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UFO'S:A Hisloryr946:TheGhoslRoeke|s


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UFO'SA HISTCRY: 946: THEGHGTROCreTS(Previous title: The l'tystery of the GhostRockets)by

l,oren E. GrossPrivatelY PublishedFremont,California

First Edition o 1972Enlarged SecondEdition o 1982Enlarged Third Fdition o 1988


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WhyA Thi_rdEdition?

Aside frcrn the need to replenish depleted stock, additional new dataof importance has^cqne o the authorri attenti.on.' rnpressive effortsby ThonasBullard* has resul-ted in the collection and translation ofnunerous 1946 newstories taken frqn issues of the swedish newsDaDersSsl.a,lqs$+f and the-@e[-Tidningen, both avid reporteri br tne''gnosr DcnD"actIvlty. These wo sources prwide considerabLedepthto cur understanding of what really happeneit n Scandinavian skies'inthe year 1946..Anotherreason for a third edition is the need to make the work moreusef.ul to uFo researchers by adding an index, scnething that was Lack-ing fron both earl.ier editiixrs.Finally, an arnbiticn.rs esearch endeavor by furorrean IIFOexrrerts isgurrelt.|y u+d"*?I .:-9 there is a need to discuss its goals aird progress.Tutln"d lplgject,rg46'' lI its p1",armers,Anders Liljegren and clai siiatrn,it hopefully will prwide sonething approaching a d6finitive study ofthe mystery.

- -The U.,S. Departnent of State docunents concerning the Scandinavianghost rockets were discwered by tIF0 researcher Wi[ian L. Ibore ofWilliam L. Moore Rrblications G Research,4219 lJest Olive Street, Suite247, Burbank, California, 91505.

-Material added to the third editic'n is in a closer-spaced type.

* The Airship Fi1e. thonas E. Bullard, 517 East University Street, #2,B-1on:ifi-gon,-f il?liana, 474OI


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lrlore notes on s(l.rrces:An irnportant contribnrtion has been the work of the Swedish

orqanization Arbetscruppen for Ufoloei which checked newsstoriesoririre at thffioc[E-1rn-NatiionafFcf,-ives of the Swedish newsagency (TI). Moreover:, additionaL ner,rs tems wCre ctrlled.by Itiie gioup frcm issues of scrne20 differ,ent'1oca1. Swedish news-papeis. The result of this work uas the booklet Spokraketrnaigio uynetstl"ranateriaLet wtrich contains details of ffi-Ts0-rrock6til-iG-poG-ffiTh-er iterns of interest$lost of the trans-fron the Swqlish to English was this writerls efforts, thereforeI take the responsibilty for ar4f eiTors --L.E. Gross).A SwedishUFOexpert, researcher Biron Ouertvye,


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1.

. THE MYSTERYOF THE GHOSTROCKETSAn American-C-54 transport plane was 7,000 :feet over rheFrench countryside on its wly to-par is. some 3,000 feet belowthe plane was a layer of broken clouds, but above trr"t tn. i iywas clear. r t was 11 o'ctock at night on January 1g, 1946.The f l ight was uneventful unt i l sudlenly t i ,e f i . i6t of thec-54 saw a bri l l iant. "shoot ing star ' , appe"r s!-Jelru"s abovethe horizon. The 'shoot ing siar, ' strei-ked downwaid withoutexploding_. The bri l l i .ant blob dropped below th"-""r t"rr ,hor izon, bur then, much to the pir i r i ' r i r i f i i i " , i i , . , ,shoot -ing sEar" quickLy regppearedt the "shoot i i ig- i i i r i 'came backrn[o vlev/ and: ". . -descr ibed a t iny hyperbola of perhapsof one- degree alt i tude and fet l again hio* , i ln i l , , '1. Thor"were the words of the pi lot who fEtt t i rat the"i ; ihoot ing star, ,did. the impossible by i icochet ing or rebounding. This eventmarked the beginning of numerous sight ings of Strange phenorne-non in the skies of Europe. .

The f irst inkl ing of a wild year was an announcemenE onFebruary 26, L946. Finland announced on that a"iu o,,r . ,Helsinki radic that an unusuarly large number of rneteors hadbeen.reported in the country 's northern distr icts near theArct ic Circle. 2.A 1itt1e over a week later -o1May 3rd an unexplained white light li tup the horizon northwest of stockholm. Authoritibs at Saltsjobad''obser-vatory suggested hat an aurora g10whad been responsible. ihe news-

naner lloreon-Tidnino,snasked:"Doesa nrysteriorrs iight betoken clearer l,layiuebthei-r'


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2.such a case it is curious that no sorrnd is reported in connectionwith observations - rong range bonbing practiie livei or r noise.,, 6.The Danes too.An AP dispatch stated on lr4ay 29th:

"The sarne night that peopre in randskrona saw a flying objectwhich flew toward the southwbst at about roo rneieri "rtiifiau,'r--order g'ard in Denmarkrs so'thern-1yi"g p""iir,,-n"auol, at .i'onder,made a sirnilar discovery.,'At 3 orclock at n:ftht-the guard saw a bright light, followedby a tai l_, which.very rapidly si i -rea on " pi ih- i .*-E"rt to west,Teports the Berlingake Aftenavis.', 7.late in Mav Taly p9o_p1e n northern srr'ecrenhad noticed unusual si.gJrtsin the heavens i^'rrict-t'whicir tttey aiimissed as iust inorJin"t" *ut"o, ".t-v i ty. 8.

- - , By this t ime, author i t ies in sweden r. /ere rru1ry a1ert .Off ic ial papers dec lare:"At the end of_May 1946, there was broughtto the attent ion of thc Defense Staf f , cert i inpecul iar Luminous phenonena cver Sweden, par t lythrough press reports, and part ly Uy cir i l i ianobservers, who repor ted their observat ionsdirect ly to the rni l i tary authori t ies. , '9.

" l . fyster ious f l ier."A June 1s t newsstory frcrn the Swedish citv of Katrineholn informed it sreaders:

"f t seems as if the mysterious f1ier, which was observed inOsternarks at the beginni.ng of this rveek, rvas not altogether anillusion. Yesterday the same thing was reported in fact inKatrineholrn. An object which can be conrpared to a si-1ver-g1is-tening rocket, in the shape of a giant cigar, was noticed in theeast on the horizon. The t ime was 11:43 a.m. in the morning."The 'ghost airplane' had no hint of wings, but on the otherhand scrne thought that it had the sernblance oi a stabilizer or thelike. It traveled very rapidly through the aj-r and many observerspointed out that not even the fastest fighter plane would be ableto keep pace. A light n-unble was heard, near the object after ithad made a turn torvard the ivest, in a diving continued trlp (?)tcnvard the south. The size of the rnysterious monster did no tagree wit}r that of the one seen at Narke, neither was the altitrrdethe sane.. . . the project i le, or whatever i t might be, was as longas an ordinary training plane and uent at 300 meters altitude,The Skavata air fleet out fron N\zkoping had none of its airnlanesup at the right tine in the inrnediate vicinity of Katrineholm.On an airllane seen from the side in broad daylight no wings arevis ible. Therefore i t cotr ld be asswned hat i t was an ordinaryair l lane that the Katr ineholmers sar,r .


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3."In thi-s corlrection it can sti1l be mc'tio'cd that o'c of theKatrincholm vitnessessaw hc ob.jcct not onl1' fr-on hc side butalso front to back. Thc s.' 's rays in this caserwere not at theirworst sharpncss, hercforc o.c with reason can rqrhold t a1l asvery ntyster ious,"10.

Ear ly in June 1946, i . t appeared that airpower was gain_i .ng the inf luence i t had hoped to achieve. Rear Adm.raISidney.W_.Souers, wh9 had just been chosen to head the newlyestabl ished Central Intel l i_gence Agency in January, was sud:denly replaced with an Air Force CEner i t , Hoyt S. 'Vandenburg.i t rhen the Bikin i atomic tests in the paci f i .c sta.r tedDI.- J. Robert oppenheimer, one of the key men of ih; ' ; ; ; ; r -t i f ic commi.ssion selected to observe the test .s , was withdrawn,and replaced with a scient j -st who had a rnore vir i .ed back-ground and an extensive knowledge of radar, rockets, andatomic energy. He was the Director of the Bureau oi standardsDr. E. u- condon. The move under l ined the shi f t f rom atomictheory to the mi. i . tary appl icat ion of atomic power.A Dr. Alvarez, a professor of physics at the Universi tyof-Cal i fornia, secret ly suggested at th is t i rne that l iquidhydrogen be tested as the f lu id propel lant in any proposedatomic powered rocket because of the element 's favorablerat io of mass conpared to the exhaust veloci ty at cer taintemperatures. The technical detai ls are too complex to l ist!9t" , but one important point of th is theory was. of j_nterest .The professor bel ieved such a nuclear dr iven rocket . wouldspgeq across the sky leaving large quant i t ies of super-heatedand highly_ inf larunable hydrogen in i ts wake, rhus cieat ing anexplosive hazard-b The eventuar development of such an aiomicdr iven missi le was fel t to be far in th l future, so in Nlay,1916,-when nyster ious nissi le-1ike bodies trai l ing strangeiLlurninous sinoke and accompanied by 1oud, unexplained deiona-t ions appeared over the BaIt ic, there must hav; been sorneconcern in the Pentagon.

