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Case of Haguenau, on December 22, 1944:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1944-12-22-HAGUENAU-1

Summary:

An operation report of the 415th Night Fighters Squadron of the US Army Air Force reported an observation of what was then called "Foo-Fighters" that took place in the night of December 22 to 23, 1944, in the Haguenau area.

A patrol was operating in the area "Angels 10" about Sarrebourg north and south of the highway and saw at 06:00 p.m., two lights coming toward them from the ground, seen somewhere in the vicinity of Haguenau.

After reaching the altitude of the aircraft, the lights stabilized and remained on the tail of the plane for about 2 minutes.

The lights had the appearance of large orange glows. They departed then flew level with the aircraft for a few minutes and then went out. They seemed to have been in complete control at all times.

By the "first ufologist" Kenneth Arnold, we learn in 1952 that the pilot was Lt. David McFalls, from Cliffside, North Carolina, and his radar operator was Lt. Edward Baker of Hemat, California. We also learn that their plane flew at 10,000 feet.

Less reliable subsequent versions ensure that the pilot tried several maneuvers to "shake" the light but without success.

Data:

Temporal data:

Geographical data:

Witnesses data:

Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

[Ref. usa1:] U.S. ARMY AIR FORCE - 415THE NFS WAR DIARY:

A microfilm roll containing the unit history and war diaries of the 415th night fighters squadron in the archive of the U.S. Air Force contains several "Foo Fighters" incidents reports, including the on over Haguenau in 1944. This is the primary source for this incident [usa]. It says:

[Ref. usa2:] FRED B. RINGWALD, US ARMY AIR FORCE:

The 415th Night Fighter Squadron of the U.S. Air force was formed in February 1943 and it carried out patrols in the Mediterranean and then North-west Europe during World War II.

Through April 1945, the squadron flew patrols and intruder missions, concentrating its attacks on enemy installations, supplies, communications, and troops. It used Bristol Beaufighter British planes at that time.

In December 1944, members of the 415th made multiple reports of what they called "foo-fighters", as recorded in a January 30, 1945 report to Tactical Air Command by intelligence officer Fred Ringwald.

Here are the parts of that report about the sighting in their case file:

Note: the report lists several other sightings in Alsace, those have their own case files. It also lists several sightings whose location is unknown to me as they were coded such as "Q-9050", "Q-1378" etc. These locations may have been over Alsace, over elsewhere in France, or over Germany. As I did not find the meaning for these locations codes, I cannot include these other sighting in ALSACAT for now.

[Ref. jcn1:] JO CHAMBERLIN:

[Ref. kad1:] KENNETH ARNORLD:

[Ref. hws1:] HAROLD T. WILKINS:

[Ref. gle1:] GORDON LORE AND HAROLD DENNEAULT:

[Ref. jcf1:] JEROME CLARK AND LUCIUS FARISH:

[Ref. mbd1:] MICHEL BOUGARD:

The author indicates that on 22 December 1944, two pilots of the 415th Fighter Squadron based in Dijon, Lieutenants David McFalls and Edward Baker, flew over Hagenau [sic] at a height of 3000 meters. While they were 32 km north of Strasbourg and 26 km west of the Rhine, the pilot made the following communication:

"It's 6:00 pm. Two very bright lights left the ground and headed for us, and they're following us right now."

It was two orange spheres that stayed in the wake of the plane for two minutes, then abruptly abandoned the plane and disappeared.

[Ref. ilr1:] ILLOBRAND VON LUDWIGER:

German ufologist Illobrand von Ludwiger used the case in an article on Foo Fighters as was reported by Wilkins [hws1].

[Ref. ldl1:] MAGAZINE D'UFOLOGIE "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT":

The reference "(9)" is given in the next issue of the magazine LDLN on page 18 as: "UFO ANNUAL Vol. 1 no 1 (1975)".

[Ref. hes1:] HILARY EVANS:

[Ref. jrs1:] JENNY RANDLES:

[Ref. ldl2:] "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT" MAGAZINE:

[Ref. dbr1:] DON BERLINER:

Don Berliner says that on December 22, 1944 "over Hagenau [sic], Germany [sic], the pilot and radar operator" of an American night fighter encountered two "large orange glows" which climbed rapidly towards them. When the pilot dove steeply and banked sharply, the objects stayed with him. The pilot stated:

"Upon reaching our altitude, they levelled off and stayed on my tail... After two minutes, they peeled off and turned away, flying under perfect control."

The source is indicated as "Clark, Jerome, and Farish, Lucius, "The Mysterious 'Foo Fighters' of World War II," 1977 UFO Annual."

