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[[File:UFOs Before Roswell - European Foo-Fighters 1940-1945.jpg|right|360px]]
[[File:UFOs Before Roswell - European Foo-Fighters 1940-1945.png|right|360px]]
The term '''foo fighter''' was used by [[Allies|Allied]] aircraft pilots in [[World War II]] to describe various mysterious aerial phenomena seen in the skies over both the European and Pacific Theater of Operations, initially by the U.S. 415th Night Fighter Squadron and later by other squadrons.ย  It happened in the 1940s, as [[Bombing of Germany during World War II|waves of bombers were litterally obliterating German cities]]--[[Dresden]], [[Hamburg]], [[Berlin]].ย  In these raids, American fighter pilots saw these balls of light coming at their planes. They didn't know what they were. They thought they were German ''[[Wunderwaffen]]'' at first. They were seen in large numbers over Germany and over Western Europe, where they were described variously as structured craft, or simply, balls of light. It was so important at the time that the military began to notice it, and they began to investigate these things. There were hundreds of cases. None seemed to be very harmful to planes. But they were all over the place.<ref name=toomey>{{cite book | last = Toomey | first = Vurlee A. | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Let Us Not Forget: A Tribute to America's 20th Century Veterans | publisher = iUniverse | year = 2002 | location = | pages = 71 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-595-23823-8}}</ref><ref name="childress"/>
The term '''foo fighter''' was used by [[Allies|Allied]] aircraft pilots in [[World War II]] to describe various mysterious aerial phenomena seen in the skies over both the [[European]] and Pacific Theater of Operations, initially by the U.S. 415th Night Fighter Squadron and later by other squadrons.ย  It happened in the 1940s, as [[Bombing of Germany during World War II|waves of bombers were litterally obliterating German cities]]--[[Dresden]], [[Hamburg]], [[Berlin]].ย  In these raids, [[American]] fighter pilots saw these balls of light coming at their planes. They didn't know what they were. They [[thought]] they were [[German]] ''[[Wunderwaffen]]'' at first. They were seen in large numbers over Germany and over Western [[Europe]], where they were described variously as structured craft, or simply, balls of light. It was so important at the [[time]] that the military began to notice it, and they began to investigate these things. There were hundreds of cases. None seemed to be very harmful to planes. But they were all over the place.<ref [[name]]=toomey>{{cite book | last = Toomey | first = Vurlee A. | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Let Us Not Forget: A Tribute to America's 20th Century Veterans | publisher = iUniverse | year = 2002 | location = | pages = 71 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-595-23823-8}}</ref><ref name="childress"/>


Whatever they were, fact is, as evidenced by [[Operation Paperclip]], the United States military's advances since World War II were the result of looted German technology.
Whatever they were, [[fact]] is, as evidenced by [[Operation Paperclip]], the [[United States]] military's advances since World War II were the result of looted German [[technology]].


== Etymology ==
== Etymology ==
[[File:Excerpt from the official December 1944 War Diary of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron at Ochey Air Base in Nancy, France.jpg|thumb|350px|Excerpt from the official December 1944 War Diary of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron ([[USAAF]]) at Ochey Air Base in Nancy, [[France]]]]
[[File:Excerpt from the official December 1944 War Diary of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron at Ochey Air Base in Nancy, France.png|thumb|350px|Excerpt from the official December 1944 War Diary of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron ([[USAAF]]) at Ochey Air Base in Nancy, [[France]]]]
The term foo was borrowed from French word for fire, "feu". In a mission debriefing on the evening November 27, 1944, Fritz Ringwald, the unit's S-2 Intelligence Officer, stated that Don Meiers and Ed Schleuter had sighted a red ball of fire that appeared to chase them through a variety of high-speed maneuvers. Fritz said that Don was extremely agitated and had a copy of the comic strip tucked in his back pocket. He pulled it out and slammed it down on Fritz's desk and said, "... it was another one of those fuckin' foo fighters!" and stormed out of the debriefing room.<ref name="Jeffery A Lindell 1991">Jeffery A Lindell, 1991. "Interviews with Harold Augspurger, Commander 415th Night Fighter Squadron; Frederic Ringwald, S-2 Intelligence Officer, 415th Night Fighter Squadron</ref> However, in a Channel 4 documentary aired 3 June 2011, reporter [[Nick Cook]] showed an RAF pilot's report, obtained from RAF archives, reporting a UFO incident with a similar red ball of fire on a bombing mission over Germany, but dated 1942 and taken with fact that the term was already in use by radar operators in 1944, must raise some doubt as to the origin of the term <ref>http://www.channel4.com/programmes/ufos-the-secret-evidence/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1</ref>
The term foo was borrowed from [[French]] word for fire, "feu". In a mission debriefing on the evening November 27, 1944, Fritz Ringwald, the unit's S-2 [[Intelligence]] Officer, stated that Don Meiers and Ed Schleuter had sighted a red ball of fire that appeared to chase them through a variety of high-speed maneuvers. Fritz said that Don was extremely agitated and had a copy of the comic strip tucked in his back pocket. He pulled it out and slammed it down on Fritz's desk and said, "... it was another one of those fuckin' foo fighters!" and stormed out of the debriefing room.<ref name="Jeffery A Lindell 1991">Jeffery A Lindell, 1991. "Interviews with Harold Augspurger, Commander 415th Night Fighter Squadron; Frederic Ringwald, S-2 Intelligence Officer, 415th Night Fighter Squadron</ref> However, in a Channel 4 documentary aired 3 June 2011, reporter [[Nick Cook]] showed an RAF pilot's report, obtained from RAF archives, reporting a UFO incident with a similar red ball of fire on a bombing mission over Germany, but dated 1942 and taken with fact that the term was already in use by radar operators in 1944, must raise some doubt as to the origin of the term <ref>http://www.channel4.com/programmes/ufos-the-secret-evidence/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1</ref>