. Sunday ! ig i l t , June 9, 1946, d , '1 ight phenornenon, ' appearedabove SaIa, Sweden. An enormous I ight dropped earthward-leaving a long- f iery t ra i l_ behind. Short ly thereaf ter , anexplosion was heard. 11.Also on June gth at 10:17 p.pr . , B rocket- l ike l ightf i1 led the_night sky over Helsinki , F inland. people ihererushed outdoors in t ime to see a srnoke trai I in t i re heavensand to hear a distant rumble. An i l luminous afterqlowlasted ten mi.nutes. This "ghost rocket , , ' as i - t "u i d ' . . ,bb"dby witnesses, had passed to; , -ard the southwest at an al t i tudeof about 1,000 feet .A professor Gustaf Jarnefel t sai .d he bel ieved the obiectwas a normal neteor i te, an opinion that t ias quoted in thenewspaper Nlra Pressen. 13.


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.+.Before the Finns could recover from the sunday phenomenon,a "v-2" roared over the town of Tanmerfors in west i r i r F in landon Monday,-Jul9 10th, only to reappear the same night on i: : : :h: i r i . heading oyeT_ he capita i , Hetsinki . A cirrespon-dent of the London Dai ly Mai l wrote that Monday's ' ,V-2 ' , wasan "unidentified luii ifr6il i iEly" giving off gtoi' ing smoke andthat the "th ing" had come in iro i l the"direci ion oF the Balt icsea, only to wheel around and retrace i ts course.13.The "slqy phenonenon'of June 12th:

"A-sl!y phenonenonof the sarnesort as was observed yesterday hasoccurred over Eskilstuna [sweden] . The observation is'reported bvan engineer who flies daily and nnrstbe thcnrghtof as a.er'i"ti"-ouiserver.. ."-.-I-!"{ just put ol t tthe lightl and stood by rq, rvindorv henin the half-darknesi I was able to-see sonething.&u'oui of a cloud,relaled the engineer.- ee loirb, if it really was such, passedwestot the -city in a northward direction. It seemed s if it was on adescending corrse at close to a i0-dree angle--on ihii rnatter r cannaturally not be conpletely sure--and in sich a czt-se uqht to havefa11en downsomewheren the area, probably going out noith overftuge1ata. It could not have been any of irui n"il le t planes, whichhave a continuous e:


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5.evaluat ion of the German rocket technic ians lef t in theSoviet zone of. occupied Gernany and how long it might takesuch experts to perfect an intercont inental missi le.

Dr. von Braun knew of only two engineers who had suff i -c ient knowledge of the over-a11 German V-2 rocket Programand were clever enough to organize a long-range rocketdevelopment group. Any success by such group, he asserted,would no doubt take quite sone t ime. l / '

On July 3, 1946, most of the ser ious squabbl ing betweenthe Arny Air Force and the Navy was sett led by the establ ish-nent of a jo int Research and Development Board which receivedits author i ty direct ly f rom the c iv i l ian posts of the Sec-retar ies of the Navy and War. The var ious ni. l i tary boardsand committees, with their over lapping author i ty and spheresof operat ion concerning ni l i tary research, were reorganizedinto just four subconmit tees. Furthermore, var ious civ i l ianresearch organizat ions were better coordinated with DefenseDepartment projects, such as the Nat ional Advisory Comnit teeon Aeronaut ics gnd the Bureau of Standards.

0n July 6, 1946, General H. H. Arnold, ret i red wart i rneCommanderof the Army Air Force, addressed the CommonwealthClub in San Francisco, echoing the assert ions General Dool i t t lehad made the previ .ous Decenber when he stated that the defen-s ive front iers of the United States l iere no longer the Pacif icand Atlant ic coasts, but the Polar regi .ons to the north. Theeditor of Radio \swe, a Mr. Ol iver Reed, gave support toanother con-tr-En-Tf6i-6f General Dool itt 1e s , when - upon re -turning to the United States af ter witnessing the Bik in iatomi.c test on June 30th, he to ld the Chicago Dai ly Tr ibunethat, as far as he was concerned, therf f idoubt that, atomic-t ipped nissi les would be used in thenext war.- l " londay, July 8th, a Mr. J. B. Strand of Norrk6ping,Sweden, observed a fast rnovi .ng bal l -shaped object on an east-ward course. The object was gray and appeared to be a hal fmeter in diameter. No sound was heard.18.

Approxinately 30 reports had been recorded by the SwedishDefense Staff by July 8th.19. The Swedish newspapir SvenskaDagbladet carr ied conment by the American columnist MarquiseE' ITas tI 'a t c la ined "higher c irc les" in the Unj, ted Statesbel ieved Sweden had become a secret weapon test area.20.

Tuesday, July 9th, was a big day perhaps because a largemeteor was vis ib le over a wide region at 2:30 p.m. Fron theci ty of Lyrestadsbo came a report at ? i50 p.m. of a f ly ingobject that lef t a "gl i t . ter ing wake" after i t came down outof the sky at a 35 degree angle and was bel ieved to have hi tthe ground somer+hereon a l ine between Otters lat ten and Hova-Algaras. 21.


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6._ __ A phenomenon was visible in Stockholm on July 9th at2:30 p.m., appear ing as a br ight lurninous body witn a blue-green tai l . Fragments were found and sent to stockholm tobe examlned. The chief of swedenrs Armed Forces discussedthe case with the press-, st ressing that the * i i i t i ry ,u"=cont inuing to check sight ings and*that civ ir iaus-stroutaphone the nearest rni l i iary post , or to wr i te swedish mir . i -tary.headquarters in the nat ionis capital i f they observedanything unusual. 22.

- . At 1 city with the long narne of Kr ist inehamnstraktena. f iery l ight , at Z l0 p.m. l . luty 9th, rvas- iu"n.-- -Lpparent ly,the phenornenon was witnLssed at bi orkeland, " i i i rougi. , ' those 'at the lat ter ci ty a lso ment ion s6eing a "buI i" i - i i t " tube, ,zooming out of the sout .heast and disaipear irg to ihe north_east . 23.In Hagfors in Varrnlard a ccrnet-Iike object was seen at Z:35 D.n.. TUesdavJuly 9th. The "projectile" came rcrn the north in a steep dive towaid tate-'ul1en. At Ravber it rvasseen to extinquish itself a coupie of neters abwethe surface of a body of water but that did not preclude that it first hit themormtain, according to three eyewitnesses,24."P.OCKEI P.0IECTIItrS AVETAICENtfER IIECitlCETLIER'S ROLE"headlinedthe SrvedishnewspaperMorgon-Tidttingen on July l0th.

"Just after 2:30 p.n. T\resda.v, uly 9th, a couple of Vaxholrnresidents on the north side of Vaxon sighted a nrystbrious object,travelling at an unheard-of speed, cane orlt of enrptyspace and afterjust a couple of secondsdisappearedbehind the iiland- in a south-eastern direction. , The object, which appeared o be a glowingwhite in color and oblong in shapewith a blunt nose, had a bliie-white tai1."The sane phenonenonwas witnessed as r+ell frorn Jarna stationby-a Bjorloras resident who described the object as having a shapelike a glass flask in a thermos. The color was said to-be silverwhite and the object was seen descending frcrn an high altitude in aneastern direct ion." 25.0ckelbo:

"In Ockelbo a si.nilar phenonenon as seen. l,fr. Efrain Johnsonof Gungarden, +howas one of those whomade he sighting, states thatat exagtly 2-:35p.m. he caught-sight of a strange ciear-like, or sugarloaf-like, object over the weeds o the east. The object shone liiiesilver anf appeared ike ssne glistening mass. It tr.unbled ight dor"nagainst the ground and was gone in a ferv msnents.26.A correspondent for the SvenskaO"S!].dg! reported:

"A couple of meteors fa11s took place on'I\resday in Dalarna, i-nSoderbarke, and in l.,tockfjard. On T\resdayafternoon a horrsewife inlfuggnora was busy washing on the shore of lake Barken when she saw afalling object, rvhich cameat great speed out of the northeast. Itwas changing frcrn blue to green as it travelled and had a long tai1.It tunbled into the lake at about 100 meters distance frcrn the ob-server at Hedudden utside Sorbo. At this time a strone wind r.'as


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7,The water

"At almost the same ime, at half past three in the afternoon, ayoungman n lulockjardobserved a silver-colored star which with greatspeedand a whistling noj-se.dived toward the grcnrnd. It camedownabcmt 150 neters frqn the ycn.rng an who was blinded by a intense lightgiven of f by the object, For that reason the yormgmancannot stateany exact irnpact point but it must have hit lr{t. landholm. A strongburning sme11 ingered over the area for a quarter of an hour aftei-ward. the terrain in the area is covered with heather and moss. andis located in a good-sizedho11ow."27.Stockholin and other areas:

rrAnysterious phencmenonf the heavens--ameteor or a radio-directedprojectile--was seen at nidday, T\resday,July 9th, over the east coast. Itwas a brightly reflecting ball with a long tai1, which was seen in theStockholm area and also up in l'ledelpad."In the Stockholn area the ball was observedaroirnd 2:30 n.m. otclock.The ba11, which shonewith an intensely white light, was arouni 1/3 themoon's diameter and the tail 10-12 moondj_aneters1ong. The projectilernoved .n a direction fron west to east. Scrnerrrtratater there was seen asirnilar ball in various places in l'ledelpad, and it is not irrrpossiblethatit was the samephenomenon. The ba1l, r,rhich esembleda 'conet with ablue-white trail after it,' had an easterly ccurse. Also, it was observedfrcrn LVS 3 ]l , where the projectile was seen to rush frcm over the Sodrnmountainsat a Iow height. In Nedansjoand Norhassel as we11, sjrnilarobservations were made. In Nedanejo he projectile nade a curve and des-cended, leavi.ng a green streak and a 40-50 meters long tail of fire. It isnot thought improbable that the projectile approached over land and latertrrned., A phenanenonof this type is lsrown o be observed daily off the

Norrland coast for the last few dqgs in the Cavle area." 28.On July 9th, something passed 1ow over several p lacesj .n Swedenrs Medelpad distr ic t short ly before 2:35 in theafternggn heading in a northeast direct ion toward the sea-coast.ro This report was only a drop in the bucket becausesome 250 reports were made on the gth.Another of the rnany July 9th s ight i .ngs to ld of a coupleof bal l -shaped things z ipping over the ci ty of Edslyn at10:10 p.m. The objects were f ly ing paral le1 in a northwestdirect ion. One ui tness bel ieved he heard a "monotonous" sound

dur ing the passagq. At 1.0:30 p.m. ui tnesses at Far i la reporteda "spook f1yer. " 29.Near Turku City, F in land,.on July 9th, something oddwas sirot ted:

"Many people saw, at 15:35 loca1 hours, arocket-1 ike object f ly ing at great speed fromSouth to North. I t was so br ight and red thati t cast shadows on the ground. - There was a.short t ra i l behind i t . The weather at the t imewas sunny and no c louds were v is ib le. 30.

fearedlshock wave?li was feared yet nothing was perceived.is quite deep at the place of the fa11."


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B.July 10th:. The . Chicago D? ly. f r ibune' s overseas news service saidEnar an lmportant St.ockhorm newspaper had dcclared on JuIv I0ththat- in the previous twenty-four hours shining bal l -1 ike obof blue-green color wi th f laming tai ls of a slrn i lar hue hadbeen seen over srveden. As the obiects were reported high inthe sky and travel ing a.t great sp6ed, the stocici rotm Aft6nbradetsuggested that the objects were the resul t of Russian-; f=s- i la-

l? l l i : - Tl" .newspaper further stated that up to ten reports ofsimi lar f ly ing objects had been reported in the month br,v.yover Finland as wel l as sweden. Tire chicaso Tribune. ienorrc

of blue-green color with f laming tai ls of a s bal l-1ike objects

over Finland as wel l as Sweden., reporters for the

"Lights in the sky resembl i -ng neteors observedfrom dif ferent parts of the country, are puzzl ingthe people in Sweden. No rel iable explanat ion hasbeen given, al though simi lar phenomena obsdrved inthe past have always proved to be astronomical ."32.On the other hand, Swedish author i t ies were very act ive:

"On the i-ni . t iat ive of the Defense Staf f andAviat ion Administrat ion, a commit tee was estab-l ished 10 July consj .st ing of members of the DefenseStaff Arr iet j6n C+^fF l l4r ' -1 AJ-. ir . ic frr f i^n Airr ^v f oLrvrr JLdl l , l rdv4I nul l t l l r rAdmin j.strat j .on, the Defense Research Inst i tut ion,and the Defense Radio Inst i tut ion to handle thismatter . Colonel. Bengt Jacobsson was in America,i i la jor Cerwall of the Defense Staff served as chair-man.

"Through this comrnit tee the invest igat ion rvasj.ntensif ied. l{ i th in the Defense Staff , al I reportsregarding thi-s matter \{ere Summarized and forwardedto the Air Administrat ion and Air Defense Sect ions.Personnel r . 'ere sent out both from the DefenseStaff and the Air Administrat ion sect ion toevaluate important reports. In addit ion, theDefense Staff directed special invest igat ionsbv mil i tary units upon receipt of impact reports.Liai"son with the civi l ian author i t ies-- includingthe Custom author i t ies- -and the Iotte Kar, as r . 'e11as the Stockholm Observatory, was establ ished.In connect ion with a communique of 10 July the

over hlnrand as wel l as sweden. The chicago Tr ibune.:-eported_t lat 3f tgr quest ioning mil i tary experrs, reporter , ?. ;- i ; ; "- -Aftonbladet learned tf ,at , in the experts' opinion, the reporo5lecis could not be termed "celest ial phenomena,,due to thenrLutrur .ducL tearneo that, rn the experts' opinion, the reportedo5lecis could not be termed "celest ial nhenomena,,r l r re io rhelarge number of sight ings. Furthermore, these experts spec_ulated that the strange missires must t ,e of soviei or ig in andthat they must contain recordi .ng instruinents which enabLedthe Russians to return the mystErious rockets to theirlaunching point , .31.

On the same day a news dispatch from Stockholm told ofthe cont inuing rnystery:


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9.populat ion wasobservat ions toMore JulY 10thAt 2:30 P.n.,was spotted:

Alsoobject wasin a steep

". . . i ts breadthi ts length was tendiarneter of moon.

requested to send rePorts of theirthe Defense staf f . " 33.reporf ,s

July 10th, at Stockholm, a cigar-shaped objectwas a haLf-rnoon di .ameter andor perhaps twelve t imes the ziI t i . ras biuish l ike a conet." ' * '

in the Varrnland distr ictobserved at 7:35 P.n.dive and appeared toat Hagfors a -I t came out otsolash into Lake

"comet-1 ike"the northU1len.35.Perhaps the same object ua^s-seen in the Dalarnawhere many Persons reported a faI1 of a "project i le"i i " r i i t r - . l rL in from the ci t ies of Rornmehed,Borlange." i - i " iu", descr ib ing al object wi th a long t4i1:-- t tu"i t l -" ,o,nan ctaimef, that i b lue-green, t i " I -shaped

"ppi"" i f t "a out of the no-rtheast .and.qiy."g:q i l : , " -^t" lppi"" . f r"a--o"t of the northeast and.eiy."cuq i1-t?-L,"k"nt 'Uockf jard the fal1 of a ' - 'project i l 'e" was marked by- ^t r ^r- -^^o+1,ino hrrrnino- 36.

distr ictat 2:35 P-c-, NorrbySoder -obj ectBa ken .a stTongsme1l of-something burning' 36'

Likewi.se, wi tnessesand ParnPusbadet ' , ePorte" fo t t "a -a-white glowing-9bi: : : -1 :1" i :9 , itn

6the ci t ies of Satterbo, Borrun,

li 'iltly"'ilii!-ii-ir."-ii'i""r ? 0 F:!:- 1l-fii'1.1:9,:1,"Tl1o-:Hl=i.; ' f , ;";; ;- ;- .-ui-ue-wniteoLiect passedbverheadatgi"ut veloci ty.37'"A notable find?" A rePort said:

"A rather notable find on the beach was madeby a jcr:rnalist onwednes-dayTJury 0trri-ait"*oon whenhe found a nrst-colored, porousil;i;itt"g, i^tni.f, uot" u very plain rnark which was situated next toscmecylinder-1ike object.,,l'lhile tt," ,.,rst]lJioiea uit's surface Nas unevenand porous likealr otii"i-sanples of ii"-ii"a, this bi t had in its center a senicir-c'lar-shaped hote, ani"it-"pp6"tua as if_this bi t was pressed againsti i-""ti i ' i t broke'thrcugh the surface'" 38'Sqne cmrnents on the "remains" went this way:

"Remainsofpossiblyarocketor jet-propel led-object ' .whichfel1o" ffr"ra"yiJ"fy Stf,i-"iiir,.',oo" at Bjorican in irtjurunda have been sent toStockholm, the DefensJ-iiuif's Air iefense Division, for investigationarnounced he press';ifi;;; at Sundsvall airbase' Capt' R' l'lestlin' inan interview for the !totS9"-It4!teSn'.',The projectile eG;r1yJ;A-u-ed a hich ternperatrlre and the remainsof the samewere "";'h;;-;it"l i*-a' The slag'produced by the pro-iectile was burmt black." 39.