[Ref. dwn1:] DOMINIQUE WEINSTEIN:

The 352, 388 and 405 sources are indicated to be "UFO ai confini della realta, special issue of february 1986 of monthly aeronautical magazine JP4"; "UFO Briefing document: the best available evidence, D. Berliner et A. Huneeus (1995)"; "1995 Korean UFO wave, Sunglyul Maeng, 1996".

[Ref. pbh1:] PETER BROOKESMITH:

[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH:

[Ref. uwb2:] "UFOWEB" WEBSITE:

[Ref. nck1:] NICK COOK:

[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN - "BASE OVNI FRANCE":

[Ref. ekl1:] EGON KRAGEL AND YVES COUPRIE:

The authors indicate that on December 22, 1944, Lieutenants David McFalls and Edward Schlueter flew above Haguenau in the Lower Rhine as pilots of the 415th Fighter Squadron based in Dijon. They stabilized at a height of 3000 meters when they noticed "two very bright lights that leave the ground and suddenly head towards the plane." Then these luminous balls, two orange spheres, began to follow them, attached to the wake of their plane. One of the pilots said: "After two minutes, they sped off by flying in a perfectly controlled manner."

The authors indicate that this is cited in "La Chronique des OVNIS" by Michel Bougard.

[Ref. nip1:] "THE NICAP WEBSITE":

The indicated reference corresponds to "Strange Company (2007), Keith Chester".

[Ref. jbu1:] JEROME BEAU:

The source is indicated as "Lore, Gordon I. R. Jnr., et Deneault, Harold H., Jnr., 'Mysteries of the Skies; UFOs in Perspective' p. 116 Prentice-Hall, New Jersey 1968."

[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:

The sources are indicated as: "Weinstein, Dominique, Aircraft UFO Encounters, Project ACUFOE, Paris, 1999 Lore, Jr., Gordon I. R., Mysteries of the Skies: UFOs in Perspective, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1968; Hill, H. Edward, Catalog Through 1950, (in 5HHL); Wilkins, Harold T., Flying Saucers on the Attack, Ace Star A-11, New York, 1967; Vallee, Jacques, Anatomy of a Phenomenon, Henry Regnery, Chicago, 1965; Schoenherr, Luis, Computerized Catalog (N = 3173); Arnold, Kenneth, Coming of the Saucers, Authors, Amherst, 1952; Hall, Richard H., From Airships to Arnold: A Preliminary Catalogue of UFO Reports in the Early 20th Century (1900-1946), UFO Research Coalition, Fairfax, 2000, ISBN:1-928957-01-3; Hatch, Larry, *U* computer database, Author, Redwood City, 2002"

[Ref. cvn2:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:

Former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book telling the story of UFO sightings, flying saucers sightings, in Alsace, from the beginning to 1980.

In this book, he wrote a chapter about the "Foo Fighters" with a general presentation of the topic followed by a chronology of cases.

He says that from the end of September to the end of November 1944, the US 415th Night Fighter Squadron was based on the Dijon Longvic air base, before moving to the old Toul air base on the plate of Ochey, rebuilt by the US military with an artificial landing strip.

One of the reported observation was on December 22, 1944, and he quotes:

Regarding the name "Beau", he notes that it is the contraction of "Bristol Beaufighter", the first fighter plane with a radar, manufactured by Bristol Aeroplane Co Ltd in the U-K, and that the 415th Night Fighter Squadron flew on Beaufighter NF MK 6 F.

He indicates that this is a translated extract of "War Diaries et Unit Reporting" - 145th Night Fighter Squadron, Orhey Air Base, France according to Barry Greenwood, in Just Cause #32 and #33, CUFON - Computer UFO Network - Seattle, Washington, USA.

[Ref. spa1:] "SPICA" UFOLOGY ASSOCIATION:

The case was recorder three times instead of one in their listing:

[Ref. ubk1:] "UFODATENBANK":

Discussion:

In the Condon Report [con], Martin D. Altschuler says that Foo Fighters were St Elmo fire. However, it cannot be the correct explanation for this case, it is enough to read what St. Elmo fire are in Altschuler's text or elsewhere to realize that it does not appear as large orange light, does not climb from the ground towards planes, does not follow planes and does not fly away after two minutes. Other plasma phenomena such as ball lighting also do not apply.

To me, the crew's description of the actions of the orange light cannot match a natural phenomenon. The possibility that immediately comes to mind is another aircraft.

This idea is reinforced in the fact that the same crew reported another flame of red light, the following night, and added that when this other light turned, is "appeared in the shape of an aircraft."

In this context, and with the brevity of the original report, it is not unreasonable to consider that the crew was really thinking that they observed some sort of airplane. A UFO or flying saucer context did not exist to them, so a report and description of a light would not comprise any elements that would suggests they did not think it was some sort of aircraft of human construction.

It is also apparent that no extraordinary manoeuvers are reported except of the initial climb. As the orange lights follow the plane for two minutes, only classic aircraft speed seems at work, maybe faster however than the Beaufighter's speed.

