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Chapter Two: Anomalous Technology in the Second World War (1939-1945)
One thing I always found interesting, is how human the progression of human society is constrained by its own psychological barriers, and equally how society is generally unaware that such a process is even happening. Major existential issues that needed thoughtful progressive thinking, such as ‘Terrorism’, ‘Climate Change’, ‘Human Rights’ and yes ‘Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena’ (UAP), have become embroiled in conspiracies and political dogma that prevent any meaningful movement. A Social-Psychologist might argue that this reluctance to address difficult truths and accept new realities is very much a process that occurs at the collective subconscious level. One theory is that the dilution and dismissal of problematic issues such as UAP is a way for human society to allow itself the time to adapt and respond in ways which might be difficult to immediately accept. Consequently, we as a society have applied subliminal walls and unwitting barriers with precise control measures. And we do it all too well.
Openly, we chose to make jokes and mock those who saw UAP, while covertly we classified the entire issue into a black hole. These were the old days when the world was dealing with immense challenges, unknown enemies and emerging threats. Thus, the secrecy was born of necessity. These were the old days when the world was dealing with immense challenges, unknown enemies and emerging threats. These were the days when we first recognised the reality of dangerous technologies. And, we saw the rise of the anomalous.
Essentially, we might argue that we collectively made the ‘secrecy decision’ regarding the UAP issue a long time ago. We pretended like they didn’t exist to save ourselves from having that dreaded conversation about potential civilisations who might be more advanced than our own. Ungodly beings and species that were not human, just above our heads in flying machines, as we refused to look up, refusing them access to our fragile reality. We weren’t ready to face the possibilities of ‘Space-Aliens’ in the early 1940s as we proceeded through the deadliest war in history. Our psyche couldn’t handle the extremity.
Despite the reports coming through various credible pilots and military men, we simply rejected that data, unable to process it, unable to even accept that we might be dealing with something else entirely. What it says to me is that we humans are still very limited in our own diluted self-reflection. It says we don’t really understand how we think beyond our own focused conscious mind, often acting through narcissistic tendencies. We as a people have displayed the same dismissive thinking, attitudes and behaviours towards the anomalous phenomena since the beginning of the modern era of UFOs that started with Kenneth Arnold in June, 1947 and beyond. Early research found that the anomalous technology didn’t start with the pop-culture 1950s or even Roswell in 1947. A very specific type of reported UAP technology started being observed during the Second World War with Allied (and Axis) fighter planes. UAP were appearing with frequency and unique repetition for the world’s military. An interesting sidenote from that time-period, is that arguably from within the collective mind of humans, the emerging UAP technology represented a potential devastating ability to annihilate human-beings completely. Which is coincidentally, exactly what nuclear weapons could do as well, both technologies consciously arising at the exact point in history.
The birth of a new rising threat
War had arrived at the doorstep of the United States by the December of 1941, with devastating scenes engulfing the Pacific that Sunday morning. Early surprise attacks from the skies were carried out on strategic military bases as the sirens sounded out. Over the course of seven hours a deadly kamikaze assault was coordinated against America by the Japanese. Horrific attacks on the United States (U.S.) base of Pearl Harbour killed over 2000 and sunk four navy vessels across various locations (1). It was a day which would live in infamy. It was a measured ploy by the Japanese military, and ultimately was one which would bring the U.S. into the Second World War and forever change the future of our world. The fight in Europe had raged since 1939, with some estimated 75 million people losing their lives by the end of the war, but it wasn’t until 1941 that the United States was drawn into the conflict. In every historical book I have read, they have all agreed on one thing – that Pearl Harbour was an intelligence failure like no other. It allowed for a devastating strategic surprise that devastated America’s most Western military outpost. A decision that would prove fateful for the Japanese in the long-term, but in the short-term it proved very effective. Up until that point, America had been relatively happy to keep away from the European War as they sat back and sent aid across to the United Kingdom and her allies. After all, the U.S. was recovering from the combined devastation of the ‘dust bowl’, and the Great Depression which occurred in 1929 following the Wall Street crash. But now, after Pearl-Harbour, they had no choice. Public support backed the Congress who made the decision to go to war. As you might imagine, the following days, weeks and months were at the height of suspense, dread, and tensions about the very real threat from Asia as it loomed over the West Coast in the 1940s. You might even understand some of the extreme classification actions taken in those years by a military struggling to cope with a new bloodied war and the potential emergence of one of the biggest hypothetical weapons to ever be created by man. This was a pre-Atomic age and the setting for birth of UAP Secrecy.
