ALSACAT:

ALSACAT is my comprehensive catalog of UFO sighting reports in Alsace, the region is the North-East of France, whether they are "explained" or "unexplained".

The ALSACAT catalog is made of case files with a case number, summary, quantitative information (date, location, number of witnesses...), classifications, all sources mentioning the case with their references, a discussion of the case in order to evaluate its causes, and a history of the changes made to the file. A general index and thematic sub-catalogs give access to these Alsatian case files.

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Case possibly in Alsace, on December 30, 1944:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1944-12-26-ALSACE-1

Summary:

From November 1944 on, members of the 415th NFS, a US Army Air Force night fighters squadron operating in the Rhine Valley, made several reports of what they called "Foo Fighters", like those recorded in a report of January 30, 1945, to the Tactical Air Command by intelligence officer Fred Ringwald who was himself one of the first witnesses of these "Foo-Fighters" on the Rhine combat zone.

Ringwald had noted in one of his reports an observation during the night of 30 to 31 December 1944:

"Sas a group of lights flying in the air 30 or 40 miles east of the base during a flight to Angels 9 - 10".

Ringwald specified that in all cases where the pilot had called a radar station on the ground and asked if there was any aircraft detected in the area, he had received a negative answer.

Data:

Temporal data:

Date:	December 30, 1944
Time:	Night
Duration:	?
First known report date:	January 30, 1945
Reporting delay:	Hours, 1 month.

Geographical data:

Department:	?
City:	?
Place:	From Beaufighter night fighter, UFO in the sky.
Latitude:
Longitude:
Uncertainty radius:	200 km

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses:	1 to 3
Number of known witnesses:	?
Number of named witnesses:	0
Witness(es) ages:	Adults
Witness(es) types:	US military airmen.

Ufology data:

Reporting channel:	US Army Air Forces report.
Type of location:	From nightfighter plane, UFOs in the sky.
Visibility conditions:	Night
UFO observed:	Yes
UFO arrival observed:	?
UFO departure observed:	?
Entities:	No
Photographs:	No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es):	No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es):	No.
Witness(es) feelings:	?
Witnesses interpretation:	?

Classifications:

Hynek:	NL
ALSACAT:	Insufficient data.

Sources:

[Ref. usa1:] FRED B. RINGWALD, U.S. AIR FORCE 415TH NFS:

The 415th Night Fighter Squadron of the U.S. Air force was formed in February 1943 and it carried out patrols in the Mediterranean and then North-west Europe during World War II.

Through April 1945, the squadron flew patrols and intruder missions, concentrating its attacks on enemy installations, supplies, communications, and troops. It used Bristol Beaufighter British planes at that time.

In December 1944, members of the 415th made multiple reports of what they called "foo-fighters", as recorded in a January 30, 1945 report to Tactical Air Command by intelligence officer Fred Ringwald.

Here are the parts of that report about the sighting in their case file:

1. In compliance with paragraph 3 of 1st Incl., the following extracts from the Sortie Reports of various pilots who have encountered the Night Phenomenon are submitted for your information.

[... other sightings ...]

Night of 30-31 December 1944 - "Saw a group of lights flying through the air 30 or 40 miles East of base while flying at Angels 9 - 10."

[... other sightings ...]

2. In every case where pilot called CGI Central and asked if there was a Bogey A/C in the area he received a negative answer.

F.B. RINGWALD [Fred B. Ringwald, the unit's S-2 Intelligence Officer.]
Captain, [Illegible] Intelligence Officer

Note: the report lists several other sightings in Alsace, those have their own case files. It also lists several sightings whose location is unknown to me as they were coded such as "Q-9050", "Q-1378" etc. These location may have been over Alsace, over elsewhere in France, or over Germany. As I did not find the meaning for these locations codes, I cannot include these other sighting in ALSACAT for now.

Discussion:

"Angels 9 - 10" means between 9 000 and 10 000 feet high.

It is not certain that this observation took place aboveAlsace.

And of course there is not enogh information to make a of this a solid case of anything.

Evaluation:

Insufficient data.

Sources references:

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

[usa1] * Report to Tactical Air Command, by S-2 intelligence officer Fred B. Ringwald, U.S. Air Force, January 30, 1945.

File history:

Authoring:

Main author:	Patrick Gross
Contributors:	None
Reviewers:	None
Editor:	Patrick Gross

Changes history:

Version:	Create/changed by:	Date:	Description:
0.1	Patrick Gross	September 3, 2017	Creation, [usa1].
1.0	Patrick Gross	September 3, 2017	First published.

This page was last updated on September 3, 2017.