According to Fritz Ringwald, because of the lack of a better name, it stuck. And this was originally what the men of the 415th started calling these incidents: "Fuckin' Foo Fighters." In December 1944, a press correspondent from the [[Associated Press]] in Paris, Bob Wilson, was sent to the 415th at their base outside of Dijon, France to investigate this story.<ref>''New York Times''. "Balls of Fire Stalk U.S. Fighters in Night Assaults Over Germany." (A.P.) 2 Jan.1945. p.1, 4.</ref> It was at this time that the term was cleaned up to just "foo fighters". The unit commander, Capt. Harold Augsperger, also decided to shorten the term to foo fighters in the unit's historical data.<ref name="Jeffery A Lindell 1991"/>
According to Fritz Ringwald, because of the lack of a better name, it stuck. And this was originally what the men of the 415th started calling these incidents: "Fuckin' Foo Fighters." In December 1944, a press correspondent from the [[Associated Press]] in Paris, Bob Wilson, was sent to the 415th at their base outside of Dijon, France to investigate this story.<ref>''New York Times''. "Balls of Fire Stalk U.S. Fighters in Night Assaults Over Germany." (A.P.) 2 Jan.1945. p.1, 4.</ref> It was at this time that the term was cleaned up to just "foo fighters". The unit commander, Capt. Harold Augsperger, also decided to shorten the term to foo fighters in the unit's historical data.<ref name="Jeffery A Lindell 1991"/>


==History==
==History==
When the Foo Fighters appeared, Allied aircraft would sometimes experience mechanical failure. And perhaps most mystifying of all was that some pilots reported flying right through the UFOs, as if they had no mass. It was never discovered what the Foo Fighters were or where they came from, but the theory that they were some sort of German secret weapon was widely accepted among [[Allied]] pilots at the time. Some believe what the National Socialists had developed was an advanced mechanism that scientists are still working on today, related to mercury in technology. This involves mercury being in a closed system, like a glass bulb. Once that mercury becomes spinning in a gyroscopic manner within a closed system, that creates a lift. It's electrified lift, it's also a very bright light. This is typically how witnesses described Foo Fighters. Towards the end of World War II, the Germans started producing massive amounts of mercury. And in fact, a number of the U-boats that were later sunk--one was sunk near [[Singapore]] (the U-859), another in [[Norway]] (the U-864)--only a few years ago, they actually found it, and its entire cargo was mercury. What the few historians have actually written about Foo Fighters, which is still apparently a secret today, is they were a kind of mercury plasma ball. And the purpose of the Foo Fighters was to make a highly pulsed magnetic charge and field around the bombers, which would then cut out the engines and interfere with the electrical systems in the planes.<ref name="childress"/><ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.kystverket.no/default.aspx?did=9281641 | accessdate=14 January 2007 | work= Norwegian Coastal Administration press release | title = U-864: Extended investigations 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Greenwood | first = C.J. | title = International Law Reports: v.56 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1980 | pages = 40โ€“47 | url = | id = | isbn = 0-521-46401-3}}</ref>
When the Foo Fighters appeared, Allied aircraft would sometimes experience mechanical failure. And perhaps most mystifying of all was that some pilots reported flying right through the UFOs, as if they had no mass. It was never discovered what the Foo Fighters were or where they came from, but the [[theory]] that they were some sort of German secret weapon was widely accepted among [[Allied]] pilots at the time. Some believe what the National [[Socialists]] had developed was an advanced mechanism that scientists are still working on today, related to mercury in technology. This involves mercury being in a closed system, like a glass bulb. Once that mercury becomes spinning in a gyroscopic manner within a closed system, that creates a lift. It's electrified lift, it's also a very bright light. This is typically how witnesses described Foo Fighters. Towards the end of World War II, the [[Germans]] started producing massive amounts of mercury. And in fact, a number of the U-boats that were later sunk--one was sunk near [[Singapore]] (the U-859), another in [[Norway]] (the U-864)--only a few years ago, they actually found it, and its entire cargo was mercury. What the few historians have actually written about Foo Fighters, which is still apparently a secret today, is they were a kind of mercury plasma ball. And the purpose of the Foo Fighters was to make a highly pulsed magnetic charge and field around the bombers, which would then cut out the engines and interfere with the electrical systems in the planes.<ref name="childress"/><ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.kystverket.no/default.aspx?did=9281641 | accessdate=14 January 2007 | work= Norwegian Coastal Administration press release | title = U-864: Extended investigations 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Greenwood | first = C.J. | title = International Law Reports: v.56 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1980 | pages = 40โ€“47 | url = | id = | isbn = 0-521-46401-3}}</ref>


