Documents / Report
This secret 415th Night Fighter Squadron intelligence report, dated 30 January 1945, was sent to XII Tactical Air Command in reply to that command's 23 January 1945 endorsement. It quotes pilots' sortie reports from December 1944 to January 1945 describing red, orange, amber and white lights near Strasbourg, Hagenau, Worms, Luneville and Weissembourg that followed aircraft and then disappeared. Squadron crews called these lights "Foofighters." Each time a pilot asked GCI Control about aircraft in the area, the answer was negative.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
1st W/Ind. D-W-2 HEADQUARTERS XII TACTICAL AIR COMMAND, APO #374, U.S. Army, 23 January 1945. TO: S-2, 415 Night Fighter Squadron. Forwarded for compliance with paragraph 2 of 1st Ind. for LEAVITT CORNING, JR., Lt. Colonel, G. S. C., A/C of S, A-2. 2nd. W/Ind. 415th. NIGHT FIGHTER SQUADRON, APO #374, U. S. Army, 30 January 1945. TO: AG of S A-2. XII Tactical Air Command, APO 374, U. S. Army. 1. In compliance with paragraph 2 of lst. Ind., the following extracts from the Sortie Reports of various pilots who have encountered the Night Phenomenon are submitted for your information. Night of 14-15 December 1944 - "In vicinity of Erstein (V-9381) flying at 1000 ft. observed large red light at 2000 ft. going East at 18:40 hrs. Travelling at approximately 200 MPH" Night of 16-17 December 1944 - "20 miles North of Breisach (W-0173) at 800 ft. observed 5 or 6 flashing red and green lights in "T" shape. Thought they were flak. About 10 minutes later saw the same lights much closer and behind me. We turned port and Starboard and the lights followed. They closed in to about 8 0'clock and 1000 ft. and remained in that position for several minutes and then disappeared." Night of 22-23 December 1944 - "Patrolling at Angels 10 from Sarrebourg to Strasbourg North and South of highway. At 06:00 hrs. saw two lights coming towards A/0 from the ground. Upon reaching altitude of plane, they leveled off and stayed on my tail for approximately 2 minutes. Lights appeared to be a large orange glow. After staying with A/0 for approximately 2 minutes, they would peel off and turn away, fly along level for a few minutes and then go out. They appeared to be under perfect control at all times. Lights were seen somewhere in vicinity of Hagenau." S E C R E T
Report, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 3 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.