Foo Fighters

Foo Fighters

A file of Air Staff SHAEF in PURSUE release 01 holds 14 extracts from the sortie reports of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron, from ten nights between 14/15 December 1944 and 29/30 January 1945. The crews describe red, orange, yellow, amber, green and white lights, singly, in pairs and in groups, some of which followed their aircraft, one “within 100 ft.” and for “5 minutes”; the squadron called them “Foofighters”. Its intelligence officer wrote: “In every case where pilot called GCI Control and asked if there was a Bogey A/C in the area he received a negative answer.” SHAEF wrote that “it would seem that there must be something more than mere imagination behind the matter”. The Air Ministry suggested Me 262s and flak rockets, and in the same letter: “The whole affair is still something of a mystery”.

Source document: Original public reference