ALSACAT:

U.S. Pilots Encounter New Nazi
Weapon "Foo-Fighter"

By ROBERT WILSON
Of the Associated Press

A U.S. Night Fighter Base. France. Jan. 1

The Nazis have thrown somethig new into the night skies over Germany - the weird, mysterious "foo-fighters," balls of fire which race alongside the wings of American Beaufighters flying intruder missions over the Reich.

U.S. pilots have been encountering the eerie "foo-fighters" for more than a month in their night flights. No one apparently knows exactly what this sky weapon is.

The balls of fire appear suddenly and accompany the planes for miles. They appear to be radio-controlled from the ground and manage to keep up with planes flying 300 miles an hour, official intelligence reports reveal.

"There are three kinds of these lights we call 'foo-fighters'", said Lt. Donald Meiers, of Chicago, Ill. "On is red balls of fire which appear off our wing tips and fly along with us, the second is a vertical row of three balls of fire which fly in front of us and the third is a group of about 15 lights which appear off in the distance - like a Christmas tree up in the air - and flicker on and off."

The pilots of this night fighter squadron - in operation since Spetember, 1943 - find these fiery balls the weirdest thing they haveas yet encountered. They are convinced that the "foo-fighters" is designed to be a psychological weapon as well as military, although it is not the nature of the fire balls to attack planes.

Others at this base who have encountered "foo-fighters" include Lts. Chester Buoscio, Chicago, Ill., and Anderson Henshaw, Carrier Mills, Ill; Capt. Fritz Ringwald, staff officer from East St. Louis, Ill., went aon gon [sic, along on] a flight after hearing the the numerous reports of the "foo-fighters."

"I saw lights off the right and told the pilot, who said, 'oh, those are lights on a hill'," Ringwald reported, adding, "I looked in that direction a few minutes later and then told him 'well that hill is considerably closer to us now'."

Looked Like Shooting Stars

Lt. Wallace Gould of Silver Creek, N.Y., said the lights followed his wing tips for a while and then, in a few seconds, zoomed 20,000 feet into the air out of sight.

Lt. Edward Schlater [sic, Schlueter] of Oshkosh, Wis., said he had seen the "Foo-Fighter" on two occasions and it "looked like shooting stars."

Pilots agreed that the balls of fire were more numerous over large German cities. None saw any structure on the fire balls.

Other pilots at this base who have encountered "Foo-Fighters" include Lieutenants Henry Bockstige, Evansville, Ind. and Chester Bouscio, 9752 Avenue M, Chicago; Radio Navigators Lieutenants Anderson Henshaw, Carrier Mills, Ill., and Richard Early, Kalamazoo, Mich.

Many Encounter Flares

Among other flyers who have reported encountering the flares were Lieutenants Garland Moore, Charleston, W. Va., Hubert Moore, Greenwood, Miss., Austin Tetry, York, Pa., Warren Rodich, New Orleans, La., Frank Sardon, El Segundo, Cal, and Flight Officers Murphy Painter, Gonzales, La., Razomond Meyer, Middletown, Conn., and Lt. Richard Urich, Trenton, N.J.

Others included Capt. Charles Horne, Doerun, Ga.; Lieutenants Richard Wanda, Cleveland, O.; Charles Tournier, Lewiston, Me.; Henry Giblin, Santa Rosa, Cal.; Owen Davis, St. Petersburg, Fla.; Charles Ingraham, Waynesburg, Pa.; George Schroch, Willoughby, Ol., and William Flanagan, Meridien, Miss.

But a few nights later, Lt. Henry Giblin, of Santa Rosa, California, pilot, and Lt. Walter Cleary, of Worcester, Massachusetts, radar-observer, were flying at 1,000 feet altitude when they saw a huge red light 1,000 feet above them, moving at 200 miles per hour. As the observation was made on an early winter evening, the men decided that perhaps they had eaten something at chow that didn't agree with them and did not rush to report their experience.

On November 27, 1944, another act in the foo fighter drama was staged. Lieutenant Henry Giblin, native of Santa Rosa, Calif., was flying a U.S. night fighter in the Alsace Lorraine region, south of Mannheim-am-Rhein. He had with him Lieutenant Walter Cleary of Worcester, Mass., as radar-observer. As they were approaching the German town of Speyer on the Rhine south of Mannheim, they got a shock. Some 1,500 feet above their own plane a “hell of a huge fierce, fiery orange light” shot across the night sky at an estimated speed of 250 miles per hour. Again U.S. ground radar stations reported when called: “No enemy machines in the vicinity. Only your own plane in the sky over there.”

