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Holland or Germany, on March 5, 1945:

Case number:

ACUFO-1945-03-05-HOLLANDGERMANY-1

Summary:

Ufology sources from the 2000s indicate that according to the 2007 book "Strange Company - Military Encounters with UFOs in World War II" by Keith Chester, on March 5, 1945, over Holland or Northern Germany, by night an aircraft of the 653rd Reconnaissance Squadron of the 25th Bomb Group conducted a Bluestocking mission to determine the weather conditions over Holland and Northern Germany.

At 10:47 p.m., Mosquito pilot Lt. Smith and his radar operator, Lt. Kuehn, observed "a large orange ball" in the sky at approximately 5,000 feet below their aircraft, around 20 miles away. The ball "hung in the air for a period of about five seconds."

Lt. Smith dropped his Mosquito down to around 15,000 feet, and minutes later, he observed a "similar ball" that was "moving horizontally at the same altitude" as his aircraft; and this time, he observed the ball, also around 20 miles away, for close to 15 seconds before it disappeared.

In his report, Major Finis D. McClanahan, the 25th Group's S-2 (Intelligence officer) stated that the "phenomena" was unknown.

The sources are said to be two military reports: the Operations Narrative of the 653rd Bombardment Squadron to Headquarters of the 251st Bombardment Group (Reconnaissance), USAAF Station 376, APO 634, 5 March 1945; the S-2 Mission report, Bluestocking 3/27, 653rd Squadron, 25th Bombardment group, to 653rd Bombardment Squadron to Headquarters, 7 March 1945.

Data:

Temporal data:

Geographical data:

Witnesses data:

Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

[Ref. dwn2:] DOMINIQUE WEINSTEIN:

(Ref. nip1:) "THE NICAP WEBSITE":

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

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

Aircraft information:

The de Havilland DH.98 "Mosquito" was a British multirole aircraft, which served as a fighter-bomber, torpedo bomber and reconnaissance aircraft with the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

Its armament was 4 7.62 mm Browning machine guns and 4 20 mm Hispano cannons.

Its pilot and its navigator were seated side by side, the navigator being shifted back about thirty centimeters for shoulder width.

Discussion:

During WWII, flights over the continent of Europe to obtain information for use in operational planning and occasional weather scouting missions over targets to provide current weather information for relay to bombers on their way to attack fell to the de Havilland Mosquitos Mk. XVI of the 653d Squadron, and were code named "Bluestocking."

The description in the report makes me think that the two airmen may have seen a German V-2 rocket.

Historical sources indicate that on March 5, 1945, at 08:02 p.m. GMT a V-2 was launched from the V-2 launch site Battery 485 in The Hague (Den Haag, La Haye), The Netherlands; it impacted Woolwich near London in the South-East of England; at 10:29 p.m. GMT, another V-2 was launched from the same site; it apparently impacted Rainham near London in the South-East of England.

(See for example www.v2rocket.com/start/deployment/timeline.html)

These were the two only known launches that day. The hours do not match exactly; but it may be considered that the airmen's clock was not set exactly.

The interpretation would be that the airmen saw the ball of light twice for seconds only because it would have been hidden in clouds the rest of the time.

The ball(s) of fire did apparently not behave like in the moe interesting "Foo-Fighter" cases, it did not pace their plane or react to evasive maneuvers.

Evaluation:

Insufficient information, possible V-2 rocket.

Sources references:

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

• [aaf1] ? Operations Narrative of the 653rd Bombardment Squadron (Weather reconnaissance) Mission, to Headquarters, 251st Bombardment Group (Reconnaissance), USAAF Station 376, APO 634, March 5, 1945.
• [aaf2] ? S-2 Mission report, Bluestocking 3/27, 653rd Squadron, 25th Bombardment group, to 653rd Bombardment Squadron (Weather reconnaissance) Mission, to Headquarters, March 7, 1945.
• [kcr1] ? "Strange Company - Military Encounters with UFOs in World War II", book by Keith Chester, Anomalist Book publishers, USA, page 145, 2007.
• [dwn2] * "The Foofighters Files (1) - Catalogue of Unconventional Aerial Phenomena Reported by Allied pilots during WW II (1943-1945)", catalogue by Dominique F. Weinstein, France, October 2009.
• [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
• [tai1] * "1945: March UFO & Alien Sightings", web page on the Think About It Website, USA, June 22, 2016, at https://www.thinkaboutitdocs.com/1945-march-ufo-alien-sightings

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This page was last updated on December 1, 2023.