ACUFO-1944-04-26-ESSEN-1
In their excellent 2002 book “Out of the Shadows”, mostly dealing with British UFO reports resting in the British National Archive records, Dr. David Clarke and Andy Roberts indicated that on the evening of April 26, 1944, Flight Lieutenant Arthur Horton of 622 Squadron took off from RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, for a raid on Essen, deep in the steel-making German valley of the Ruhr.
The raid went as planned despite German flak and night-fighters. After dropping its bombs, Horton turned the Lancaster back for home, and shortly after leaving the target, he received a warning on the intercom from the rear gunner who informed he was seeing odd lights following the plane.
Horton asked about it and the gunner confirmed he was seeing four orange balls of lights tailing the plane, two on each side, accelerating in short powerful spurts. The gunner said they were about the size of large footballs and had a fiery glow to them. Another crew member said he thought he could see small stubby wings and possibly an exhaust glow from the rear of the objects.
Horton told 43 years later what he did next:
“... I immediately dropped the aircraft out of the sky. My gunners didn't know what they were. Should they fire? By this time i was standing the aircraft on its tail and began a series of corkscrews and turns with the things following everything I did - but making no move to attack us. By this time we had the throttles “though the gates”, the gunners still asking what they should do. Apart from flying the thing I had to try and answer them. But were they some form of contraption that would explode at some specific distance from us, or on contact? Did they want us to fire at them to cause an explosion? Out of the kaleidoscope of thought the only answer was “if they are leaving us alone, leave them alone.”
The authors explains that the term “through the gate” referred to a technique by Lancater pilots consisting in moving the throttle sidewards and forwards which broke a wire called the gate in the process, much increasing engine power though straining the engines.
The authors indicates that Horton continued evasive action for 10 minutes, with the entire crew except him and the bomb aimer seeing the pursuing balls of light tailing with the Lancaster and replicating its every moves.
When the Lancaster reached the Dutch coast, one of the gunners said that the balls “seemed to burn themselves out.”
After landing, the baffled crew thought they had been chased by a new German weapon, perhaps a radio-controlled anti-aircraft rocket. They were ridiculed at debriefing, but Horton stuck to his report and refused to accept that his crew had imagined the experience.
Horton later said that at the time he had not heard of similar experiences by other crews.
The authors explain that they did not find a reference of this sighting in the Government archive, but they found evidence that it happened in Horton's log book for the flight, in which the latter recorded that they had been “chased by rockets”.
Bernard Dye, the mid-upper gunner, also noted the incident in his log book as “rockets attacks lasting ten minutes.”
Reference to Horton's log book is noted as “Arthur Horton, personal communication, May 19, 1987” and Dye's log book information is noted as “Bernard Dye, personal communication, May 26, 1987”.
| Date: | April 26, 1944 |
|---|---|
| Time: | Night. |
| Duration: | 10 minutes. |
| First known report date: | 1987 |
| Reporting delay: | Hours, 4 decades. |
| Country: | Germany |
|---|---|
| State/Department: | North Rhine-Westphalia |
| City or place: | Essen |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | Several. |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 2 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 2 |
| Reporting channel: | Personal communication of witnesses to David Clarke and Andy Roberts. |
|---|---|
| Visibility conditions: | Night. |
| UFO observed: | Yes. |
| UFO arrival observed: | ? |
| UFO departure observed: | Yes. |
| UFO action: | Followed, 2 on each side, followed despite evasive maneuvers. |
| Witnesses action: | Attempted evasive maneuvers. Considered firing bit did not. |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | Puzzled. |
| Witnesses interpretation: | New German weapons. |
| Sensors: |
[X] Visual: 3 or more.
[ ] Airborne radar: [ ] Directional ground radar: [ ] Height finder ground radar: [ ] Photo: [ ] Film/video: [ ] EM Effects: [ ] Failures: [ ] Damages: |
|---|---|
| Hynek: | NL |
| Armed / unarmed: | Armed, 8 7.62 mm machine guns. |
| Reliability 1-3: | 3 |
| Strangeness 1-3: | 3 |
| ACUFO: | Possible extraterrestrial craft. |
[Ref. dcr1:] DR. DAVID CLARKE AND ANDY ROBERTS:
The author indicates that on the evening of April 26, 1944, Flight Lieutenant Arthur Horton of 622 Squadron took off from RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, for a raid on Essen, deep in the steel-making German valley of the Ruhr.
The raid went as planned despite German flak and night-fighters. After dropping its bombs, Horton turned the Lancaster back for home, and shortly after leaving the target, he received a warning on the intercom from the rear gunner, who informed he was seeing odd lights following the plane.
Horton asked the gunner if he was certain, the gunner confirmed and said four orange balls of lights were tailing them, two on each side of the Lancaster, accelerating in short powerful spurts. The worried gunner said they were about the size of large footballs and had a fiery glow to them. Another crew member said he thought he could see small stubby wings and possibly an exhaust glow from the rear of the objects.