Ideology of War
As many writers and historians have suggested, the Second World War was a battle for the direction of mankind. The various human ruling ideologies of Fascism, Communism, Capitalism, Democracy and Socialism became convoluted with religious culture, race and genocide as they fought for global supremacy. Wars, we might consider, are never about a simple land-grab at their core, they are more than that. Wars are about ensuring your own genetical gene pool dominates. This also means, should you win the War, that your political and religious ideologies are dominant. War is by inherent nature, racist, against all other cultures who are different. Arguably, from an objective perspective – the 1939-1945 global conflicts were about which set of ideologies might triumph. World War Two was sparked by a devastating global depression and limited resources, and also resulted from the recessions of the First World War amongst other things. Instigated by individual countries reacting to economic survival problems who struggle to fill the basic needs of their people, we can argue that deprived conditions nurture a rise in conflicts. Then we consider the addition of a dictator who is more than happy to grasp power and promise answers. In that unique timeframe, our human race was undergoing a drastic psychological change from who we were, to who we were going to become. It was a question of what we are willing to do and how far we would go to ensure our survival and continuation. Could we keep secrets to win the war?
Could we destroy our brothers and sisters to save ourselves? Was this about genetics? Was this evil a code within our DNA, a marker buried deep within our very nature to allow such horrid things. Did we do such things to ensure the continuation of our species or was this about power and control? Fear, labelling and grouping of stereotypes are survival techniques we apply only too well. We deploy such techniques in a way which allows us to ‘kill ourselves to save ourselves’, no different to how a wildflower chokes and curves upwards toward the sun, gathering the sunlight for itself above all other surrounding plants. A simple design of all observed life on Earth, survival of the fittest.
Holes in the sky
During this incredibly sensitive time in history, add into the mix something very much unexpected – a technological phenomenon that started appearing almost as an unverified direct correlation to the harnessed atomic power within the Manhattan Project, 1942-1946 (2). The unverified theory among some in the Department of Defense (DoD), is that they ripped a hole in space-time as we detonated those first nuclear bombs and something came through. Just like that, suddenly, something was here. And whatever it was, it was technologically superior to the allies or axis powers. This was something else entirely, something that might not need to have worry about threats of wildflowers as they blow harmlessly in the light breeze. And yet their actions and behaviours suggested otherwise? Seemingly, the anomalous phenomena had arrived, and arrived in vast numbers as they swarmed and buzzed the human aerial vehicles of war. But how much of this is true? How much can we verify to the point of confidently concluding? Why didn’t we openly tell our people that something was here? Arguably, we weren’t told because our governments didn’t know what this thing was. And the other, more pressing consideration was that deadly war taking priority above all else.
Battle of Los Angeles.
Bombs were dropped as lives were lost in a bloodied war that devastated people on both sides of the Allied/Axis divide. Our collective human psyche was fractured as we came to terms with the horrific implications of war and famine. This was an unprecedented time in history. The start of the decade saw an influx of unusual sightings across Europe and America. Soldiers were on high alert with increasing threats over the expanding world war, one which had at last arrived at their feet. In 1942, the sleepy Hollywood town of Los Angeles was in its infancy, an immature society made from first generation immigrants and prosperous movie stars looking to make their names on the silver screen. However, with the war it was also a growing military metropolis and unfortunately lost its original open mindedness, specifically towards Japanese civilians. It was on a cold winter night of 1942, that unknown objects flew over downtown Los Angeles and were engaged by heavy artillery. The case became known as the ‘Battle of L.A.’ (3), (4). As Historian Richard Dolan writes in his book ‘UFOs and the National Security State,’ the night of February 25th saw Los Angeles residents awoken to air raid sirens at around 2.25am, and as the military fired 1430 antiaircraft shells into the dark sky to bring down the ‘Japanese planes’ they were left unsuccessful. Fear gripped the people. The incident claimed the lives of 5 people, with 2 heart attacks and 3 road accidents, others dashed around and suffered injuries in the panic. This was wartime and people genuinely believed they were under attack from the Japanese.