The first sightings occurred in November 1944, when pilots flying over [[Germany]] by night reported seeing fast-moving round glowing objects following their aircraft. The objects were variously described as fiery, and glowing red, white, or orange. Some pilots described them as resembling [[Christmas tree]] lights and reported that they seemed to toy with the aircraft, making wild turns before simply vanishing. Pilots and aircrew reported that the objects flew formation with their aircraft and behaved as if under intelligent control, but never displayed hostile behavior. However, they could not be outmaneuvered or shot down. The phenomenon was so widespread that the lights earned a name โ€“ in the European Theater of Operations they were often called "kraut fireballs" but for the most part called "foo-fighters". The military took the sightings seriously, suspecting that the mysterious sightings might be secret German weapons, but further investigation revealed that German and Japanese pilots had reported similar sightings.<ref>{{cite book | last = Lucanio | first = Patrick | authorlink = | coauthors = Gary Coville | title = Smokin' Rockets: The Romance of Technology in American Film, Radio and Television, 1945โ€“1962 | publisher = McFarland | year = 2002 | location = | pages = 16โ€“17 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-7864-1233-X}}</ref>
The first sightings occurred in November 1944, when pilots flying over [[Germany]] by night reported seeing fast-moving round glowing objects following their aircraft. The objects were variously described as fiery, and glowing red, [[white]], or orange. Some pilots described them as resembling [[Christmas tree]] lights and reported that they seemed to toy with the aircraft, making wild turns before simply vanishing. Pilots and aircrew reported that the objects flew formation with their aircraft and behaved as if under intelligent control, but never displayed hostile behavior. However, they could not be outmaneuvered or shot down. The phenomenon was so widespread that the lights earned a name โ€“ in [[the European]] Theater of Operations they were often called "kraut fireballs" but for the most part called "foo-fighters". The military took the sightings seriously, suspecting that the mysterious sightings might be secret German weapons, but further investigation revealed that German and [[Japanese]] pilots had reported similar sightings.<ref>{{cite book | last = Lucanio | first = Patrick | authorlink = | coauthors = Gary Coville | title = Smokin' Rockets: The Romance of Technology in American Film, Radio and Television, 1945โ€“1962 | publisher = McFarland | year = 2002 | location = | pages = 16โ€“17 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-7864-1233-X}}</ref>


In its 15 January 1945 edition, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time magazine ]]'' carried a story entitled "Foo-Fighter", in which it reported that the "balls of fire" had been following [[USAAF]] night fighters for over a month, and that the pilots had named it the "foo-fighter". According to ''Time'', descriptions of the phenomena varied, but the pilots agreed that the mysterious lights followed their aircraft closely at high speed. Some scientists at the time rationalized the sightings as an illusion probably caused by afterimages of dazzle caused by flak bursts, while others suggested [[St. Elmo's Fire]] as an explanation.<ref name=time19450115>{{Cite news | last = | first = | author-link = | last2 = | first2 = | author2-link = | title = Foo-Fighter | newspaper = [[Time (magazine)|Time]] | pages = | year = | date = 15 Jan 1945 | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,775433,00.html}}</ref>
In its 15 January 1945 edition, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time magazine ]]'' carried a story entitled "Foo-Fighter", in which it reported that the "balls of fire" had been following [[USAAF]] night fighters for over a month, and that the pilots had named it the "foo-fighter". According to ''Time'', descriptions of the phenomena varied, but the pilots agreed that the mysterious lights followed their aircraft closely at high speed. Some scientists at the time rationalized the sightings as an illusion probably caused by afterimages of dazzle caused by flak bursts, while [[others]] suggested [[St. Elmo's Fire]] as an explanation.<ref name=time19450115>{{Cite news | last = | first = | author-link = | last2 = | first2 = | author2-link = | title = Foo-Fighter | newspaper = [[Time (magazine)|Time]] | pages = | year = | date = 15 Jan 1945 | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,775433,00.html}}</ref>


The "balls of fire" phenomenon reported from the Pacific Theater of Operations differed somewhat from the foo fighters reported from Europe; the "ball of fire" resembled a large burning sphere which "just hung in the sky", though it was reported to sometimes follow aircraft. On one occasion, the gunner of a [[B-29]] aircraft managed to hit one with gunfire, causing it to break up into several large pieces which fell on buildings below and set them on fire. As with the European foo fighters, no aircraft was reported as having been attacked by a "ball of fire"<ref>{{cite book | last = Robertson, Jr. | first = Gordon Bennett | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Bringing the Thunder: The Missions of a World War II B-29 Pilot in the Pacific | publisher = Stackpole Books | year = 2006 | location = | pages = 183โ€“185 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-8117-3333-5}}</ref>
The "balls of fire" phenomenon reported from the Pacific Theater of Operations differed somewhat from the foo fighters reported from Europe; the "ball of fire" resembled a large burning sphere which "just hung in the sky", though it was reported to sometimes follow aircraft. On one occasion, the gunner of a [[B-29]] aircraft managed to hit one with gunfire, causing it to break up into several large pieces which fell on buildings below and set them on fire. As with the European foo fighters, no aircraft was reported as having been attacked by a "ball of fire"<ref>{{cite book | last = Robertson, Jr. | first = Gordon Bennett | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Bringing the Thunder: The Missions of a World War II B-29 Pilot in the Pacific | publisher = Stackpole Books | year = 2006 | location = | pages = 183โ€“185 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-8117-3333-5}}</ref>
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Foo fighters were reported on many occasions from around the world; a few examples are noted below.
Foo fighters were reported on many occasions from around the world; a few examples are noted below.


