"Foo Fighters" of World War II

While the US government created the world's first government office to address the UFO question only after Kenneth Arnold's famous sighting in the summer of 1947, it was far from the first time that US officials had been forced to contend with UFO reports. Throughout the Second World War, Allied and German pilots frequently encountered fast-moving balls of light and other strange phenomena over Europe, the Mediterranean, and the South Pacific. The large volume of reports make it abundantly clear that the UFO phenomenon preceded the summer of the flying saucer, and suggest that the US government may have known more than they let on in the wake of Arnold's sighting.Show more

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Think Anomalous is created by Jason Charbonneau.

Illustration by V.R. Laurence (https://vrlaurence.com)
Research by Jason Charbonneau
Music by Josh Chamberland.
Animation by Brendan Barr.
Sound design by Will Mountain and Josh Chamberland.

​Primary Sources:

(A. P.) “Saucers May Be "Foo Fighters," Flier Suggests.” Times Herald (Olean, New York). July 8, 1947, page 3.

(A. P.) “‘Discs’ Said Found” Morning Avalanche (Lubbock, Texas). July 8, 1947, page 10."Foo-Fighter." Time 45, no. 3, 15 Jan 1945. http://content.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,7601450115,00.html.

(A.P.) "Balls of Fire Stalk U.S. Fighters in Night Assaults Over Germany." New York Times. Jan 2, 1945, p. 1, 4.

(A. P.) “Nazis Use Jet, Rocket Planes.” Evening Tribune (Albert Lea, Minnesota). November 7, 1944, page 1.

(A. P.) “Floating Silver Balls Latest Nazi Weapons.” Eugene Register Guard. December 13, 1944

(A. P.) “Secret Weapon Resembles Yule Decoration.” Twin Falls Telegram. December 14, 1944, page 1.

Chamberlain, Jo. “The Foo-Fighter Mystery.” The American Legion Magazine. December, 1945. This article is reproduced in full in: http://project1947.com/articles/amlfoo.htm.

Jollymore, Warren R.. “Flying Discs Remind AAF Veteran of Pacific Area ‘Fireball’ Reports.” Wisconsin State Journal. July 8, 1947, page 5.

Todt, George. “First Look at UFO.” Los Angeles Herald, January 27, 1961. The relevant sections are reproduced in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html.

Wilkins, Harold T.. “The Strange Mystery of the Foo Fighters.” Fate 4, no. 6 (August/September 1951). Reproduced in: http://project1947.com/articles/foowilkins.htm.

Wilson, Robert. “Eerie German “Foo-Fighter” Stalks Yanks Over Naziland.” Morning Avalanche (Lubbock, Texas). January 2, 1945, page 1. The article is reproduced in full in: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.

Secondary Sources:

“The Foo Fighters of World War Two.” Saturday Night Uforia. Parts 1 - 3: https://saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariipartone.html.

Other Sources:

A great collection of Foo Fighter Documents reproduced at CUFON.org: http://cufon.org/cufon/foo.htm.

This video uses sound effects downloaded from StockMusic.com.

UFO Case Review contains sound design with elements downloaded from FreeSound.org. Typewriter_2rows.wav, Uploaded by Fatson under the Attribution License.