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'l'fysterious r:lane :" 10.^ . "A strange-sight in the heavens was seen in Gavletswedenion:,-d,ry eyeling. just before 8 o'clock. Several persons ohservedan.oDJect-jx the sky which might have been a rocket_bcrnb or some_thrng smilar. It went across orrer the city in an east to westdirection at an altj.tude which witnesses est'imated misht he t.bOO_*l:09"9yTI:, b": ij yas pl-ainly.seenasainst the cr8ir eveningsty.

On July 10th the-sky 1i t yp a bluish_green as a point of lj-ght thesarne-ol0rs, with a gl0wing taii a hundred"feet ion.q,'.;" Ji t ot tr,"southwest. The thiig appEared *"t irr"-Niunrnde district the sane timepersons observed a "ghost-rocket,' wer tted6rpJ.- ti;;;;"J'iirr"rea onthe- lirection but th;ir^descriptions-or tr," i"rg t"ii ,"iu-ii^ir"r.An account in the_sivedish newspaperSvenski &g["dg! i,as the mostdetailed of what transplrec next.The "Droiectile" hit a bathing beach at Bjorkon, lrjurunde, with adul1 thud:','The aiea is.secluded, about 3 kn. fron Bjorkwagen. (treof the surner cabry; ttherel belongs to airlin!-piioi-io*"ra

The projectile, of r^ihateveikind'it m"y fiuve tre.n, .o.ria rr.-r"iu *tclgarly-as.an elongated-gray body with'a bright light in iirt'tt"r^l:"rIy.3s ,3n elongated^gray body with'a bright right in ttie'iiernend. rt dlsapDearedafter several mqnentslas flln a smoke loud.,' 40,nd. 'r t disapne"ieaatTey' u""i"i ,n*"niriL'-iti

Linden,who, lhenthe frneteor'.*3, t"a-r",i"'ii!iii iting neighborsaround a coff.ee table outside the cibln."The projectileis light darkenedthe sunrs ravs.sulqel guestt Mrs. Soderbgrg,.and she ca11edny attenti-on to tr,,said l'{r. Linden. The projeiiile gave ofJ a brindi"g iigiit.- -r twas.indeed so bright that-the srmYs ays happened3 Jill-' .n"111j_5tite_yent quite,low its highest-.sne"d at S0neteis peisecono. It descended_ata 40-degreedive angle and fell iirto the1and, l9 t without any i_rmnediateEport lpeal,"clap t . nt-i jis-tance of .on1y 20meters lay sone young girls and bathers, andtney saw how the sand spurted up. After sone time we found thecraterr-which howeverwas rathei nodest in size tcouple of deci_meters.de-ep nd a neter in diarneter , . sprearl "1r ri-o'na "*t-air-overed thus a mass left by the mysteriorrs sp-nrojectiie. -I tmostly looked like porcnrssrag of'various colbr! ---frcrnbrrrnetyerlohr to black. Sonesma11 its were nearly in porvered orrn,11d wfen they.were taken in the hands, theybe!1an'" ,."ri "i-ifIgn iye. Llkewise it smelled with the oder-of just this stufft?1.

"The pr-ojectile, which had a northeasterly direction, wasacconpaniedby a h.uninous ai l of 40-S0merers.'The suumer guests in Norrvikssand began at once to gather uf)tne nreces in hags, and it turned out in the end to be manvkilosot slag of various colors., A part of the collected piece! bringsto nind burnt bits of rnetal. Ten meters frqn the rair-vour cor-11s--nond,e1torr1d.,on searchinq at l.lorrvikssand tednesJay.',-a-turnt_DTorrn h;ect with a hollow rylinder. In color and coniistencythis object_r.ras ike rnost of the other ob.jects t"r"a-up.---ff,6gvlinder had a dianeter of about 20-i0 niiltuneters. Ti,;,niiii"r"authorit ies later took wer the find.,41.


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I tThe Svenska Eg!1"49! reported:toin

"Tests on the rennants of the projectile were referred on wednesd.ayDr' B. Backltmd,at the cettutsi1iilageta Investig"tionai'-rriJr"roryIfubikenborg,.."" At first he gathered a bit of gray-r"rrrite 1oosenaterial underthe mircoscop".Jtf-: piece of paper 6r iim frag*eni,'which appearedto be dividedrrp into sqrares si*birru! iik" ;';fi;ilis or chessboard.fhe paper of film coating yas cnLy a quarter-nil1imeter in surface.That the material in-queltion is iro-1


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t2,streak. Anothersolind was heard.:::il:Y"S*"H lt *:r_t:"I11*_ " aii"a",i",iilT,3i l"3lerhaps northeastly and-tire path horizonial.,, 45.

July 11th .al_co had irs share of si .ght ings. A Mr. Ejnar*1"[:::""": o::"I: lp:1:" iSt;;J h^;-;;;;; i i" ui. i" ' i"""i , j3;1?*' '13:T;*l :^: i9l::d-t '1itt;r i l ;-"; j ; ; ; ' ; ;" i ; ;";f;Io,f' .n":ij. .*l: ? .ly l:9, l::,_: ""99;."i-iii, ;d;;; ";;;:,'i;"i:iir;il::1-lk: ij l::i1:9-sm9ke..r'r.ri.A;;";;;;; ;";=;;; #";:*:. l iTg-ln "*I: '1,ft at the time-rrenight

behind the woods. T.\ropersons saw a blue or greensaw as well a smalL object aheadof the streakl' No

The next 9ay, . lgly 11th-, news of the incident was lesssensat ional . Accordi lg to the swedish t ;" ; ; ; - ; r . , " -r . rpi . i -J i t "was vis i ted by the fo1l0wing swedistr mi i : . t i iy ieisonner: Lt .9glorgt Rudberg, captain_c."Lj"nia"rt r , -J; j - ; 'c5pi i i . R. west l in.Al l three off icers.quickly caire fo i t r . l ion.ruJiSn-tr , " t no Dro-ect i le had crashed'on thi beach. rne matei i r i - i i i . i i " i ; ; t ; " -Mr. Linden was iudged to have ui is tu[-ot t - ; ; ;^; ; " ih previousto the.supposed-fai t and ;; 'Jr; f ' ; 'was jetsam. on the otherhand, i t was admit ted there was no way'of aiscount ing thepossibi l i ty that a meteor hac fal len in the-; ; ; ; . - 'An ArmyCaptain by the nameof Aston had been leading an infantryuni t on a training exercise in the area and fr" ,"port"a "al l ing body that-matched t i re aicount given uy l l i l -Linden. +o.

the object . The obj" . t " t t "" iuChen f lew away to t[" nori f , "" i i .not have spottedthe aircraf t andred lext to

somethins sini r 'ar was reported at the ci ty of Dalaholrn thearne ay rvhen-residgl ts iel ! ;a ' ; - ;* ; ;c ; ;"pi"^ i i . i i . re with aopper-1ikeshine' i that tr i i ted f i re aid "hicfr i la; a growl ingsound.. The thing was supposed to.har;e fa1len in a f ie ld ofrye. 47Early on July l l th, ,at 9:09 in the morning, at a placetwo mi les south of the-ci ty of Gotebory, a peri6n sunbi th inghappened- o catch a grinpse of a "1ong' i i rvbr object" f ly in!toward the south at- a slow :peed. Thd object moied slowiy *and nade no noise that could-be heard.48. -A "green" ball:- _ , "f,mysterious fireball was observedbetween1-2:00 p.m. cn ThursdaytJuly 11thl over Kopingsvik bathing area north of Borshoin. It looked1th-l over Kcpingsvik bathing area north of Borghoin. It lookedlike-a,l ight green, brightly shinning ba1l, i, tr ich noved with sreatspeed in an easterly direction. gehi.nd the tballr anneared I snipeed in an easterly direction.shaped violet streak of l ieht. According to what many observers te1l,the 'balIr appeared a spiral-the lurninous phenonenon diiappeared suddeill'. No trate of it could befound Iseen]." 49.A July 1l th dispatch from the Swedish town of Orebro read:

"A rnyster ious f i rebal l -at 2:30 p.m. I t had the f r . ras seen on Wednesdayat 2:30 p.m. I t had the forn of a l ight greeniumj.nous bai l t ra i l ing reddish smoke as i t noved


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-.Olt 'tsld r ufCOMMUNICATIOI i ! { t iO t lLCOllr r5I tLLCI l .^ l , l t ' r , { : rCl{Ac 12-A. PYI . " \ l i ' l '1 l . lYl ' ( . si ,- \ ,1,1:

INCOMING TELEGRAMACtI,Jt, r.,t lrNf0:3uA-RFCN/R

r ai'e pnra sc' ; . rnteat l qg

'i13ff-

:i!.,ls1.ATS

bof.rre conc-to anv:ne3a rSt ockh:lnDsted July t l_, 1946Rec d 6:10

""r tQoo;v _\- . . . : :1130, July lL, 6 p.n.I'()r 3on(a rreekg thorO heVO been 11Uoe1.oUS.epOr.ts OfsLrclngc rocket 11ko-utaal lea belng aeon la E..eai iA-anOFlnnloh ektes. Dut : lng pact feu diye roportg of sucb:'biecte belng seea hsie-greetly lnireaced. l, leobe1.ofi,(|gatLon sav on Tuesdaylfteniooa. Ono landod on boachrrcar. Stockholn samo aftirnoon urrtiout "i"iGg-ti' oir.S"&nd eccoldtr1s t9 pTglr rregrneati a"" no, bolig it"JGaby nt l t tary autho:r l t loa. Iocel scient lct o" i fr i [ -G-sp.:ctlon tteted 1t conteJ-uog organig cubstauce reuooUf:.ngcerbLde. Dofenco_gtaf f laat nf i f r t lgsued o.r . ,_io"r 'l lattng yanlous placec vbere utEiir""-i l ; b"";;;"?uoatrdurglns pubtrc reporr-arr nyii-rro""-"oJ"i-*i'iiiutphonoueua. presr Chl! aftcrao6n "oo""ces oao cuch,o1scll.o felt tn Srockholu subunb A:30 thi; ;;.;"-;;;.i ' l tst l le obserted by ueaber tagatfoi mgde no ;ouna ;;seen.:d io be ratl l ig ffptdly. Eo oa:rtu vuu"-o["u."r-uii- noc: . r l l j af exploslon foLloved-hov&er. .

q,(n@oo{:Io

I,[l1tary- Attlcbo 1c rnvestlget-1ng tbrougb Svedla]rch"'aor'a e1d hag beon proalsed lSeulti ssdisu obacrvatl0nc.suedea profe.ao. gaoraa6e ar.to_ *lgta; ouinictur oi!.Furpocoof or-sslros but atate deflnttely ifiel'ao" nit ta'ncbao bvs.ri,d.?s. Eyevlrnosr ncportc ateEe ;i;sii;.;;;-fi-;;r-t nscurbornly-dtnectlon procecdlng to uorinvera. -si; G#" . br rArranrlc floot uoder Arlnrral f,6v1tt a*ii"a-stbckfrr.;-tb1; F .mrrntng- rf orerl lee ane of_Sovrct onrglu "; a; ; ; i r ; - ' " F rb,rrr.ezad(s.oge-ports ray tboy *, i",fi"La-riJil"i:;-t' i ir^r i} .pu .,)'! " ii;-" ui' i,li i i r ii t o iat1nldat"Jirall " E-l|""lil i.H'sr:: i , i r vl th sovle. """;{ H HEaPERlANtN REC0R0'PY:'T,i3r.lf,!f,.T^$r?El"?I.*?oDC.,nr3^. :W


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vlth Sovlet pressule _onSsodenborng bullt up tg ooq_...nectlon vtth cnrrent loen negotlatt6nc on to'offset isuppored lner:eaee tn _otrrnllitary prettlge fn Svedonro_sultl g fron the naval vls1t and-roceat blftnt a;;i;rr bo!h. Sovtet polttteal prousure oa guedenln oon.

SE*CRET ..'-2-#1130, July 11, 6 p.n., frou Btookbo&a

nectl-on vlth Bgltlo rcfugeer hcno hlt, ar recentli-oo_.por.ted to Dept,. bsen eonildenably ateiOed.-uU.

RAVIYDALcADSI'CNET

.,.1-.,.


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;il"i.lH:l"i:":il"ii:;':l'ft;,,,ninit'i"ll'in3appearance of a large bul let shot toward theearth fron a great height." 50.The Swedish ni l i tary announced that smoke trai ls viewed

at Ockel lo and Falun were generated by a pair of J. 26 Mustangsof the Swedish Air Force and were not fron any sort of "ghostproject i le.r ' Annexed to the foregoing announcement was astatenent by the rniLi tary that a search of rocket crash si tesin the vicini ty of Stockholn had resulted in f inds of slag-l ike nater ial that compared wel l wi th the mater ial picked upnear Njurunda (The Sundsnal l beach case). 51., Fvents finaLly movedthe swedesto form a 'lghost rocket ccrnqittee" toT11yz9 the flood of civilian and rnilitary reports, directing that thefollowing organizations contribute members:Reiearchnstitut6 of I'lationalDefense, Air Administration, DefenseStaff , the ].laval Mminj_stration, and

the DefenseRadio Institute.The Chi.ef of the |,{aterial Department of the Air Administration,colonel Bengt Jacobson, was selected chairrnan. He was made esponsi.bleto General Nils Soderberg, Sweden's op Ai r Force officer. gecrcrrruand.chief investigator rl i nri.c_l'talrnbeig f sweden's ,{aterial'o"p"iai'!.lauipment Burezu. A special advisor was Henry Kje11son, also o? theEquipmentBurealr, fancnrs for heading the urar tirne investigation of a GerrnanV-2 rocket crash. 52._ 0n July 11th, a story fron Lindkoping stated: (Late inIhe evening a rocket-1ike thing vras observed by numerousggopl. At the rear one could see a l ine to which a copper-l ike sphere was fastened(?)" 53.

One of the oddest of the July 11th cases came out of thewestern Halsingland distr ict . There, at the town of Ramsjo,on that Thursday afternoon, a f irebal l passed low over thetree tops. _ Witnesses said that the object appeared to bethe size of a human head, and when it lnoved,- t 1eft a f ierywake four to f ive meters long. The f irebal i sped off on an'easter ly course. I t is possible there was some connect ionwith the sight ing at , the sane t i rne of a f i rebal l . that wassaid to have dropped into a lake in the Rarnsjotrakten area.54.July 12thA Norwegian ggntlernan living in the ccnrmmity of Berg in Annelu wit-nessedscrnethi-ng dd.at 2:30 p.m. _ According to the NorwEgian ewspaperTo$Pere lleq,-th-c witnessed heard a noise that sounded ike an objbcitarllng through thc air-. shortly thereafter a big splash occurred in apond nearby. Blue smoke ingered over the area and ionvince


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1Ala .

The Aftenposten has been in contact wi th bombexpeiT3- i lh6-E?i te11 that the phenomenon has beenobierved so regular ly that metbors can certain ly beexcluded.. .however, one cannot be qui te sure. . .there is much to indicat .e that the objects naybe guided missi les that do not contain exp1osi . r" r . "