* Sighting from September 1941 in the [[Indian Ocean]] was similar to some later Foo Fighter reports. From the deck of the S.S. ''Puล‚aski'' (a [[Poland|Polish]] merchant vessel transporting British troops), two sailors reported a "strange globe glowing with greenish light, about half the size of the full moon as it appears to us."<ref>Clark 1998 p 230</ref> They alerted a British officer, who watched the object's movements with them for over an hour.
* Sighting from September 1941 in the [[Indian Ocean]] was similar to some later Foo Fighter reports. From the deck of the S.S. ''Puล‚aski'' (a [[Poland|Polish]] merchant vessel transporting British troops), two sailors reported a "strange globe glowing with greenish light, about half the size of the full moon as it appears to us."<ref>Clark 1998 p 230</ref> They alerted a British officer, who watched the [[object]]'s movements with them for over an hour.


* Charles R. Bastien of the [[Eighth Air Force]] reported one of the first encounters with foo fighters over the Belgium/Holland area; he described them as "two fog lights flying at high rates of speed that could change direction rapidly". During debriefing, his intelligence officer told him that two [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] night fighters had reported the same thing, and it was later reported in British newspapers.<ref>{{cite book | last = Bastien | first = Charles R. | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = 32 Copilots | publisher = Trafford Publishing | year = 2004 | location = | pages = 205 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 1-4120-1729-7}}</ref>
* Charles R. Bastien of the [[Eighth Air Force]] reported one of the first encounters with foo fighters over the Belgium/Holland area; he described them as "two fog lights flying at high rates of speed that could change direction rapidly". During debriefing, his intelligence officer told him that two [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] night fighters had reported the same thing, and it was later reported in British newspapers.<ref>{{cite book | last = Bastien | first = Charles R. | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = 32 Copilots | publisher = Trafford Publishing | year = 2004 | location = | pages = 205 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 1-4120-1729-7}}</ref>
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==Explanations and theories==
==Explanations and theories==
* Author Renato Vesco revived the wartime theory that the foo fighters were a new Third Reich secret weapon in his work 'Intercept UFO', reprinted in a revised English edition as 'Man-Made UFOs: 50 Years Of Suppression' in 1994.ย  Vesco alleges that the foo fighters were in fact a form of ground-launched automatically guided jet-propelled [[flak]] mine called the ''Feuerball'' (Fireball).ย  The device, operated by special [[SS]] units, apparently resembled a [[tortoise]] shell in shape, and flew by means of gas jets that spun like a [[Catherine wheel (firework)|Catherine wheel]] around the fuselage.ย  Miniature [[klystron]] tubes inside the device, in combination with the gas jets, created the foo fighters' characteristic glowing spheroid appearance.ย  A crude form of collision avoidance radar ensured the craft would not crash into another airborne object, and an onboard sensor mechanism would even instruct the machine to depart swiftly if it was fired upon.ย  The purpose of the ''Feuerball'', according to Vesco, was two-fold.ย  The appearance of this weird device inside a bomber stream would (and indeed did) have a distracting and disruptive effect on the bomber pilots; and Vesco alleges that the devices were also intended to have an ''offensive'' capability.ย  [[Electrostatic]] discharges from the klystron tubes would, he states, interfere with the ignition systems of the bombers' engines, causing the planes to crash.ย  Although there is no hard evidence to support the reality of the ''Feuerball'' drone, this theory has been taken up by other aviation/ufology authors, and has even been cited as the most likely explanation for the phenomena in at least one recent television documentary on Third Reich secret weapons.<ref name="childress">Renato Vesco, David Hatcher Childress, ''Man-made UFOs 1944โ€“1994: 50 years of suppression'', Adventures Unlimited Press, 1994 ISBN 0-932813-23-2.</ref><ref>Renato Vesco, ''Intercept UFO'', Pinnacle Books, 1974 ISBN 0-523-00840-6.</ref>
* Author Renato Vesco revived the wartime theory that the foo fighters were a new [[Third Reich]] secret weapon in his work 'Intercept UFO', reprinted in a revised English edition as 'Man-Made UFOs: 50 Years Of Suppression' in 1994.ย  Vesco alleges that the foo fighters were in fact a form of ground-launched automatically guided jet-propelled [[flak]] mine called the ''Feuerball'' (Fireball).ย  The device, operated by special [[SS]] units, apparently resembled a [[tortoise]] shell in shape, and flew by means of gas jets that spun like a [[Catherine wheel (firework)|Catherine wheel]] around the fuselage.ย  Miniature [[klystron]] tubes inside the device, in combination with the gas jets, created the foo fighters' characteristic glowing spheroid appearance.ย  A crude form of collision avoidance radar ensured the craft would not crash into another airborne object, and an onboard sensor mechanism would even instruct the machine to depart swiftly if it was fired upon.ย  The purpose of the ''Feuerball'', according to Vesco, was two-fold.ย  The appearance of this weird device inside a bomber stream would (and indeed did) have a distracting and disruptive effect on the bomber pilots; and Vesco alleges that the devices were also intended to have an ''offensive'' capability.ย  [[Electrostatic]] discharges from the klystron tubes would, he states, interfere with the ignition systems of the bombers' engines, causing the planes to crash.ย  Although there is no hard evidence to support the [[reality]] of the ''Feuerball'' drone, this theory has been taken up by other aviation/ufology authors, and has even been cited as the most likely explanation for the phenomena in at least one recent television documentary on Third Reich secret weapons.<ref name="childress">Renato Vesco, David Hatcher Childress, ''Man-made UFOs 1944โ€“1994: 50 years of suppression'', Adventures Unlimited Press, 1994 ISBN 0-932813-23-2.</ref><ref>Renato Vesco, ''Intercept UFO'', Pinnacle Books, 1974 ISBN 0-523-00840-6.</ref>


