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Bologna, Italy, on February 27, 1945:

Case number:

ACUFO-1945-02-27-BOLOGNA-1

Summary:

In the 2000's, French ufologist Dominique Weinstein noted in his catalogue of WWI “Foo-Fighters” cases that on February 27, 1945, in the Bologna area in Italy, the same crew of a Mosquito of the 416th Night Fighter Squadron that made an observation on February 22, 1945) was conducting another patrol aided by a ground radar station, over the area north and south of Bologna.

They vectored onto a “bandit” - a suspected enemy plane - that was up at 20,000 feet, but when they got to his altitude, “no contact was made.” Communication with the ground radar station “Rhubarb” had revealed that “there was nothing there.”

Later at 08:00 p.m., the crew observed “three lights” at 10,000 feet in the “shape of a triangle.” now in pursuit, the radar operator was unable to get a contact on his on-board screen. The pilot continued closing in on the lights. Zeroing in for a kill, his Mosquito was around 2,000 feet away, when suddenly “the lights disappeared.”

Weinstein indicated that this came from the 416th Night Fighter Squadron Operations Report for February 27, 1945, according to the 2007 book “Strange Company - Military Encounters with UFOs in World War II” by Keith Chester.

Data:

Temporal data:

Geographical data:

Witnesses data:

Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

[Ref. dwn2:] DOMINIQUE WEINSTEIN:

(Ref. nip1:) "THE NICAP WEBSITE":

The reference 1 is described at the end of the document as “Strange Company (2007), Keith Chester”.

[Ref. tai1:] "THINK ABOUT IT" WEBSITE:

Aircraft information:

The de Havilland DH.98 “Mosquito” was a British multirole aircraft, which served as a fighter-bomber, torpedo bomber and reconnaissance aircraft with the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. The code name for these missions was “Bluestocking”.

Its armament was 4 7.62 mm Browning machine guns and 4 20 mm Hispano cannons.

Its pilot and its navigator were seated side by side, the navigator being shifted back about thirty centimeters for shoulder width.

Discussion:

The 416th Night Fighter Squadron was first established in February 1943, at Orlando Army Air Base, Florida for training. The 416th was among the first Army Air Forces dedicated night fighter squadron formed. By April 1943, the squadron settled briefly in United Kingdom for training under VIII Fighter Command, attached to the Royal Air Force for familiarization in theater night fighter techniques. It was then equipped with RAF Bristol Beaufighters.

The unit then moved to North Africa for operations with XIIth Air Force. It carried out defensive night patrols over Allied held territory during the North African campaign, and then move with other allied forces into Italy in September 1943, performing intruder sweeps over Sardinia, Corsica, Italy and Southern France in 1945 on British-built Mosquito night fighters.

At the time of this sighting, they were operating from airfields at Pomigliano Airfield, Italy, with detachments at Tre Cancello Landing Strip, Italy.

The night patrol tactic was, in short:

A ground radar station (“GCI”, “Ground Control Intercept”), scans an area and, when something that could be an enemy plane is detected, they report it by radio to the night fighter plane, giving the position of this echo and the direction of its movement. The night fighter plane then positions itself a few miles behind this target, try to locate it with its on-board radar - of lesser range - (“AI”, “Airborne Intercept”), moves closer and open fire.

So we have:

First, an echo on the ground radar is reported to the night fighter plane, but when the plane arrives at the location of this echo, there is nothing, and the ground radar does not detects anything anymore either; we can therefore think of a radar “angel”, a false detection of an object which would have been on the ground, for example, or a real echo of an enemy plane which would have dived towards the ground to escape this interception. Whatever it was, I do not see anything “extraterrestrial” here.

Then, at 8 p.m. GMT, the plane observed “three lights” at 10,000 feet “in the shape of a triangle”. But the on-board radar operator detected nothing. This is not total proof of absence because the on-board radar sets were not entirely reliable. The pilot approached the lights to attack them, but when he was about 2,000 feet away the lights disappeared.

The fact is that one can easily offer various ordinary explanations. For example, the lights may have been flares that went out. Or they were enemy planes that entered a layer of clouds.

As is often the case in reports of Allied night fighters from this period over Italy, there is not the slightest indication that the crew thought they were encountering anything out of the ordinary.

Evaluation:

Possible false radar echo and enemy plane.

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.

• [aaf1] ? Daily Operations Report, 416th Night Fighter Squadron, U.S. Army Air Forces, February 27, 1945.
• [kcr1] ? "Strange Company - Military Encounters with UFOs in World War II", book by Keith Chester, Anomalist Book publishers, USA, pp 141-142, 2007.
• [dwn2] * "The Foofighters Files (1) - Catalogue of Unconventional Aerial Phenomena Reported by Allied pilots during WW II (1943-1945)", catalogue by Dominique F. Weinstein, France, October 2009.
• [nip1] * "UFO Sighting Chronology - 1939-1945; The WWII Years & 'Foo-Fighters'", on the ufology Website The NICAP Website, USA, created December 18, 2006, updated December 5, 2017, at http://www.nicap.org/chronos/1939-1945.htm
• [tai1] * "1945: February UFO & Alien Sightings", web page on the Think About It Website, USA, June 22, 2016, at https://www.thinkaboutitdocs.com/1945-february-ufo-alien-sightings

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