If the light was an aircraft, it however cannot have been a very familiar aircraft, otherwise the crew would have given some sort of identification of it. It cannot be a very conventional enemy plane, or an enemy aircraft in close vicinity, because a dogfight would have likely resulted from the encounter.

It does appear that the crew did not think it was an ordinary aircraft and they did not react as they probably would have if they had thought that it can be an enemy aircraft. The report would nave have started with a sentence such as "More Foo-Fighters were in the air last night."

So I wondered whether they could have encountered some unarmed or non efficient new German aircraft that would emit an unusual amount of light so that it appears as an orange light, and climb fast and rather straight up.

By looking at Foo Fighters reports in general, it is apparent that most of them were probably not planes at all. But this does not mean that all Foo Fighters reports are not aircraft. Some could be, especially those seen at night - as this sighting occurred when the sky was dark.

Messerschmitt 163 "Komet", as its name suggests, would indeed produce a luminous gleam at night: it was the first rocket plane used in air battles in the world. It reaches 9000 meters of altitude in 2 minutes, or 12000 meters in 3 minutes, can still operate 3 to 4 minutes, and when the fuel is exhausted, the rocket is off and it glides down.

One Me-163 is shown at the USAF Museum at Dayton, Ohio, USA, another is shown at London's Science Museum, U-K.

From February 1944, Komet were precisely built in the Black Forest, not far from the place of this observation. In July 1944, 16 Komet are operational, their number would increase to 250 at the end of the 1944. Though a brilliant idea, the plane was a disaster in operation, with 80% of them destroyed in explosions of its dangerous fuel on the ground. The pilots damaged their spine at the time of takeoffs. The interceptions of bombers did not go well because the Komet was much faster, and they were often destroyed by P-51 Mustang fighters that protected the bombers once they started to glide down at a lower speed. While more than 400 Komet were built, they only shot down 9 allied bombers, which made Komet one of the less efficient combat plane ever built.

The reported manoeuvers are quite compatible with those of Komets: it comes from the ground, levels, turns away, and the rocket is off so the light turns off.

However, there are issues with such an explanation:

The 2nd Jagdgeschwader (JG) 400 Squadron, the first and only combat unit using the Me-163, was based on the Venlo airfield in Holland and carried out little action before it was moved to Brandis, near Leipzig in July 1944. At Brandis, the JG 400 experienced its strongest operational activity on September 28, 1944, when it was able to take off 9 Me-163 to intercept American bombers. It was daylight, and the story shows that there seems to have been no test of this airplane at night. The only Luftwaffe night test field was Estelle Retime.

Mano Ziegler, test pilot and then pilot of Me-163 at the JG 400 had been questioned about the possibility of night flights of the Me-163 and had replied: "Trying to land at night would put you in small pieces over the whole country!" (Ziegler p.113) In fact, the "Komet" has no landing light, which is equivalent, given its characteristics, to sure death in the case of an attempt to land at night.

In addition, the Me-163's range was only 25 miles under good conditions, so the JG 400 flew only in the Leipzig region.

I checked in another Aslatian Foo-Fighter case various other potential explanations that I will no republish here; none seems very convincing to me.

The map (above) shows Haguenau, in the Bas-Rhin in Alsace, and Sarrebourg, in the department of Moselle, in Lorraine. The border with Germany is the yellow line, the blue line is the border of the Bas-Rhin department in the Alsace region.

It should be noted that the first ufological source for this case is, in 1952, Kenneth Arnold's book [kad1]. Kenneth Arnold is the witness of an observation near Mount Rainier in the USA in 1947 which changed the game, because it was the first to receive a worldwide journalistic echo. What is less known is that following his observation, Kenneth Arnold became the first ufologist, the first to take the matter seriously and to undertake investigations with witnesses of observations of unidentified flying objects.

Evaluation:

Unidentified.

Sources references:

