Every student of the history of UFOs knows of the
phenomenon seen during WWII and known as foo-fighters,
kraut fireballs or a variety of other names. Basically
they were balls of light which followed and hovered
around `planes of all nationalities both in daylight
and after dark.
Research into this subject has been undertaken by
myself on behalf of the Fund for UFO Research.
Foo-fighter research shows the genesis of the
modern UFO age and during my research I came across
the old chestnut of the dreaded government
"cover-ups".
For many ufologists WWII is the time when the
cover-up really began and there are intimations in
many writers' books (Keel, Fawcett, Good for example)
that both the US and UK governments were involved in
separate studies of the foo-fighter phenomenon.
These subjects are several articles long in
themselves and we won't go into them here, but for the
record so far there is no documentary evidence of a
cover-up of WWII UFO sightings, or even much interest
on any government's part.
No, what we are trying to get to here are the facts
surrounding one particular case of a WWII foo-fighter
sighting, the cover-up implications and how ufology
has dealt with it. So, as the walls melt and voices
become fuzzy, let me take you back, back, back ...
OK, it's October 14th 1943 and you're a bomb aimer
in a B-17 going in amongst the flak for the final run
over the ball-bearing factories at Schweinfurt in
Germany, a trouser filling experience which us young
folk can't even begin to imagine, but for this
particular bomber wave they had more than flak to
contend with.
According to Martin Caidin who wrote Black
Thursday(1960) which deals exclusively with the
Shweinfurt raid:
"During the bomb run of several groups, starting at
about the time the Fortresses approached the Initial
Point, there occurred one of the most baffling
incidents of World War II, and an enigma that to this
day defies all explanation."
"As the bombers of the 384th Group swung into the
final bomb run after passing the Initial Point, the
fighter attacks fell off. This point is vital, and
pilots were queried extensively, as were other crew
members, as to the position at that time of the German
fighter planes. Every man interrogated was firm in his
statement that "at the time there were no enemy
aircraft above."
"At this moment the pilots and top turret gunners,
as well as several crewmen in the Plexiglas noses of
the bombers, reported a cluster of discs in the path
of the 384th's formation and closing with the bombers.
The startled exclamations focused attention on the
phenomenon and the crews talked back and forth,
discussing and confirming the astonishing sight before
them."
"The discs in the cluster were agreed upon as being
silver colored, about one inch thick and three inches
in diameter. They were easily seen by the B-17
crewmen, gliding down slowly in a very uniform
cluster."
"And then the `impossible' happened. B-17 Number
026 closed rapidly with a number of discs; the pilot
attempted to evade an imminent collision with the
objects, but was unsuccessful in his maneuver. He
reported at the intelligence debriefing that his right
wing "went directly through a cluster with absolutely
no effect on engines or plane surface."
"The intelligence officers pressed their
questioning, and the pilot stated further that one of
the discs was heard to strike the tail assembly of his
B-17, but that neither he nor any member of the crew
heard or witnessed an explosion."
"He further explained that about twenty feet from
the discs the pilots sighted a mass of black debris of
varying sizes of clusters of three by four feet."
"The SECRET report added: `Also observed two other
A/C flying through silver discs with no apparent
damage. Observed discs and debris two other times but
could not determine where it came from.'"
"No further information on this baffling incident
has been uncovered, with the exception that such discs
were observed by pilots and crew on missions prior to,
and after, Mission 115 of October 14, 1943."
Caidin's account of the events of 14/10/43 has
since been cited, quoted from and faithfully
reproduced with not the slightest hint of analysis in
over 20 UFO books. Tim Good's Above Top Secret uses
the case to back up an as yet fictional WWII study of
UFOs by one General Massey, and it is used both to
support the 'UFOs were around in WWII' school of
thought but more so to hint at the birth of official
cover-ups. Why?
Well because in Caidin's book the account is
footnoted "1 Memorandum of October 24, 1943, from
Major E.R.T. Holmes, F.L.O., 1st Bombardment Division,
Reference FLO/IBW/REP/126, to M.I.15, War Office,
Whitehall, London, SW (copy to Colonel E.W. Thomson,
A-2, Pinetree)", leaving us in no doubt that "they"
knew all about this UFO sighting and had full
documentation (at least two copies, not to mention any
subsequent memoranda).
But did they really? In fact, did the event ever
really happen at all? I'm not so sure it did. When I
first discovered the account I began to see what could
be found out about it -- it's obviously
well-referenced and so should be easy to check out ...
A letter to the M.O.D at their Air Historical
Branch 5 came to nothing, suggesting that either of
the documents may be held at the Public Records Office
at Kew, London. A professional researcher was
despatched to try to find the document.
She searched all relevant Air Force records
available (some are still bound by various `rules'
with embargos on viewing of up to 100 years) but could
find nothing, despite the help of staff there and
noting that "the reference FLO etc. does not
correspond with any references at the record office."
In the USA, Dennis Stacy (MUFON Journal editor) had
taken an interest in the case and followed up several
leads, aided by the Freedom of Information Act.
