ufo - UFOS at close sight: the newspapers, Foo-Fighters in the newspapers.

"Foo-Fighters" in the 1944-1945 Press:

In 1945, there was no shame or embarassement for respected magazines such as NEWSWEEK to report unusual aerial phenomenon. Pilots were not yet mocked, of course it was WWII and the German Luftwaffe rather than extra-terrestrial were the suspected origin of the phenomenon. These observation thus cannot be attributed to a "flying saucer craze" or "fascination for science fiction." They rather indicate that the UFO phenomenon persists and is interpreted in the terms and language of the circumstances.

More information about the Foo-Fighters here.

Foo-Fighters in Newsweek Magazine, January 15, 1945:

Foo-Fighters

NEWSWEEK - Jan. 15, 1945

That was more than a month ago, one of the first times Allied fighters encountered what they now call "foo-fighters."[*] In addition to the wingtip balls, pilots have reported two other types (1). One is a group of three smaller balls which fly in front of their planes, the other a group of about fifteen which appear some distance away and flicker on and off (2). Apparently controlled by radio (3), the foo-fighters keep formation with the planes, even when they dive, climb, or take evasive action. "But they don't explode of attack us," Meiers said last week. "They just seem to follow us like will-o'-the-wisps. (4)"

Probably related to the silvery balls seen by daylight pilots (NEWSWEEK, Dec. 25, 1944), the foo-fighters so far apparently baffle intelligence officers. Possibly they are the results of a new anti-radar device which the Germans have developed (5). On the other hand, they may be the exhaust trails of a smaller model of the radio-controlled Messerschmitt-163, a rocket-propelled flying wing.

Day bombers have met the Me163, which has an explosive charge in the nose and is apparently designed to crash into Allied planes. When one pilot closely inspected foo-fighters tagging him, however, he detected nothing but the spheres. (7)

[*] The name comes from the "Smokey Stover" comic strip.

Notes:

(1) Three different types of phenomenon, which gives us the clue that what is globally termed "Foo-Fighter" is richer than most people may guess.

(2) Which excludes Venus, among other trivial explanation.

(3) Because the hypothesis was that they were german flying devices, it was logical to think of radio-control. As we now know they were not german, we may rather say "under intelligent control."

(4) Already, there were cases where the anormal aerial phenomenon paced aircraft.

(5) We now know that the germans did not develop any anti-radar flying device during the war, and such devices still do not exist.

(6) We now know that there were never any radio-controlled smaller model of the Me-163

(7) The Me-163 does not at all look like a sphere, it cannot fly by night because of the landing technique used, and was not what was observed, as the pilot reports.

This page was last updated on September 5, 2014.

UFOs in the Press:

"Foo-Fighters" in the 1944-1945 Press:

Foo-Fighters in Newsweek Magazine, January 15, 1945:

Foo-Fighters

Notes: