Science: Foo-Fighters
Time magazine
January 15, 1945
Science: Foo-Fighters
If it was not a hoax or an optical illusion,
it was certainly the most puzzling secret
weapon that Allied fighters have yet
encountered.
Last week U.S. night fighter
pilots based in France told a strange story
of balls of fire which more than a
month have been following their planes at
night over Germany.* No one seemed to
know what, if anything, the fireballs were
supposed to accomplish. Pilots, guessing
that it was a new psychological weapon,
named it the "foo-fighter."
Their descriptions of the apparition varied,
but they agreed that the mysterious flares
stuck close to their planes and appeared
to follow them at high speed for miles. One
pilot said that a foo-fighter, appearing as
red balls off his wing tips, stuck with him
until he dove at 360 miles an hour; then
the balls zoomed up into the sky.
Last month pilots reported they had seen
mysterious floating silvery balls, apparently
another "secret weapon," in daylight flights
over Germany.