ACUFO-1944-12-24-RHINEVALLEY-1
In the fall and winter 1945, Intelligence Officer Fred B. Ringwald was attached to the 415th Night Fighter Squadron of the U.S. Army Air Forces, stationed in the Dijon region in France; which carried out night intrusion missions into enemy territory on the Rhine valley. Having himself seen with others unexplained luminous phenomena during a mission, he had collected a series of other testimonies to send a summary about it for the Tactical Air Command of the U.S. Army on January 23, 1945.
In this Intelligence report, he had noted that in the night from December 23 to 24, 1944, from a night fighter plane of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron, "reddish colored flames" were observed at considerable distance and at approximately 10,000 feet.
This may of may not be the sighting reported by Jo Chamberlin in his famous article "The Foo Fighter Mystery", published in The American Legion nagazine in December 1945.
Jo Chamberlin was then a Lieutenant-Colonel and war correspondent. He had visited the airmen of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron and, like Ringwald, collected their reports of the mystery lights they encountered over the Rhine valley in then end of 1944 and beginning of 1945.
Chamberlin told that in the night of December 23-24, 1944, the two airmen who had reported a sighting over Haguenau on the night of December 22-23, 1944, Lieutenant David L. McFalls, of Cliffside, North Carolina, pilot, and Lieutenant Ned Baker of Hemat, California, radar-observer, when flying at 10,000 feet, when they observed a "glowing red object shooting straight up, which suddenly changed to a view of an aircraft doing a wing-over, going into a dive and disappearing."
| Date: | December 24, 1944 |
|---|---|
| Time: | Night. |
| Duration: | ? |
| First known report date: | January 23, 1945 |
| Reporting delay: | Hours, 4 weeks. |
| Country: | France or Germany. |
|---|---|
| State/Department: | |
| City or place: | The Rhine valley |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 2 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 or 2 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 2 |
| Reporting channel: | Military Intelligence report. |
|---|---|
| Visibility conditions: | Night. |
| UFO observed: | Yes. |
| UFO arrival observed: | Yes. |
| UFO departure observed: | Yes. |
| UFO action: | Shot up, wing-over, dive. |
| Witnesses action: | |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | ? |
| Witnesses interpretation: | Foo-Fighter. |
| Sensors: |
[X] Visual: 1 or 2
[ ] 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, 4 20 mm cannons, 6 7.62 mm machine guns. |
| Reliability 1-3: | 3 |
| Strangeness 1-3: | 2 |
| ACUFO: | Probable German V-2 rocket. |
[Ref. rwd1:] FRED B. RINGWALD, INTELLIGENCE, U.S. ARMY AIR FORCES:
Note: the document that follows was retrieved by Jan Aldrich's historical ufology effort Project 1947, at www.project1947.com/fig/1945a.htm
Only the header, the footer and the part related to the case documented in this file are shown.
Only other cases are removed, as they are shown in their own case file in this catalog.
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S E C R E T
1st W/Ind
D-W-2
HEADQUARTERS XII TACTICAL AIR COMMAND, APO #374, U.S. Army, 23 January 1945.
TO: S-2, 415 Night Fighter Squadron.
Forwarded for compliance with paragraph 2 of 1st Ind.
[Signature]
LEAVITT CORNING, JR,.
Lt. Colonel, G.S.C,.
A/C of S, A-2.
2nd W/Ind
415th. NIGHT FIGHTER SQUADRON, APO #374, U. S. Army, 30 January 1945.
TO: AC of S A-2. XII Tactical Air Command, APO 374, U. S. Army.
1. In compliance with paragraph 2 of Ist. Ind., the following extracts from the Sortie reports of various pilots who have encountered the Night Phenomenon are submitted for your information.
[... other cases...]
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[... other cases...]
Night of 23-24 December 1944 - "Observed reddish colored flames at considerable distance and at approximately 10,000 ft."
[... other cases...]
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2. In every case where pilot called GCI Control and asked if there was a Bogey A/C in the area he received a negative answer.
[Signature.]
F. B. Ringwald
Captain, A.C.
Intelligence Officer
* Foofighters is the name given these phenomenon by combat crews of this Squadron.
S E C R E T
[Ref. jcn1:] JO CHAMBERLIN:
The next night [= December 23-24, 1944] the same two men, flying at 10,000 feet, observed a single red flame. Lt. David L. McFalls, of Cliffside, N. C., pilot, and Lt. Ned Baker of Hemat, California, radar-observer, also saw: "A glowing red object shooting straight up, which suddenly changed to a view of an aircraft doing a wing-over, going into a dive and disappearing." This was the first and only suggestion of a controlled flying device.
[Ref. hws1:] HAROLD T. WILKINS:
During the closing months of the war our fighters chased weird colored balls of fire that suddenly disappeared.
By Harold T. Wilkins
[...]
On the night of December 24, 1944, McFalls and Baker had another amazing experience. Here is their report:
"A glowing red ball shot straight up to us. It suddenly changed into an airplane which did a wing over! Then it dived and disappeared.”
