1944
HALL IV · 1944 — 1945
Foo Fighters
Allied aircrew sightings, WWII
European and Pacific theatres
CURATOR'S WALL TEXT
LEVEL
LENS
From 1944 onward, Allied bomber and fighter crews — initially the 415th Night Fighter Squadron over the Rhine valley — reported luminous spheres that paced their aircraft at night. The phenomenon was given the name 'foo fighters,' borrowed from the Smokey Stover comic strip. The Eighth Air Force convened a quiet inquiry; no conventional German weapon was ever identified, and post-war Luftwaffe records contained no equivalent report.
CONTINUE THE INVESTIGATION