* A type of electrical discharge from airplanes' wings (see [[St. Elmo's Fire]]) has been suggested as an explanation, since it has been known to appear at the wingtips of aircraft.<ref name=time19450115/>
* A [[type]] of electrical discharge from airplanes' wings (see [[St. Elmo's Fire]]) has been suggested as an explanation, since it has been known to appear at the wingtips of aircraft.<ref name=time19450115/>


* It has been pointed out that some of the descriptions of foo fighters closely resemble those of [[ball lightning]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Stenhoff | first = Mark | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Ball Lightning: An Unsolved Problem in Atmospheric Physics | publisher = Springer | year = 1999 | location = | pages = 112 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-306-46150-1}}</ref>
* It has been pointed out that some of the descriptions of foo fighters closely resemble those of [[ball lightning]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Stenhoff | first = Mark | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Ball Lightning: An Unsolved Problem in Atmospheric Physics | publisher = Springer | year = 1999 | location = | pages = 112 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-306-46150-1}}</ref>
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: ''"Pilots do not have sufficient information about phenomena of disorientation, and, as a corollary, are given considerable disorganized, incomplete, and inaccurate information. They are largely dependent upon their own experience, which must supplement and interpret the traditions about 'vertigo' which are passed on to them. When a concept thus grows out of anecdotes cemented together with practical necessity, it is bound to acquire elements of mystery. So far as 'vertigo' is concerned, no one really knows more than a small part of the facts, but a great deal of the peril. Since aviators are not skilled observers of human behavior, they usually have only the vaguest understanding of their own feelings. Like other naive persons, therefore, they have simply adopted a term to cover a multitude of otherwise inexplicable events."''<ref>Vinacke, Edgar. 8 May 1946. ''"The Concept of Aviator's 'Vertigo.'"'' Report No.#7. U.S. Naval School of Aviation Medicine, Project (X-148-Av-4-3). Reprinted in Journal of Aviation Medicine. 1948. 19:158โ€“190</ref>
: ''"Pilots do not have sufficient information about phenomena of disorientation, and, as a corollary, are given considerable disorganized, incomplete, and inaccurate information. They are largely dependent upon their own experience, which must supplement and interpret the traditions about 'vertigo' which are passed on to them. When a concept thus grows out of anecdotes cemented together with practical necessity, it is bound to acquire elements of mystery. So far as 'vertigo' is concerned, no one really knows more than a small part of the facts, but a great deal of the peril. Since aviators are not skilled observers of human behavior, they usually have only the vaguest understanding of their own feelings. Like other naive persons, therefore, they have simply adopted a term to cover a multitude of otherwise inexplicable events."''<ref>Vinacke, Edgar. 8 May 1946. ''"The Concept of Aviator's 'Vertigo.'"'' Report No.#7. U.S. Naval School of Aviation Medicine, Project (X-148-Av-4-3). Reprinted in Journal of Aviation Medicine. 1948. 19:158โ€“190</ref>


Michael D. Swords<ref>Swords, Michael D. [http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_20_4_swords.pdf "Ufology: What Have We Learned?"] ''Journal of Scientific Exploration'', Vol 20, No 4, pp. 545โ€“589, 2006</ref> writes:
Michael D. Swords<ref>Swords, Michael D. [http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_20_4_swords.pdf "Ufology: What Have We Learned?"] ''Journal of [[Scientific]] Exploration'', Vol 20, No 4, pp. 545โ€“589, 2006</ref> writes:
: ''During WWII, the foo fighter experiences of [Allied] pilots were taken very seriously. Accounts of these cases were presented to heavyweight scientists, such as [[David T. Griggs|David Griggs]], [[Luis Walter Alvarez|Luis Alvarez]] and [[Howard Percy Robertson|H.P. Robertson]]. The phenomenon was never explained. Most of the information about the issue has never been released by military intelligence.''
: ''During [[WWII]], the foo fighter experiences of [Allied] pilots were taken very seriously. Accounts of these cases were presented to heavyweight scientists, such as [[David T. Griggs|David Griggs]], [[Luis Walter Alvarez|Luis Alvarez]] and [[Howard Percy Robertson|H.P. Robertson]]. The phenomenon was never explained. Most of the information about the issue has never been released by military intelligence.''


