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Vaggeryd, Sweden, on August 12, 1946:

Case number:

ACUFO-1946-08-12-VASTERAS-1

Summary:

The United Press US news agency reported on August 13, 1946 that three airmen were killed in a collision of their aircraft with one of those "missiles", aka "ghost rockets", that were reported in great numbers in the skies of Sweden and Norway in 1946.

United Press reported that Stockholm's newspaper Aftonbladet said a Swedish military reconnaissance plane collided head-on with a rocket bomb "yesterday". the reconnaissance plane crashed near Vaggeryd in Southern Sweden.

Shortly after the plane's pilot spotted the "bomb", radio contact was broken and the listening post "heard a crash," Aftonbladet, quoting investigators, reported.

The United Press finished with the that this report, published by other afternoon newspapers, "was not confirmed."

This United Press news brief was published in many U.S. newspapers on August 14, 1946.

I found the related heading of this news items on the front page of The Washington Post for August 14, 1946, but oddly, the scan of the article only contained the title, "Plane Hits Rocket, Three Swedes Killed", and someone wrote "hoax" just below.

In his 1969 book "Proceso a los OVNI", Spanish ufologist Antonio Ribera told of the story, with the wrong date "August 14 [1946]". Ribera said a Swedish military aircraft collided with one of the mysterious "projectiles" seen then in the northern European countries, and the members of the crew were killed. He added that the newspaper Aftonbladet had reported that the three airmen died following a collision near Vaggeryd, in southern Sweden, between their aircraft and an unidentified object passing through the sky, and that a witness stated that the "projectile" was making changes of direction.

A different story was given by US ufologist Loren Gross, who said that news out of Stockholm on August 13, 1946, reported a reconnaissance plane of the Swedish military search teams, had been struck head-on by a ghost rocket and the three-man crew was killed instantly. Loren Gross adds that the report said that a search plane had radioed that the crew had just sighted a ghost rocket, and then, suddenly, contact was lost with the aircraft as an explosion was heard in the areaand no further details were given.

Loren Gross also gave this version: "The newspaper Aftonbladet said a flying bomb caused another plane to crash near Vaggeryd in southern 194 Sweden. It was not known whether there were casualties."

For both versions, Loren Gross said the sources are "Stockholm, Sweden. 13 August 46".

Several ufologists in the U.S. catalogued the event in summarized format, some expressing doubts, some saying that "rumors circulate that" the plane "collided with a ghost rocket, but an investigation indicates that the pilot lost control."

In is book "Need to Know: UFOs, the Military and Intelligence", Britsh author Tim Good quoted The Washington Post for August 13, 1946, reporting that three fliers were killed when a Swedish military reconnaissance plane "collided head-on with a rocket bomb yesterday. The newspaper Aftonbladet said the reconnaissance plane crashed near Vaggeryd in southern Sweden. Shortly after the plane's pilot spotted the bomb, it said, radio contact was broken and the listening post 'beard a crash', the newspaper, quoting investigators, reported. The report, published by other afternoon papers, was not confirmed." Good noted that one newspaper said the aircraft was a twin-engined Saab B18 bomber on a navigation exercise flight, that it was seen circling by several witnesses over Valdshult at 1,000 meters for 15 minutes, but that this was later refuted, as it was another plane. Then this plane crashed almost vertically to the ground. No radio transmissions were received from the plane, apparently.

Good adds that a commission to investigate this accident arrived the next day, and this accident is listed in the Royal Swedish Air Force statistics as unexplained.

Tim Good says that Sweden's leading UFO research group, AFU, have studied the official files and learned that Major C.F. Westrell, an explosives expert, was emphatic that no explosion took place in the air. Another member of the commission stated that the pilot, Sergeant Segerhom, had no previous experience in this particular aircraft type in "blind instrument flying" which the pilot had apparently been engaged in at the time. Good notes that the Saab company built 243 B18s, of which ten were involved in fatal accidents in 1946 alone, up to and including the crash on 12 August, thirty-four crew members bad been killed. The Swedish Air Force attributed the main cause of these accidents to "new aircraft types and insufficient training", Good remains "mindful of the fact that many such accidents have been reported during waves of UFO sightings.

