"Foo Fighters" of World War II
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After the famous Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting of 1947, the U.S. Air Force established the first-ever government office for investigating UFOs. However, it was not the first time that a U.S. government body had encountered reports of airborne anomalies. Throughout the Second World War, both Allied and German air crews saw strange, moving lights in the sky that they called “foo fighters.” The many extant reports of these things suggest that military brass was anything but unfamiliar with UFOs by the summer of 1947, and may have already had a plan in place to manage public perception of the UFO phenomenon.
Early Reports
It’s not possible to establish when exactly the first sighting of a “foo fighter” occurred, but a report from the British Royal Air Force, or RAF, from August 1940 indicated that Intelligence officers were already struggling to understand a number of “peculiar incidents” reported by crewmen, and wondered if the Germans were experimenting with new technologies.(1) In September of 1942, the Operational Research Section of the British Air Ministry produced a report on some recent “Pyrotechnic Activity” over Germany, and mentioned four distinct phenomena. One involved balls of fire that seemed to “drip” multicolored fragments for 30 seconds or so before burning out in the air. Another involved colored balls of light that flew 6 or 7 thousand feet into the air. The writers concluded that the Germans had been firing objects into the air with mortars, or on rockets, but noted that none of the launches had ever harmed a plane, or coincided with an enemy attack.(2)
On November 28th, 1942, an RAF bomber crew saw what seemed to be a solid object with four evenly-spaced pairs of red lights attached. The crew estimated it to be 2-300 feet long, and travelling up to 500 mph.(3) Another report from May of 1943 noted that one crew saw what they described as a reddish-orange “meteor” outside of Duisburg in Western Germany that flew from North to South, falling as it went. Three times during the observation, the object emitted a “burst” that produced a green “star.”(4)
In 1943, the Germans unveiled the V-2 Rocket, the world’s first long-range guided missile, and Allied aircrews and ground forces began seeing them immediately. Among the first reports on the new technology are a few reports of so-called “rockets” with some strange behaviours. An RAF ‘Raid Report’ from January 1st, 1944, noted that a British Mosquito pilot had seen two rockets between Halberstadt and Hanover that changed course and overtook his plane before disappearing in the sky. As one passed within 200 yards, the pilot saw a “fiery head” and a “blazing stern.”(5) Reports from January 28th and 29th, as well as February 3rd, described an elusive red light, the latter two of which left a trail of flames and black smoke.(6)
Some of the best-documented reports that we have of UFOs in the Second World War come from the U.S. Army Air Forces, the antecedent to the U.S. Air Force. In August 1943, the U.S. Eighth Air Force in England produced a report on stories of multi-colored explosions in the sky that they called “Pink Flak.” The author of the report makes it clear that the explosions were a “well-understood phenomenon” at the time, and laments the fact that many crews had likely kept silent on their experiences for fear of ridicule.(7)
The crew of a raid over Frankfurt on February 4th, 1944, said they saw a stationary, silver ball about 10 miles away that just hovered in the air.(8) On the night of February 19th, two different crews saw a “silver, cigar-shaped object like an airship.” The second crew noted that there seemed to be a line of windows along the bottom of the object. A few nights later, another crew saw three silver zeppelin-like objects moving in unison.(9)
There were many more sightings of unidentified balls and lights over the spring, summer, and fall. In November 1944, a newspaper in Minnesota quoted Lt. Col. Oris B. Johnson describing some “new gadgets” being thrown at Allied planes. These included what he described as a phosphorous bomb that dripped fire as it exploded, as well as burning pieces of dummy airplanes that appeared in front of bombers, but did no damage when struck.(10) Between the 1st and 5th of December, 1944, British bomber crews had encounters with fast-moving balls of light that seemed to explode when fired at, and that even exploded on their own. None of these lights were seen to follow planes, however.(11) Years after the war, Goerge Todt, an American columnist for the Los Angeles Herald, stated that he and another infantryman in France once saw a cherry-red light in the sky in August, 1944. It flew out from behind their lines, then stopped in the air for more than 12 minutes over the frontline, contracting and expanding again every few seconds, in a steady, rhythmic way. Todt also said that he’d seen another UFO over Paris in February.(12)
Foo-Fighters of the 415th
The first to refer to these lights as “foo fighters” was a radar operator named Donald J. Meiers of the American 415th Night Fighter Squadron. In American English in the 1930s and '40s, “foo” was a well-known nonsense word, made popular by a comic strip called Smokey Stover, which centered on a firefighter who referred to fire as “foo,” and to himself as a “foo fighter.” On a flight in November, 1944, Meiers and his pilot, Ed Schleuter, saw what they described as eight or ten orange or red balls of fire that hovered on the horizon, then disappeared when the plane turned towards them. The objects reappeared in the distance, moved horizontally for a while, then vanished. An intelligence officer who attended the debriefing said that Meiers was extremely rattled by the experience. He brought a copy of the comic strip to the meeting and slammed it down on the officer’s desk, shouting, “it was another one of those fuckin’ foo fighters!” before storming out of the room. A few nights later, another crew saw a huge red light flying over their plane at 200 mph.(13) “Fuckin’ foo fighters” became the term of choice for these lights in the 415th until the aircrews shared their stories with the press, and the expletive was removed.(14)
A string of entries in the squadron’s official War Diary show that there were more sightings in December and January. These and more were confirmed by an intelligence officer’s report to Tactical Air Command.(15) In December 1944, a crew saw a “brilliant red light” travelling at an estimated 200 mph. Though technical failure prevented the crew from tracking the object on radar, they watched it fly away until it just “went out.” A diary entry from two nights later notes that a crew saw five or six red and green lights arranged in a “T” shape that followed their plane through several miles of turns and closed to 1000 feet. The same entry was the first of many to use the term, “foo-fighter.” On December 24th, a crew saw a “glowing red object” shooting up into the air before doing a “wingover,” or a sort of U-turn in the air before diving out of sight. There were more sightings in late December, one of which involved a yellow streak of flame that seemed to fly alongside the plane.(16) None of the sightings were ever corroborated on radar.
