331_120752_Numeric_Files_1944, 1945_37153_German_Armament_Equipment_Documents
- Date
- Mar 1945
- Place
- Germany / Alsace-Lorraine front (415th Night Fighter Squadron patrol area)
- Record
- Pentagon file
- Assessment
- Not assessed
- Evidence strength
What was reported
SHAEF Air Staff messages and memoranda, January-March 1945, concerning WWII 'night phenomena' ('foo fighters') reported by the 415th Night Fighter Squadron over the German/French front, and a separate 1 March 1945 sighting of a long cylindrical object photographed by a 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Group pilot. Includes a detailed 30 January 1945 report listing sortie-by-sortie foo-fighter encounters from mid-December 1944 through late January 1945. The Air Ministry's tentative explanation was flak rockets or ME-262 jets; SHAEF found the evidence 'sketchy and varied' with no satisfactory conclusion possible.
What officials concluded
Tentative explanation
Air Ministry suggested a few of the alleged aircraft may have been Me-262s and that flak rockets were the most likely explanation for the rest, but stated 'no definite and satisfactory conclusion can yet be given'
- Agency
- Department of War
- Released in
- 123456
Evidence profile
- Yes: Visual
- No: Infrared
- No: Radar
- No: Video
- No: Photo
- No: Film
- No: Audio
- No: Night vision
- No: Other sensor
- No: Civilian
- Yes: Military aircrew
- No: Military ground
- No: Airline crew
- No: Sensor operator
- No: Law enforcement
- No: Scientist
- No: Astronaut
- No: Intelligence official
- No: Other
- No: Light only
- No: Orb or sphere
- No: Disc
- No: Triangle
- Yes: Cylinder
- No: Cube
- No: Other shape
- No: Physiological
- No: Physical trace
- No: Electromagnetic
- No: Sound
- No: Silent
Why this rating Wartime combat-crew visual sightings only, no radar or independent sensor corroboration in this file, and contemporary officials themselves proposed conventional (if unconfirmed) explanations; the cylinder incident is a single-witness account with one photograph whose outcome is not given in this file.
As described in the file
- Witnesses
- 415th Night Fighter Squadron aircrews (multiple named sorties, unnamed individual pilots); 67th TAC/R reconnaissance pilot
- Sensors
- Visual
- Shape
- No fixed shape for the lights; the 1 March object was an aluminum-colored cylinder about 12 feet long, 1 foot in diameter, with small fins and a mast
- Size
- Cylinder: 12 ft long x 1 ft diameter
- Lights and colour
- Red, green, amber, orange, and white lights variously described; blinking and color-changing
- Motion
- Lights followed aircraft in formation, closed to within 100-1000 ft, some paced the aircraft for minutes then peeled off or went out
- Duration
- Commonly several minutes per encounter
- Altitude or range
- Cylinder observed at 9,000 feet; lights reported from treetop to ~10,000 feet
Pentagon files
331_120752_Numeric_Files_1944, 1945_37153_German_Armament_Equipment_Documents
Open the original on war.gov
What the file claims
- Unverified
415th Night Fighter Squadron aircrews repeatedly encountered lights during December 1944-January 1945 that followed their aircraft in close formation, changed color, and could not be attributed to any known friendly aircraft in the area.
- Unverified
A 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Group pilot photographed and reported an aluminum-colored cylindrical object, 12 feet long and 1 foot in diameter, hovering vertically at 9,000 feet on 1 March 1945; when fired on it produced a red flame without smoke and did not disintegrate.
- Unverified
The British Air Ministry's official explanation attributed most of the sightings to flak rockets, with a few possibly misidentified Me-262 jet aircraft.
On the map
49.00° N, 7.50° E, plotted at the centre of the region named in the record
Show on the map