Obviously, they weren’t under attack and the Secretary of Navy would go onto blame ‘war-nerves’ and that there weren’t any actual enemy aircraft that night. Later they would change their story to say the objects were civilian planes flown by ‘enemy pilots’, then finally, they settled on a series of ‘weather balloons’ that had fooled people into thinking it was a foreign invasion (4). This is one of the first times we see weather balloons used by the military to explain something that they had no answer for. It’s important to consider the ‘Battle of L.A.’ case as something unknown, which is not to say that these objects weren’t something trivial that couldn’t be identified for lack of information. Certainly, we should avoid mentioning any extra-terrestrial in this case. The objects in question do not apply any of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) ‘five observables’ that classify and distinguish such a case as UAP by DoD standards.
However, the case should be given the right context. The ‘Battle of L.A.’ object wasn’t a one-off, it was essentially one of many unidentified cases that began around the 1942 mark. For this was the start of the ‘Foo-Fighter’. Significantly, this was seemingly the start of this specific type of technology.
Foo Fighters
The Second World War brought a significant number of ‘unknown’ reports prior to them even being classified as such in terminology. There literally were no Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), or definite ‘Flying Saucers’ in the early 1940s that would be recognised as such, but there were objects of unknown origin that were beginning to be reported with increasing numbers. The much known ‘Foo Fighters’ would become the given label at that time. British researcher Graeme Rendall (UAPMedia) found that the Royal Air Force had been experiencing strangely moving lights, varying luminous objects, and rather big ‘aeroforms’ within Germany’s skies since the March of 1942 (5). Original World War Two fighter pilot reports (6) were made about ‘strange balls of fire’ that changed colour from red to orange to white to black, and that had no wings or even a fuselage. These vehicles had no exhaust plumes, or rotors or anything to suggest these were conventional aircraft. The strange unidentified objects would follow B-24 liberators whilst flying missions over Japan. Again, the thinking from the military was that the strange objects were Japanese technology, however, no kamikaze attack occurred as the objects tailed the plane in a curious non-threatening way. Pilot reports suggested that these unknown vehicles were acting with genuine curiosity, like a bee that hovers around a picnic table without any deliberate conscious intention.
Other reports come present a similar picture, but this time over Germany. Lt. Ringwald, Lt. Schlueter and Lt. Meier were part of the 415th night fighter squadron that flew above the Rhine on a routine mission, they all witnessed 8-10 fiery orbs travelling at high speed before disappearing.
Another case involving the 415th squadron was from the skies near Hagenau, Germany. On the 22nd – 23rd of December 1944, two orange lights travelled up fast to an Allied aircraft and then tailed their aircraft for two minutes before turning away and flying under ‘perfect control’ – as originally reported in 1945 by the American Legion Magazine (6).
Other war-time reports were made by the Eighth Air Force bomber crews, who reported bizarre incursions of ‘silver-coloured spheres’ (6). The sheer volume of reports that involved strange orbs was widespread, almost to the point of being widespread, a swarm within the wartime skies. Time and time again, similar (but not exactly the same each time) objects were spotted by pilots.
On the 17th of February, 1945, other pilots reported ‘orange-red’ lights in the skies near the Italian port town of La Spezia as well as further inland, reports Lindell in 2009, (10). No communication contact was made with these objects as they were also reported across Belgium and France.
On the 03rd of April, 1945, a report stated that ‘balls of fire’ were spotted by multiple pilots over southern England (10). One of the interesting things which struck me as I researched the early ‘Foo Fighter’, phenomenon, was the sheer volume of reports made by pilots and airmen of that time. The distinct pattern became another interesting point. The reports were mostly of small, light-infused, orb-like objects, of different colour that often had a fiery appearance. They were almost always reported to be under intelligent control as they toyed with crewmen on missions, outperforming their planes and taking off at high speeds. There is a distinct pattern in the data when we consider the technology involved.
