Unresolved
Foo Fighters
Crews of the U.S. 415th Night Fighter Squadron began reporting orange and red lights that followed or paced their aircraft over the Rhine valley in late 1944. The airmen borrowed a nonsense word from a comic strip and called them foo fighters. Similar reports came from bomber crews over Japan. Many crews assumed they were a German or Japanese secret weapon, but postwar searches of enemy records turned up nothing.
Weigh the evidence
The ledger
What the record shows, what people say, and the best explanation available so far.
What's documented
- Unit histories and press reports from 1945 describe the sightings.
- The CIA's 1953 Robertson Panel discussed the foo fighters as an earlier puzzle.
What's claimed
- They were intelligent craft observing the war.
Best explanation so far
Proposed causes include St. Elmo's fire, flares, reflections on canopies, ball lightning and fatigue. No single explanation covers every report.
Where to look
Check the sources
Go to the originals. Every link opens the archive or record in a new tab.
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