ACUFO-1944-11-00-GERMANY-1
Sources on the 2000-2020's mention that in early November 1944, Lieut. Col. Oris B. Johnson's 422d Night Fighter Squadron equipped with P-61 Black Widow fighters, reported seeing 15 - 20 mystery objects every night over Germany, either alone or in formations of four. Johnson said he could accept that the reports are rocket planes or night fighter jets.
What appears in historical sources is that this U.S. Squadron, operating over France and Germany, had often encountered radar targets, sometimes observed visually, about which we know nothing, except they were rarely clearly identified as enemy targets.
An article in the newspaper The Evening Tribune, of Albert Lea, Minnesota, USA, for November 7, 1944, quotes from Lieutenant-Colonel Oris B. Johnson, of Natchitoches, Louisiana, said to be the “commander of a P-61 Black Widow group.”
Johnson voiced the opinion that the Germans are using jet and rocket propelled planes and various other “new fangled” gadgets against allied night fighters, and told that “In recent nights we've counted 15 to 20 jet planes. They sometimes fly in formations of four but more often they fly alone.”
Johnson “described a new kind of flak which he said might be a phosphorus bomb”, saying “It exploded in a large ball of fire at 10,000 feet and I could see drops of fire dripping away from it. The same ball of fire exploded several times, each time at a lower altitude. The dripping process followed each explosion.”
The newspaper also spoke of a German “trick weapon which sends a dummy airplane into the paths of daylight bombers purely for a “psychological” effect.” Johnson said “It looks like the tail or other part of a plane on fire, but it does no damage. They merely intend it to get you excited.”
| Date: | Early November, 1944 |
|---|---|
| Time: | Night. |
| Duration: | ? |
| First known report date: | November 7, 1944 |
| Reporting delay: | Hours, weeks. |
| Country: | Germany, France |
|---|---|
| State/Department: | ? |
| City or place: | ? |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | Several. |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | ? |
| Number of named witnesses: | 0 |
| Reporting channel: | UFO book Keith Chester. |
|---|---|
| Visibility conditions: | Night. |
| UFO observed: | Yes. |
| UFO arrival observed: | ? |
| UFO departure observed: | ? |
| UFO action: | |
| Witnesses action: | |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | Puzzled. |
| Witnesses interpretation: | German rockets? |
| Sensors: |
[X] Visual: Several.
[X] Airborne radar: Several. [X] Directional ground radar: Several. [ ] Height finder ground radar: [ ] Photo: [ ] Film/video: [ ] EM Effects: [ ] Failures: [ ] Damages: |
|---|---|
| Hynek: | NL |
| Armed / unarmed: | Armed, 4 Hispano 20 mm cannons, 4 Browning M2 12.7 mm machine guns. |
| Reliability 1-3: | 2 |
| Strangeness 1-3: | 2 |
| ACUFO: | Unidentified, insufficient information. |
[Ref. snu1:] "SATURDAY NIGHT UFORIA" WEBSITE:
But just one week before [November 13, 1944], U.S. newspapers carried a wire story saying that such night fighter jets were being seen in numbers by U.S. pilots. From the November 7, 1944 edition of the Albert Lea, Minnesota Evening Tribune comes this account, which in describing a 'trick weapon' may also inadvertently include the earliest reported American sightings of what would come to be known as 'foo fighters'...
Nazis Use Jet, Rocket Planes
Other New Gadgets Being Hurled Against Allied Night FightersParis, Nov. 7 (AP) -- The Germans are using jet and rocket propelled planes and various other “new fangled” gadgets against allied night fighters, Lt. Col. Oris B. Johnson, Natchitoches, La., commander of a P-61 Black Widow group, said today.
“In recent nights we've counted 15 to 20 jet planes,” Johnson said. “They sometimes fly in formations of four but more often they fly alone.”
Johnson described a new kind of flak which he said might be a phosphorus bomb.