The story of the World War II Foo Fighters, much like that of the [[Battle of Los Angeles]], has been largely forgotten or dismissed by traditional historians.
The story of the World War II Foo Fighters, much like that of the [[Battle of Los Angeles]], has been largely forgotten or dismissed by traditional historians.
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* [http://www.german-discs.net GERMAN DISCS: UFO in the Third Reich] Takes on claims of the German Reich having developed and flown high-performance flying discs, declaring them "unlikely" (with footnotes)
* [http://www.german-discs.net GERMAN DISCS: UFO in the Third Reich] Takes on claims of the German Reich having developed and flown high-performance flying discs, declaring them "unlikely" (with footnotes)
* [http://www.miqel.com/reading_library/archived_stories/ww2_foo_fighters.html Foo Fighters of WWII] by Jerome Clark and Lucius Farish: A widely reproduced essay describing many wartime sightings (including those in above article) from 1941 to 1947 and onward
* [http://www.miqel.com/reading_library/archived_stories/ww2_foo_fighters.html Foo Fighters of WWII] by Jerome Clark and Lucius Farish: A widely reproduced essay describing many wartime sightings (including those in above article) from 1941 to 1947 and onward
* [http://www.santafeghostandhistorytours.com/ufoII.html Photos of Foo Fighters ] โ€“ Santa Fe Ghost and History tours
* [http://www.santafeghostandhistorytours.com/ufoII.html Photos of Foo Fighters ] โ€“ Santa Fe Ghost and [[History]] tours


==References==
==References==
{{Reflist|2}}
{{Reflist|2}}
[[Category:World War II]]
ย 
[[Category:Unidentified flying objects]]
[[Category:WWAC]]
[[Category:Aviation]]
[[Category:Allied bombings]]
[[Category:German World War II weapons]]

Latest revision as of 16:29, 15 March 2024

File:UFOs Before Roswell - European Foo-Fighters 1940-1945.png

The term foo fighter was used by Allied aircraft pilots in World War II to describe various mysterious aerial phenomena seen in the skies over both the European and Pacific Theater of Operations, initially by the U.S. 415th Night Fighter Squadron and later by other squadrons. It happened in the 1940s, as waves of bombers were litterally obliterating German cities--Dresden, Hamburg, Berlin. In these raids, American fighter pilots saw these balls of light coming at their planes. They didn't know what they were. They thought they were German Wunderwaffen at first. They were seen in large numbers over Germany and over Western Europe, where they were described variously as structured craft, or simply, balls of light. It was so important at the time that the military began to notice it, and they began to investigate these things. There were hundreds of cases. None seemed to be very harmful to planes. But they were all over the place.[1][2]

Whatever they were, fact is, as evidenced by Operation Paperclip, the United States military's advances since World War II were the result of looted German technology.

Etymology

File:Excerpt from the official December 1944 War Diary of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron at Ochey Air Base in Nancy, France.png
Excerpt from the official December 1944 War Diary of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron (USAAF) at Ochey Air Base in Nancy, France

The term foo was borrowed from French word for fire, "feu". In a mission debriefing on the evening November 27, 1944, Fritz Ringwald, the unit's S-2 Intelligence Officer, stated that Don Meiers and Ed Schleuter had sighted a red ball of fire that appeared to chase them through a variety of high-speed maneuvers. Fritz said that Don was extremely agitated and had a copy of the comic strip tucked in his back pocket. He pulled it out and slammed it down on Fritz's desk and said, "... it was another one of those fuckin' foo fighters!" and stormed out of the debriefing room.[3] However, in a Channel 4 documentary aired 3 June 2011, reporter Nick Cook showed an RAF pilot's report, obtained from RAF archives, reporting a UFO incident with a similar red ball of fire on a bombing mission over Germany, but dated 1942 and taken with fact that the term was already in use by radar operators in 1944, must raise some doubt as to the origin of the term [4]

According to Fritz Ringwald, because of the lack of a better name, it stuck. And this was originally what the men of the 415th started calling these incidents: "Fuckin' Foo Fighters." In December 1944, a press correspondent from the Associated Press in Paris, Bob Wilson, was sent to the 415th at their base outside of Dijon, France to investigate this story.[5] It was at this time that the term was cleaned up to just "foo fighters". The unit commander, Capt. Harold Augsperger, also decided to shorten the term to foo fighters in the unit's historical data.[3]

