by Mack Maloney
According to Chester, these men were not from any deployed location in the European theater — rather, they’d traveled straight to France from Washington DC.
They studiously ignored the 415th’s commander, Major Harold Augspurger, and dealt instead with Captain Ringwald, the squadron’s intelligence officer. These men then accompanied some of the 415th’s crews on real missions, obviously hoping to spot foo fighters. But even Augspurger wasn’t told whether the mysterious flying objects cooperated or not. And if a report was written about the shadowy group’s visit, the 415th’s CO never saw it.
The men left after just twenty-four hours, eventually heading back to Washington. To this day, just who they were, and who they worked for, is still a mystery.
* * *
Once Germany lost the Battle of the Bulge, the Nazi war machine was all but doomed.
Tough fighting continued throughout the winter of 1945, but by spring, Allied armies were overrunning Germany and Allied airplanes ruled its skies.
By May, it was over. Hitler was dead, and German soldiers were surrendering in droves.
Once the fighting had ceased, the dismantling of the German military began. This included the search for answers regarding rumored Nazi superweapons, including the foo fighters. Sightings of the strange aerial objects had dropped to zero since the German surrender, indicating to many that the foo fighters were indeed German secret weapons. But the U.S. intelligence investigation into Germany’s arsenal, secret and otherwise, was just beginning and would take a while to complete.
This meant anyone who’d encountered foo fighters over Europe — especially those men of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron — would just have to wait for the official determination as to what they were.
This theme was borne out in American Legion Magazine in late 1945 in an article later researched by Keith Chester.
Written by Jo Chamberlin, the article reiterated that members of the 415th were anxious to see what army intelligence would find.
And if they found nothing? What if the strange flying things the 415th had been seeing weren’t German in origin?
Then, Chamberlin so aptly concludes: “The men of the 415th will be all set for Section 8s — psychiatric discharges.”
8
Back to the Pacific
The Sighting with Two Thousand Witnesses
The battleship USS New York had a storied history.
Its keel was laid down on September 11, 1911—an interesting date, considering what lay ahead for a future ship of the same name.
After doing convoy duty in the North Atlantic at the beginning of World War II, the New York was eventually refitted and sent to the South Pacific just in time to take part in the invasion of Iwo Jima in February 1945.
Once that action was successfully completed, the ship needed some further repair before its next mission, supporting the massive invasion of Okinawa in April 1945.
One day in March, between these actions, the huge ship was sailing near New Guinea, off the Admiralty Islands, when its radar room picked up an unidentified flying object heading its way.
The crew was called to its battle stations. Moments later, the bogey was spotted hovering right above the battleship, about four miles high. It appeared extremely shiny and silver in color. It was making no noise.
It is estimated that at least 2,000 sailors and marines aboard the battleship saw the strange object, including the ship’s commanding officer, Captain K. C. Christian.
Two destroyers were escorting the USS New York at the time, and their crews saw the object as well. Everyone on hand was bewildered. This was not an airplane they were looking at, as it was keeping pace with the three-ship column, meaning it was making barely 12 knots. No plane could fly that slow and stay aloft.
Yet it was not a star, as it was daytime. Nor was it a balloon, because again, it was traveling at the exact same speed as the ship.
The only other explanation was that the object was a secret weapon fielded by the Japanese; that’s why everyone was waiting for some kind of attack. But a half hour went by, and in that time, the object showed no hostile intent.
Still, its presence alone was posing a security risk to the three ships. So Captain Christian finally gave the order for his men to open fire.
Two of the New York’s three-inch antiaircraft guns blazed away at the thing, apparently hitting it. But the strange object appeared completely unaffected by the furious gunfire.
The barrage lasted long enough for Christian to realize his men were just wasting valuable ammunition. The CO finally gave the order to cease-fire.
Just as soon as the guns fell silent, the object accelerated to a tremendous speed and quickly disappeared, astonishing those hundreds watching below.
The USS New York went on to survive the war, and then incredibly to survive its role as a target ship in two atomic bomb tests off Bikini Atoll in 1946.
It was finally scuttled in 1948, but its namesake, the fifth ship to be christened USS New York, was commissioned in November 2009. Its hull was made with eight tons of steel recovered from the World Trade Center wreckage after the attacks of September 11—the same day, ninety years before, when the battleship New York’s keel was laid down.
Mystery Over Truk
On the night of May 2, 1945, eight B-24 Liberator bombers left their base in Guam and headed out on a night harassment raid targeting Japanese airfields.
While flying over the enemy-held Truk atoll — also known as the “Japanese Pearl Harbor” for its huge naval facilities — the crew of one B-24 was suddenly aware that two objects had sidled up to it in the night sky.
Flying at 11,000 feet, the same altitude as the B-24, these objects — one off the plane’s left wing, the other off its right — were not only highly luminous, they were shifting their colors from red to orange to white and then fading out, only to reappear as red and start the process all over again.