The Ghost Lights
A thorough internet search shows that other globally reported historical reports of orbs of light have been documented. For instance, various strange light phenomena have been reported in rural Australia, there is a ‘Min’ phenomenon or ‘Ghost Light’ that is associated with the outback. In Australian Aboriginal folklore, there are stories about strange light orbs that act unconventionally and are unexplainable (15). The strange phenomenon is said to interact with truck drivers in the wilderness of dark deserted roads, and some suggest they have encountered the intelligently controlled orbs of light (16). However, some researchers, such as John Pettigrew, have conducted experiments to show how some of the ‘Min-Min’ light aberrations might be a ‘Fata Morgana’ – an optical illusion created through refraction and temperature inversions (17), (18). Could this be what the pilots of World War Two were witnessing?
In the South American countries Argentina, Chile and Uruguay there is a phenomenon known as ‘Luz Mala’ which literally translates to ‘Bad Light.’ It is reported that the lights appear at night and then float above the ground, hover and move at speed (19). Stories populate the internet, unverified tales within South American mythology tell of orbs that engage isolated individuals on long lonely trips in the dead of night. In Mendoza, Argentina, it is reported that truck drivers claim to have seen lights during their high mountain journeys, between Uspallata, Puente del Inca and Las Cuevas (20).
The problem is that for the most part, these are all just glorified campfire stories that are recorded onto the internet without credible assessment. There is no additional data, there is no witness testimony to evaluate or means to check the persons credibility/mental health. Often, we have no supportive photos, videos or external sensory data on such orbs as they occur. And this is a major problem, we do not have the means to verify the phenomenon in such cases, and we certainly can’t correlate cases to the same phenomena. Despite similar testimony of appearance, behaviour or abilities, we can’t conclude that any historical orb of light can be linked to any other groups of historical orbs of light. And we can go further and state that we can’t link any historical case to the ‘Foo Fighter’ phenomenon. To do so, would be to apply assumption onto a correlative link which simply isn’t backed up by appropriate data. The problem is that this could be very real, and we simply can’t prove it. We might consider a sceptical approach regarding the ‘Foo Fighters’.
Yes, we must look at rational explanations, however, if we cannot conclude because of a lack of supporting data, we must acknowledge that fact, and not attempt to debunk through childish need and psychological dissonance. Applying a ‘terrestrial’ explanation that doesn’t fit the case data is just as dishonest as exclaiming such a phenomenon is extra-terrestrial. Can we argue that the truth is complex? That we probably we will never know what the origins of ‘Foo Fighters’ are? After all, we do not have accompanied radar data or additional testimony. But does this not mean we can fill in the blanks? Is it not dishonest to do so?
Many scientists at the time attempted to debunk the unknown World War Two lights as ‘St Elmo’s Fire’ (7), which is a form of electric discharge and an historical phenomenon sometimes seen during thunderstorms and above the masts of sea vessels. Generally, it was thought to be a form of plasma and stays close to a charged object such as a wing tip or a mast. However, the ‘Foo Fighters’ reported by airmen during World War Two displayed controlled movements, which isn’t consistent with the concept of ‘St. Elmo’s Fire’.
There is another possibility, something known as ‘Ball Lightning’ which is similar in appearance and controlled movements. Like St. Elmo’s Fire, the ‘Ball Lightning’ phenomenon is historical, with multiple cases that span back centuries. An issue with the theory of ‘Ball Lightning’, is that it isn’t really understood, and arguably has been difficult to explain and replicate under controlled circumstances. Could we consider the other potential explanation that the ‘Foo Fighter’ objects have been around for centuries and themselves mistaken for ‘Ball Lightning’ and even in some circumstances ‘St. Elmo’s Fire’?
