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.
# SHAEF STAFF MESSAGE CONTROL INCOMING MESSAGE 54A JEUS TOO 011947A MARCH TOR 012100A MARCH mhm 012115A MARCH SEGHR Q P P R I O R I T Y HAEFN FROM qC -2MAR1945 : HQ IX TAC SIGNED QUESADA TO 37153 :CG SHAEF MAIN ATTN A-2, CG NINTH AF ADV ATTN A-2 REF NO : NONE, Pilots report the following. An aluminum colored cylinder shaped object, about 12 ft long and 1 ft in diameter was observed floating in the air at 9,000 ft. It appeared to be suspended vertically with small fins and a mast projecting from the lower end. The object was attacked and partially deflated, a red flame resulted without smoke. The cylinder did not disintegrate. Photo taken by 107 SQ of 67 TAC/R Group at 011030 hours via F-5710. ACTION : AIR STAFF INFORMATION : G-2 SHAEF FORWARD AG RECORDS AIR STAFF DISTRIBUTION ACTION .NFOR. A-2 A-1 A-3 A-3 A-4 A-4 S11 S11 A G C 2364 4:49 SMC IN 310 1 MAR 45 2200A AGD/vml REF NO: NONE
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.