Documents / Official release
This file from SHAEF Air Staff, dated between January and March 1945 and closing with an 18 March 1945 letter, collects wartime correspondence about "night phenomena" that 415th Night Fighter Squadron crews called foofighters. It includes the squadron's sortie extracts from December 1944 and January 1945 describing lights that followed aircraft near Strasbourg and elsewhere, plus a report of an aluminum-colored cylinder that pilots attacked. The Air Ministry suggested Me 262s and flak rockets as explanations but admitted the matter remained a mystery.
From the source:Release of 2026-05-08 Incident: 3/18/45, Germany. NARA Record Group 331, catalogue id 120752. This file contains SHAEF messages and memorandums related to "night phenomena (foofighters)," flak rockets, unidentified cylindrical objects, and blinking lights. The documents include multiple references to the observations of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron.
“The Wash”1 page
REPEATED Operator's Number A.I. 321 Date 5 MARCH 1945 (Write horizontally) RECENT(.) YOUR AX 222 4TH MARCH(.)5 UNDERSTAID FROM DD12 VISITING HERE TODAY THAT ALL 10 AVAILABLE BOMB TORPEDOES FROM TRIPPELVERKE 15 MOLSTEIN HAVE ALREADY BEEN SMITT TO HORNCHURCH(.) DD12 20 WILL CHECK FURTHER WITH USSTAF AND REPORT ON RETURN TO 25 U.K. ABOUT 8TH MARCH(.) 30 35 40 45 50 May be sent AS WRITTEN *(1) By ANY Signal Method *(2) NOT by Wireless *(3) But if liable to Interception or Capture SEND IN CYPHER Signature Send in CYPHER *(1) By ANY Signal Method *(2) NOT by Wireless Signature Date-Time Group 05 1900 A. Rank Rank Originator's Instructions Degree of Priority IMPORTANT System in Time in Reader Sender System out Time out Reader Sender System out Time out Reader Sender T.O.B.
Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 17 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.