Table of Contents
THE RED BARON WORLD WAR I
One day in the spring of 1917, with World War I raging across Western Europe, two Fokker triplanes of the German air forces Jagdstaffel Jasta 11 took off from their air base in France and headed for the skies above western Belgium, looking for Allied warplanes. One of the Fokkers was piloted by Captain Peter Waitzrik; the other by Captain Manfred von Richthofen, the famous Red Baron.
Not long into their patrol, Waitzrik and von Richthofen spotted something in the sky ahead of them. It was not an enemy fighter. According to Waitzrik, it was a flying object about 125 feet in diameter, bright silver, and shaped like a saucer.
We were terrified, Waitzrik said in an interview years later. We had never seen anything like it. But the United States had just entered the war, so we assumed it was something theyd sent up.
Von Richthofen immediately opened fire on the object, hitting it.
The thing went down like a rock, Waitzrik said. It sheared off tree limbs as it crashed in the woods.
Waitzrik and von Richthofen then watched as two occupants climbed out of the strange craft and escaped into the woods.
Theres no doubt in my mind that it was no U.S. reconnaissance plane the Baron shot down that day. It was some kind of craft from another planet and those guys who ran off into the woods werent Americans.
Though he went on to shoot down a total of eighty Allied planes, von Richthofen would be dead within a year. Waitzrik survived the Great War and the next one, and became an airline pilot.
About his encounter with the strange aerial craft, he confided years later: Except for my wife and grandkids, I never told a soul.
For my best friend
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Warren Thompson, Erik Simonsen, Mike Machat, Larry Blumenthal and Walter Boyne for help with the photos. For their guidance, Keith Chester and Jerome Clark. Also Amanda Ng, Tom Colgan, Dominick Abel and Erica Varela. Music by Sky Club. Special thanks to Margaret MacDonald and Mike Dominic, www.paladinfreelance.blogspot.com.
Go to www.UFOsinWartime.com for more information
FOREWORD
I was happy to oblige when Mack Maloney asked me to write the foreword to his new book, UFOs in Wartime. Having written Strange Company: Military Encounters with UFOs in WWII, I was more than familiar with the subject. Covering the years 1933 through 1945, Strange Company is an effort focused on UFO sightings made in both the European and Pacific theaters during the Second World War. Macks book, on the other hand, provides a much broader view of a phenomenon thats been reported during every major military conflict since the First World War.
These conflicts have filled the skies with mans aeronautical wonders, an ever-expanding array of airplanes, jets, rockets, drones, flares, and balloons. Natural and celestial phenomena also made appearances among this aerial war material. But something else has been reported in war-torn skies around the world as wellunconventional objects that defy all explanation. Some of these baffling objects seem to come straight from the annals of science fiction. What makes these observations so important is that in many cases theyve been reported by highly trained military aviation personnelpeople with great observational skillsduring a time when their lives depended on accurate identification.
UFOs in Wartime provides a valuable work for both the casual reader and the student of unidentified flying objects. Youll revisit a number of important UFO cases that still remain perplexing as well as many being reported here at length for the first time. In this accounting of mysterious observations, youll learn that while our aeronautical progress has advanced through the decades, unknown aerial objects were, and still are, being reported.
I applaud Macks curiosity and willingness to explore such a controversial topic. While Mack does not claim to know what these sightings represent, one thing is for sure: UFOs in Wartime will ignite many questions and provide much fuel for thought.
Keith Chester
May 11, 2011
PART ONE
Early Sightings
In the Beginning
On October 28, 312, Roman emperor Constantine I and his army were advancing toward Rome to do battle with his archrival, Maxentius.
At stake was nothing less than control of the Roman Empire. Scribes traveling with Constantine reported that shortly before the momentous battle, a mysterious object appeared in the sky and hovered over the army. Glowing and shaped like a cross, it was seen by all, including Constantine. The emperor came to believe the objects appearance was a message that his men should paint the sign of the cross on their shields before they went into combat against Maxentius. Constantine so ordered his troops, and they went on to win the historic Battle of Milvian Bridge. As a result, Constantine not only became sole ruler of Rome, but he made Christianity, which previously had been outlawed, the official religion of the Roman Empire.
Its almost too overwhelming to contemplate, but what would our world look like today had it not been for that mysterious object in the sky?
UFOs existwe just dont know what they are yet.
Those wise words have been written other places before, but they are very true nonetheless.
What some believe to be UFOs are mentioned throughout the Bible. They can be found on ancient coins and in cave dwellers art. Chinese history tells of soldiers soaring through the skies in fantastic airships, using fire-breathing dragons as their wingmen. The ancient scripts of India describe in detail incredible aerial machines big enough to be flying cities. Likenesses of UFOs can be found on stone carvings from Egypt to Mesopotamia to the great Mayan civilizations of Central America.
UFOs have always been with usand theyre still with us today. We make movies and TV shows about them. They appear in modern literature, comic books and video games. Museums and monuments are built in their honor. And they are mysterious. But that doesnt mean we dont know a few things about them.
They frequently appear at night, sometimes in groups, but mostly just as one or two. They can fly faster and maneuver unlike any man-made aerial machine. They are generally benign, though they may or may not abduct humans in order to see what makes us tick. And they seem to be able to come and go at will, anytime, anywhere.
But UFOs have also displayed another intriguing tendency: They have revealed themselves with alarming frequency during times of war and human conflict. Incredibly, there were reports of a UFO flying over Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. There are numerous accounts of UFOs, dubbed foo fighters, being spotted by Allied and Axis pilots throughout World War II. World War I also had its share of UFO sightings and aerial visions. The Korean War produced a number of particularly bizarre episodes. During the 1950s and 60s, in the midst of the Cold War, Americas skies seemed to be virtually raining UFOs. There are even outlandish stories of UFOs aiding George Washington in winning the American Revolution.
The numbers seem to show that UFO sightings spike in times of war, or what could be called imminent war, especially from the mid-twentieth century on. But what does this mean? Is it because there are more aircraft flying during modern-era wartimebombers, fighter planes, transportsso there are more opportunities for people to see strange flying things?