Surprisingly, censors allowed reports of these foo-fighters to make it to the press, albeit with some redactions. On December 13th, 1944, the Eugene Register Guard reported that the Nazis had deployed “floating silver balls” in the air.(17) A concurrent report in the Twin Falls Telegram referred to a new German “air defense weapon” that looked like Christmas ball ornaments.(18) On December 31st, Robert Wilson, a young war correspondent with the Associated Press, spent the night with the airmen of the 415th, intending to write a New Year's story. After they told him of the sightings they’d been having, Wilson published a story on the “Eerie German ‘Foo-Fighter’” in the Texas Morning Avalanche.(19) Wilson quoted Meiers who identified three types of lights, and formations of lights, including a group of “about 15” which always appear in the distance, and flicker on and off. The article also shares quotes from other pilots who saw the things, and some versions of the story even listed names.
Despite the sensational nature of the story, Wilson’s piece received little notice in the papers, which by then were all focused on the battle against the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes forest. Aside from a few attempted armchair debunkings, and a summary of Wilson’s story in Time Magazine, there was no other public mention of the foo fighters for the remainder of the war.(20) But sightings continued.(21) In one of the last appearances to the 415th, the pilot turned into a group of foo fighters as soon as he saw them, and they disappeared immediately, only to reappear behind his plane. The pilot flew into a large cloud, and immediately dove two thousand feet while turning left. As he emerged from the bottom of the cloud, the foo fighters emerged with him, at the same relative position.(22)
Italy and the South Pacific
As sightings of foo fighters over Germany were dwindling in February, 1945, they picked up with the American night fighters in Italy. An Operations Report from the 414th Night Fighter Squadron in Pontedera, Italy, made note of an encounter with two “very bright” lights on the night of February 16th. The night after that, a crew saw four bright lights around the Mantova area that burned out after two minutes, and a squadron in Pisa, Italy, noted recent sightings of “orange-red lights” near La Spezia and further inland.(23) On February 21st, another pilot saw two large red balls of fire, and the following night, a pilot watched a strong white light East of Parma for about four minutes.(24) On the 27th, there was another sighting of “balls of fire” around Bologna.(25)
In March, there were a few sightings in Belgium, and several more in Italy and Germany. On March 13th, the crew of a P-61 fighter saw “100 balls of orange fire,” and a second flight saw two. The last recorded sighting of a foo fighter over Italy was on the 18th: a Mosquito crew with the 416th chased a light for half an hour over Northwest Italy, only to see it suddenly disappear. The next night, the 415th had their last recorded sighting in Germany, and the last sighting in Europe.(26) As Jo Chamberlain claimed in his report on the Foo Fighters in American Legion Magazine, their appearances over Germany ceased when the Allied ground forces moved East of the Rhine in March of 1945.(27)
But just before the sightings started dropping off in Europe, they increased in the South Pacific. On January 10th, 1945, an American crew off the coast of Iwo Jima saw an amber light overtake them on their right, and disappear into the clouds ahead. In March, a crew saw a few lights that seemed to be anchored to an object follow them through a few turns before pulling away, and they even picked them up on radar.(28) On June 18th, a crew was tailed for about 42 minutes by a light that alternated between a bright red and a dim orange.(29) These are just a few of the many foo fighters seen in the South Pacific, however, and they weren’t the first. A report from August, 1944 noted several sightings over Sumatra, including a crew that saw reddish-orange balls of light and groups of light appear “out of nowhere” on their starboard side and explode into 4 or 5 fragments each. The crews guessed that they saw 250 or 300 separate explosions, and noted that firing at them had no effect.(30)
A Bomber Command Mission Report for the night of May 2nd, 1945 described three separate incidents: one involved eight intense flames of a light green color, one of which exploded in the air. Another involved several trails of red fire arranged in pairs that were each up to 5000 feet long.(31) A Report for May 14th, notes that a B-29 crew was followed by a red or flame-colored “ball of fire” that appeared immediately after bombs away.(32) Sightings in the South Pacific dwindled over the summer of 1945, and by the time of Japan’s surrender in August, they had all but ceased.
Significance
There was no resolution to the foo fighter mystery, but when people began talking about “flying saucers” after Kenneth Arnold’s UFO encounter in the summer of 1947, American air veterans immediately recalled their wartime experiences. Just two weeks after Arnold’s sighting, at least three different papers in the U.S. published quotes from American air veterans who believed that the foo fighters were secret German or Japanese weapons, and that the unidentified saucers were probably the same technology, deployed by another country.(33) In 2008, the British Ministry of Defense released a large batch of files on UFOs that included a “background briefing” on historical cases. This briefing confirmed that British pilots were also seeing “balls of fire” and “mysterious moving lights” that often tailed their planes, and that the Royal Air Force began formally collecting these reports in 1942. Though both British and American authorities assumed the foo fighters to be secret Axis weapons, they found no evidence of any such projects after the war. What’s more, Allied intelligence had learned that German pilots were seeing the same mysterious lights!(34)
So what were the foo fighters? After Bob Wilson’s story was published, some scientists in New York wrote to the paper to suggest that the crews were seeing instances of St. Elmo’s fire, an electrical phenomenon that can result in balls of fiery light that move in erratic ways.(35) But St. Elmo’s fire is a very rare, and often short-lived phenomenon, and could explain only a small fraction of sightings, at best. It’s possible that the observed phenomena were actually due to testing on secret weapons of war. But if this were the case, we would have to assume that both the Axis and the Allies independently deployed the same experimental technologies in perfect secrecy, and both successfully destroyed all records of their existence after abandoning them. One would also have to explain why none of the technologies ever managed to harm an enemy plane, or achieve any clear strategic advantage for the operator.
