down on the ground. Our mission was to bomb the city of Sasebo, Japan. The chief gunner who was in charge of the artillery of our B-29 bomber, and who was positioned in the tail, finally fired! We saw the tracer bullets heading straight for the object. But nothing happened.”

“And then quickly, this thing stalled. It made a kind of dive, slid under our camera and came to our right. We, who were in front of it, could see it. That's where I could see it. It was a big ball ... like ionized gas, at least that's the term we would use today. It gave us the creeps. At the time, we thought it was a secret Japanese device, probably designed by the Germans. I should point out that our colleagues in Europe also thought it was a German weapon, while the German pilots were convinced it was an Allied weapon. With each side accusing the other, no one ever really knew what it was.”

In the 2000's, Jan Aldrich, leader of the historical ufology Website Project 1947, gave more information: some time ago, he told, Robert Swiatek of the Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR) purchased a second-hand copy of the book “Flying Saucers from the Moon” by the British ufologist Harold T. Wilkins, which happened to have been once owned by Paul A. Duich. Tucked into the book which dealt among other sightings with WWII “foo-fighters” reports, there was a hand-written note by Major Duich; which Jan Aldrich transcribed.

In his note Duich said that his first exposure to the UFO question occurred during a mission by his B-29 bomber crew July 1945. Duich was the Flight Engineer on the crew. They were flying en route to Sasebo, Japan, in a lone bomber mission at approximately 9000 feet when a “Foo-fighter” appeared to join them and “fly formation” for many miles abeam the B-29's left horizontal stabilizer. The rear gunner reported it first.

The airplane commander ordered a burst of gunfire after they were sure it was not another B-29. The tracer bullets were seen to appear to hit the blob of light but nothing happened.

Sometime later, the “foo-fighter” broke formation, swooped under the B-29 and vanished in the distance at approximately the 2 o'clock position which is when Duich was about to observe it from his position on the right side of the nose sections: “It was a big ball of fuzzy orange-red light and nothing more.”

Duich said it was impossible to accurately estimate the distance separating the “foo-fighter” and his airplane as there was nothing to compare with in the dark night sky.

Duich told that the crew reported this to Intelligence at the next morning debriefing, and he wonders whether the crew was suspected of “war nerves” because not long after, they were all sent to rest camp at Hickam Field, in Hawaii.

Also in the 2000's, French ufologist Dominique Weinstein, compiling a pilot UFO sightings catalog, apparently also had some information on the case, as he told that according to a letter of November 8, 1945, supplied from Richard Hall, on the night of July 7, 1945, eighteen B-29s bombers were part of a raid against targets in Nagasaki, Omura and Yawata. One lone B-29 crew was flying at approximately 9,000 feet when a “Foo” appeared to join them and “fly formation” abeam their left horizontal stabilizer. The rear gunners reported it first. It followed them for many miles. The airplane commander ordered a burst of gunfire after they were sure it was not another B-29. The tracers were seen to appear to hit the blob of light but nothing happened. Sometimes later, the Foo broke formation, swooped under the B-29 and vanished in the distance at approximately the 2 o'clock position. “It was impossible to accurately estimate the distance between the Foo and our airplane as there was nothing to compare within the dark night sky. It was a big ball of fuzzy red-orange light and nothing more.”

Data:

Temporal data:

Geographical data:

Witnesses data:

Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

[Ref. uir1:] NICAP "THE UFO INVESTIGATOR":

[Ref. nip1:] UFOLOGY GROUP NICAP:

In a section about the September 8, 1958, sighting at the Strategic Air Command Headquarters, Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha, the witness who reported it, Paul A. Duich, is commented on:

[Ref. dke1:] DONALD E. KEYHOE:

[Ref. ufe1:] PAUL A. DUICH:

On the double 33 rpm vinyl “Factual eyewitness testimony of UFO encounters”, Paul A. Duich recounted in 2 minutes 7 seconds almost at the start of the first disc that in July 1945, his B-29 bomber had been followed during a night flight over Japan by a “Foo Fighter” seen by the entire crew. He said:

“The foo fighter that my crew first saw was orange in color. It followed our plane for miles and miles. It was close to the tail of the aircraft, on the left. It was hard to tell how far away it was because it was a night flight. Around us, it was total darkness except for the lights that could be seen further down on the ground. Our mission was to bomb the city of Sasebo, Japan. The chief gunner who was in charge of the artillery of our B-29 bomber, and who was positioned in the tail, finally fired! We saw the tracer bullets heading straight for the object. But nothing happened.”