Giblin and Cleary decided to say nothing to intelligence, fearing ridicule from higher quarters. It is not wise for a war-time flyer to take such a risk. Let someone else do the reporting!

On November 27, 1944, another act in the foo fighter drama was staged. Lieutenant Henry Giblin, native of Santa Rosa, California, was flying a U.S. night fighter in the Alsace-Lorraine region, south of Mannheim-am-Rhein. He had with him Lieutenant Walter Clearly of Worchester, Mass., as radar-observer. As they were approaching the German town of Speyer on the Rhine south of Mannheim, they got a shock. Some 1,500 feet above their own plane a "hell of a huge fierce fiery orange light" shot across the night sky at an estimated speed of 250 miles per hour.

Again U.S. ground radar stations reported when called: "No enemy machines in the vicinity. Only your own plane in the sky over there."

Giblin and Cleary decided to say nothing to intelligence, fearing ridicule from higher quarters. It is not wise for a war-time flyer to take such a risk - let someone else do the reporting!

Lieutenants Henry Giblin and Walter Cleary saw a huge fiery object above their plane on November 27, 1944 at Speyer, Germany.

[...]

During WW II, when a series of incomprehensible events suddenly erupted over battle zones from North Africa to Guadalcanal to the Rhineland, hundreds of fliers and infantrymen on both sides of the conflict had occasion to look into the skies at a mystery that has never been explained. Whatever the cause, these weird aerial apparitions, which came to be known as "foo fighters", were enough to make witnesses forget momentarily the life and death concerns of men in combat.

[...]

Over the Rhine Valley early one November evening in 1944, Lt. Henry Giblin and his radar observer, Lt. Walter Cleary, sighted a "huge red light" 1,000 feet above them (they were flying at 1,000 feet). The object was moving at about 200 miles per hour. About the same time two other airmen encountered a "glowing red object" which shot up vertically, turned over, and plunged into a steep dive. The witnesses were sure the thing was under intelligent control.

About eight or 10 bright orange lights startled the crew of an American aircraft connected with the 415th Night Fighter Squadron as the plane cruised the Rhine River area north of Strasbourg one November night. Curiously, the lights, which were moving across the sky at tremendous speed, did not show up on either ground or aircraft radar. The pilot, Lt. Ed Schlueter, banked into them expecting a dogfight, but much to his astonishment the objects completely disappeared, only to reappear seconds later. After five minutes the lights were gone.

[...other cases...]

Foo fighters continued to plague the 415th all through January 1945. Usually the lights, colored orange, red, or white, would tail the aircraft for a few moments before streaking away. The ghostly objects never showed up on radar, but the veteran crews discounted theories that the glowing globes were reflections, St. Elmo's fire, or flares, all of which they had observed many and would have easily recognized. One pilot even insisted that he had felt prop wash as the foos zipped passed him.

REPORTS AND RUMORS ABOUT THE FOO FIGHTERS

On November 27, 1944, two pilots, Henry Giblin and Walter Cleary, encountered an enormous, burning orange light in the vicinity of Speyer. It was flying at about 250 mph about 1500 feet above their fighter plane. The radar station in the sector again radioed back the equivalent of "Nuts!" when the pilots queried the presence of this threat.

The plane's own radar almost immediately began to malfunction, and they had to return to base. A detailed report - the first acknowledgment in official form - confirmed the existence of the inexplicable lights, and the two men who reported them became the butt of many jokes.

And let us not forget the foo-fighters, those mysterious luminescent spheres wibtessed by Allied pilots. In November of 1944, the Allied pilots Henry Giblin and Walter Cleary encountered a large burning orange light near Speyer. It was flying at a speed of 250 mph and it was within a quarter mile above them. The plane's radar system began to malfunction. The pilots flew back to base to file an official report.

THE SPEIER, NOVEMBER 1944, FOO FIGHTER INCIDENT:

The case:

The primary source seems to be the famous article of 1945 by Jo Chamberlin [cha] on "foo fighters", which says:

"But a few nights later [end of November, 1944], Lt. Henry Giblin, of Santa Rosa, California, pilot, and Lt. Walter Cleary, of Worcester, Massachusetts, radar-observer, were flying at 1,000 feet altitude when they saw a huge red light 1,000 feet above them, moving at 200 miles per hour. As the observation was made on an early winter evening, the men decided that perhaps they had eaten something at chow that didn't agree with them and did not rush to report their experience."

This version of the story had been republished many times since, such as in "Fortean Studies" N.7.

