ACUFO-1945-03-13-BOLOGNA-1
Ufological sources from the 2010s indicate that in the 2007 book “Strange Company - Military Encounters with UFOs in World War II” by Keith Chester, it is reported that during the night of March 13, 1945, four crews of P-61 “Black Widows” of the 414th Night Fighter Squadron patrolled the front line near Bologna in Italy.
At 7:40 p.m., Lieutenant Schaeffer, pilot, and Lieutenant Ayers, his navigator, were at 3,000 feet when they saw “100 balls of orange fire” illuminating the entire area around them.
It is stated that the source was the daily operations report of the 414th Night Fighter Squadron of the U.S. Army Air Forces of March 13, 1945.
| Date: | March 13, 1945 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 07:40 p.m. |
| Duration: | |
| First known report date: | March 13, 1945 |
| Reporting delay: | Hours. |
| Country: | Italy |
|---|---|
| State/Department: | Emilia-Romagna |
| City or place: | Bologna |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 2 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | ? |
| Number of named witnesses: | 2 |
| Reporting channel: | Military operations report, 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: | ? |
| Witnesses interpretation: | ? |
| Sensors: |
[X] Visual: 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 Hispano 20 mm cannons, 4 Browning M2 12.7 mm machine guns. |
| Reliability 1-3: | 2 |
| Strangeness 1-3: | 2 |
| ACUFO: | Unidentified. |
[Ref. dwn2:] DOMINIQUE WEINSTEIN:
During the night, four P-61 Black Widow crews with the 414th NFS were patrolling the front line near Bologna (Italy). At 19h40, pilot Lt. Schaeffer and his navigator, Lt. Ayers, were at 3,000 feet when they saw “100 balls of orange fire” illuminating the whole area around them. A couple of hours later, the last patrolling mission flown by pilot Lt. Price and his radar operator, flight officer Wilkinson, observed “two balls of foo fire” flying 15 miles south and west of Bologna.
Sources: USAAF 414th Night Fighter Squadron Daily Operations Report, 13 March 1945 / Strange Company, Keith Chester, 2007.
(Ref. nip1:) "THE NICAP WEBSITE":
March 13, 1945; Bologna, Italy
Two sightings: (1) 100 hundred balls of orange fire; (2) two balls of foo fire. (Page 147 Ref.1)
The reference 1 is described at the end of the document as “Strange Company (2007), Keith Chester”.
[Ref. tai1:] "THINK ABOUT IT" WEBSITE:
Date: Mar. 13, 1945
Location: Bologna, Italy
Time:
Summary: Two sightings: (1) 100 hundred balls of orange fire; (2) two balls of foo fire.
Source:
[Ref. sua1:] WEBSITE "SATURDAY NIGHT UFORIA":
The issue of sightings over the next month [following January 1945] would become clouded, with reports labeling encounters variously as 'flares', 'foo fighters', and 'balls of fire', so that what was conventional and what might not be became intermixed. Two examples occurred on the same night, March 13, 1945, near Bologna, when the crew of a P-61 reported “100 balls of orange fire” followed two hours later by another crew reporting two “balls of foo fire”.
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.
|
It is specified in the report that the plane was a P-61. However, we are told of only two crew members while the P-61 crew consisted of three men. I therefore do not exclude that the aircraft could have been a Bristol Beaufighter, which had a two-man crew.
The British decided on January 1, 1944, to no longer build their Bristol Beaufighters. The 414th Night Fighter Squadron, which was then equipped with them, continued to use them, but received P-61s at the end of 1944, while continuing to use Beaufighters.
|
Sources published two different observations by two different crews separated by hours as one case; but this should have been published as two cases.
In historical sources (eg. aviation-safety.net/wikibase/301946), I found that on December 19, 1944, The Bristol Beaufighter Mk VIF number ND212 of the 414th Night Fighter Squadron of the U.S. Army Air Forces was damaged beyond repair in a landing accident at Pisa airfield, Tuscany, Italy, with no injuries in the crew of 2. The pilot was Robert J. Schaeffer of the U.S. Army Air Forces.
I failed to find information about Lt. Ayers, the navigator.
The observation is at the same time quite strange, and not very suggestive of extraterrestrial spacecraft.
We have 100 orange balls of fire lighting up the area around the plane. We can think of flares, but their number seems totally absurd.
We lack information. For example, there is nothing that says whether these balls were in the sky rather than on the ground. There is no duration, no information on a possible movement of these balls, etc.
So I have no idea what this crew might have seen.
Unidentified.
* = 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 | December 19, 2023 | Creation, [dwn2], [nip1], [tai1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | December 19, 2023 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | April 22, 2024 | Addition [sua1]. |