I found several modern sources - 2020's - on the Swedish Web, available below in this file, about the crash - as the crash really did occur. But none of these sources mentions any collision and any relation with amny ghost rocket or missile or whatever other aerial object.

In these report, the event was as follow:

On August 12, 1946, Shortly after 10 a.m., above Öreryd, 1 km east of Valdshult church, during a closed instrument flight on the route F14 Halmstad air base- F9 - Öreryd - and back to F14, the aircraft, flying a Saab B-18 bomber at a relatively high altitude, above or within the clouds, entered a turn that ended in a steep dive upon emerging from the lower cloud layer. Without any significant change in its dive angle, the aircraft then struck the ground on top of a sandy ridge covered with coniferous trees, tearing down about fifteen conifers. The impact caused a violent explosion which, among other things, hurled the protective armor plating located behind the pilot 700 m from the point of impact. Pilots E.B. Segerhorn (FFSU), from Halmstad, J.O. Alm (FFSU), from Gothenburg, and E.A. Holm (FFSU) from Halmstad, were killed.

The causes of the accident remain undetermined, the main theory was that during the closed instrument flight, the pilot may possibly, through incorrect handling of the heading control, have placed the aircraft in an abnormal flight attitude. The possibility of an unintentional activation of the heading control due to failures in the aircraft’s electrical system, also resulting in this abnormal attitude, cannot be ruled out. The aircraft was probably above a thick cloud layer and, when it entered the abnormal flight attitude, the pilot may have attempted to open the protective curtain in order to quickly restore normal flight. However, since the aircraft had by then entered the cloud, he was unable to do so. The aircraft did not emerge from the cloud until at an altitude of 400 m; which was then insufficient to allow recovery to a normal flight attitude. The analysis of the risk of dangerous rudder engagement showed that the electrical system of the B-18 aircraft, due to its design at the time, presented such a risk.

There is a memorial plaque memorial plaque at the crash site in Valdshult, and at the foot of the plaque lies a small pile of scrap metal, remnants of the wreckage recovered in the surrounding area after its removal.

It thus seems to me likely that a Swedish newspaperman created or spread the rumor of the collision with a "ghost rocket", and that the United Press spread it in the rest of the world, their note that it "was not confirmed" being often lost in the process.

Data:

Temporal data:

Geographical data:

Witnesses data:

Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

[Ref. ups1:] UNITED PRESS - UNKNOWN NEWSPAPER:

[Ref. wpt1:] NEWSPAPER "THE WASHINGTON POST":

Note: In only found this headline scan, on the Internet; interestingly, someone wrote "HOAX" over it.

[Ref. ara1:] ANTONIO RIBERA:

[Ref. lgs1:] LOREN GROSS:

The sources 193 and 194 are detailed as: "Stockholm, Sweden. 13 August 46 (UP)."

[Ref. lwr1:] DR. LOUIS WINKLER:

[Ref. gvo1:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:

Note: the "other version" is a different case.

[Ref. rhs1:] NARCAP - RICHARD HAINES:

[Ref. get1:] GEORGE M. EBEHART:

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

[Ref. tgd1:] TIM GOOD:

This author says that on August 13, 1946, Stockholm newspapers reported an aerial collision with one of the "missiles" aka "ghost rockets", and he adds that The Washington Post for August 13, 1946, reported:

Three fliers were killed when a Swedish military reconnaissance plane collided head-on with a rocket bomb yesterday. The newspaper Aftonbladet said the reconnaissance plane crashed near Vaggeryd in southern Sweden. Shortly after the plane's pilot spotted the bomb, it said, radio contact was broken and the listening post 'heard a crash', the newspaper, quoting investigators, reported. The report, published by other afternoon papers, was not confirmed.

Tim Good says there were conflicting accounts of what happened.

One newspaper said the aircraft, a twin-engined Saab B18 bomber on a navigation exercise flight, was seen circling by several witnesses over Valdshult at 1,000 meters for 15 minutes. Good says this was later refuted, as it was another plane. Then this plane crashed almost vertically to the ground. No radio transmissions were received from the plane, apparently.

A commission to investigate this accident arrived the next day, and this accident is listed in the Royal Swedish Air Force statistics as unexplained.