56'The London Times summarized the nurky si tuat j ,on on July 12th,pr int ing that. gtowjng bal1s t ra i l ing smoke were annoying inhabi-tants along Swedenrs east coast and that the Swedish GeneralStaf f had taken a forrnal interest in the natter . The Timesnow said that . no def in i te meteor i te evidence had been Touna,so a radio-control led V-bornb theory was being entertained.An Engl ish newspaperman on the cont ine:r t had more to add.A pecul iar object was spotted f ly ing at h igh speed, an est i -mated 400 ki lometers per hour, over the Rhone Va11ey in Switz-

er land according to a Dai ly l ' la i l correspondentrs dispatchwired from Geneva. The stat ion master at the c i ty of Gryonon a mountain rai lway was watching a Liberator bonber f1y overat 15,000 feet when he also saw a "f ly ing bomb." The stat ionmaster descr ibed the th ing as l ike a big star t ravel ing north-east . Despi te the clear day no smoke was seen that couLd beassocj .ated with the object . The Pai ly Mai l representat ivealso got a look at the phenonenonl sz.i {eanwhi le, back in Sweden, there was more comment aboutal leged rocket f ragments.The f ind of seven pounds of slag at the ci ty of Njurunda,on Sundsnal l beach, which was guessed to have had some relat ion-ship with the "ghost rockets,r ' was scarcely meteor icrexplainedthe Swedi.shmi l i tary when quest ioned by representat ives of theStockholm newspaper Dagens Nyheter. The mater ia l was said tohave f a11en f rom the-Tky i-6ut iT-Ts knor+n, said the rni l i tary,that meteor i te mater ia l is usual ly compact and composed ofi ron whi le the Njurunda fragments were nore l ike furnanceslag or coke, l ight in r . ;e ight and porous, thus the ni l i tarywas entertain ing the thought that the suspected mater ia l wasnot f rom a fa l l ing star . The examinat ion of the rnater ia l wascont inued. 5R.Another Dagens Nyheter story reveal ,ed that on July l2that 7:00 at thE-ct- f t t - ;T-Tasunda something odd was seen: "I twas very much l ike a huge soap bubble r" ' i th drops on i ts br im.I t sai led slowIy toward the north-west.r ' 59.The Dagens Nyheter informed i ts readers that the Swedishmi l i tary xas showing an interest in the reported courses of thestrange objects being seen in the hope i t may learn somethingabout the or ig in of the mystery, rneteor ic or otherwise . ( ,0.


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16.In Norway the newspaper Stavanger publ ished the cla imthat a "ghost rocket ! ' appLared-oveT-Rogitand at 11:00 p.rn.,July 13th. A ci t izen that night saw a luminous objectapproach out of the southeast at great speed and at a fair lygreat height . The object was a strong ye11ow-red color. I tgradual ly disappeared in a northwest direct ion. The entire

t ime i t was under observat ion the object maintained thesame alt i tude which indicated it could not have been ameteor in the opinion of the observers. Four personsviewed its passage. 66.The abqve report is probably the same incident as thatpubl ished in an English newspaper. In the English versionj.nhabitants of a smal l Norwegian.coasta l town south of Oslospotted a smoking f i rebal l z ipping overhead at an alt i tudeof only 400 feet. The London Telegraph reported the appear-

" r ,c" oi the "oslo mystery star ir-anA-TFE news that Norwii ' 'snewspapers were urging future r+itnesses of strange aer i .a lphenomena to contact authorit ies immediately and to keepon the lookout for any wreckage.67.Unfortunately the fol lowing case was not publ i .shed in a1946 newspaper which makes i t suspect and not good evidencethat " f ly ing saucers" were seen pr ior to 1947.A Mr. Hans Sorensen, a cit izen of Denmark, wrote a let terto the Danish newsDaDer Siael lands Tidende i . n the 1970's con-cerning an aer ia l fh lnomff iZ5 years before:

"In the summer of 1946, I was cycl ing on theway fron Jyderup toward Kalundborg. A couple ofki lometers outside Viskinge toward Kalundborg, Isuddenly noticed sornething odd. At f i rst I thoughtI saw smoke r ings from a tractor, so I stopped ina clear spot so as to see better. Then I sawthree thingamajigs f i t t ing the descr ipt ions ofUFO's . They flew vert ical ly overhead. Theysort of t i l ted in the middle, choppily ( th is isa guess as to the meaning of the work "hakvis,"by analogy with 'stodvis ' -- DGhI - t ranslator)not very rapidly. They were l ike polished mirrorson top, and in prof i le almost l ike a f lat and deepsaucer. The underside was uneven and dull gray-

"That was in Ju1y, i ,n calm weather. I t wasabout 2:00 p.m., and the sun was behind me. AsI stood there, several people came up, and weconcurred that there were no sounds, such.as anornal aircraft would tnsfts.r '68.The next i tem is also an "i-nterest ing,l ished long after 1946. i f t . rue," case pub-

Leatherbarrow,Brit ish off j ,cer, Wing-CommanderG. R


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t7.related a -strange stony about an incident that took place inTurkey r ight af ter the war. He was unsure of the day ornonth:

" . . . in Istanbul in 1946, f was dancing atTaxinrs Night C1ub, on the roof . People star tedto point into the sky towards the East. The bandstopped playing and everyone watched as four red-dish l ights, in l ine abreast . crossed the sky veryquickly and disappeared in the l {est . Each l ight wassquare. There was a faint t race of Cir rus c1oud,so I r+ouId put their height at about 50,000 feet .They crossed from hor izon to hor izon j .n under aninute, far too fast for any forrn of .a i rcraf t .There was a lot of shout ing from the peoplearound, who were clear ly f r ightened, and I wastold the next day that the incident had been reportedi .n the Turki .sh press. ' 69.Ret.urning to Scandinavia, on Sunday night , July 16th,a queer l ight was seen in southern Finland. Dr. V. R. Olanderof the Helsingfor Observatory saw the l ight and suggested thatthe phenomenonwas some kind of neteor. Another report f roma- di f ferent part of the country ment ioned the possi . -b i1 i . ty thatthe l ight was not_-a shoot ing star and the missi le theory couldnot be excluded. 70.The same day a supposed "spook rocker ' , was observed inSweden's Norr land distr ict at 10:00 p.m., passing over theci ty of l ' tat fors. A factory worker and another person in thearea r. id ing on q bicycle spotted the object . The object passed

over Matfors and cont inued on in the direct ion of the ci ty ofSundsval l . The object had a,, ta i l , ' , and as i t noved away i .td isplayed a strong white gl .ow. 71.Swedish radio broadcasted the fol lowing message onJuIy 18th:

"The so-ca1Ied ghost rocket has again beensighted near Sundsval l where today thiee workerssaw a cyl inder-shaped, shiny object moving in thesky at an al t i tude of 200 to 300 rneters, noj .selesslyani l without any smoke exhaust . I t was moving atf i rst tovrards_ he west , but before disappear lng,i t had a northwester ly course." 72.More of the forement ioned epi .sode was publ ished by theSwedish press. The pr inted account stated that the th ieeIaborers had viewed the object at the ci ty of Ortv iken, butthat a short t ime later a Bank of Sweden of f icer , Gunnar Falck,had apparent ly v i .ewed the same phenomenon fron the northernpart of Sundsval lsbo. Mr. Falck said the object was asi lvery cyl inder that f lew of f in a nor thwest direct j .on.Both the al t j . tude and speed did not appear to be great . Nosmoke or sound was not iced.73.


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1A

Bri t ish Inte l l igence was intr igued with the,swedish!"!" .Mjosa case" whi ih h 'as one of t ie more detai led. TheBri t ish experts reported:". . . on 18 July 46 , at Lake i i { josa , nearFeir ing, when two missi les were seen to fa11into the lake with a splash that rose to "--e ight of several meteis. Witness", * to iu"the missi les from a distance of 50 y"rd, i i r t " ,(a) the missi les barely cleared tt " ' "ooas;

-- -(Ul they were simi lar to pictures of theGerman. lying bomb; (c) t i re .1ength wasapproximately eight feet and wi ig span 6lfeet; -(d) wings were set approxi i la t ! i i l 'feet from the nose; (e) a. i iu t ter ing iug_gested wings were rnade of fabr ic; ( i ) wlngsand center sect ion of fuselage were blacklnose and tai l were si lver; (g) there ,""rudto be a kind-of- steer ing appiratus towardsthe tai l ; (h) there was no i lame; ( i ) noi ieresernbled a strong whist le o. sough;- ( j ) noexpl.osion when they hit the water; ( t j - inetwo rnissi les were f ly ing fa ir ly close' tosether.This . report descr ibei a-winged' oUjei i i ; " ; ; ; ; 'deta i l that i t_can scarcely-be pui down toimag nat ion . , 74.

