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Essen, Germany, on May 27, 1943:

Case number:

ACUFO-1943-05-27-ESSEN-1

Summary:

In 2003, researchers Dr. David Clarke and Andy Roberts explained on the website page about the "Foo-Fighters" that had discovered one more RAF account of a huge UFO in the files of the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA).

They noted that as yet the case was not backed up by official documents, the account is worth relating.

It was told by Sergeant Pilot G.N. Cockcroft of Bradford, West Yorkshire, who flew with a Halifax bomber squadron, dans told:

"On the night of 26/27 May 1943 we were to carry out an attack on the Krupps Armament Works at Essen. As I recall between 400/500 aircraft were involved in the raid. We experienced the usual flak, when crossing the Dutch coast .but fortunately sustained no serious damage. The barrage flak in the Ruhr Valley was extremely heavy, particularly in the last few minutes on the approach to the target. The first wave had already bombed and the general target area was well alight.

"It was in the two or three minutes before our final run-in, when we were at approximately 18,700 feet when we saw in front, but slightly to port and about the same height, a long cylindrical object, silvery gold colour, very sharply defined, hanging in the sky at an angle of approximately 45 degrees. There were, evenly spaced along the length of the object, a number of port holes. The first crew member to sight this object was the Captain, at that time Sgt/Pilot Ray Smith of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Besides Ray and myself other members of the crew to see the object, which was called to their attention by the Captain were the bomb aimer, the flight engineer, the mid-upper gunner and wireless operator."

"I think that the first reaction of most of us was amazement because this object just had no right to be there. After a very short space of time, twenty to thirty seconds, it suddenly began moving and, retaining its attitude, climbed rapidly until it vanished from sight. The speed it attained seemed to us completely incredible. It was certainly into the thousands of mph! As it accelerated, the outline became blurred and the shape foreshortened. The size is more difficult to judge but it was very large, certainly very much bigger than our own aircraft, appearing at least as long as a king-sized cigarette or small cigar at arm s length. We then completed our bomb run and returned to base.

"The intelligence officer de-briefing us was given a description of this object but we were unable to judge what importance was attached to it by the authorities and, quite frankly, it was just another unusual phenomenon which, since apparently harmless, was of far less importance to us than other wartime hazards."

Clarke and Roberts note that the only members of the crew who did not see the object were the navigator and rear gunner who were both otherwise engaged in ensuring the bomber did not get in trouble.

Data:

Temporal data:

Geographical data:

Witnesses data:

Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH:

[Ref. dcr2:] DR. DAVID CLARKE AND ANDY ROBERTS:

[Ref. dwn2:] DOMINIQUE WEINSTEIN:

[Ref. tgd1:] TIMOTHY GOOD:

This author indicates that on the night of May 26/27, 1943, during a raid on Essen, Germany, involving up to 500 aircraft, an RAF Halifax four-engine bomber encountered a structured craft similar to the one reported over Turin six months earlier. Flight Sergeant G.N. Cockcroft, co-piloting, recalled the incident:

"It was in the two or three minutes before our final run-in, when we were at approximately 18,700 feet when we saw in front, but slightly to port and about the same height, a long cylindrical object, silver gold in colour, very sharply defined, hanging in the sky at an angle of approximately 45 degrees. There were, evenly spaced along the length of the object, a number of portholes."

Timothy Good indicates that Flight Sergeant Ray Smith (Royal Canadian Air Force) was the first to observe the object, and alerted Cockcroft, as well as the bomb aimer, the flight engineer, the mid-upper gunner and the radio operator, whereas the navigator and rear gunner, preoccupied with ensuring that the Halifax stayed on course and did not get shot down, did not witness the incident.

Cockcroft is quoted:

"I think the first reaction of most of us was amazement, because the object just had no right to be there."

"The speed it attained seemed to us completely incredible. It was certainly in the thousands of mph! As it accelerated, the outline became blurred and the shape foreshortened. The size is more difficult to judge but it was very large, certainly very much bigger than our own aircraft, appearing at least as long as a king-sized cigarette or small cigar at arm's length. We then completed our bomb run and returned to base. The intelligence officer debriefing us was given a description of this object, but we were unable to judge what import-ance was attached to it by the authorities..."

The author indicates that the source is the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA), cited by Clarke and Roberts in UFO Magazine (UK), January 2003, page 9.

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

[Ref. nip1:] "THE NICAP WEBSITE":

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

[Ref. twf1:] "THE WHY FILES" WEBSITE:

[Ref. get1:] GEORGE M. EBERHART:

[Ref. part5:] JAN ALDRICH - "PROJECT 1947":

Aircraft information:

The Handley Page Halifax was a RAF long range heavy night bomber introduced in 1940.

It had 6 to 8 Browning 7.62 mm machines guns, 2 or four on the top, 4 on the belly, and one Vickers 7.62 mm machine gun in the nose.

Below: a Halifax bomber of 76th Squadron in 1943.

Discussion:

Provided the reporting witness did not make up the story entirely; which nothing indicates so far, I see not other sensible explanation: this was an extraterrestrial craft.

Evaluation:

Possible extraterrestrial craft.

Sources references:

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

• [rhl1] ? "From airships to Arnold: a catalogue of UFO reports in the early 20th century (1900-1946)", by Richard H. Hall, UFO Research Coalition, USA, page 13, 2000, 2007.
• [dcr2] * "UFOs in History: The Foo Fighters - The RAF Experience", web page by Dr. David Clarke and Andy Roberts, on their Website The Real UFO PRoject, U-K. 2003, at http://www.uk-ufo.org/condign/histfoo3.htm
• [kcr1] ? "Strange Company - Military Encounters with UFOs in World War II", book by Keith Chester, Anomalist Book publishers, USA, pp 40-41, 2007.
• [lhh1] * "*U* Computer Database", ufology database by Larry Hatch, USA, circa 2002.
• [dwn2] * "The Foofighters Files (1) Catalogue of Unconventional Aerial Phenomena Reported by Allied pilots during WW II (1943-1945)", catalogue by Dominique Weinstein, France, October 2009.
• [tgd1] * "Need to Know - UFOs, the Military and Intelligence", book by Timothy Good, Pan Macmillan publishers, U-K., pp 19-21, 2012.
• [tai1] * "1943: UFO & Alien Sightings", web page of the Think About It website, USA, as of January 1, 2016, at https://www.thinkaboutitdocs.com/1943-ufo-alien-sightings
• [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
• [twf1] * "And other Strange Objects in Wartime Skies!", Web page on the The Why Files Website, not dated, as of 2023, at https://thewhyfiles.net/foo_fighters.html
• [get1] * "UFOs and Intelligence: A Timeline", electronic document compiled by George M. Eberhart, 2022.
• [prt5] * "PROJECT 1947 UFO REPORTS - 1943", on the Project 1947 ufology Website, Jan Aldrich, USA, not dated, as of 2023, at https://www.project1947.com/fig/1943a.htm

Note: In the available sources, reference is made to an original source, "Haunted Skies, Norman Oliver, BUFORA, Volume One, pp 33-34". I wondered what it was an when it was published.

The closest I found was a book titled "Haunted Skies Volume One: v. 1 The Encyclopedia of British UFOs", by John Hanson and Dawn Marina Holloway, published by "Fortean Words", dated 2010. A revised volume deals with UFO reports from 1939-1959 and contains the original first two volumes.

File history:

Authoring:

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This page was last updated on November 3, 2023.