The objects were riding just out of range of the Liberator’s formidable collection of machine guns — ten in all — so the pilot began a series of evasive maneuvers to lose them. At one point, he dove as low as 3,000 feet, but to no avail. No matter what the pilot did, the objects mimicked his maneuvers perfectly and remained in place, pacing the big bomber. Even when the B-24 flew through a cloud, the mystery objects would lay on the speed and reappear ahead of the plane on the other side of the cloud formation.
After about an hour of this, one of the objects disappeared. But the second one remained close to the B-24 for the three-hour ride back to its base.
In this time, the night eventually turned to day, allowing the B-24 crew to get a good look at their strange companion. In the morning light, it appeared to be bright silver in color.
The bomber finally lost sight of the object as it was passing down through cloud cover, beginning its landing approach on Guam.
By the time the B-24 touched down, the object was gone.
The Mandel Sighting
Beginning on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, the Battle of Okinawa was the bloodiest fight of the entire Pacific campaign. More than 12,000 U.S. soldiers and marines were killed in the eighty-two-day battle; close to 100,000 Japanese also died in that time, plus a large number of Okinawan civilians.
Okinawa is so close to Japan — just a few hundred miles to the south — it was considered home territory for the Japanese, which is why their forces fought so hard to defend it.
Originally envisioned as a jumping-off point for the invasion of Japan itself, Okinawa did not have to play that role because shortly after the titanic battle for the island concluded, the United States dropped the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Imperial government finally sued for peace.
Captain William Mandel was an artillery officer attached to the military government set up to preside over Okinawa after the fighting had ceased. His unit’s bivouac was located on a bluff, looking west onto the East China Sea.
One evening, Mandel was atop this bl
uff, gazing out on the water, when he spotted a lighted object coming up from the south, flying about 200 feet above the water’s surface. Because the bluff was about the same height, when the object passed by him Mandel was able to see it clearly and at eye level.
He described the object as being cigar shaped, about 30 to 40 feet long, with a diameter of 6 to 8 feet. The light that had first caught his attention was emanating from the tail of the object. He estimated the object’s speed to be between 200 and 300 miles per hour. It had no wings, nor could he see portholes or windows.
It passed by him, flying smoothly through the night, making no noise. He watched it follow the coastline of the embattled island until it finally vanished from sight.
What’s interesting about this sighting is the object’s “cigar shape.” Because it matched the same description as many foo fighters reported in the European theater, Captain Mandel might have had the best look of anyone at a CSO, possibly the most prolific unidentified aerial object of the war.
Up From the Ocean
Just like the Tasmania sighting in the summer of 1942, an intriguing clue as to where foo fighters might come from was revealed toward the end of the war — of all places, off the coast of Alaska.
It was summer 1945. A U.S. Army transport ship, the USAT Delarof, was heading back to Seattle after dropping off ammunition and supplies to ports in Alaska.
Sailing off the Aleutian island of Adak in the late afternoon, the ship’s crew and passengers were startled to see a huge sphere rise out of the ocean about a mile away from them.
As more than a dozen people watched dumbstruck, the object went straight up for a few seconds then leveled off. Because it was positioned between the ship and the setting sun, the object’s real color could not be discerned. The witnesses estimated the sphere was between 150 and 200 feet in diameter, however. And even though there were strong winds at the time, the object didn’t seem affected by them, indicating it was self-propelled.
The sphere hovered for a short while — then it began to slowly circle the ship. The ship’s guns were manned by this time, but no orders were given to fire at the sphere because it was not showing any hostility.
After it went around the ship three times, the sphere took off toward the south-southwest. The witnesses later reported they saw three bright flashes of light go off in that direction shortly after the sphere disappeared.
The ship’s captain posted an extra watch for the trip home, in the event that the object returned. It didn’t.
But once back in Seattle, fourteen of the crew signed a statement summarizing the incident and testifying that the sighting had indeed taken place.
The Galloping Ghosts of Nansei Shoto
The Nansei Shoto archipelago is located off the southern coast of Japan.
It’s a strange part of the world, a patch of mostly water and a few volcanic islands, one being Okinawa. After sailing through it, though, many a sailor, including those in the U.S. Navy during and at the conclusion of World War II, became convinced this part of the Pacific was haunted by something, though no one was really sure what.
For instance, American submarines plying its waters would sometimes pick up sonar indications of ghostly ships that just weren’t there. These things caused much consternation for the navy’s silent service, especially operating so close to the Japanese Home Islands. A popular science magazine explained it this way: A submarine radar man would be monitoring his scope, his radar antenna riding just above the surface while the sub itself was riding just below. Suddenly the radar man would pick up an indication that something looking like a hostile vessel was heading for his submarine. If the radar man warned that a change in course was needed, the indication would turn exactly how the sub was turning.
The sub’s captain would inevitably go up periscope and take the chance of scanning the sea surface for the opposing warship. But then, just as suddenly, the indication would vanish from the radar screen.
Thus the name “ghosts.”
Many theories were put forth on what these things were — mirages, cold weather inversions, “air sandwiches,” which are a freakish condition caused when low-lying cold air traps radar signals. But no satisfactory explanation has ever been proven.