History

When the Foo Fighters appeared, Allied aircraft would sometimes experience mechanical failure. And perhaps most mystifying of all was that some pilots reported flying right through the UFOs, as if they had no mass. It was never discovered what the Foo Fighters were or where they came from, but the theory that they were some sort of German secret weapon was widely accepted among Allied pilots at the time. Some believe what the National Socialists had developed was an advanced mechanism that scientists are still working on today, related to mercury in technology. This involves mercury being in a closed system, like a glass bulb. Once that mercury becomes spinning in a gyroscopic manner within a closed system, that creates a lift. It's electrified lift, it's also a very bright light. This is typically how witnesses described Foo Fighters. Towards the end of World War II, the Germans started producing massive amounts of mercury. And in fact, a number of the U-boats that were later sunk--one was sunk near Singapore (the U-859), another in Norway (the U-864)--only a few years ago, they actually found it, and its entire cargo was mercury. What the few historians have actually written about Foo Fighters, which is still apparently a secret today, is they were a kind of mercury plasma ball. And the purpose of the Foo Fighters was to make a highly pulsed magnetic charge and field around the bombers, which would then cut out the engines and interfere with the electrical systems in the planes.[2][6][7]

The first sightings occurred in November 1944, when pilots flying over Germany by night reported seeing fast-moving round glowing objects following their aircraft. The objects were variously described as fiery, and glowing red, white, or orange. Some pilots described them as resembling Christmas tree lights and reported that they seemed to toy with the aircraft, making wild turns before simply vanishing. Pilots and aircrew reported that the objects flew formation with their aircraft and behaved as if under intelligent control, but never displayed hostile behavior. However, they could not be outmaneuvered or shot down. The phenomenon was so widespread that the lights earned a name โ€“ in the European Theater of Operations they were often called "kraut fireballs" but for the most part called "foo-fighters". The military took the sightings seriously, suspecting that the mysterious sightings might be secret German weapons, but further investigation revealed that German and Japanese pilots had reported similar sightings.[8]

In its 15 January 1945 edition, Time magazine carried a story entitled "Foo-Fighter", in which it reported that the "balls of fire" had been following USAAF night fighters for over a month, and that the pilots had named it the "foo-fighter". According to Time, descriptions of the phenomena varied, but the pilots agreed that the mysterious lights followed their aircraft closely at high speed. Some scientists at the time rationalized the sightings as an illusion probably caused by afterimages of dazzle caused by flak bursts, while others suggested St. Elmo's Fire as an explanation.[9]

The "balls of fire" phenomenon reported from the Pacific Theater of Operations differed somewhat from the foo fighters reported from Europe; the "ball of fire" resembled a large burning sphere which "just hung in the sky", though it was reported to sometimes follow aircraft. On one occasion, the gunner of a B-29 aircraft managed to hit one with gunfire, causing it to break up into several large pieces which fell on buildings below and set them on fire. As with the European foo fighters, no aircraft was reported as having been attacked by a "ball of fire"[10]

The postwar Robertson Panel cited foo fighter reports, noting that their behavior did not appear to be threatening, and mentioned possible explanations, for instance that they were electrostatic phenomena similar to St. Elmo's fire, electromagnetic phenomena, or simply reflections of light from ice crystals. The Panel's report suggested that "If the term "flying saucers" had been popular in 1943โ€“1945, these objects would have been so labeled."[11]

Sightings

Foo fighters were reported on many occasions from around the world; a few examples are noted below.

  • Sighting from September 1941 in the Indian Ocean was similar to some later Foo Fighter reports. From the deck of the S.S. Puล‚aski (a Polish merchant vessel transporting British troops), two sailors reported a "strange globe glowing with greenish light, about half the size of the full moon as it appears to us."[12] They alerted a British officer, who watched the object's movements with them for over an hour.
  • Charles R. Bastien of the Eighth Air Force reported one of the first encounters with foo fighters over the Belgium/Holland area; he described them as "two fog lights flying at high rates of speed that could change direction rapidly". During debriefing, his intelligence officer told him that two RAF night fighters had reported the same thing, and it was later reported in British newspapers.[13]
  • Career U.S. Air Force pilot Duane Adams often related that he had witnessed two occurrences of a bright light which paced his aircraft for about half an hour and then rapidly ascended into the sky. Both incidents occurred at night, both over the South Pacific, and both were witnessed by the entire aircraft crew. The first sighting occurred shortly after the end of World War II while Adams piloted a B-25 bomber. The second sighting occurred in the early 1960s when Adams was piloting a KC-135 tanker.