Though many UFO witnesses reported round, disc-shaped objects after the summer of 1947, many sightings of the late '40s and early '50s involved balls of light or fire very similar to the most common foo fighters. For example, in the case of the so-called “Flatwoods Monster” of 1952, a group of children saw a glowing red, pear-shaped object with a fiery tail. When some of the children saw it on the ground later that night, it was pulsating between a cherry red, and a pale orange.(36) And zeppelin or cigar-shaped objects have long been common, and are still seen today. There seems to have been a high degree of continuity between the UFO sightings of the Second World War and the more publicized sightings of the post-war period, especially in the evasive, almost playful behaviour of the objects. Some sightings could have been stress or fatigue-induced hallucinations, of course, but the vast number of reports, and the high degree of consistency between them suggest that some witnesses, at least, were seeing something that was actually there.
Given the sheer volume of UFO reports available to U.S. intelligence services by the end of the war, it’s likely that someone in the government had already devised a protocol for dealing with UFO reports by the time of Arnold’s sighting. Though the term “UFO” was not coined until 1952, and there was no neutral term with which to categorize truly unidentified aerial phenomena, there are many reasons to believe that U.S. intelligence would have taken an active interest in reports of foo fighters. America’s delicate alliance with the Soviet Union made both parties uneasy, and when it became clear that the foo fighters were not the work of the Germans or the Japanese, it would not have been a great leap in logic to assume that they were soviet spycraft.
It’s now known that there were many UFO sightings around the world between the war and Arnold’s sighting, including the so-called “ghost rockets” seen in Sweden in 1946.(37) While we don’t know if U.S. intelligence were tracking these kinds of sightings at the time, it’s clear that Arnold’s was far from the first tip-off to the UFO presence. Several ufologists, including Kenn Thomas and Richard Dolan, have suggested that some of the first UFO cases to make the news after Arnold’s sighting were staged, spun, or manipulated as part of a disinformation campaign to discredit UFO witnesses, and stigmatize UFO research. For example, Thomas has shown that U.S. intelligence services were involved in the Maury Island incident in several different ways, and that one of the two principal witnesses did work with the CIA. It’s possible that the then-burgeoning U.S. intelligence community, still searching for an explanation for the unresolved foo fighter sightings of the early 1940s, had already devised a plan to manage the public narrative on UFOs, and put it into action when Arnold’s sighting brought the subject to national attention.
Summary
Aircrews from England, Germany, and the U.S. were all witness to a wide variety of aerial phenomena that intensified in the closing years of the Second World War. The lights, spheres, fireballs, and cigar-shaped objects that they saw were reminiscent of the kinds of UFOs seen before and after Kenneth Arnold’s sighting in the summer of 1947, as well as those seen today. Whatever they were, it’s hard to imagine that U.S. intelligence was not taking note of further sightings by the time that Arnold’s story hit the papers. Exactly what any government knew about these aerial anomalies, however, is still unknown.
Notes:
1) Phenomena Connected with Enemy Night Tactics, August 11, 1940, AIR 2/5070, British National Archives, London, UK. This item is not available online, but the relevant sections are reproduced in “The Foo Fighters of World War II, part one of three parts,” Saturday Night Uforia. Accessed April 22, 2021: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html; Jo Chamberlain, “The Foo-Fighter Mystery,” The American Legion Magazine, December, 1945. After Arnold’s sighting, new stories came to light. Most of these however, were collected long after the fact, often anonymously, and with no supporting documentation. While there is little doubt that RAF crews were seeing foo-fighters too, we’re unlikely to recover many more details of these encounters. A notable exception is an RAF flight leader by the name of P. Wells who gave his story from December 1943 to a British researcher in the 1980s. Wells kept his flight log from the day, which noted a “Screaming Dog-fight with the light.”
2) Operational Research Section of the British Air Ministry. A Note On Recent Enemy Pyrotechnic Activity Over Germany, September 25, 1942, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html; Jo Chamberlain, “The Foo-Fighter Mystery” The American Legion Magazine, December, 1945. This article is reproduced in full at: http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
3) Report by Crew of 61 Squadron to Headquarters, from R. A. F. Station, Syerston, No. 5 Group, 2nd December, 1942, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
4) British Royal Air Force, Flak Liaison Officer Report, no. 161, May 30, 1943, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
5) British Royal Air Force, Raid Report from M/263 Squadron, January 1, 1944, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
6) Report from Headquarters, MACAF, no. 23, January 28, 1944, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
7) The relevant sections are reproduced in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
8) “Foo Fighters Part one,” Saturday Night Uforia: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
9) RAF Military Attache Report, Consolidated Liaison Flak Officer Report, March 7, 1944, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
10) “Nazis Use Jet, Rocket Planes,” Evening Tribune (Albert Lea, Minnesota), November 7, 1944, page 1. This article is reproduced in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
11) RAF Operational Research Section, A New Phenomenon, December 27, 1944, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
12) George Todt, “First Look at UFO,” Los Angeles Herald, January 27, 1961. This article is reproduced in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
13) Chamberlain, “Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
14) Jeffery A. Lindell, "Interviews with Harold Augspurger, Commander 415th Night Fighter Squadron; Frederic Ringwald, S-2 Intelligence Officer, 415th Night Fighter Squadron," 1991.