We might consider that our lack of historical data has left us wondering rather than concluding. After all, mysteries aren’t really that mysterious when the relevant data is accessible. Realistically, we still cannot associate or correlate any historical cases without rigorous data, and that data will not be made available, it has been too long. Regardless, the same problem remains and can be applied – we don’t know what this ‘Foo Fighter’ phenomenon is (or was). We couldn’t capture its true essence in the 1940s and to this day we struggle to formulate an appropriate hypothesis. It is intellectually lazy to say it is aliens or misidentified terrestrial objects. We instead need to consider that this is something yet to be discovered or explained appropriately. Acknowledging that we don’t have the understanding, knowledge and ability to go back historically and thoroughly evaluate is the first step towards a grounded position.
There have been other claimants about the technology of the 1940s, and as bizarre as this may seem, some have concluded that the anomalous technology was from the axis powers. There are some conspiracy theories that Hitler and the Nazis had developed UAP technology and the ‘Flying Saucers’ of the 40s and 50s were simply German craft. Others (11) have implied that the Nazis had ‘Die Glocke’ which translates as ‘The Bell’, a technologically advanced weapon that would be a decisive factor in winning the war. Obviously, it didn’t occur and is mainly considered pseudoscience, even in fringe groups. The researcher Nathan Hendrickson told me once that the Germans didn’t possess this technology, and certainly didn’t build anti-gravity craft a few years after the first manned flight was flown. Consider it this way – we don’t have UAP technology in today’s civilian world, we don’t have any vehicles that perform the five AATIP observables (12), we don’t have hover boards or flying cars, nor do we have anything from science fiction films and books. We haven’t mastered the technology of ‘warping space-time’ that some scientists from AATIP (13) potentially theorised about – that these UAP vehicles are operating under an Alcubierre warp drive (14).
It is almost unthinkable to seriously contemplate that this highly advanced, and still theoretical concept of technology, was developed in the 1930s and 1940s. Technology we still cannot replicate some 80 years later. Whatever this potential phenomenon is or isn’t, almost becomes irrelevant as the persisting problem remains that we still cannot officially identify it due to our limited observation techniques and the elusiveness of the phenomena. As you might imagine, the incursions into wartime skies above Europe by unknown objects of shape, manoeuvring and origin was beyond them in those years. The sudden introduction of such a concept came at a pivotal time, a time when the people of the world were on the brink, a time which might have seen Nazi Germany close to harnessing the power of the Atom. Arguably, this was the most important time in recorded human history, and amongst it all, was something else. An aberration of thought.
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Conclusions
This timeframe is significant. It is the first time we see military pilots reporting strange aerial phenomena to the extent of conscious societal awareness. Media of the 1940s reported on the aerial phenomena and the mystery of the unknowns. The ‘Foo-Fighters’ have similar types of behavioural and appearance reports that go back through history, however we should be reluctant to associate similar historical phenomena due to a lack of hard, tangible data. Having said that, there is always the possibility that such phenomena are indeed linked. Is it also difficult to believe that UAP appeared for the first time in 1942? Or maybe that is exactly what happened?
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References
(1). Hermon, G. (1957). Royal Australian Navy 1939–1942. Australia in the War of 1939–1945. | Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1968. Available at: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG1070207 [Accessed 26 Oct. 2022].
(2). Atomic Heritage Foundation (2017). The Manhattan Project. | Atomic Heritage Foundation. Available at: https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/manhattan-project [Accessed 04 Oct. 2021].
(3). Dolan, R. (2001). UFOs and the National Security State. | Keyhole Publishing Company.
(4). Harrison, S. (2017). From the Archives: The 1942 Battle of L.A. | Los Angeles Times. Available at: https://www.latimes.com/visuals/framework/la-me-fw-archives-1942-battle-la-20170221-story.html?_amp=true [Accessed 07 May. 2021].
(5). Rendall, G. (2021). The Foo Fighters: Today’s Pilots Encounters with UAP Are Nothing New. | The Debrief. Available at: https://thedebrief.org/the-foo-fighters-todays-pilots-encounters-with-uap-are-nothing-new/ [Accessed 26 Oct. 2022].
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(15). Kozicka, M.G. (1994). The Mystery of the Min Light. | Cairns. Bolton Imprint
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