Explanations and theories

  • Author Renato Vesco revived the wartime theory that the foo fighters were a new Third Reich secret weapon in his work 'Intercept UFO', reprinted in a revised English edition as 'Man-Made UFOs: 50 Years Of Suppression' in 1994. Vesco alleges that the foo fighters were in fact a form of ground-launched automatically guided jet-propelled flak mine called the Feuerball (Fireball). The device, operated by special SS units, apparently resembled a tortoise shell in shape, and flew by means of gas jets that spun like a Catherine wheel around the fuselage. Miniature klystron tubes inside the device, in combination with the gas jets, created the foo fighters' characteristic glowing spheroid appearance. A crude form of collision avoidance radar ensured the craft would not crash into another airborne object, and an onboard sensor mechanism would even instruct the machine to depart swiftly if it was fired upon. The purpose of the Feuerball, according to Vesco, was two-fold. The appearance of this weird device inside a bomber stream would (and indeed did) have a distracting and disruptive effect on the bomber pilots; and Vesco alleges that the devices were also intended to have an offensive capability. Electrostatic discharges from the klystron tubes would, he states, interfere with the ignition systems of the bombers' engines, causing the planes to crash. Although there is no hard evidence to support the reality of the Feuerball drone, this theory has been taken up by other aviation/ufology authors, and has even been cited as the most likely explanation for the phenomena in at least one recent television documentary on Third Reich secret weapons.[2][14]
  • A type of electrical discharge from airplanes' wings (see St. Elmo's Fire) has been suggested as an explanation, since it has been known to appear at the wingtips of aircraft.[9]
  • It has been pointed out that some of the descriptions of foo fighters closely resemble those of ball lightning.[15]
  • During April 1945, the US Navy began to experiment on visual illusions as experienced by night time aviators. This work began the US Navy's Bureau of Medicine (BUMED) project X-148-AV-4-3. This project pioneered the study of aviators' vertigo and was initiated because a wide variety of anomalous events were being reported by night time aviators. Dr. Edgar Vinacke, who was the premier flight psychologist on this project, summarized the need for a cohesive and systemic outline of the epidemiology of aviator's vertigo as,
"Pilots do not have sufficient information about phenomena of disorientation, and, as a corollary, are given considerable disorganized, incomplete, and inaccurate information. They are largely dependent upon their own experience, which must supplement and interpret the traditions about 'vertigo' which are passed on to them. When a concept thus grows out of anecdotes cemented together with practical necessity, it is bound to acquire elements of mystery. So far as 'vertigo' is concerned, no one really knows more than a small part of the facts, but a great deal of the peril. Since aviators are not skilled observers of human behavior, they usually have only the vaguest understanding of their own feelings. Like other naive persons, therefore, they have simply adopted a term to cover a multitude of otherwise inexplicable events."[16]

Michael D. Swords[17] writes:

During WWII, the foo fighter experiences of [Allied] pilots were taken very seriously. Accounts of these cases were presented to heavyweight scientists, such as David Griggs, Luis Alvarez and H.P. Robertson. The phenomenon was never explained. Most of the information about the issue has never been released by military intelligence.

The story of the World War II Foo Fighters, much like that of the Battle of Los Angeles, has been largely forgotten or dismissed by traditional historians.

See also

Further reading

Sources

External links

References

  1. โ†‘ Toomey, Vurlee A. (2002). Let Us Not Forget: A Tribute to America's 20th Century Veterans pp. 71 iUniverse. ISBN 0-595-23823-8
  2. โ†‘ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Renato Vesco, David Hatcher Childress, Man-made UFOs 1944โ€“1994: 50 years of suppression, Adventures Unlimited Press, 1994 ISBN 0-932813-23-2.
  3. โ†‘ 3.0 3.1 Jeffery A Lindell, 1991. "Interviews with Harold Augspurger, Commander 415th Night Fighter Squadron; Frederic Ringwald, S-2 Intelligence Officer, 415th Night Fighter Squadron
  4. โ†‘ http://www.channel4.com/programmes/ufos-the-secret-evidence/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1
  5. โ†‘ New York Times. "Balls of Fire Stalk U.S. Fighters in Night Assaults Over Germany." (A.P.) 2 Jan.1945. p.1, 4.
  6. โ†‘ broken cite news
  7. โ†‘ Greenwood, C.J. (1980). International Law Reports: v.56 pp. 40โ€“47 Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-46401-3
  8. โ†‘ Lucanio, Patrick; Gary Coville (2002). Smokin' Rockets: The Romance of Technology in American Film, Radio and Television, 1945โ€“1962 pp. 16โ€“17 McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1233-X
  9. โ†‘ 9.0 9.1 broken cite news
  10. โ†‘ Robertson, Jr., Gordon Bennett (2006). Bringing the Thunder: The Missions of a World War II B-29 Pilot in the Pacific pp. 183โ€“185 Stackpole Books. ISBN 0-8117-3333-5
  11. โ†‘ Report of Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentifed Flying Objects convened by Office of Scientific Intelligence, CIA January 14โ€“18, 1953
  12. โ†‘ Clark 1998 p 230
  13. โ†‘ Bastien, Charles R. (2004). 32 Copilots pp. 205 Trafford Publishing. ISBN 1-4120-1729-7
  14. โ†‘ Renato Vesco, Intercept UFO, Pinnacle Books, 1974 ISBN 0-523-00840-6.
  15. โ†‘ Stenhoff, Mark (1999). Ball Lightning: An Unsolved Problem in Atmospheric Physics pp. 112 Springer. ISBN 0-306-46150-1
  16. โ†‘ Vinacke, Edgar. 8 May 1946. "The Concept of Aviator's 'Vertigo.'" Report No.#7. U.S. Naval School of Aviation Medicine, Project (X-148-Av-4-3). Reprinted in Journal of Aviation Medicine. 1948. 19:158โ€“190
  17. โ†‘ Swords, Michael D. "Ufology: What Have We Learned?" Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol 20, No 4, pp. 545โ€“589, 2006
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