Plus these spirits didn’t just spook submarines. The so-called Galloping Ghosts of Nansei Shoto also shadowed the U.S. surface fleet. They were especially troublesome to aircraft carriers. On many occasions, night fighters would be scrambled to intercept the ghostly electronic indications, but no plane ever got close enough to engage what was showing up on the radar screen.
* * *
In the summer of 1945 a radar operator on an aircraft carrier steaming near the Nansei Shoto archipelago saw a “very large plot” suddenly appear on his radar screen. Incredibly, it looked like three hundred unidentified aircraft were heading for the carrier. Even crazier, this mass of aircraft seemed to be traveling at nearly 700 miles per hour — much faster than any airplane could go in 1945.
Navy fighters were immediately scrambled — and this is where it got really weird.
About sixty-five miles away from the carrier, the very large plot of targets began morphing into what were later described as “tentacles.” The radar screen showed these tentacles wrapping themselves around the carrier!
The two fighters were madly flying toward the target; the entire task force waited apprehensively below.
But when the fighters reached the point indicated on the radar, they found nothing. The large plot had simply disappeared.
No explanation has ever been given for the strange occurrence.
The Stringfield Incident
On August 28, almost two weeks after the Japanese surrendered, ending World War II, an American C-46 cargo plane landed at Atsugi airfield near Yokahama, Japan. About 150 U.S. soldiers were aboard, the vanguard of a large American force that would soon occupy and govern the defeated country for the next several years.
But something strange had happened to the C-46 on its way to this historical landing.
The plane was flying close to the island of Iwo Jima when its portside engine began to fail. The propeller was sputtering oil and the plane started losing altitude.
One person aboard was Sergeant Leonard Stringfield, a member of the advance intelligence team from the Fifth Air Force.
As the airplane started to fall and all attention was drawn to the suddenly ailing left-side engine, Stringfield happened to look out the right-side window — and saw something amazing.
There were three teardrop-shaped objects riding in formation right next to the stricken C-46, matching its speed perfectly.
Stringfield would later say that he knew these were not U.S or Japanese aircraft. They had no wings, no fuselage. In fact, there was little evidence of any kind of mass at all behind the balls of bright light.
Stringfield kept the objects in sight for about half a minute before they disappeared into the clouds. An instant later, the plane’s ailing engine suddenly came back to life. It was soon turning normally again, and the plane landed at Iwo Jima with no further problems.
Though it turned out that Stringfield was the only person on the airplane to see the objects, he was convinced they had something to do with the engine’s malfunction and its somewhat miraculous recovery.
And while he was never able to question the C-46 pilots about it directly, Stringfield did hear later that during the incident, the plane’s magnetic navigation gear had gone “crazy.”
This episode had such an effect on Leonard Stringfield that after the war, he became a noted ufologist, wrote two books on the subject and devoted much time trying to get answers to the perplexing foo fighter question as well as the phenomenon’s later incarnations.
9
What Did They Know?
What did the Germans and the Japanese know about the foo fighters?
Next to “Where did they come from?” this might be the most asked question relating to the phenomenon. Unfortunately there’s n
ot a lot of information to formulate a good answer.
But there are some clues.
When the war finally ended, U.S. Navy intelligence officers had a chance to debrief the top admirals of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The United States was curious about many issues concerning how the Imperial Forces had prosecuted the war. These included any secret weapons the Japanese might have fielded that the United States hadn’t known about.
Specifically, the U.S. Navy interrogators asked the high Japanese officers about the “supersonic planes” that had flown over Tarawa that day in April 1944, the incident that caused so much anxiety for the navy at the time.
The Japanese admirals replied, truthfully, that they had no idea what the navy was talking about.
* * *
There are other tantalizing bits of information concerning what the foo fighters were — and what they were not. But some clues don’t rate high on the credibility scale.
As first reported by French UFO writer Henry Durrant, one story goes that far from being the brains behind the foo fighters, the Germans became enormously puzzled by them after their own pilots started seeing weird things in the sky. To investigate the phenomenon, the Luftwaffe set up a shadowy unit called “Sonderburo 13.”
According to Durrant, Sonderburo 13’s first case came from 1942, based on claims by a Luftwaffe pilot named Hauptmann Fischer. Fischer had been transferred to a secret Luftwaffe base in Norway called Banak. Just minutes after arriving, a mysterious object was picked up on the base’s radar. Fischer was asked to go aloft and intercept it.
Climbing two miles above the base, Fischer found what he described as a “Luftwal”—as in “flying whale.” The object was huge and streamlined, 300 feet long and 50 feet in diameter. It flew along horizontally just long enough for Fischer to get a good look at it before it took off, straight up, vanishing high above in a blazing burst of speed.
Though Fischer reported exactly what he’d seen, adding he didn’t believe the object was of this earth, the Luftwaffe apparently thought he’d gone mad, the result of him being sent to such a cold, isolated northern climate; this was the Nazi equivalent of asking him if he’d been drinking.
