Early UFO / Saucer Reports.

[karl 12]

Considering they're not meant to exist, flying saucers do seem to pop up quite a bit in government documentation..


Silver rotating UFO over US Atomic facility


Flying discs over Hanford Nuclear plant


Flying disc over Topcliffe


Circular objects over Langley AFB


Rotating saucer shaped object over Georgia


Maxwell AFB Emergency Report - Flying Saucer


Disc shaped object over Minot AFB - 1966


Flying disc over Chicago's O Hare airport - 1952

link


and contrary to popular belief UFO/Saucer reports do seem to pop up in the literature way back before the Kenneth Arnold case.

Curt Collins has conducted some great research below into the historical aspect citing Dewitt Miller's early UFO reports (who was himself sourcing Charles Fort) and the page is well worth a look for anyone with an interest in (or opinion on) the subject.

The 1st UFO book? Forgotten Mysteries by R. DeWitt Miller


Charles Fort - First Ufologist?

Charles Fort was an early-twentieth-century thinker and writer often credited with "inventing" the supernatural, or the paranormal, by creating a neutral category for anomalous observations, discoveries, and experiences.

Before Charles Fort, anomalies were typically explained away, or else absorbed into pre-existing explanatory frameworks like religion and mythology. Thanks to his efforts, they can now be set aside for further research, even if they're still often ignored in mainstream science.

Anyone who's aware of any other early pre 1947 UFO/saucer reports then please post as it would be interesting to see how many can be collated - I know I've read a few over the years although finding them might be a bit tricky.



Spanish Civil War - 1930's.

Located at a considerable distance, and at an altitude of 200 meters, the soldier saw an object resembling “a Mexican hat” the color of flat aluminum. The sun’s rays, reflecting off its surface, enabled him to see that it was a metallic device. It flew slowly as it approached the witness’s position. It was then that he was able to observe it with greater detail:

“Seen from below, its shape was exactly that of a cartwheel. In its center, from where the spokes emerged, it had what looked like a photo camera lens and gave a sensation of depth.”

When the object approached even closer, passing almost directly overhead, the soldier was even able to make out some curved black windows which appeared on the side of the remarkable “Mexican hat”. The following is a transcript of an interview with the ABC Andalucía newspaper:

UFOs Over Spain During The Civil War.

Nick Redfern on WW2:

Yes, “Foo Fighter” was the primary term used to describe what was seen during the Second World War. But, the term “Disc” was also used during the hostilities with the Nazis. I mentioned this to a certain UFO researcher recently and who practically had a shit fit. I was wrong, he assured me, stating that when it comes to unidentified “things” in the sky, the word “Disc” was not used until 1947.

Actually, that’s wrong, as I pointed out. Granted, many people – even within Ufology – may not know just how widely “Disc” was used during the Second World War..

See Link.

..These are just two examples of many from the Second World War – and declassified by the British Government – which refer to UFOs as “Discs” several years before the term “Flying Disc” was created in 1947. In some of the declassified wartime files, the “Discs” were described as being mere inches in size. On other occasions, though, pilots reported such “Discs” as being several feet in diameter – and in a few cases even bigger.

And, while we’re still on the game of the name, it’s worth noting that the words “Unidentified Flying Objects” were used as early as just two months after the Kenneth Arnold sighting of June 24, 1947. This was when the words “Flying Disc” and “Flying Saucer” were on the minds of many. The relevant document originated with the U.S. Air Transport Command’s Weekly Intelligence Summary and is dated August 1

Mysterious Discs Of The Second World' War

Possible candidate - August 11th, 1944:

As my night vision improved I saw a grey saucer-like object emarge as part of the lights. It is still difficult to describe its size... Our Lancaster was a large aeroplane but the only comparison I can make is that we were but a dot on a sheet of foolscap paper. We all watched this object for about three minutes. We watched it shoot away—it was just a flash of light and the vast size was gone in less than a second, without any noise...

Radioactivity, Skeptics, and “But there is no proof”

 

[karl 12]

Could be nothing but in one 1909 newspaper report a resident of New Mexico was grazing his sheep on the plain when he suddenly felt the ground shake and heard a voice of unknown origin telling him to 'look up' - he then witnessed 'a dark round cloud full of stars' which came straight towards him, passed over his head and travelled to the East.