15) USAAF, Report to Tactical Air Command by intelligence officer Fred Ringwald, January 30, 1945, quoted at: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
16) These later details are from the Ringwald report of January 30, 1945, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html; Chamberlain, “Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
17) Associated Press, “Floating Silver Balls Latest Nazi Weapons,” Eugene Register Guard, December 13, 1944, reproduced in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
18) “Secret Weapon Resembles Yule Decoration,” Twin Falls Telegram, December 14, 1944, page 1.
19) Robert Wilson, “Eerie German “Foo-Fighter” Stalks Yanks Over Naziland,” Morning Avalanche (Lubbock, Texas). January 2, 1945, page 1. This article is reproduced in full at https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
20) "Foo-Fighter," Time, 45, no. 3, January 15, 1945. This article is reproduced in full at: http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,775433,00.html.
21) Chamberlain, “Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
22) Chamberlain, “Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
23) USAAF 416th Night Fighter Squadron, Operations Report, February 18, 1945, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
24) USAAF 416th Night Fighter Squadron, Operations Report, February 21, 1945; USAAF 416th Night Fighter Squadron, Operations Report, February 22, 1945, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
25) USAAF 414th Night Fighter Squadron, Operations Report, February 27, 1945, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
26) “Foo Fighters Part Three,” Saturday Night Uforia: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
27) Chamberlain, “Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
28) USAAF, 549th Night Fighter Squadron Unit History, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
29) These testimonies are found in The Global Twentieth: An Anthology of the 20th AF in WWII, Volume II, and History of the 9th Bomb Group, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
30) USAAF, Tactical Mission Report, August 10/11, 1944, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
31) USAAF Headquarters VII Bomber Command, Mission report no. 11 - 327, APO #244, 2 May 1945 (GCT), quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
32) “Foo Fighters Part Three,” Saturday Night Uforia: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
33) “Saucers May Be "Foo Fighters," Flier Suggests,” Times Herald (Olean, New York), July 8, 1947, page 3; The Associated Press, Morning Avalanche (Lubbock, Texas), July 8, 1947, page 10; Warren R. Jollymore, “Flying Discs Remind AAF Veteran of Pacific Area ‘Fireball’ Reports,” Wisconsin State Journal, July 8, 1947, page 5.
34) British National Archives, Ministry of Defence files on UFOs, quoted in “Foo Fighters Part One,” Saturday Night Uforia: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html; Chamberlain, “Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
35) Chamberlain, “The Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
36) For a comprehensive treatment of the Flatwoods Monster, see Frank Feschino, The Braxton County Monster Updated & Revised Edition The Cover-up of the "Flatwoods Monster" Revealed Expanded (Frank Feschino: August 25, 2013).
37) See NICAP’s summary of the ‘ghost rockets’: http://nicap.org/books/coufo/partI/chIV.htm.
Primary Sources:
(A. P.) “Saucers May Be "Foo Fighters," Flier Suggests.” Times Herald (Olean, New York). July 8, 1947, page 3.
(A. P.) “‘Discs’ Said Found” Morning Avalanche (Lubbock, Texas). July 8, 1947, page 10."Foo-Fighter." Time 45, no. 3, 15 Jan 1945. http://content.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,7601450115,00.html.
(A.P.) "Balls of Fire Stalk U.S. Fighters in Night Assaults Over Germany." New York Times. Jan 2, 1945, p. 1, 4.
(A. P.) “Nazis Use Jet, Rocket Planes.” Evening Tribune (Albert Lea, Minnesota). November 7, 1944, page 1.
(A. P.) “Floating Silver Balls Latest Nazi Weapons.” Eugene Register Guard. December 13, 1944
(A. P.) “Secret Weapon Resembles Yule Decoration.” Twin Falls Telegram. December 14, 1944, page 1.
Chamberlain, Jo. “The Foo-Fighter Mystery.” The American Legion Magazine. December, 1945. This article is reproduced in full in: http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
Jollymore, Warren R.. “Flying Discs Remind AAF Veteran of Pacific Area ‘Fireball’ Reports.” Wisconsin State Journal. July 8, 1947, page 5.
Todt, George. “First Look at UFO.” Los Angeles Herald, January 27, 1961. The relevant sections are reproduced in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
Wilkins, Harold T.. “The Strange Mystery of the Foo Fighters.” Fate 4, no. 6 (August/September 1951). Reproduced in: http://project1947.com/articles/foowilkins.htm.
Wilson, Robert. “Eerie German “Foo-Fighter” Stalks Yanks Over Naziland.” Morning Avalanche (Lubbock, Texas). January 2, 1945, page 1. The article is reproduced in full in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
Secondary Sources:
“The Foo Fighters of World War Two.” Saturday Night Uforia. Parts 1 - 3: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
Other Sources:
A great collection of Foo Fighter Documents reproduced at CUFON.org: http://cufon.org/cufon/foo.htm.