“And then quickly, this thing stalled. It made a kind of dive, slid under our camera and came to our right. We, who were in front of it, could see it. That's where I could see it. It was a big ball ... like ionized gas, at least that's the term we would use today. It gave us the creeps. At the time, we thought it was a secret Japanese device, probably designed by the Germans. I should point out that our colleagues in Europe also thought it was a German weapon, while the German pilots were convinced it was an Allied weapon. With each side accusing the other, no one ever really knew what it was.”

[Ref. muj1:] "MUFON UFO JOURNAL":

[Ref. muj2:] "MUFON UFO JOURNAL":

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

Major Paul A. Duich, USAF - Sasebo, Japan, July, 1945

At SAC headquarters in 1958, a group of officers, airmen and missile engineers observed an elongated UFO with satellite objects for about 20 minutes. The case was reported to NICAP by Major Paul A. Duich, USAF (Ret.), one of the witnesses, who was then on active duty.

Major Duich was an Air Force Master Navigator, who accumulated 4000 flying hours and 300 combat hours. During World War II he was one of those who saw “foo-fighters,” while a crew member of a B-29 making bomb runs on Japan.

After retiring from the Air Force, Major Duich became a member of NICAP.

Some time ago Robert Swiatek of the Fund for UFO Research purchased a second-hand copy of “Flying Saucers from the Moon” by Harold T. Wilkins which happened to have been once owned by Paul A. Duich (PAD). Tucked into the book was the hand-written note by Major Duich transcribed below.

Summary f(Sat) 11-8-75

(1030)

H. T. WILKINS: “FLYING SAUCERS FROM THE MOON”

C. 1954

As I told Barbara Barth in my summary of 25 basic books for FS study, this book has probably the best reference in one source for “FOO-FIGHTERS”--WWII aerial phenomena (Chapter II). He concentrated on the ETO scene, but writes about the Pacific Theatre on p. 28, of great interest to me.

My first exposure to something like this occurred during a mission by our B-29 bomber crew on the Japanese city of SASEBO. We were flying at approx. 9000 feet when the “Foo” appeared to join us and “fly formation” abeam our left horizontal stabilizer. Our rear gunner reported it first. It followed us for many miles. Our airplane commander (AC) ordered a burst of gunfire after we were sure it was not another B-29. (This was a single sortie bomber stream type of mission). The tracers were seen to appear to hit the blob of light but nothing happened. Sometime later, the Foo broke formation, swooped under the B-29 and vanished in the distance at approx. the 2 o'clock position which is when I was about to observe it from my position on the right side of the nose sections. (I was the Flight Engineer on the crew.)

Paul A Duich Foo Fighter Sighting 1945

It was impossible to estimate accurately the distance separating the FOO and our airplane as there was nothing to compare with in the dark night sky.

---------

(To repeat, this is where all this UFO stuff began for me, i.e., en route to SASEBO, July 1945, at 9000 feet)

----------

It was a big ball of fuzzy orange-red light and nothing more.

----------

We reported it to Intelligence at our de-briefing next morning.

---------

Not long after the whole crew was sent to rest camp at Hickam Field Hawaii (OAHU) coincidence /or war nerves?

-------------------------------------------------------

This book is an excellent compendium of early sightings and contains a lot of detail long forgotten by current waves of sightings and speculation.

PAD (Sat) 11-8-75

[Ref. dwn1:] DOMINIQUE WEINSTEIN:

[Ref. dwn2:] DOMINIQUE WEINSTEIN:

[Ref. tai1:] "THINK ABOUT IT" WEBSITE:

(Ref. nip2:) "THE NICAP WEBSITE":

The reference 1 is described at the end of the document as “Strange Company (2007), Keith Chester”.

[Ref. ekl1:] EGON KRAGEL:

This author indicates that Major Paul A. Duich testified that in July 1945, his B-29 bomber was followed, during a night flight over Japan, by a Foo fighter. The entire crew witnessed the phenomenon. Major Duich, then a flight engineer and now retired, said:

“The foo fighter that my crew first saw was orange in color. It followed our plane for miles and miles. It was close to the tail of the aircraft, on the left. It was hard to tell how far away it was because it was a night flight. Around us, it was total darkness except for the lights that could be seen further down on the ground. Our mission was to bomb the city of Sasebo, Japan. The chief gunner who was in charge of the artillery of our B-29 bomber, and who was positioned in the tail, finally fired! We saw the tracer bullets heading straight for the object. But nothing happened.”