The reader should note the sudden disappearance of this weird thing in the sky. "They," if the reports are to be believed, would appear to hail from some phenomenal world of a different wavelength of visibility from our own. "They" - whœver these etherian beings are - can operate controlled machines which suddenly appear from nowhere, fly at vertiginous speeds, and as suddenly vanish into thin air. Yet, in our world of radiological science, in which we have but touched the threshold of the unseen rays in the invisible octaves of the solar spectrum, let the physicist pause before he dismisses these stories of picked men as hallucinations.
[Ref. gld1:] GORDON LORE AND HAROLD DENEAULT:
The following evening [thus December 23, 1945], again at 10,000 feet, the same two men observed a single, mysterious "red flame" on another mission.
[Ref. lgs1:] LOREN GROSS:
The following evening [December 22, 1944] the same airmen in the forementioned account, a Lt. D. McFalls and a Lt. N. Baker, claimed something glowing red shot up at their fighter and flipped over before plunging downward. One of men said the light "changed into an airplane" at the top of its climb. This was the only time anyone claimed the lights resembled something conventional. It might have been one of the small experimental rocket propelled interceptors the Germans were working on, and then again, it has been proposed years later, that perhaps the airman might have seen just an edge of something flat since he used the words "wing-over". Anyway, it's unlikely the details of that one particular sighting will ever be cleared up.
[Ref. mbd1:] MICHEL BOUGARD:
The author indicates that on December 24, 1944, a few hours before Christmas Eve, Lieutenants MacFalls and Baker had the same encounter again.
The Bristol Type 156 "Beaufighter", nicknamed "Beau", was a British multi-role aircraft developed during WWI. 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.
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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 in December 1944.
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Launches of V-2 German rockets in the night of December 23 to 24, 1944, were:
Dec. 23, at 17:18 p.m. Battery 3./836, Hachenburg, Gehlert (Site 605), V-2 rocket fired, impacted approximately 12km north of Hasselt.
Dec. 23, at 18:43 p.m. Battery 444, Wassenaar (Site 74) (Duindigt - Rennbahn), V-2 rocket fired, impacted Bexley. 1 Dead, 24 seriously injured including 1 in neighbouring Woolwich.
Dec. 23, at 19:22 p.m. Battery 1./836, Hachenburg, Hillscheid (Site 604), V-2 rocket fired, possible impact Edegemsesteenweg, Wilrijk. 5 Dead. 10 Properties demolished.
Dec. 23, at 19:33 p.m. Battery 444, (Site 77), V-2 rocket fired, impacted Hackney (airburst). 29 Persons injured. Extensive slight blast damage.
Dec. 23, at 20:19 p.m. Battery 444, Hœk van Holland, V-2 rocket fired, impacted North Sea off Foulness.
Dec. 23, at 23:41 p.m. Battery 444, Hœk van Holland, V-2 rocket fired, impacted West Row, Suffolk (airburst). No damage.
Dec. 24, at 01:40 a.m. Battery 2./485, (Site 163), V-2 rocket fired (impact unknown).
Dec. 24, at 02:22 a.m. Battery 3./485, (Site 131), V-2 rocket fired, impacted North of Breda, Netherlands.
Dec. 24, at 02:43 a.m. Battery 2./485, (Site 163), V-2 rocket fired (failure). (JP)
Dec. 24, at 05:43 a.m. Battery 1./836, Hachenburg, Hillscheid (Site 604), V-2 rocket fired, possible impact Fort 4, Mortsel. 50 Properties damaged.
Dec. 24, at 06:30 a.m. Battery 3./485, (Site 131), V-2 rocket fired (impact unknown).
Dec. 24, at 07:30 a.m. Battery 1./485, (Site 19), V-2 rocket fired, impacted Wanstead. 7 Dead, 7 seriously injured. 6 Properties demolished.
Dec. 24, at 08:20 a.m. Battery SS 500, Hellendoorn, Eelerberg (Site 400 - first period), V-2 rocket fired (impact unknown).
Dec. 24, at 09:27 a.m. Battery 3./485, (Site 131), V-2 rocket fired (failure). Flew off course.
Dec. 24, at 09:32 a.m. Battery 1./485, (Site 78), V-2 rocket fired, impacted Eastwood, Essex. 1 Dead, 6 seriously injured. 2 Properties demolished. Widespread damage.
So, launches from Hachenburg, Germany, took place, and could have been easily seen from the Rhine valley.
The description in the official report, "reddish colored flames were observed at considerable distance and at approximately 10,000 feet" could fit a V-2 launch.
The description in the Chamberlin version, a "glowing red object shooting straight up, which suddenly changed to a view of an aircraft doing a wing-over, going into a dive and disappearing", may also fit, if one agrees that it was not "an aircraft doing a wing-over" but "a view of an aircraft doing a wing-over", a comparison, not a literal description, as stated.
Probable German V-2 rocket.
* = 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 | May 1, 2024 | Creation, [rwd1], [jcn1], [mbd1], [lgs1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | May 1, 2024 | First published. |
