FOO FIGHTERS
During WWII, when a series of incomprehensible events suddenly erupted over battle zones from North Africa to Guadalcanal to the Rhineland, hundreds of fliers and infantrymen on both sides of the conflict had occasion to look into the skies at a mystery that has never been explained. Whatever the cause, these weird aerial apparitions, which came to be known as Foo Fighters.
Foo Fighters were allegedly developed by a specialist technical unit of the SS in a Vienna suburb. They were unmanned flying probe that would fly close to enemy aircraft and reek havoc on their electrical circuits. In addition they were equipted with a special pistron tube that the SS called death rays. They were first seen in 1943 and reported by American pilots as fire balls. Described as having brilliant balls of light - sometimes green and sometimes orange with glowing tails. Some were the size of a basketball but others were much larger.
Allegedly American pilots were aware that rockets had been perfected by the Germans. Several witnesses reported seeing what they called flying saucers. Reports about foo fighters were that they would get into formation with a bomber and remain there. The pilots were unable to shoot them down or out maneuver them. Some foo fighters would come as close as 10 feet to the cockpit of the American bomber.
Stephen J. Brickner, a sergeant with the 1st Marine Division, had an encounter with mysterious aerial objects.
"At the time I was in a highly emotional state; it was my fifth day in combat with the Marines. It was quite easy to mistake anything in the air for Jap planes, which is what I thought these objects were. They were flying very high above the clouds, too high for a bombing run on our little island. Someone shouted in a nearby foxhole that they were Jap planes searching for our fleet. I accepted this explanation, but with a few reservations. First, the formation was huge, I would say over 150 objects were in it. Instead of the usual tight 'V' of 25 planes, this formation was in straight lines of 10 or 12 objects, one behind the other. The speed was a little faster than Jap planes, and they were soon out of sight. A few other things puzzled me: I couldn't seem to make out any wings or tails. They seemed to wobble slightly, and every time they wobbled they would shimmer brightly from the sun. Their color was like highly polished silver. No bombs were dropped, of course. All in all, it was the most awe-inspiring and yet frightening spectacle I have seen in my life."
Usually foos were amorphous lights, not the kind of apparently solid, craft- like objects Brickner, C.J.J., and several other witnesses reported. Royal Air Force pilot B.C. Lumsden observed two classic foos while flying a Hurricane interceptor over France in December 1942.
Lumsden had taken off from England at seven p.m., heading for the French coast, using the Somme River as a navigation point. An hour later, while cruising at 7,000 feet over the mouth of the Somme, he discovered that he had company: two steadily climbing orange-colored lights, with one slightly above the other. He thought it might be tracer flak but discarded the idea when he saw how slowly the objects were moving. He did a full turn and saw the lights astern and to port but now they were larger and brighter.
At 7,000 feet they stopped climbing and stayed level with Lumsden's Hurricane. The frightened pilot executed a full turn again, only to discover that the objects had hung behind him on the turn.
Lumsden had no idea what he was seeing. All he knew was that he didn't like it. He nose-dived down to 4,000 feet and the lights followed his every maneuver, keeping their same relative position. Finally they descended about 1,000 feet below him until he leveled out, at which point they climbed again and resumed pursuit. The two lights seemed to maintain an even distance from each other and varied only slightly in relative height from time to time. One always remained a bit lower than the other.
At last, as Lumsden's speed reached 260 miles per hour, he was gradually able to outdistance the foos.
"I found it hard to make other members of the squadron believe me when I told my story," Lumsden said, "but the following night one of the squadron flight commanders in the same area had a similar experience with a green light."
The invasion of Europe, which began on June 6, 1944, at Normandy, apparently attracted the foos. At least one sighting was made at Omaha Beach from the deck of the U.S.S. George E. Badger, which lay anchored off shore. Gunner Edward Breckel, who was on duty, happened to be watching the sky when a dark cigar-shaped object crossed the horizon about five miles away. Visible for three minutes, the UFO, which was moving too low and too fast to be a blimp, traveled a smooth, circular course about 15 feet above the water. It had no wings.
Then there was the dispatch by George Todt, a columnist for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, who recalled, "On one occasion a party of four of us-- including a lieutenant colonel--watched a pulsating red fireball sail up silently to a point directly over the American-German front lines in 1944 during the Battle of Normandy. It stopped completely for 15 minutes before moving on."
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