Tim Good says that Sweden's leading UFO research group, AFU, have studied the official files and learned that Major C.F. Westrell, an explosives expert, was emphatic that no explosion took place in the air. Another member of the commission stated that the pilot, Sergeant Segerhom, had no previous experience in this particular aircraft type in "blind instrument flying" which the pilot had apparently been engaged in at the time.

Tim Good notes that the Saab company built 243 B18s, of which ten were involved in fatal accidents in 1946 alone, up to and including the crash on 12 August, thirty-four crew members bad been killed. The Swedish Air Force attributed the main cause of these accidents to "new aircraft types and insufficient training", Good remains "mindful of the fact that many such accidents have been reported during waves of UFO sightings.

[Ref. jcn:] JAMES CARRION:

[Ref. sff1:] SVENSKT FLYHISTORISK FORUM:

[Ref. skd1:] SKILLINGGARYD.NU:

Aircraft information:

The Saab B-18 (photo above) was a twin-engine, two-seat bomber from 1940, built by Svenska Aeroplan AB (SAAB) for the Swedish Air Force in response to a 1938 design competition. It did not enter service until 1944 and quickly became the standard Swedish bomber. It served as a bomber, reconnaissance aircraft, and ground-attack aircraft, and contributed to the development of ejection seats and guided air-to-surface missiles until it was replaced by the Saab Lansen in the late 1950s.

Its maximum speed was 575 km/h. For defense, it was equipped with two fixed forward-firing 13.2 mm MG M/39A machine guns and one 7.9 mm MG M/22F machine gun mounted on a flexible support.

In 1946, it was generally manned by a crew of 2, but it had been designed for a crew of three, so that in a flight training mission, it was logical that the crew was 3.

Discussion:

The only mystery that remains is to know who, at the time, started the rumor of the collision, or what misunderstanding may have given rise to the story of the collision.

Evaluation:

False rumor in the Press.

Sources references:

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

• [abt1] ? Article in the newspaper Aftonbladet, Sweden, August 1946.
• [ups1] * United Press release, August 13, 1946, as in an unidentified US neespaper.
• [wpt1] * Headline of a article in the newspaper The Washington Post, Washington D.C. USA, August 14, 1946.
• [hct1] ? Article in the newspaper The Hartford Courant, Hartford, Connecticut, USA, August 14, 1946.
• [bce1] ? Article in the newspaper Berkshire County Eagle, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, USA, August 14, 1946.
• [ara1] * "Proceso a los OVNI", book by Antonio Ribera, Dopesa publisher, Spain, 1969.
• [lgs1] * "UFO's a History: 1946: the Ghost Rockets", monograph by Loren E. Gross, self-published, USA, page 42, 1972 - 1988.
• [ara1] * "Procès aux OVNI", book by Antonio Ribera, De Vecchi publisher, France, page 36, 1975.
• [lwr1] * "Catalog/database, and analysis, of pre-1947 'UFO-like phenomena'", report by Dr. Louis Winkler, astronomer, Pennsylvania State University, for the Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR), USA, page 65, 1982-1984.
• [gvo1] * "Chronologie OVNI", electronic catalogue compiled by Godelieve van Overmeire, Belgium, page 748, circa 2002.
• [get1] * "UFOs and Intelligence: A Timeline", electronic document by George M. Eberhart, May 31, 2022.
• [snu1] * "the ghost rockets of 1946, 2011", article on the ufology Website Saturday night UFOria, 2011, at https://www.saturdaynightuforia.com/html/articles/articlehtml/ghostrocketsof1946.html
• [tgd1] * "Need to Know: UFOs, the Military and Intelligence", book by Timothy Good, Pan Macmillan publishers, U-K., pp 39-40, 2012.
• [jcn1] * "Anachronism", electronic book by James Carrion, USA, page 77, 2016.
• [sff1] * Post on the Swede Aviation Historyweb board Svenskt Flyghistoriskt Forum, Sweden, January 17, 2019, at https://forum.flyghistoria.org/viewtopic.php?t=11572
• [skd1] * "Katastrofen i Valdshult", article on the skillingaryd.nu website, Sweden, August 22, 2023, at https://skillingaryd.nu/varnamo/nyheter/katastrofen-i-valdshult

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