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After the famous Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting of 1947, the U.S. Air Force established the first-ever government office for investigating UFOs. However, it was not the first time that a U.S. government body had encountered reports of airborne anomalies. Throughout the Second World War, both Allied and German air crews saw strange, moving lights in the sky that they called “foo fighters.” The many extant reports of these things suggest that military brass was anything but unfamiliar with UFOs by the summer of 1947, and may have already had a plan in place to manage public perception of the UFO phenomenon.
Early Reports
It’s not possible to establish when exactly the first sighting of a “foo fighter” occurred, but a report from the British Royal Air Force, or RAF, from August 1940 indicated that Intelligence officers were already struggling to understand a number of “peculiar incidents” reported by crewmen, and wondered if the Germans were experimenting with new technologies.(1) In September of 1942, the Operational Research Section of the British Air Ministry produced a report on some recent “Pyrotechnic Activity” over Germany, and mentioned four distinct phenomena. One involved balls of fire that seemed to “drip” multicolored fragments for 30 seconds or so before burning out in the air. Another involved colored balls of light that flew 6 or 7 thousand feet into the air. The writers concluded that the Germans had been firing objects into the air with mortars, or on rockets, but noted that none of the launches had ever harmed a plane, or coincided with an enemy attack.(2)
On November 28th, 1942, an RAF bomber crew saw what seemed to be a solid object with four evenly-spaced pairs of red lights attached. The crew estimated it to be 2-300 feet long, and travelling up to 500 mph.(3) Another report from May of 1943 noted that one crew saw what they described as a reddish-orange “meteor” outside of Duisburg in Western Germany that flew from North to South, falling as it went. Three times during the observation, the object emitted a “burst” that produced a green “star.”(4)
In 1943, the Germans unveiled the V-2 Rocket, the world’s first long-range guided missile, and Allied aircrews and ground forces began seeing them immediately. Among the first reports on the new technology are a few reports of so-called “rockets” with some strange behaviours. An RAF ‘Raid Report’ from January 1st, 1944, noted that a British Mosquito pilot had seen two rockets between Halberstadt and Hanover that changed course and overtook his plane before disappearing in the sky. As one passed within 200 yards, the pilot saw a “fiery head” and a “blazing stern.”(5) Reports from January 28th and 29th, as well as February 3rd, described an elusive red light, the latter two of which left a trail of flames and black smoke.(6)
Some of the best-documented reports that we have of UFOs in the Second World War come from the U.S. Army Air Forces, the antecedent to the U.S. Air Force. In August 1943, the U.S. Eighth Air Force in England produced a report on stories of multi-colored explosions in the sky that they called “Pink Flak.” The author of the report makes it clear that the explosions were a “well-understood phenomenon” at the time, and laments the fact that many crews had likely kept silent on their experiences for fear of ridicule.(7)
The crew of a raid over Frankfurt on February 4th, 1944, said they saw a stationary, silver ball about 10 miles away that just hovered in the air.(8) On the night of February 19th, two different crews saw a “silver, cigar-shaped object like an airship.” The second crew noted that there seemed to be a line of windows along the bottom of the object. A few nights later, another crew saw three silver zeppelin-like objects moving in unison.(9)
There were many more sightings of unidentified balls and lights over the spring, summer, and fall. In November 1944, a newspaper in Minnesota quoted Lt. Col. Oris B. Johnson describing some “new gadgets” being thrown at Allied planes. These included what he described as a phosphorous bomb that dripped fire as it exploded, as well as burning pieces of dummy airplanes that appeared in front of bombers, but did no damage when struck.(10) Between the 1st and 5th of December, 1944, British bomber crews had encounters with fast-moving balls of light that seemed to explode when fired at, and that even exploded on their own. None of these lights were seen to follow planes, however.(11) Years after the war, Goerge Todt, an American columnist for the Los Angeles Herald, stated that he and another infantryman in France once saw a cherry-red light in the sky in August, 1944. It flew out from behind their lines, then stopped in the air for more than 12 minutes over the frontline, contracting and expanding again every few seconds, in a steady, rhythmic way. Todt also said that he’d seen another UFO over Paris in February.(12)
Foo-Fighters of the 415th
The first to refer to these lights as “foo fighters” was a radar operator named Donald J. Meiers of the American 415th Night Fighter Squadron. In American English in the 1930s and '40s, “foo” was a well-known nonsense word, made popular by a comic strip called Smokey Stover, which centered on a firefighter who referred to fire as “foo,” and to himself as a “foo fighter.” On a flight in November, 1944, Meiers and his pilot, Ed Schleuter, saw what they described as eight or ten orange or red balls of fire that hovered on the horizon, then disappeared when the plane turned towards them. The objects reappeared in the distance, moved horizontally for a while, then vanished. An intelligence officer who attended the debriefing said that Meiers was extremely rattled by the experience. He brought a copy of the comic strip to the meeting and slammed it down on the officer’s desk, shouting, “it was another one of those fuckin’ foo fighters!” before storming out of the room. A few nights later, another crew saw a huge red light flying over their plane at 200 mph.(13) “Fuckin’ foo fighters” became the term of choice for these lights in the 415th until the aircrews shared their stories with the press, and the expletive was removed.(14)
A string of entries in the squadron’s official War Diary show that there were more sightings in December and January. These and more were confirmed by an intelligence officer’s report to Tactical Air Command.(15) In December 1944, a crew saw a “brilliant red light” travelling at an estimated 200 mph. Though technical failure prevented the crew from tracking the object on radar, they watched it fly away until it just “went out.” A diary entry from two nights later notes that a crew saw five or six red and green lights arranged in a “T” shape that followed their plane through several miles of turns and closed to 1000 feet. The same entry was the first of many to use the term, “foo-fighter.” On December 24th, a crew saw a “glowing red object” shooting up into the air before doing a “wingover,” or a sort of U-turn in the air before diving out of sight. There were more sightings in late December, one of which involved a yellow streak of flame that seemed to fly alongside the plane.(16) None of the sightings were ever corroborated on radar.
