ACUFO:

MISSION REPORT

26/27 MARCH

UNIT REPORTING: 415TH NIGHT FIGHTER SQUADRON

MISSIONS: 10 MISSIONS 10 SORTIES 10 PATROLS

REPORT:

1920-2220 - Patrol. Patrol Worms area. Got much inaccurate flak southeast Worms. All kinds, heavy and light. Could get no pinpoint.

1930-2250 - Patrol. Patrol Worms area. Got heavy, meager flak, inaccurate, at M-5411. 1 bogey contacted. Chase called off when a/c was identified as friendly.

2115-2215. - Patrol. Returned early to base because “canary” U/S.

2200-2215 - Patrol, Return to case because of R/T failure.

2230-0130 - Patrol. Patrol Worms area. Saw an orange ball that came up from ground and disappeared before it reached the Beau. No pinpoint.

2325-2345 - Patrol. Came back to base because “Canary” U/S.

0015-0330 - Patrol. Patrol Worms area. Had several contacts. CGI Blunder said there were other Night Fighters in the area. As he turned away from 1 a/c contacted, a tracer was seen. Believed other a/c/ fired on him. Other a/c call sign was “Empire”. Saw 2 bogies strafing area near point “Y”. Picked up one contact, but lost because of radio interference.

0140-0405 - Patrol. Patrol Worms area. At 0220 hours had bogey on its tail, but lost him. Called Blunder at 0245 hours who vectored him on bogey. Got within 3 miles and made AI contact then lost due interference with radio. When lost bogey made tight turn and fired on Beau from rear. No hits. Attempted another interception. Bogey took violent evasive action and fired on Beau head on. Continued to chase. Saw bogey strafe ground. Beau had to abandon chase because of flak. Weather became too bad. Returned to base.

0330-0405 - Patrol. Returned to base because of weather.

0345-0410 - Patrol. Returned to base because of weather.

CLAIMS: Nil.

LOSSES: Nil.

[...]

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.

March 26/27, 1945 - Mission 5 - 2230-0130 - Patrol. Patrol Worms area. Saw an orange ball that came up from ground and disappeared before it reached the Beau.

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.