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.
“Headquarters”7 pages
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
KR. PLEASE TK A.R.STAFF DISTRIBUTION ADDITION .NFOR. A.2 A.1 A.3 A.4 A.4 A.5 A.6 A.6 A.G A.G AFF V JEZO NR ITS 21 OPOP 989/21 FROM: HQ IX TAC @51102A TO: AIR STAFF S.H.A.E.F. FORWARD SECRET QQY BT REFERENCE YOUR MESSAGE AI.320 DATED 041745A: PHOTOS OF LONG CYLINDRICAL OBJECTS TAKEN BY 67TH TAC/R PILOTS 011030 VICINITY F-5710 WERE UNSUCCEESSFUL, FULL WRITTEN REPORT WILL FOLLOW. BT 051102A DRP AR AFF R 05/1132 KS AR
Official release, from the pursue collection. 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. 17 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.