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

• [usa1] * War diaries of the 415th night fighters squadron, in the archive of the US Army Air Force, NARA, Washington DC, written December 1944.
• [usa2] * Report to Tactical Air Command, by S-2 intelligence officer Fred B. Ringwald, US Army Air Force, January 30, 1945.
• [jcn1] * "The Foo Fighters Mystery", article by Jo Chamberlin, in "The American Legion Magazine", December, 1945.
• [kad1] * "The Coming of the Saucers", book by Kenneth Arnold and Raymond Palmer, privately published, USA, pp 125-126, 1952.
• [hws1] * "Flying Saucers on the Attack", book by Harold T. Wilkins, Ace Books publishers, USA, page 23, 1954.
• [hws1] * "Flying Saucers on the Attack", book by Harold T. Wilkins, The Citadel Press publishers, USA, 1967.
• [gle1] * "Mysteries of the Skies: UFO in Perspective", book by Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., and Harold H. Denneault Jr., Prentice Hall publishers, USA, page 115, 1968.
• [rvo1] ? "Intercettatelli senza sparare", book by Renato Vesco, Mursia publisher, Italy, page 95, 1974.
• [ufl1] ? The UFO Annual, Magazine , USA, Volume l, #1, 1975.
• [jcf1] * "The Mysterious "Foo Fighters" of WW II", article by Jerome Clark and Lucius Farish, in SAGA UFO Report, USA, Spring 1975.
• [mbd1] * "La Chronique des OVNIS", book by Michel Bougard, France-Loisirs - Pierre Delarge publishers, France, pp 271-272, 1977.
• [ilr1] * "Ungewoehnliche Eigenschaften nichtidentifizierbarer Lichterscheinungen", by Illo Brand von Ludwiger, in "Bericht von der Herbsttagung 1978 der Mufon-CES in der Universitaet Tuebingen, MUFON-CES, 1978.
• [ldl1] * "Faux avions et vrais OVNIS", article by Jean Sider, in the ufology magazine Lumières Dans La Nuit (LDLN), France, #188, page 16, October 1979.
• [hes1] * "UFOs 1947-1987: The 40-Year Search for an Explanation", book by Hilary Evans, Fortean Times publishers, U-K., September 1987.
• [lsr1] ? Computer catalog by Luis Schoenherr, circa 1990.
• [jrs1] * "UFOs and How to See Them", book by Jenny Randles, Anya publishers, U-K., 1992.
• [ldl2] * Article in the ufology magazine Lumières Dans La Nuit, (LDLN), France, #330, December 1994.
• [dbr1] * "The UFO Briefing Documents - Case histories - 1944-45: 'Foo Fighters' over Europe and Asia", compiled by Don Berliner with Marie Galbraith and Antonio Huneeus, presented by CUFOS, FUFOR, MUFON, December 1995.
• [pbh1] * "UFO - The Complete Sightings", book by Peter Brookesmith, Barnes & Noble publishers, USA, page 35, 1995.
• [smg1] ? "1995 Korean UFO wave", by Sunglyul Maeng, 1996.
• [kme1] ? Article in the Fortean magazine Fortean Studies, by Kevin McClure, 2001.
• [dwn1] * "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena - Eighty years of pilot sightings - Catalog of Military, Airliner, Private Pilots’ Sightings from 1916 to 2000", compiled by Dominique Weinstein, NARCAP International Technical Advisor, 6th edition, February 2001.
• [lhh1] * "*U* Computer Database", compiled by Larry Hatch, USA, circa 2002.
• [uwb2] * "67", listing by the UFOweb ufology website, France, circa 2003, at http://ufoweb.free.fr/67.htm
• [nck1] * "The Hunt for Zero Point - Inside the Classified World of Antigravity Technology", book by Nick Cook, Broadway Books publishers, page 42, 2003
• [lcn1] * "Haguenau (67) on 22 December 1944", case record by Luc Chastan, on his ufology website Base OVNI France, France, circa 2004, at http://baseovnifrance.free.fr/listgen.php?typlist=1&page=0&numobs=1206
• [kcr1] ? "Strange Company - Military Encounters with UFOs in WWII", book by Keith Chester, Anomalist Books publisher, USA, pages 102,130, 2007.
• [ekl1] * "OVNIS, Enquête sur un Secret d'Etat", book by Egon Kragel and Yves Couprie, Le Cherche Midi publishers, France, 2010.
• [nip1] * "UFO Sighting Chronology 1939-1945; The WWII Years & "Foo-Fighters"", web page compiled by The NICAP Website, USA, December 18, 2006, updated March 3, 2014, at http://www.nicap.org/waves/1939-1946.htm
• [jbu1] * "1944", web page compiled by Jérôme Beau, on his ufology website RR0, France, circa 2008, at http://rr0.org/time/1/9/4/4/
• [uda1] * "22 Dec 1944 - Hagenau, France", web page by the UFOdna website, circa 2010, at http://thecid.com/ufo/uf06/uf5/065707.htm
• [cvn2] * "Mythes et Réalités des Phénomènes Aériens Non Identifiés - Histoire des soucoupes volantes en Alsace jusqu'en 1980", book by Christian Valentin, Grimoires d'Alsace publishers, France, pages 10,11, 2012.
• [spa1] * "DEPARTEMENT 67 - BAS-RHIN", listing of UFO sighting reports by the Alsatian ufology group SPICA, Alsace, France, not dated, found in May 2015, at http://www.spica.org/Page_Listing_67.htm
• [ubk1] * Case records on the website / database UFO-Datenbank, Germany, circa 2017, at http://ufodatenbank.de.

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This page was last updated on July 23, 2022.