ACUFO-1944-12-17-NEUFREISTETT-1
In the 1970 - 1990, Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS) was a lobby aimed at obtaining declassified documents on UFOS from the US Government.
In their newsletter of September 1992, their editor Barry Greenwood explained that he had searched the National Archives in Suitland, Maryland, USA, to find more documents on the Foo-Fighters emanating from of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron, and had found some, mainly “Mission Reports”.
Barry Greenwood explained that some of the reports he found were impossible to asses, as sometimes it was not specified if the phenomena observed were on the ground or in the air, for example.
One of the cases found was that on December 17, 1944, between 01:55 a.m. and 03:45 a.m., Mission 6 on intrusion in the Lichtenau-Buhl area, saw lights in Neufreistett, but their guns would not fire, so they returned to their base.
| Date: | December 17, 1944 |
|---|---|
| Time: | Night. |
| Duration: | ? |
| First known report date: | 1992 |
| Reporting delay: | Hours, days. |
| Country: | Germany |
|---|---|
| State/Department: | Baden |
| City or place: | Neufreistett (now Rheinau district) |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 1 to 3 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | ? |
| Number of named witnesses: | 0 |
| Reporting channel: | Military operation report. |
|---|---|
| Visibility conditions: | Night. |
| UFO observed: | Yes. |
| UFO arrival observed: | ? |
| UFO departure observed: | ? |
| UFO action: | ? |
| Witnesses action: | Fired. |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | ? |
| Witnesses interpretation: | ? |
| Sensors: |
[X] Visual: 1 to 3.
[ ] Airborne radar: Not reported. [ ] Directional ground radar: Not reported. [ ] Height finder ground radar: [ ] Photo: [ ] Film/video: [ ] EM Effects: [ ] Failures: [ ] Damages: |
|---|---|
| Hynek: | NL |
| Armed / unarmed: | Armed, machine guns and / or 20 mm cannons. |
| Reliability 1-3: | 3 |
| Strangeness 1-3: | 1 |
| ACUFO: | Insufficient information, probable ground targets. |
[Ref. jce1:] UFOLOGY BULLETIN "JUST CAUSE":
The Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS) newsletter reported that on September 3, 1992, their editor Barry Greenwood searched the National Archives in Suitland, Maryland, USA, to find more documents on the Foo-Fighters emanating from of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron, and had found some, mainly “Mission Reports”. Barry Greenwood reported:
[...]
Archives personnel provided a large cardboard box holding three feet of file folders of the 415th NFS and affiliated bomber groups. The period covered was late September 1944 - April 1945. It was obvious that I would spend at least a full day scanning this bunch. The records were not in the best condition, a fact which should be of great concern to those interested in the contents of old files, not just on this but on any subject. Many of the papers were onion-skin copies, very fragile and yellowing. Other reports were on coarse, brown paper which was very brittle, flakes of which were coming off on my hands. It was no longer surprising why quite often when CAUS would request and receive government files the copies were difficult, and sometimes impossible, to read. We are in a race against time as many government records are literally self-destructing on the shelf. With the millions of copies for which the National Archives is responsible, there is simply not enough staff or resources to take care of it all.
What also became clear is that the staff of the National Archives are not absolute authorities on the records that we have obtained regarding UFOs. The response I had to a request for help in locating a particular Air Force document with an identifying number was, “Good luck, we don't know.” Not that they were being fresh but that the Air Force had lost the inventory to that group of documents. I had a new appreciation for the time delays in responding to FOIA requests as well. It took me the best part of a day just to scan one box thoroughly. I was in a room with about thirty to forty people, all of whom had their own agenda and own piles of paper to scan. Factor in mail requests and the demands on the staff must be terrific. I heard a complaint by one of having to pull hundreds of boxes himself to fulfill researchers' requests just for that day.
The 415th's mission reports tended to be brief in their descriptions of everything. There were reports of aircraft destroyed, buildings bombed, flak, vehicles destroyed; etc. Then, scattered amongst the information, were reports of strange lights in the sky.
He then gave the 15 such cases he found, including:
December 16/17, 1944 - Mission 6 - 0155-0345 - Lichtenau-Buhl area. Saw lights in Neufreistett (R-1407), guns would not fire so returned to base.
Greenwood noted:
One frustrating feature of these reports is their brevity. It is difficult to form a hypothesis on the origin of Foo-Fighters when such fragmentary information is available. It is sometimes hard to tell whether reports of “lights” by the pilots were in the air or on the ground so one should exercise caution when reading reports where this is not clear.
The Bristol Type 156 “Beaufighter”, nicknamed “Beau”, was a British multi-role aircraft developed during WWII. It was originally conceived as a heavy fighter variant of the Bristol Beaufort torpedo bomber; it proved to be an effective night fighter, which came into service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Battle of Britain.
Originally, armament consisted of four 20mm cannons and six 0.303-in machine-guns but many variants were built; for example, versions had the ability to additionally carry eight rocket projectiles, some had a Vickers 'K' gun, Beaufighter TF.Mk X was used for anti-shipping operations.
The Beaufighter Mk VIF was fitted with the Mark VIII radar.
Below: Beaufighter Mk VIF of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron.
|
The Beaufighters served with the U.S. Army Air Forces until the end of the war, but most were replaced by the P-61 “Black Widow” beginning on March 20, 1945.
|
This report illustrates the comments Barry greenwood made about the brevity of the reports, the fragmentary information, and the missing information in some reports about the phenomena being in the air or on the ground.
Insufficient information, probable ground targets.
* = 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 11, 2023 | Creation, [jce1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | November 11, 2023 | First published. |