“It exploded in a large ball of fire at 10,000 feet and I could see drops of fire dripping away from it,” he said. “The same ball of fire exploded several times, each time at a lower altitude. The dripping process followed each explosion,” he added.
The Germans also have a trick weapon which sends a dummy airplane into the paths of daylight bombers purely for a “psychological” effect.
“It looks like the tail or other part of a plane on fire, but it does no damage,” Johnson said. “They merely intend it to get you excited.”
[...]
[Ref. get1:] GEORGE M. EBERHART:
1944
[... other cases...]
Early November
Night. Lieut. Col. Oris B. Johnson's 422d Night Fighter Squadron, equipped with P-61 Black Widow fighters, reports seeing 15 - 20 mystery objects every night over Germany, either alone or in formations of four. Johnson says he could accept that the reports are rocket planes or night fighter jets. (Strange Company 87)
[... other cases...]
The Northrop P-61 “Black Widow” was a high performance American night fighter plane used in WWII.
It was twin-engined, with a maximum speed of 589 km/h, 3,060 km range. The crew was of three men.
It was equipped with a radar and armed with 4 Hispano 20 mm cannons in the fuselage and 4 Browning M2 12.7 mm machine guns in the remotely controlled upper turret.
|
Above: a P-61 of the 422d Night Fighter Squadron in 1944.
Oris B. Johnson, from Ashland, Louisiana, USA, 23 in 1944, was commander of the 422d Night Fighter Squadron in the European Theater of Operations during World War II, from October 1943 to September 1945.
|
His military decorations and awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with three oak leaf clusters, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with six oak leaf clusters, Air Force Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Presidential Unit Citation Emblem, Air Force Outstanding Unit Award Ribbon, French Croix de Guerre with star, and the Belgian Fourragere.
He was promoted to the temporary grade of major general on August 1, 1966.
(From https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/106584/major-general-oris-b-johnson in 2023.)
The 422th Night Fighters Squadron operated at this time from the south of France and often flew North and chased the V1 German pulse jet flying bombs.
From October to December 1944, the 422th Night Fighter Squadron claimed it destroyed 24 of the 51 “bogeys” it identified as enemy aircraft.
The US Night Fighters Squadron P-61's operating over Europe generally worked with the most advanced ground control radar system available, the AN/CPS-1 microwave early warning radar. It had a range limited only by the horizon. Operating at 10-centimeters, it provided accurate range and azimuth information to the fighter controller who directed P-61s to their targets.
There is an interesting information in the historical book “Conquering The Night - Army Air Forces Night Fighters At War”, by Stephen L. McFarland, Tannenberg Publishing, 2015:
“Aerial victories [by US Night Fighters Squadron over Europe after D-Day] were nonetheless hard to come by. The 422d NFS experienced the best hunting. From September to November 1944, its crews undertook 461 ground control radar chases, resulting in 282 airborne radar contacts and 174 visual sightings. But of these sightings, only 20 were identified as enemy aircraft and 7 were shot down. Seven out of 20 in three months' combat was a prodigious night-time accomplishment, but it did not represent a major contribution to the war effort.
One may wonder, if 174 visual sightings resulted in only 20 of them being identified as enemy targets, what the other 154 may have been.
In the newspaper The Evening Tribune of November 7, 1944, it is clear that Oris B. Johnson then interpreted all these reported phenomena as new “gadgets” from the Germans; a fairly logical opinion in the context of the moment. But we also see the idea emerging that these “gadgets” are completely harmless, an idea which will be confirmed and will cast doubt on this interpretation of these phenomena being enemy “weapons.”
The observation that Johnson seems to have made himself is most curious because it is totally different from the descriptions of “Foo-Fighters” by the airmen of his unit the 415th Night Fighter Squadron.
Undentified, insufficient information.
* = 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 | November 1, 2023 | Creation, [get1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | November 1, 2023 | First published. |