Horton clearly remembers some 43 years after this event what he did next:
“... I immediately dropped the aircraft out of the sky. My gunners didn't know what they were. Should they fire? By this time i was standing the aircraft on its tail and began a series of corkscrews and turns with the things following everything I did - but making no move to attack us. By this time we had the throttles “though the gates”, the gunners still asking what they should do. apart from fyling the thing I had to try and answer them. But were they some form of contraption that would explode at some specific distance from us, or on contact? Did they want us to fire at them to cause an explosion? Out of the kaleidoscope of thought the only answer was “if they are leaving us alone, leavem them alone.”
The authors explain that the term “through the gate” refers to a technique by Lancater pilots consisting in moving the throttle sidewards and forwards which broke a wire called the gate in the process. This much increased engine power, though straining the engines.
The authors indicate that Horton continued evasive action for 10 minutes, with the entire crew except him and the bomb aimer seeing the pursuing balls of light tailing with the Lancaster and replicating its every moves.
When the Lancaster reached the Dutch coast, one of the gunners said, the balls “seemed to burn themselves out.”
Relieved, Horton landed safely in England, but on a different airfield because the evasive action had caused a mechanical fault.
The baffled crew thought they had been chased by a new German weapon, perhaps a radio-controlled anti-aircraft rocket. At debriefing they were ridiculed, but Horton stuck to his report and refused to accept that his crew had imagined the experience.
Horton later said that at the time he had not heard of similar experiences by other crews.
The authors explain that they did not find a reference of this sighting in the Government archive, but they found evidence that it happened in Horton's log book for the flight, in which the latter recorded that they had been “chased by rockets”.
Bernard Dye, the mid-upper gunner, also noted the incident in his log book as “rockets attacks lasting ten minutes.”
[Ref. jck1:] JEROME CLARK:
The author indicates that on the evening of April 26, 1944, on the way back from a raid on Essen, Germany, Flight Lt. Arthur Horton, pilot of an RAF Lancaster bomber, took a radio message from his tail gunner, who worriedly reported that they were being followed by four lights, in two pairs on each side of the plane, which had suddenly appeared. They looked like large, glowing soccer balls. Other crewmembers also watched them.
Horton began a series of radical evasive maneuvers, which lasted for a good 10 minutes, well beyond anything the aircraft could safely sustain, while the objects kept their position. The gunners could not decide whether to fire or not. They feared that if they hit the objects, they might explode. Finally, Horton and they agreed that if the objects did nothing, they would do nothing.
Eventually, as they reached the Dutch coast, the objects, a crewmember reported, “seemed to burn themselves out.”
Jerome Clarke indicates that Horton recalled this incident in a 1987 interview with a British UFO researcher. In later years, examining the declassified Ministry of Defense records, Clarke and Roberts found references to the incident in the logbooks Horton and Bernard Dye, one of the gunners, had kept of the flight.
[Ref. dwn2:] DOMINIQUE WEINSTEIN:
While returning from a night mission over Essen, Arthur Horton pilot of the RAF 622 Squadron and his crew were flying at 20,000 feet, about 50 miles from their target. Both gunners alerted the pilot that they were followed or chased by “four orange glows” at some short distance eastern. The glows were travelling extremely fast and gaining on the aircraft. The four objects had “short stubby wings” and were following them in pairs: two from po1tside and two from starboard side. Bernard Dye (mi-upper gunner) thought the objects had a fire-like glow with sparks emitting from their tail, looking like “large oranges” about the size of footballs. The pilot immediately reacted to the objects' aggressive nature”, and dropped the aircraft out of the sky. He began a series of corkscrews and turns, with the things following everything the pilot did, but making no move to attack them. One of the glows faded out and disappeared. By this time, most of the crew, except the pilot and the bomb aimer had seen the objects. The remaining three objects stayed with them, duplicating their every move, until they had crossed the coast and were heading to the sea. The event lasted about ten minutes. The crew had travelled over 50 miles and had lost some 14,000 feet of altitude. They were at 6,000 feet when they disappeared. According to the gunners they just “faded out”. Upon returning to base, the crew was interrogated by intelligence officers who made fun of their report.
Sources: Pilot's report / Project 1947, Jan Aldrich / Strange company, Keith Chester, 2007
[Ref. nip1:] "THE NICAP WEBSITE":
[1944] April 26, 1944; Essen, Germany
Things; four orange glows; short stubby wings; football-sized; looking like large oranges. (Page 64-65 Ref.1)
The reference 1 is described at the end of the document as “Strange Company (2007), Keith Chester”.
[Ref. dce1:] DR. DAVID CLARKE:
On the evening of 26 April 1944 Flight Lieutenant Arthur Horton taxied his Lancaster bomber onto the runway at RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, in preparation for a raid on Essen, deep in the steel-making German Ruhr valley. It was, he thought, just another routine, if terrifying, mission for 622 Squadron crews.