Of. i .nterest, certa in ly, is the same case as i t wasreported in the Norwegian, newspaper Aftenposten. - ihe witnes-ses were two Norwegians that 1i .ved o; tFE-sIore of Lake r, i i osaAt noon on July L8th they heard an odd.o""d.-- f i iy," . . . sal . , two rocket-1 ike th ings that passedover their heads at such high spIed, and'; ; - i ; "that . they threw themselves Io t i . ' r " g iounJ. T;; i .could see the treetops swaying fro i l t t re-a ir- ' - -pressure."In the yard, Sigvat Skaug and his son werestanding and watching the f lyIng_X from-a- 'r ; ; ;_what greater distance, perhaps 1S0 f"et. Skaugsays that they were very much l ike the V_i- f f , i t

he had seen in p ictures. Ordinarv "".opf"nus-hey certa in ly could not have been. f fr lv "e iergar-shaped and appeared to be about ;- ' - i " ; ; ^ "long, with wings.extendi lg j feet_fron tn"-rror",a lmost at the middle. Th; wings f lut ter;e " i - i they had been rnade of mater ia l l fhey did-noi ," "any kind of f i re. The missi les passid overheadclose together, one just a 1i t t1; ahead of i i , .o ther, on a parabol i l course. They t i ,"r , i " i i 's imultaneous1y into the 1ake, throwing i t ,"-"" t" .several feet up in the air .r ' 7S.St i l l anothersol l l 'ccat lds tr t ' thel dcta i ls ant lnakcsonc wonder owacotratt' the llrerriorrs lccollrtts icl 'c. A colresponrlr.nt -or. he Swedish


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newsDaDer venska Dagbladet informs us the incident occurred in themiddie' of TEe fihT-. .--Tffi-cou1d the witnesses be so sure about detailsi.n the dark? iiere is the !qgq!a4g! story:"The rocket looked like a minj-ature al'rplane of about 25 m'in wingspanand carneat night betweenmidnight and 12:30 a'm'

fron t[e'west at a 1owaltitude over the northern section ofFearing, where it was observedby T*y persons, .among thers,those ii the lJasselbackenlotel and at iHotell lnas. It carri.edno lights. Peoplewere madeawareof it-by a loud sighing- soundantl iimediately afterward the bcrnbcor-r1d e seen corning withfurious haste. The speedwas so great that passersby stoppedandwaited til1 the bomb rassed."76.Off ic ia11y, Norway's rni l i tary was not as exci ted as thenewspaPers:

"Reuterrs reported frorn Oslo Thursday thatthe Norwegian air force has offered an explana-t ion of var ious rePorts of nyster ious, rocket-l ike project iLes f ly i .ng over Scandinavia-"Air force off ic iats said they have beenexper iment ing with new landing l ights on air-. p lanes f ly ing at great heights.- "They said nei ther pi lots of the planes norground personnel have not iced anything "nyster ious"and suggested the ner.r anding l ights were mistakenfor a ner" ' ype project i le.,Heretofore newspapers in Norway, Sweden, andeven Switzer land have reported persons seeing the"ghost" missi les, and speculated they or ig inatedfrom Soviet exper i . rnental stat ions . " 77.A 1oca1 Swedish newspaPer added more to the 1j-st of July 18thsight ings. A person at the ci ty of Grabo observed vrhat he ca11eda ' f ly ing torpedo" ( the Swedish worC used was luf t torped) at

19.

11:40 a.m. actording to a story in the Gotgl t .g-Pott" t . I td i rect ion. After 10 - 12 seconds, the object was out of s ight

On Friday, JuIy 19th, cane a report f rom the ci ty of Bo1e1youtside of Pi tea. There a farmer by the narne of Leonard Daniel-sson, and his two sons, saw at about 11:50 a.n. , a "project i le"in the sky sini lar to the one reported the day before in theSundsval l area. The course was northr t 'est . 79.

Kal ix:"A t Friday[Ju1y 19th ] noon a further mysterious projectiler.rasseen in the Kalix r iver va1ly. A l0-year-old boy, son ofBorje Larsson, Storbackon Frodet, sa t and fished in the Kapplsmarih, sqne miles nortl-rwest from the lake where another trocket'r^ras eported on Friday when he heard a strange sound, r*ihereaftersome object fe11 in the water and threw up a 10-rneter high cascadeof rvatei. 'l 'l ie boy became frightened and ran home and related his

adventures for his'parents. On Saturday he was heard bv the rnil-i tar l ' , rvhich cordonbd off both asserted crash sites." 80.

11:40 a.m. according to a story ] .n the GqtJler:Jet ten. I rsped at fur ious spe-d at a very great hAiTFE-- in a northeaster lyrodirect ion. After 10 - 12 seconds, the object was out of s ight . ' ' '


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20.Sti11 another July 19th sight ing cane from southernvasterbotten. At 8:00 p.rn., both at-Vannasby and at Levar,an object. was observed lpeei ing from the southeast to thenorthwest. I t appeared as a red bal l accompanied by "1ight-n ing phenonenon." h| i tnesses saw a shower oi sparks accompanythe object. 81.

. Norway.contr ibuted a report on July 19th which statedthat an engineer from Ullern-obseryed at 12:50 p.n. a lumi_nous object that f lew over in a southh'ester ly direct ion.He watched the object with binoculars as i t ;p"; ;J a th ickgray-white smoke tra i l . . The engineer uas ceria in the objectwas not an aircraft ' . The rocket-1 ike object passed overFornebu Airf ie ld whi le i t was in sight. 81.A Ioca1 news,slory mentions what vas probably the samephenomenon. At 10:00 o,clock Friday over 'Furuogrund in Bysketwo persons viewed something going west at an alt i tude of'600

meters. A blue-white f lash and g loud noise was reported. g3.A hour and an half later in the Norrbotten area a witnesssaw an object d ive into a srna11{150 neters wide) lake splash-ing.water 10 t .o 15 meters into the air . The mi l i t " ty shbwedan interest in the report .84.That evening: a! 7:30-p.n., in northern Sweden, a si lverystreak of l ight at about 50 neters al . t i tude (?) was'visibte fbr10 seconds. There 'w-asan explosion.85.Another crash that Fr iday was not iced by a construct ion

laborer, Knut Linback, and a housemaid by th l name of BedaPerson. Both were at a house in the vi l iage of Kolmjarywhen they saw an object a couple of meters in length-comeinto view above the forest trbetops and dive into the lakethat has the sane name as the vi l iage. Lindback rode abicycLe down a long road leading to the lake and set out ina row boat to search although the water was muddy. Linbackstated that the object caused a splash when it h i t the waterfo l lor.red by nore splashes short ly- thereafter. By saturdayafternoon, t l lg mi l i tary had a teim of experts at ' the lake toinvest igate. 86.^ ..Ag.oTpanying the above dispatch was a not ice that theSwedish-mi l i tary had released an urgent message to the swedishpress about the future publ icat ion of place nimes of rocketsight ings. Names of ci t ies were to be'str icken and replacedwith expressions which would ident i fy just the general area,i .e. , words 1ike, "southeastern Nor16oiten. " g7.. An object was observed at l0:S0 a.m. Saturday, July Z0th,by a couple of_ persons at Skaten. The object was'descr ibedas a glowing oblong bal l moving out of t t re northeast towardthe southwest. 88_


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T.Tt ie fa l1 at Kal ix exci ted the Swedish press, whichannounced that a "1ong range weaPon," that did not. sel fdestruct af ter i ts re lonnaissance f l ight, was_on the lake'sbottom. I t was caut ioned, however, that the-botton of thei" t" , far extremely rnuddy and the search would take a longt ine. 89.SundaY, JulY 21st.A f i rebal l was spotted the afternoon of July 21st atHafs ingboig, Sweden. -The f i rebal l was observed in the c louds

"t t ,OdO lnEiers al t i tude speeding in a northern direct ion 'i f r " - i ight ing was f a ir ly br- ief ^and the object was quicklylost from view in the clouds. YU'Word fron Norbotten on JuI 'y 2Znd was:

,'Thenystery of the nany spaceprojectiles starrds at last toget its solution. In a 1ak'e n Norrland a rniltary crew tried toSredge up one of the things, wfic.h on Friday ryidday fell down intottre iate, where holes are now being dug for the projectile. Greatexnectations are entertained for its recovery in relatively rurdam-ag-edcondition." "A militaly crew of ten men was sent to the I'ake on Saturday,and after eyewitnesses guided them cmt to it, the place was,quick-ly located r,ihere he projectile bored itself into the lake bottcrn.The water depth here is only 75 cm. and-the projectile-nade a holenore than a meter wide, which was very deep. At the beginning- anoar was struck down in the hole but did not reach the bottcrn, r,ihere-uDon an exrra tool was sent for. The projectile clearly had had anuirheard-of speed on impact, where frcrn there was witnessed a greatanount of mrd which was thrown a long way around the falling-place.According to what the Svenska!ge!149! gathered it is hoped thatthanks t6 the mud, whid-Tdlerilted-TEe violence of the fall, theprojectiJ.e can be found 1arge1y,ntact. It is thought- o al1owior- several days work in the lake before the thing can be delvedup. nnd alreidy there ought not have been such a long delay beforeit is clarified where t originated." 91'One of the better reports, in Br i t ish Inte l l igence opin ionat least, was the one frorn a Suedish air f ie ld:

" . . .on ?? Ju1-y fron Garderrnoen Air f ie ld.Three airmen, one a sergeant who had seen sev-eral f ly ing bombs :n England dur ing the war,observed at 1:00 a.m. what they termed raf ly ing bonb passing over their a ir f ie ld ata terr i f ic speed.t The height was di f f icu l tto judge but night have beea 2,000 - 5 '000feet. A11 witnesses stated that f i re andsparks h'ere issuing from the tai l but nonoise was heard. They deprecated the sugges-t ion that the object rn ight have been a neteoror other natural phenomenon." 92.


