ACUFO:

ACUFO is my comprehensive catalog of cases of encounters between aircraft and UFOs, whether they are "explained" or "unexplained".

The ACUFO 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.

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Germany, on February 3, 1944:

Case number:

ACUFO-1944-02-03-GERMANY-1

Summary:

In their 2003 book, Nick Redfern et Andy Roberts, and in the 2010's, the ufology Website Saturday Night UFOria indicated that an incident appeared for February 3, 1944, in records for the period at Britain's National Archives categorized as "Enemy defences: phenomena", for the period from September 1942 thru February 1944.

It involved a Lancaster bomber, and said:

"It was a ball of red fire on port side 2 miles away at same height with yellowish red flame coming out behind and black smoke. It was 30/40 m.p.h. faster than the Lancaster. It went like this for a period of 3/4 to 1 minute. It did not explode at any time. Fizzled out and not seen again. The smoke was very black and showed up well against grayish night background. It followed when Lancaster went into a dive and again on corkscrewing. It seemed to go out once but sprang into life again when Lancaster changed from dive to starboard into a corkscrew."

Data:

Temporal data:

Date:	February 3, 1944
Time:	Probable night.
Duration:	40 seconds to 1 minute.
First known report date:	February 1944
Reporting delay:	Hours, weeks.

Geographical data:

Country:	Germany
State/Department:
City:

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses:	?
Number of known witnesses:	?
Number of named witnesses:	0

Ufology data:

Reporting channel:	Military summary report.
Visibility conditions:	Night.
UFO observed:	Yes.
UFO arrival observed:	?
UFO departure observed:	?
UFO action:	Follows, turns off, reappears.
Witnesses action:	Evasive maneuvers.
Photographs:	No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es):	No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es):	No.
Witness(es) feelings:	?
Witnesses interpretation:	?

Classifications:

Sensors:	[X] Visual: 1 or more. [ ] Airborne radar: [ ] Directional ground radar: [ ] Height finder ground radar: [ ] Photo: [ ] Film/video: [ ] EM Effects: [ ] Failures: [ ] Damages:
Hynek:	NL
Armed / unarmed:	Armes, 8 7.62 mm machine guns.
Reliability 1-3:	2
Strangeness 1-3:	2
ACUFO:	Unidentified.

Sources:

[Ref. nrr1:] NICK REDFERN AND ANDY ROBERTS:

The authors say that this report surfaced on February 3, 1944:

It was a ball of red fire on port side 2 miles away at same height with yellowish red flame coming out behind and black smoke. It was 30/40 m.p.h. faster than the Lancaster. It went like this for a period of 3/4 to 1 minute. It did not explode at any time. Fizzled out and not seen again. The smoke was very black and showed up well against grayish night background. It followed when Lancaster went into a dive and again on corkscrewing. It seemed to go out once but sprang into life again when Lancaster changed from dive to starboard into a corkscrew.

[Ref. snu1:] "SATURDAY NIGHT UFORIA" WEBSITE:

This website indicates that an incident appeared for February 3, 1944 in records for the period at Britain's National Archives categorized as Enemy defences: phenomena, for the period from September 1942 thru February 1944, an incident involving a Lancaster bomber which had a rated top speed of 280 m.p.h.

"It was a ball of red fire on port side 2 miles away at same height with yellowish red flame coming out behind and black smoke. It was 30/40 m.p.h. faster than the Lancaster. It went like this for a period of 3/4 to 1 minute. It did not explode at any time. Fizzled out and not seen again. The smoke was very black and showed up well against grayish night background. It followed when Lancaster went into a dive and again on corkscrewing. It seemed to go out once but sprang into life again when Lancaster changed from dive to starboard into a corkscrew."

Aircraft information:

The Avro 683 Lancaster was a four-engine night bomber built in more than 7,000 units and it became, with the Handley Page Halifax, the main bomber of the Royal Air Force from 1942 on.

Its defense against German fighter planes was 8 7.62 mm machine guns.

Discussion:

To me, the description evokes a German fighter in flame; but it would have been a bit crazy for its pilot to follow the evasive maneuvers of the Lancaster rather than to save his life with a parachute jump.

This looks like a weird incident, but I have a hard time imagining that the "phenomenon" would have been an extraterrestrial craft; hence I leave it as an "unidentified."

Evaluation:

Unidentified.

Sources references:

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

[nrr1] * "Strange Secrets: Real Government Files on the Unknown", book by Nick Redfern and Andy Roberts, Simon and Schuster - Paraview publishers, U-K., page 64, 2003.
[sua1] * "The foo fighters of world war II", part 2, on the Website Saturday Night Uforia, 2011, at http://www.saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/foofightersofworldwariiparttwo.html

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	October 17, 2023	Creation, [sua1].
1.0	Patrick Gross	October 17, 2023	First published.
1.1	Patrick Gross	November 16, 2023	Addition [nrr1]. In the Summary. addition of "In their 2003 book, Nick Redfern et Andy Roberts, and "

This page was last updated on November 16, 2023.