Some pretty freaky early reports in this report - spinning, flying wheels are described as well as 'notorious satanist' (and alleged Bush grandfather) Aliester Crowley having an encounter with 2 little men in 1896.

This 6-page report is derived primarily from the Magonia Database, sightings catalogued by Jacques Vallee and presented in his great work, Passport to Magonia. No doubt some of these came from Charles Fort.

This report deals only with sightings prior to the 20th Century. Four entries, at the time of this writing that is, were taken from the UFO Evidence, 1964 (Hall).

18th Century UFO Sighting Chronology

Other sourced reports:

Date: September 2 1902
Location: Lowestoft, England
Time: 07:00
Summary: A daylight disc was observed by a female witness.
Source: Hatch, Larry


Date: 1901
Location: New Haven, Missouri
Time: Night
Summary: A flying disc was observed. One disc was observed by three witnesses, two of them an experienced observors, in a forest (Welter). A noise was heard
Source: Rogerson, Peter World-Wide Catalog of Type 1 Reports


Date: 1905
Location: Bucovina, Romania
Time:
Summary: During the evening a retired doctor saw a brightly glowing elongated, saucer-shaped object bigger than the moon traveling steadily westwards.
Source: Hobana, Ion


Date: Mid- 1900
Location: Caddwst, UK
Time: Dusk
Summary: A flying disc was observed. One disc, about 20 feet across, was observed by one female 12-year-old witness in a forest.
Source: Lorenzen, Coral E. UFOs: The Whole Story Signet T3897, New York, 1969[/size]


link

 

[karl 12]

 

[karl 12]

Sorry didn't mean to post that

Thought this was a pretty fascinating interview where ex British Diplomat and Intelligence Officer Gordon Creighton recounts his daylight sighting of a fast moving white-ish disc shaped object over the Chinese Embassy in 1941..

Mr. Creighton spent many years in the British Foreign Service. He spent 10 years in China and in 1941 he saw a UFO while at the Embassy. In broad daylight he saw a disc-shaped, silent UFO with a blue white light on top flying very fast. In 1953 he spent some time with the Military Defense in Whitehall and worked on the floor underneath a department, Air Technical, dealing with UFO's.

He also describes a really interesting UFoo (or 'Krautball') case from Germany just after the end of WW2 where the object actually entered a military aircraft and flew up and down the inside of the plane in front of eight witnesses (also some intriguing remarks about magnesium).

 

[pigfarmer]

Nick Redfern on WW2:

Something I think contributed to keeping Foo Fighters alive is an account from this book published in 1960

But the metallic discs described were very small and at the time the crews thought they were a weird atmospheric phenomenon. I like this book because it was written relatively close to the events and many of the people involved were still alive and young enough to remember things clearly. Aircrew of that era also talked about gremlins too .....

I remember a grade school teacher who flew heavy bombers in Europe and went on to the China-Burma-India theater later in the war. My tabletop science projects about UFOs clued him in that I was interested. He told me about encountering a high speed wingless craft over Italy in probably 1943. Absolutely agog at the performance and it was witnessed by dozens. Said it looked like a flying telephone pole. Turns out it was an early and super rare jet.

 

[karl 12]

Some good info there mate, have been recommended 'Strange Company' by Keith Chester but haven't managed ro read it yet (it does mention that the objects 'came in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors' though).

In a startling feat of historical research, Keith Chester's STRANGE COMPANY details an aspect of World War II that has been shrouded in ignorance for more than sixty years. Chester reveals that as the war gripped the world for six years, military personnel reported seeing numerous highly unconventional aircraft in all theaters of operation.

These objects had extraordinary flight performance capabilities, came in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, and were able to travel at extraordinary speeds and avoid radar detection. The author recounts the reactions by military commands, their viewpoints, and theories as they struggled to make sense of the observations.

A scientific panel convened by the CIA eight years after the war admitted that these unconventional objects were of unknown origin.

link

Do remember Jan Aldrich going into pretty in depth detail about the Military / Intelligence Foo Fighter investigations in this interview and Dr Howard P. Robertson from the infamous 1953 Robertson panel being involved somehow.

Aircrew of that era also talked about gremlins too