During World War II, Renato Vesco was a very young aircraft engineer, and after the war he wrote articles and books about secret German weapons [ves]. According to a text that appears on several websites, he indicates:

"On November 27, 1944, a B-27 of the United States Air Force [sic], returning from a raid on Speyer, West Germany, encountered a huge, orange colored light moving upward at an estimated speed of 500 mph. When the pilots reported, sector radar had reported negatively, because nothing had registered on the screen."

The same story is seemingly told in the French ufology magazine "Phenomena"[phe], the bulletin of the defunct group "SOS-OVNIS" with additional details that it was 08:26, a huge orange sphere, at an altitude of 450 meters and the crew is described as a "fighter crew" rather than a bomber's crew.

In Dominique Weinstein's catalogue [wei], the case appears with the same date and location, as that of a huge orange sphere seen at midnight by a USAAF P-70 fighter of the 415th night fighters squadron.

W. A. Harbinson [har] provides other details, indicating that the witnesses were pilots Henry Giblin and Walter Cleary, who stated that on the night of November 27, 1944, they had been harassed in the vicinity of Speyer by "an enormous burning light" that was flying above their aircraft at about 250 miles per hour.

An anonymous website indicates that on November 27, 1944 in Speyer, Germany, "a large red fireball flew parallel to the fighter plane of Lts. Henry Giblin and Walter Cleary. They tried evasive maneuvers, but the craft was able to mirror their movements. After a time, the craft accelerated off above the maximum altitude of the fighter."

A British website says that on November 27, 1944 while in the vicinity of Speyer, at an altitude of 1,000 feet, Lt. H. Giblin and Observer W. Cleary were tailed by an enormous burning light which flew above the plane at a speed of more than 200 mph.

Comments:

The plane could not have been a Martin B-27 since this aircraft was only a project and was abandoned in 1940, no prototype being built. This puts doubt on the version of the sighting by Renato Vesco, who also incorrectly refers to the United States Air Force (USAF) that was actually formed in 1947 while the US air forces were names US Army Air Force (USAAF) then. While there are many better documented foo fighters cases, this one might be invented, or more likely, a mix-up of other cases. Renato Vesco has unwillingly become a hero for "nazi saucers" cultists, and is claimed to be an "expert" who has worked on such projects, but the truth is he was too young at the time to hold any such position, he did not work for the Germans, and he makes a blatant mistake here by telling that the plane was a Martin B-27.

On the contrary, Jo Chamberlin's version is very probably totally accurate. Chamberlin lists other foo fighter sightings by the 415th Night fighter Squadron, and I found out that they are generally supported by official records.

Other sources mention the P-70 Havoc nightfighter, a somehow inefficient converted bomber and trainer, that had a battery of forward-firing guns, and a single hand-held machine gun in the dorsal position that was later replaced by a two-gun Martin turret. But the P-70 was very ineffective, and had been replaced by British made Bristol Beaufighters at the 415th NFS early in 1944. The plane could thus have been a Beaufighter. The Beaufighters also proved rather ineffective, and by the summer of 1944, there were being replaced by the much more effective Northrop P-61 Black Widow.

Jacket badge of the US 415th night fighters squadron, showing the British Bristol Beaufighter plane they used.

So the correct event very likely goes like this:

Towards the end of November, 1944, Lt. Henry Giblin, of Santa Rosa, California, pilot, and Lt. Walter Cleary, of Worcester, Massachusetts, radar-observer were flying a P-70 on training mission or a Beaufighter or a P-61 in combat mission at 1,000 feet altitude when they saw a huge red light 1,000 feet above them, moving at 200 miles per hour. The men thought they had visions or did not dare to look like fools and reported the sighting only after other pilots of that same unit reported several other foo fighters sightings, and this is why it does not appear on the 415th war diaries.

What the huge red light above them could have been is impossible to say as the case stands now due to lack of data. It does obviously did not fly faster than a plane can, no exotic maneuver is reported, no pursuit, no dogfight, no exotic shape.

References:

The '*' indicates sources that I own or checked, the '?' indicates sources that I have not been able to read yet.

• [cha] * "The Foo Fighters Mystery", article by Jo Chamberlin, in "The American Legion Magazine", December, 1945.
• [ves] ? "Intercept UFO", book by Renato Vesco, 1968.
• [phe] ? Article in "Phenomena" Magazine, SOS-OVNI, #12.
• [wei] * "Aircraft / UFO encounters file - Military, Airline and Private Pilot UFO sightings from 1942 to 1996", catalog by Dominique Weinstein, 1997.
• [har] * "Technology and Sightings of World War II", article by W.A. Harbinson.

Dec. 1944; Bt. Strasbourg and Manheim, Germany

Bright fuzzy round ball, twice the size of full moon; yellow, white, red tint that was not solid color; no radar return. (Page 118-119 Ref.1)