“And then quickly, this thing stalled. It made a kind of dive, slid under our camera and came to our right. We, who were in front of it, could see it. That's where I could see it. It was a big ball ... like ionized gas, at least that's the term we would use today. It gave us the creeps. At the time, we thought it was a secret Japanese device, probably designed by the Germans. I should point out that our colleagues in Europe also thought it was a German weapon, while the German pilots were convinced it was an Allied weapon. With each side accusing the other, no one ever really knew what it was.”

The author indicates that the source is a double vinyl album Factual Eyewitness Testimony of UFO Encounters, Investigative Research Associates 1978.

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:

Paul Anthony Duich was born in 1916, and passed away in 1984.

In March 1944, Paul A. Duich was at the Flying Fortress School of the U.S. Army Air Forces in Seattle, USA, as shown in this header of a letter he wrote:

After the War, Paul A. Duich (photo below) was a research engineer in the flight system design and performance department of the Rockwell Space Division in Downey, California, USA, working on the Space Shuttle program.

He became a NICAP investigator at the NICAP Los Angeles Sub-Committee, investigating for example the claims of saucer-landing witness Daniel Fry. He also organized the SKYNET information network, coordinated by Ann Druffel.

Below, top right: Paul A. Duich; bottom left: Dr. Joseph Allen Hynek.

He took many photos while in service, many of them being available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/albums/72177720301245056

The report is unfortunately not complete enough to firmly exclude that it was a Japanese plane equipped with a searchlight.

I know from military operations reports of these bombing raids that sometimes, the Japanese actually equipped one or more of their planes with a searchlight to illuminate the B-29s.

On the other hand, the report gives elements which do not support this very much: the machine gun fire which has no effect; the fact that the supposed enemy plane accompanies and then leaves the B-29 without having attacked it, the interpretation of Paul Duich who thinks that it was a UFO.

Evaluation:

Possible extraterrestrial craft or enemy plane.

Sources references:

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

• [uir1] * "AF Officers Oppose UFO Secrecy", article in The U.F.O. Investigator, ufology magazine of the ufology group National Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), USA, Volume 2, No. 12, page 6, April - May 1961.
• [nip1] * "The UFO Evidence", book published by the National Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), USA, page 25, 1964.
• [dke1] * "Aliens from space: the real story of unidentified flying objects", book by Donald Keyhoe, USM ret., Garden City - Doubleday publishers, pages 259, 262, 1973.
• [ufe1] * "UFO Encounters", 2 LPs record set, Investigative Research Associates, Inc., Suite W, 430 West Diversey Parkway, Chicago, Illinois 60614, USA, 1978.
• [muj1] * "Director's message", in the ufology magazine MUFON UFO Journal, Mutual UFO Network, USA, No 191, page 19, January 1984.
• [muj2] * "The day UFOs flew over SAC headquarters", reprint of the [nip1] article in the ufology magazine MUFON UFO Journal, Mutual UFO Network, USA, No 195, page 16, May - June 1984.
• [prt1] * "Project 1947 - UFO Report - 1945", web page by Jan Aldrich, on his Historical ufology website Project 1947, USA, not dated, circa 2000, at https://www.project1947.com/fig/1945a.htm
• [dwn1] * "Appendix 1 - Catalog of Unconventional Aerial Phenomena - reported by Allied pilots (1942-1945)", catalogue par Dominique F. Weinstein, France, 20 juin 2005.
• [kcr1] ? "Strange Company - Military Encounters with UFOs in World War II", book by Keith Chester, Anomalist Book publishers, USA, page 186, 2007.
• [dwn2] * "The Foofighters Files (1) - Catalogue of Unconventional Aerial Phenomena Reported by Allied pilots during WW II (1943-1945)", catalogue by Dominique F. Weinstein, France, October 2009.
• [nip2] * "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
• [tai1] * "1945: August UFO & Alien Sightings", web page on the Think About It Website, USA, June 22, 2016, at https://www.thinkaboutitdocs.com/1945-august-ufo-alien-sightings
• [ekl1] * "UFOs: The Twelve Files that the Pentagon Cannot Explain", book by Egon Kragel, Max Milo publisher, 2022.
• [ekl1] * "OVNI: Les 12 dossiers que le pentagone ne s'explique pas:", book by Egon Kragel, Max Milo publisher, 2022.

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This page was last updated on July 29, 2024.