The raid went exactly as planned despite the potentially fatal distractions of Luftwaffe night-fighters and the flak that sought them out amongst the searchlight beams. Bombs dropped, Horton's Lancaster turned for home. Then, shortly after leaving the target, his intercom crackled into life with a warning from the rear-gunner. Some odd lights had appeared out of the darkness and were following the plane. Horton asked the gunner if he was certain. Yes he replied, four orange balls of light were tailing them, two on each side of the aircraft, accelerating in short powerful spurts. According to the worried gunner they were about the size of large footballs and had a fiery glow to them. Another thought he could see small, stubby wings and possibly an exhaust glow from the rear of the objects. Now Horton was getting worried. Some 43 years after the event, Arthur Horton clearly recalled exactly what he did next: ' .. .I immediately dropped the aircraft out of the sky. My gunners didn't know what they were. Should they fire? By this time I was standing the aircraft on its tail and beginning a series of corkscrews and turns with the things following everything I did - but making no move to attack us. By this time we had the throttles “through the gate”, the gunners still asking what they should do. Apart from flying the thing I had to try and answer them. But were they some form of flying contraption that would explode at some specific distance from us, or on contact? Did they want us to fire at them to cause an explosion? Out of the kaleidoscope of thought the only answer was “If they are leaving us alone, leave them alone”.
Horton's term 'through the gate' refers to a technique by which Lancaster pilots could move the throttle sideways and forwards, breaking a wire, 'the gate', in the process. This would give considerable extra power, but put an immense additional strain on the engines. Horton continued evasive action for 10 minutes, during which time all the crew except him and the bomb aimer could see the pursuing balls of light. Whatever the objects were they stayed close to the Lancaster, duplicating its every move, until they reached the Dutch coast when, in the words of one of the gunners, 'they seemed to burn themselves out'.
Exhausted but relieved, Horton flew the Lancaster safely back to England. His attempts at evasive action had caused a serious mechanical fault that forced the crew to land at a different airfield. Horton and his crew were baffled by the experience, and could only presume they had been chased by a German secret weapon, perhaps a radio-controlled anti-aircraft rocket. Upon reporting their experience to the intelligence officers at debriefing, they were met not with interest but ridicule. Nevertheless, Horton stuck to his account and would not be persuaded that he and his crew had imagined the experience.
Although Horton stated that he had never heard of any similar stories at the time, his description is entirely consistent with those of aircrews of other nationalities during the Second World War.
[Ref. tai1:] "THINK ABOUT IT" WEBSITE:
Date: April 26, 1944
Location: Essen, Germany
Time:
Summary: Things; four orange glows; short stubby wings; football-sized; looking like large oranges.
Page 64-65 Ref.1
[Ref. get1:] GEORGE M. EBERHART:
1944
[... other cases...]
April 26
Night. RAF pilot Arthur Horton of the 622 Squadron is returning from a bombing mission to Essen, Germany, when he is followed by four orange balls of light with “short stubby wings” and emitting sparks, two on each sideof the aircraft. He takes evasive action with his Lancaster, but the objects follow all his maneuvers for 10 minutes. When they reach the coast of Holland, they seem to “burn themselves out.” (Strange Company 64 - 65; UFOFiles2, pp. 16, 18)
[... other cases...]
[Ref. twf1:] "THE WHY FILES" WEBSITE:
26th April, 1944, Arthur Horton reported a terrifying experience with four orange balls of light about the size of large footballs whilst returning from a mission over Essen in Germany.
The Avro 683 Lancaster was a four-engine night bomber built in more than 7,000 units and it became, with the Handley Page Halifax, the main bomber of the Royal Air Force from 1942 on.
Its defense against German fighter planes was 8 7.62 mm machine guns.
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It makes perfect sense that the crew thought they were encountering some new German weapon. One expected such weapons. But we also see that in this case as in other similar cases from the same period in the same areas, these supposed “weapons”... do nothing other than follow the “enemy” plane, without ever causing it the slightest damage.
Historical hindsight shows that these balls of light were not German weapons. The Germans had never had any rocket, missile or gliding bomb capable of following the evasive maneuvers of an airplane. And in this case, it is even more obvious since the observation lasted 10 minutes, and perhaps more if we consider that it began just after the plane left Essen and ended when the plane reached the Dutch coast, a journey of approximately 200 kilometers. The Lancaster having a maximum speed of 450 km/h, the observation may have lasted a good half an hour.
It has sometimes been argued that the lights were those of the flames of German fighter jet engines exhausts. But these flames, actually not very luminous, were obviously at the rear of the German jets, not visible when following planes, unless we wanted to make them fly with the rear at the front.
And there again, if there had been two or four German planes, why would they have accompanied the British bomber in its evasive maneuvers, for so long, without ever opening fire?
In any case, the Messerschmitt Me-262, the only German jet aircraft then capable of flying at night, did not do so until December 1944, and the few Me-262 of the night fighter versions had been confined to the defense of Berlin. The Messerschmitt Me-163 “Komet” never flew at night, and its rocket engine was limited to 7 minutes operations, including the climb.
Possible extraterrestrial craft.
* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.
| Main author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | October 20, 2023 | Creation, [dcr1], [dwn2], [nip1], [tai1], [get1], [twf1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | October 20, 2023 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | October 24, 2023 | Addition [jck1]. |