Surprisingly, censors allowed reports of these foo-fighters to make it to the press, albeit with some redactions. On December 13th, 1944, the Eugene Register Guard reported that the Nazis had deployed “floating silver balls” in the air.(17) A concurrent report in the Twin Falls Telegram referred to a new German “air defense weapon” that looked like Christmas ball ornaments.(18) On December 31st, Robert Wilson, a young war correspondent with the Associated Press, spent the night with the airmen of the 415th, intending to write a New Year's story. After they told him of the sightings they’d been having, Wilson published a story on the “Eerie German ‘Foo-Fighter’” in the Texas Morning Avalanche.(19) Wilson quoted Meiers who identified three types of lights, and formations of lights, including a group of “about 15” which always appear in the distance, and flicker on and off. The article also shares quotes from other pilots who saw the things, and some versions of the story even listed names.
Despite the sensational nature of the story, Wilson’s piece received little notice in the papers, which by then were all focused on the battle against the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes forest. Aside from a few attempted armchair debunkings, and a summary of Wilson’s story in Time Magazine, there was no other public mention of the foo fighters for the remainder of the war.(20) But sightings continued.(21) In one of the last appearances to the 415th, the pilot turned into a group of foo fighters as soon as he saw them, and they disappeared immediately, only to reappear behind his plane. The pilot flew into a large cloud, and immediately dove two thousand feet while turning left. As he emerged from the bottom of the cloud, the foo fighters emerged with him, at the same relative position.(22)
Italy and the South Pacific
As sightings of foo fighters over Germany were dwindling in February, 1945, they picked up with the American night fighters in Italy. An Operations Report from the 414th Night Fighter Squadron in Pontedera, Italy, made note of an encounter with two “very bright” lights on the night of February 16th. The night after that, a crew saw four bright lights around the Mantova area that burned out after two minutes, and a squadron in Pisa, Italy, noted recent sightings of “orange-red lights” near La Spezia and further inland.(23) On February 21st, another pilot saw two large red balls of fire, and the following night, a pilot watched a strong white light East of Parma for about four minutes.(24) On the 27th, there was another sighting of “balls of fire” around Bologna.(25)
In March, there were a few sightings in Belgium, and several more in Italy and Germany. On March 13th, the crew of a P-61 fighter saw “100 balls of orange fire,” and a second flight saw two. The last recorded sighting of a foo fighter over Italy was on the 18th: a Mosquito crew with the 416th chased a light for half an hour over Northwest Italy, only to see it suddenly disappear. The next night, the 415th had their last recorded sighting in Germany, and the last sighting in Europe.(26) As Jo Chamberlain claimed in his report on the Foo Fighters in American Legion Magazine, their appearances over Germany ceased when the Allied ground forces moved East of the Rhine in March of 1945.(27)
But just before the sightings started dropping off in Europe, they increased in the South Pacific. On January 10th, 1945, an American crew off the coast of Iwo Jima saw an amber light overtake them on their right, and disappear into the clouds ahead. In March, a crew saw a few lights that seemed to be anchored to an object follow them through a few turns before pulling away, and they even picked them up on radar.(28) On June 18th, a crew was tailed for about 42 minutes by a light that alternated between a bright red and a dim orange.(29) These are just a few of the many foo fighters seen in the South Pacific, however, and they weren’t the first. A report from August, 1944 noted several sightings over Sumatra, including a crew that saw reddish-orange balls of light and groups of light appear “out of nowhere” on their starboard side and explode into 4 or 5 fragments each. The crews guessed that they saw 250 or 300 separate explosions, and noted that firing at them had no effect.(30)
A Bomber Command Mission Report for the night of May 2nd, 1945 described three separate incidents: one involved eight intense flames of a light green color, one of which exploded in the air. Another involved several trails of red fire arranged in pairs that were each up to 5000 feet long.(31) A Report for May 14th, notes that a B-29 crew was followed by a red or flame-colored “ball of fire” that appeared immediately after bombs away.(32) Sightings in the South Pacific dwindled over the summer of 1945, and by the time of Japan’s surrender in August, they had all but ceased.
Significance
There was no resolution to the foo fighter mystery, but when people began talking about “flying saucers” after Kenneth Arnold’s UFO encounter in the summer of 1947, American air veterans immediately recalled their wartime experiences. Just two weeks after Arnold’s sighting, at least three different papers in the U.S. published quotes from American air veterans who believed that the foo fighters were secret German or Japanese weapons, and that the unidentified saucers were probably the same technology, deployed by another country.(33) In 2008, the British Ministry of Defense released a large batch of files on UFOs that included a “background briefing” on historical cases. This briefing confirmed that British pilots were also seeing “balls of fire” and “mysterious moving lights” that often tailed their planes, and that the Royal Air Force began formally collecting these reports in 1942. Though both British and American authorities assumed the foo fighters to be secret Axis weapons, they found no evidence of any such projects after the war. What’s more, Allied intelligence had learned that German pilots were seeing the same mysterious lights!(34)
So what were the foo fighters? After Bob Wilson’s story was published, some scientists in New York wrote to the paper to suggest that the crews were seeing instances of St. Elmo’s fire, an electrical phenomenon that can result in balls of fiery light that move in erratic ways.(35) But St. Elmo’s fire is a very rare, and often short-lived phenomenon, and could explain only a small fraction of sightings, at best. It’s possible that the observed phenomena were actually due to testing on secret weapons of war. But if this were the case, we would have to assume that both the Axis and the Allies independently deployed the same experimental technologies in perfect secrecy, and both successfully destroyed all records of their existence after abandoning them. One would also have to explain why none of the technologies ever managed to harm an enemy plane, or achieve any clear strategic advantage for the operator.
