Glowing objects in the sky, mysterious military reports and files kept under lock and key for decades: newly released UFO documents offer a glimpse into some of the most baffling cases of recent decades.
A key focus of these historical files are reports by Allied pilots from the final months of the Second World War. They described glowing flying objects moving at high speed that accompanied their aircraft over Germany. These phenomena later became known as “Foo Fighters”.
In the file (source in German) (source in English), it literally states:
On the night of 22 December 1944, two lights rose from the ground near an aircraft of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron, climbed to its altitude, took up position behind its tail for about two minutes and then ‘peeled away again’ – according to the crew, always under ‘complete control’. Ground radar confirmed that there were no enemy aircraft in the vicinity.
Such encounters were reported repeatedly. Over a period of six weeks, crews of the 415th over Germany and France spoke of red, green, orange and amber-coloured lights that flew in formation with their aircraft, carried out evasive manoeuvres and came as close as around 30 metres. The pilots called these phenomena “Foo Fighters”.
The British Air Ministry examined the reports and concluded in a memorandum classified as secret in March 1945 that ‘the whole matter still remains something of an enigma’.
Independently of this, pilots also reported sighting an aluminium cylinder roughly 3.6 metres long at an altitude of around 2,700 metres. When fired upon by the aircraft, the object partially lost its shape and showed a red luminous effect, but did not break apart. Intelligence classified it as probably a German ‘flak bomb’.
No one was able to provide a clear explanation for the mysterious lights. The file remained classified for 80 years.
The military examined several possible explanations. One idea was that they could be previously unknown German secret weapons or experimental aircraft with novel rocket or jet propulsion systems. However, the investigations found no conclusive evidence for this.
Declassified FBI reports, “Nazi UFOs”
The released material also includes historical FBI documents from the 1940s and 1950s, in which reports appear of alleged German developments of disc-shaped flying devices. Some of these references relate to possible secret research projects in the Berlin area and in regions near the Austrian border.
However, these reports do not come from technical investigations or confirmed military files, but are based mainly on statements from informants, rumours and intelligence tips from the immediate post-war period. They therefore primarily reflect which leads the authorities chose to follow at the time.
The documents do not provide evidence that Nazi Germany actually developed operational “flying discs” with extraordinary flight performance. Historians place many of these stories in the context of speculation about German secret weapons, psychological warfare and the Allies’ search for advanced German technology.
In the SHAEF and Air Ministry memoranda of 1944/45, there are repeated descriptions of, among other things, red, green, orange and amber-coloured lights that appeared to move in a controlled way, flew in formation with aircraft and in some cases came within short range of them.
Some observers report arrowhead-shaped objects. Despite this variety, certain patterns recur: many of the described craft seem to have no visible wings, rotors or conventional propulsion. They are also said to possess unusual characteristics – such as apparently motionless hovering in the air, sudden bursts of acceleration or flight manoeuvres that are difficult to explain using known technologies.
Glowing shapes, unknown flight manoeuvres
Later investigations such as the US Air Force programme Project Blue Book (1947–1969) also documented a wide range of sighting reports. Observers described, among other things, glowing geometric shapes, disc-shaped or arrow-like objects, as well as phenomena without visible wings, rotors or conventional propulsion systems. Some reports spoke of objects that appeared to hover motionless in the air, accelerate abruptly or perform flight manoeuvres that were hard to reconcile with the aviation technologies known at the time.
Alongside the historical documents, the archives contain numerous files from more recent years. Since the public revelation of the Pentagon programme AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program) in 2017, the United States has expanded its investigations into so-called UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena).
The Department of Defense has created new structures for recording and assessing unusual observations by military personnel. The Pentagon has also released several previously classified recordings of unknown flying objects, including videos taken by Navy pilots in 2004 and 2015, whose phenomena could not initially be clearly identified.
In some documents, military personnel also report physical complaints after close encounters, such as nausea, headaches, skin irritation or neurological symptoms. What lies behind these unexplained observations remains disputed to this day. Explanations range from known technological phenomena and misperceptions to far more far-reaching hypotheses.
This new transparency in the handling of Pentagon files is being closely watched in Europe as well. Security and defence experts are following the US initiatives, as unusual phenomena in airspace are increasingly viewed as a potential security and intelligence issue.
Between history and speculation
The newly released files highlight above all one thing: interest in unusual aerial phenomena goes back a long way and is closely linked to historical events such as the Second World War. Germany does feature in the documents, but the files provide no proof of extraterrestrial spacecraft or secret German “flying discs”.
Rather, they document how armed forces and intelligence services have spent decades trying to explain unusual observations – and how enduring myths have grown out of them right up to the present day.