WW2 Foo Fighters

In the final weeks of the tumultuous year of 1944, the highly skilled crews of a night fighter squadron, which was stationed in France, began reporting a series of unusual and perplexing activities in the skies above them. 

The first report came in November of that particular year. Pilot Lt. Edward Schlueter, radar operator Lt. Donald Meiers, and intelligence officer Lt. Fred Ringwald, all of whom were stationed with the 415th Night Fighter Squadron, were flying along the scenic Rhine River near the historic city of Strasbourg. They vividly described witnessing a series of mysterious orange lights maneuvering gracefully through the air in close proximity to their aircraft. Strangely, neither ground-based radar systems nor their own onboard equipment registered any indication of the lights, and any attempts made to fly closer to these intriguing phenomena ultimately proved to be futile and unsuccessful.

For the next several weeks, pilots across multiple regions would continuously report similar puzzling encounters — mysterious lights of varying colors that would suddenly appear in the sky and effortlessly outmaneuver any attempt to engage with them. Meiers, intrigued and somewhat amused by these reports, dubbed them “foo fighters,” apparently a reference to the iconic 1930s “Smokey Stover” cartoon about a quirky firefighter who commonly used “foo” as a kind of playful slang term or nonsensical word. The phenomenon sparked widespread fascination and curiosity among those who witnessed it.

On December 17, there was another intriguing sighting over Germany, where a series of mysterious lights seemed to trail a pilot before fading away into the dark night sky. Just five days later, two more separate flight crews reported witnessing strange balls of light that appeared to rise from the ground and follow their aircraft at a distance. These observations added to the growing intrigue surrounding these unexplained aerial phenomena.

These fascinating encounters might have remained relegated to the realms of after action reports and whispered unit gossip among the ranks, were it not for a tenacious Associated Press reporter who made the decision to spend a couple of days immersing himself in the day-to-day operations of the 415th.

Robert C. Wilson had already covered the war in Europe extensively, providing detailed reports and accounts. On the evening of December 31, 1944, he found himself in the beautiful region of southern France; the plan was apparently to take to the skies in a night fighter from the 415th squadron, gracefully flying through the air as the clock moved past midnight into the promising new year of 1945. However, the weather interfered with his well thought out plan, bringing in severe conditions that forced Wilson to remain grounded. As a result, he spent the day just hanging out and engaging in lively conversations with various members of the squadron, celebrating New Year’s in the more traditional way of camaraderie and good cheer.

The very next day, he meticulously filed a story, and by the time January 2 rolled around, it had made its way into the pages of the New York Times. The story detailed the accounts of several night fighter pilots who were describing unusual and perplexing balls of light or fire that they simply couldn’t explain, leaving many baffled and intrigued by their experiences.

“There are three kinds of these intriguing lights that we refer to as ‘foo fighters,’” the article quotes Meiers as saying with evident fascination. “The first type is composed of brilliant red balls of fire that appear off our wing tips and fly in perfect synchronization alongside us; the second manifestation is a vertical row consisting of three distinct balls of fire that travel directly in front of our aircraft, and the third formation is a captivating group of approximately fifteen lights that emerge off in the distance – reminiscent of a dazzling Christmas tree suspended up in the air – flickering on and off in a mysterious rhythm.”

Meiers further elaborated on the remarkable flight capabilities of these enigmatic lights, recounting a captivating encounter in which one of the elusive "foo fighters" picked him up at a low altitude during his flight. “I turned to starboard, and to my astonishment, two radiant balls of fire seamlessly turned in unison with me,” he recalled. “Then, I turned to the port side, and once again, they turned right alongside me. Despite the fact that we were zooming along at an impressive speed of 260 miles an hour, those glowing balls were effortlessly keeping pace with us.”

Meiers concluded with his thought-provoking take on the perplexing phenomenon: “They don’t attack us in any way. Instead, they just seem to follow us around like elusive will-o’-the-wisps, hovering in our vicinity, almost curiously observing our every move.”

Wilson also vividly described another intriguing encounter reported by a pilot in the 415th, Lt. Wallace Gould. This pilot recounted an extraordinary experience involving brilliant lights that followed closely alongside his wing tip for several seconds, creating an astonishing spectacle in the sky. Suddenly, these lights accelerated dramatically, zooming upward to a remarkable altitude of at least 20,000 feet before completely vanishing from his view, leaving him both perplexed and fascinated by the event.

As Gould vividly recalled, “I thought it was some new form of jet propulsion plane after us. However, we were very close to these mysterious objects, and none of us saw any discernible structure on those fireballs.”

So, what was it that these seasoned pilots were actually seeing during their encounters? Were they simply witnessing flares in the distance? Could it have been harmless weather balloons languidly floating by? Or perhaps, was it a case of combat fatigue manifesting in visual distortions?

In Wilson’s intriguing article, Meiers speculated that it was a potentially “psychological” weapon, designed to instill fear and confusion among enemy forces. However, other pilots who had witnessed these phenomena reportedly didn’t think it could plausibly be attributed to a German weapon, since these mysterious balls of fire in the sky never seemed to attack or engage them during their missions. This discrepancy in viewpoints highlights the complexities and uncertainties surrounding aerial phenomena during that era.

And while Wilson’s intriguing story, along with a subsequent article published a year later in American Legion Magazine, essentially solidified the 415th’s remarkable encounters with these enigmatic balls of light, similar accounts had been circulating among military personnel for years prior to this. As early as 1942, Royal Air Force crews, who flew their perilous bombing missions at night, had also been reporting unusual lights and fireballs darting across the darkened skies. Across Europe, the vast Mediterranean, and the expansive Pacific, there were persistent and occasional reports of brave pilots encountering inexplicable lights and other unusual phenomena that defied any known scientific explanations or understandable rationale at the time.

A few years after the devastating war, the mysterious UFO phenomena really began to take off and capture the public's imagination. A private pilot’s captivating account from 1947 famously coined the term “flying saucer,” igniting widespread curiosity and intrigue. Only two weeks later, sensational stories of the infamous “Roswell incident” were splashed across newspapers, sparking further speculation and debate. By the 1950s, the idea of flying saucers became a common and popular theme in many science fiction movies, enchanting audiences and shaping cultural narratives. And, of course, in recent years, there’s been the slow and steady leak of reports on various other unexplained aerial phenomena, prompting renewed interest and investigation into these intriguing mysteries of the sky.