Though many UFO witnesses reported round, disc-shaped objects after the summer of 1947, many sightings of the late '40s and early '50s involved balls of light or fire very similar to the most common foo fighters. For example, in the case of the so-called “Flatwoods Monster” of 1952, a group of children saw a glowing red, pear-shaped object with a fiery tail. When some of the children saw it on the ground later that night, it was pulsating between a cherry red, and a pale orange.(36) And zeppelin or cigar-shaped objects have long been common, and are still seen today. There seems to have been a high degree of continuity between the UFO sightings of the Second World War and the more publicized sightings of the post-war period, especially in the evasive, almost playful behaviour of the objects. Some sightings could have been stress or fatigue-induced hallucinations, of course, but the vast number of reports, and the high degree of consistency between them suggest that some witnesses, at least, were seeing something that was actually there.
Given the sheer volume of UFO reports available to U.S. intelligence services by the end of the war, it’s likely that someone in the government had already devised a protocol for dealing with UFO reports by the time of Arnold’s sighting. Though the term “UFO” was not coined until 1952, and there was no neutral term with which to categorize truly unidentified aerial phenomena, there are many reasons to believe that U.S. intelligence would have taken an active interest in reports of foo fighters. America’s delicate alliance with the Soviet Union made both parties uneasy, and when it became clear that the foo fighters were not the work of the Germans or the Japanese, it would not have been a great leap in logic to assume that they were soviet spycraft.
It’s now known that there were many UFO sightings around the world between the war and Arnold’s sighting, including the so-called “ghost rockets” seen in Sweden in 1946.(37) While we don’t know if U.S. intelligence were tracking these kinds of sightings at the time, it’s clear that Arnold’s was far from the first tip-off to the UFO presence. Several ufologists, including Kenn Thomas and Richard Dolan, have suggested that some of the first UFO cases to make the news after Arnold’s sighting were staged, spun, or manipulated as part of a disinformation campaign to discredit UFO witnesses, and stigmatize UFO research. For example, Thomas has shown that U.S. intelligence services were involved in the Maury Island incident in several different ways, and that one of the two principal witnesses did work with the CIA. It’s possible that the then-burgeoning U.S. intelligence community, still searching for an explanation for the unresolved foo fighter sightings of the early 1940s, had already devised a plan to manage the public narrative on UFOs, and put it into action when Arnold’s sighting brought the subject to national attention.
Summary
Aircrews from England, Germany, and the U.S. were all witness to a wide variety of aerial phenomena that intensified in the closing years of the Second World War. The lights, spheres, fireballs, and cigar-shaped objects that they saw were reminiscent of the kinds of UFOs seen before and after Kenneth Arnold’s sighting in the summer of 1947, as well as those seen today. Whatever they were, it’s hard to imagine that U.S. intelligence was not taking note of further sightings by the time that Arnold’s story hit the papers. Exactly what any government knew about these aerial anomalies, however, is still unknown.
Notes:
1) Phenomena Connected with Enemy Night Tactics, August 11, 1940, AIR 2/5070, British National Archives, London, UK. This item is not available online, but the relevant sections are reproduced in “The Foo Fighters of World War II, part one of three parts,” Saturday Night Uforia. Accessed April 22, 2021: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html; Jo Chamberlain, “The Foo-Fighter Mystery,” The American Legion Magazine, December, 1945. After Arnold’s sighting, new stories came to light. Most of these however, were collected long after the fact, often anonymously, and with no supporting documentation. While there is little doubt that RAF crews were seeing foo-fighters too, we’re unlikely to recover many more details of these encounters. A notable exception is an RAF flight leader by the name of P. Wells who gave his story from December 1943 to a British researcher in the 1980s. Wells kept his flight log from the day, which noted a “Screaming Dog-fight with the light.”
2) Operational Research Section of the British Air Ministry. A Note On Recent Enemy Pyrotechnic Activity Over Germany, September 25, 1942, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html; Jo Chamberlain, “The Foo-Fighter Mystery” The American Legion Magazine, December, 1945. This article is reproduced in full at: http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
3) Report by Crew of 61 Squadron to Headquarters, from R. A. F. Station, Syerston, No. 5 Group, 2nd December, 1942, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
4) British Royal Air Force, Flak Liaison Officer Report, no. 161, May 30, 1943, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
5) British Royal Air Force, Raid Report from M/263 Squadron, January 1, 1944, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
6) Report from Headquarters, MACAF, no. 23, January 28, 1944, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
7) The relevant sections are reproduced in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
8) “Foo Fighters Part one,” Saturday Night Uforia: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
9) RAF Military Attache Report, Consolidated Liaison Flak Officer Report, March 7, 1944, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
10) “Nazis Use Jet, Rocket Planes,” Evening Tribune (Albert Lea, Minnesota), November 7, 1944, page 1. This article is reproduced in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
11) RAF Operational Research Section, A New Phenomenon, December 27, 1944, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
12) George Todt, “First Look at UFO,” Los Angeles Herald, January 27, 1961. This article is reproduced in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
13) Chamberlain, “Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
14) Jeffery A. Lindell, "Interviews with Harold Augspurger, Commander 415th Night Fighter Squadron; Frederic Ringwald, S-2 Intelligence Officer, 415th Night Fighter Squadron," 1991.