Firstly the A.F. Historical Research centre at Maxwell
AFB searched their 8th A.F. files but could come
across no documentary record of the event
(interestingly enough I tried the same source and
whilst they gave me squadron histories of the 415th
Night Fighter squadron and their documented
foo-fighter sightings, they could provide nothing on
the Schweinfurt raid -- odd if the Schweinfurt events
were real).
The National Archives (Washington) searched their
files but drew a blank. A letter written to French
researcher J. M. Bigorne from the National Archives
stated "A search in records of the United States
Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS), European War, Target
Damage File, 11a (2606), Schweinfurt, failed to
disclose any documentation or information regarding
little flying discs by B-17 pilots."
All this presents us with a quandary. If the
Archives are quite free about some foo-fighter info
why, if it exists at all, should they be that bothered
about concealing the Schweinfurt material? So far
three independent researchers over the past ten years
have had the same answer -- none of the flight records
for that day record the event in Caidin's book.
As I have seen other pilots' logs which mention
unusual UFO-type sightings during missions it would be
inconceivable for at least a few aircrew on that raid
to have mentioned it even in passing - especially as
in this case it was obviously something of an item at
de-briefing.
Letters in numerous aircrew magazines (UK & US)
requesting info on the raid were placed and despite
many replies no-one knew anything. Aviation writers
Martin Middlebrook and Chaz Bowyer who have written
many highly detailed books about the air war, and have
interviewed thousands of aircrew, wrote to say they
had never heard of the incident, despite having had
foo-fighters mentioned to them in other contexts.
If the account wasn't a hoax and the government
archives (all of them) were either lying or hiding
material pertaining to the event the only way of
proving it seemed to be getting a fresh first-hand
report of the incident. Dennis Stacy contacted the
384th Bombing Group survivors association and with no
account of the UFO sighting forthcoming from them
(even stranger - perhaps survivors associations are in
on the cover-up too), was put onto General Theodore
Ross Milton who led the raid that day and went in
first with the 91st Group Formation.
He wrote; "I don't recall seeing black discs or
hearing about any strange phenomena from any of my
group," was his reply to the questions Stacy posed
him.
Are we really to believe that the guy who led the
raid didn't hear anything about the phenomenon? Or is
he part of the cover up too?
Martin Caidin, originator of the rumour also
presents problems. His book Black Thursday was first
published in 1960 and yet quotes an alleged SECRET
report. How did he get hold of it then and why has it
not been seen since?
As for Caidin himself, several people have tried to
get in touch with him without success. Both myself and
MUFON Journal editor Dennis Stacy have tried to track
him down via his publishers and a UFO magazine he has
written for, but to no avail.
He last appeared in the dodgy US magazine UFO
Universe where he was featured on the front page as
having 'chased bogies at 20,000 feet,' (an astonishing
spectacle no doubt!), but whilst the article gave
details of UFOs he'd seen post-WWII, government film
of UFOs, cover-ups, and you name it (along with mucho
promotion for his many books, including UFO based
novels) the Schweinfurt raid was never mentioned.
Funny that, really.
So unless and until Caidin himself comes out of the
woodwork with the original document to which he
refers, or until someone who was on the raid can
verify the sighting, or until other evidence about the
event comes out, the discs mentioned by Martin Caidin
seem to be nothing but a rumour -- a rumour which like
so many others has distorted UFO literature for many
years.
On a more hopeful note, if the sightings did take
place the event still has no real place in ufology,
especially in the way it has been used. Remember from
the original account the objects were only one inch by
three inches which is stretching the small alien
interpretation somewhat.
In an air war context I would suggest that anything
which is small and metallic and in clusters is some
kind of "window" or radar deflecting device, or some
other war related artefact. Caidin's account also
mentions that pilots saw "a mass of black debris of
varying sizes" in conjunction with the discs,
suggesting that they came from some explosive shell
casing or damaged airplane. Note also that at least
one plane was alleged to have flown through clusters
of the discs "with absolutely no effect," suggesting
that, like radar deflecting strips and their ilk,
there was very little weight or mass to them.
All this is pure speculation however. Finally,
whilst this case is often included in `foo-fighter'
round-ups it really has no business there, being
atypical of the general `foo-fighter' morphology and
behaviour.
You may think I've been a bit pedantic here with
this case but, it is very significant and the
available facts need to be made known. If people are
going to talk about sightings then let's at least be
certain they happened. If `cover-ups' are to be
invoked, let's see some non-anecdotal evidence.
As with the other foo-fighter cover-up case from
Germany (Project Uranus -- a hoax generated by French
ufologist Henry Durrant to see how far it would go --
it went all over the place!), the Caidin account has
been repeated ad nauseum by UFO writers each trying to
use the material for their own ends without looking
into the source material -- crap researchers the lot
of `em! If the document Caidin alludes to turns up --
fair enough, but until then the case which launched
the WWII cover-up idea seems to be on very shaky
ground indeed.
source and references:
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