15) USAAF, Report to Tactical Air Command by intelligence officer Fred Ringwald, January 30, 1945, quoted at: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
16) These later details are from the Ringwald report of January 30, 1945, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html; Chamberlain, “Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
17) Associated Press, “Floating Silver Balls Latest Nazi Weapons,” Eugene Register Guard, December 13, 1944, reproduced in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
18) “Secret Weapon Resembles Yule Decoration,” Twin Falls Telegram, December 14, 1944, page 1.
19) Robert Wilson, “Eerie German “Foo-Fighter” Stalks Yanks Over Naziland,” Morning Avalanche (Lubbock, Texas). January 2, 1945, page 1. This article is reproduced in full at https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
20) "Foo-Fighter," Time, 45, no. 3, January 15, 1945. This article is reproduced in full at: http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,775433,00.html.
21) Chamberlain, “Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
22) Chamberlain, “Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
23) USAAF 416th Night Fighter Squadron, Operations Report, February 18, 1945, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
24) USAAF 416th Night Fighter Squadron, Operations Report, February 21, 1945; USAAF 416th Night Fighter Squadron, Operations Report, February 22, 1945, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
25) USAAF 414th Night Fighter Squadron, Operations Report, February 27, 1945, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
26) “Foo Fighters Part Three,” Saturday Night Uforia: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
27) Chamberlain, “Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
28) USAAF, 549th Night Fighter Squadron Unit History, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
29) These testimonies are found in The Global Twentieth: An Anthology of the 20th AF in WWII, Volume II, and History of the 9th Bomb Group, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
30) USAAF, Tactical Mission Report, August 10/11, 1944, quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
31) USAAF Headquarters VII Bomber Command, Mission report no. 11 - 327, APO #244, 2 May 1945 (GCT), quoted in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
32) “Foo Fighters Part Three,” Saturday Night Uforia: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartthree.html.
33) “Saucers May Be "Foo Fighters," Flier Suggests,” Times Herald (Olean, New York), July 8, 1947, page 3; The Associated Press, Morning Avalanche (Lubbock, Texas), July 8, 1947, page 10; Warren R. Jollymore, “Flying Discs Remind AAF Veteran of Pacific Area ‘Fireball’ Reports,” Wisconsin State Journal, July 8, 1947, page 5.
34) British National Archives, Ministry of Defence files on UFOs, quoted in “Foo Fighters Part One,” Saturday Night Uforia: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html; Chamberlain, “Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
35) Chamberlain, “The Foo-Fighter Mystery,” http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
36) For a comprehensive treatment of the Flatwoods Monster, see Frank Feschino, The Braxton County Monster Updated & Revised Edition The Cover-up of the "Flatwoods Monster" Revealed Expanded (Frank Feschino: August 25, 2013).
37) See NICAP’s summary of the ‘ghost rockets’: http://nicap.org/books/coufo/partI/chIV.htm.
Primary Sources:
(A. P.) “Saucers May Be "Foo Fighters," Flier Suggests.” Times Herald (Olean, New York). July 8, 1947, page 3.
(A. P.) “‘Discs’ Said Found” Morning Avalanche (Lubbock, Texas). July 8, 1947, page 10."Foo-Fighter." Time 45, no. 3, 15 Jan 1945. http://content.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,7601450115,00.html.
(A.P.) "Balls of Fire Stalk U.S. Fighters in Night Assaults Over Germany." New York Times. Jan 2, 1945, p. 1, 4.
(A. P.) “Nazis Use Jet, Rocket Planes.” Evening Tribune (Albert Lea, Minnesota). November 7, 1944, page 1.
(A. P.) “Floating Silver Balls Latest Nazi Weapons.” Eugene Register Guard. December 13, 1944
(A. P.) “Secret Weapon Resembles Yule Decoration.” Twin Falls Telegram. December 14, 1944, page 1.
Chamberlain, Jo. “The Foo-Fighter Mystery.” The American Legion Magazine. December, 1945. This article is reproduced in full in: http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.
Jollymore, Warren R.. “Flying Discs Remind AAF Veteran of Pacific Area ‘Fireball’ Reports.” Wisconsin State Journal. July 8, 1947, page 5.
Todt, George. “First Look at UFO.” Los Angeles Herald, January 27, 1961. The relevant sections are reproduced in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.
Wilkins, Harold T.. “The Strange Mystery of the Foo Fighters.” Fate 4, no. 6 (August/September 1951). Reproduced in: http://project1947.com/articles/foowilkins.htm.
Wilson, Robert. “Eerie German “Foo-Fighter” Stalks Yanks Over Naziland.” Morning Avalanche (Lubbock, Texas). January 2, 1945, page 1. The article is reproduced in full in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
Secondary Sources:
“The Foo Fighters of World War Two.” Saturday Night Uforia. Parts 1 - 3: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.
Other Sources:
A great collection of Foo Fighter Documents reproduced at CUFON.org: http://cufon.org/cufon/foo.htm.
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