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z2-Word fron Nor '*ay an July 23rd announced that the NorwayrsHigh Cornrnand ad ordered the st .ar t of an invest igat ion. Th;High Command,according to the nervspaper Aftenpoi ten, had helda conference about the rnatter , but no inf6im-i - i f3 i -T5out of f ic ia lact ions or opinions had been released.I t was learned that rni l i tary pol ice at Gardemoen Air f ie ldwere conduct ing a local inquirv into a sight ing of an objectover that area the day before. 93.Disappeared in a clo-rd:

_ "The latest repg.tt cones frcrn a person who ust before 7:00 p.m.on lhesday-tJuly 23idlj;ay a silvery-ihining torpedo i"-it. air. Ith'ent r-emarkably19w, and disappeared 1itt1e-by 1itt1e in a c1oud. Be-fore that it could be-pLanily discerned al l the whi1e. The object]9oked.most nearly li.ke a ba1loon, said the report. Last week a sjm-ilar phencrnerlon as observed three evening in i row in a1most the sanedirection." 94.An unusual "ba11 of f i re" f lashed over Melaren, onJuly 23rd, which was descgibed as looking Like: , ' . . . aswan wi thout a head(?). ' ,95.A meteor, or s in i lar object , was seen about midnightJuIy 23rd over southern Sweden by several persons. Jui tbefore nidnight a br ight f iery l ight was vis ib le which explodedin pieces with an intense-f lash of 1ight .96.

_ ' leanwhi le, dur ing the spr ing of 1946 an intense inter-service r ival . ry erupted over- conirol of the uni ted states Ilo. : rg-range rocket program. During a radio dramat izat ion ofa future war fought wi th rockets, Lieutenant General curt isLel ' Iay, head of the Army Air Force's Research and Developnent,and General Car l Spaatz, ArTI Air Force Comnander in Chief ,boldly asked NBC's radio audience to back their bid to obt i inexclusive author i ty over al1 guided nissi les. A short t i rnelater another Army Air Force _ipokesman even told the pressthat, as far as the future of warfare was concerned, theU.S. Navy ha


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"Round Ttip Bcrnb.It was reportd on July 25tl.r that the Swedish military was arxious forthe public's hb1p, requesting that al l ghost bornb sightings be sent to the

"Air-Defertse Division, Defense Staff, Stockholm 90."According to the Molgon-Tidningen the Swedish Defense Staff was specu-lating that:

"f t is possible that the flying bqnbs which are seen crossingSwedenboth wi.th a western direction and in a directly opposite dir-rection, are taking a round trip wer the country in order then toreturn to their place of origin.. ." Also:". . . that they are meteorsin every case is'a theory which has been rejected without further adoby the defense staff ." 98.The Svenskan"g!i",19! reportd:

"The latest report of the mysterious spaceprojectiles cornesfrcrn a coastal place in middle Swedenwhere a flying body was ob-served on Ttresdayevening.'rlt was a cclrrDanvf six Dersonswho at 10:00 n.m. saw themysterious object. Cireof them, notary E. Nordin of the Swedishbusiness bank, relates that the phenornenon an be described as alighted body. It passed at somehundred neters high in a directionsouth to north and shonewith a ye1low-rvhj-te1j-.eht. The thing cross-ed the heavens conpletely soundlessly and had about the same speed asan airplane." 99.

At 10:00 p.n. , Fr iday, July ?6th, according to the news-paper Social -Demokrat of S1agelse, Denrnark, a whi te objectl fy inglT-great spE through the ai r was observed. Thesight ing was nade at the ci ty of Korsor . Al though the objectwas soundless there was Some smoke.100.The Norwegian mi l i " tary High Command ppealed via the netrs-rnedia for publ ic cooperat ion in obtaining infornat lon aboutmissi les landing in Norway.101.I f the phenomenon annoying Sweden, Norway, and Denmarkwas neteor ic, then why weren' t regions l ike France exper iencingthe sane sky show? There was talk of sky phenomenon in France,but i t was not about anything t respassing in the skies west of

the Rhine.A note f ron the French press, the newspaperbe exact , on July 27th, stated: L

rAurore to

" l ' {ore than 500 rocket-propel led project i lesare said to have been seen over Sweden since thebeginning of July. According to some sources,the project i les that st reak across the Swedishsky look l ike jet planes, but make less noisethan usual ai rcraf t . Others descr ibe them asI j ,ke 'sea gul1s wi thout heads. ' 0n the map,


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24-the project i les do not show uni forn traiector ies.They go toward the west as wel l as the iouth,which leads to the possibi l i ty that they areguided by rernote control of sone sort . ' I t hasbeen impossibLe to get hold of any of these'V-1tst ; a l l of thern have falLen into thelakes ." L02.An indicat ion of how ,,5ps91ed,, people were beconing overthe "spook bombs" was a story from siredlnrs Norr land di i t r ic t .An explosion and f i re occurred at 9:00 o 'c lock on July ZTthat a farm there- A woman was out in her yard when suddenlyshe.heard- a powerful blast . Inmediately thereafter shenot iced that the hen house was on f i re.- The shed had beenunused for years, had no l ive electr j .cal hook-up, and hadnothing highly cornbust ionable stored there, thus' i t wasbel ieved that the . incident had some relat j .onship with thenystery missi les since there had been reDorts made in the

a1ss. 103.l,ater an investigation determined that there was electric current in thethe hen house wiring and the explosion was due to a short curcuit that set offsone blasti-ng caps being stored in the stnrcture. 104.Sweden soon l is ted up to f ive hundred sight ings of theodd "rockets" in less than a month, but the large nunber ofs ight ings was st i l1 no help in learning what the objectswere. Some informat ion indicated that . the objects werenot fo l lowing the f ree-fal l ing path of a neteor nor the

bal l is t ic arc of a long-range V-2. Instead, the phenom-enon appeared to be 1ow f1ying objects under some kind ofcontrol . Sweden's mi l i tary chiefs became so fearful - thatsome foreign power was ranging in Swedish targets that theysuddenLy forbade the publ icat ion of the locat ion of ghostrocket s ight ings as of July 27th.105.The fol lowing day there appeared a press treatment thatrel ied only on rumor. A dispatch fron SundsvalL informed theSwedish publ ic that a rumor was going the rounds that c la ineda ghost rocket fe l1 in a lake in the Norr land distr ic t . Thesource of th is runor was attr ibuted to a t rustworthy person,however, the runor was denied by an off ic ia l spokeslnan. An-infornat ion off icer explained that a gpecial is t f ron Stockholrnwas sent to the si te of the al , leged fa11 to nake a search.After th is search, the special is t found nothing but he st i I lurged further searches be made. I t was bel ieved that i t wasthe special is t ' s v is i t that encouraged rumors. 106.

Search results:"'Ihe search for a 'space projectile' at the botton of a Norrlandlake, where one fe11 on Friday noon according to an eyewitness, con-tinues constantly, but so far no trace of the projecti le has beenfcnrnd.


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25."The military crew, which already on Saturday was sent tothe lake, has turned it i attention now to search through thewhole course across the lake l*-.."u of 200x200 rqeters. Be-cause of the deep nud, rprobe search' metnoai-trav;-;;;, resorted to ,that is to say that at every hali rneter.a fong p.oUe-is drivendown into the rnud. fhe ,nuiirnlon aeptn 1s two meters."A search with ordinary miritaiv mine-deteciion'"q.r'pment fail-*;iiilillls equipmentr'noi-ionstructed .r-*-e.""t a depthas"sDecial officers and scientists frorn stockholn, that is , frcrnthe defLnse research r"tiit"i"l'*rro on.saturaay travelled by planeto the fa11 site, returned sunday evening "itrrl,ri-naing acirievedthei.r goa1."ch Monday carrle the crew which reli-eved the workers in thesearch' The work on this w111 be pursued until either lrhat issought is found or it can be decrariri th;i;ir;^;;i"i!'i ',,oui,",.There is stil1 hope, however, thii positive results will be obtain_ed. ' 107.

Denmark, July 27th."In Hon',-north frqn slagelse, many of the inhabitants saw onsaturdavlJuli' zltnt arternoon'J^rii"r"g, sir.rery-otjJii i' ttu r'"n"r a proj cti ,:*.1^::ll - i"; "il;e.;,;;;;^ ir,""liij. b1ue kyn a direction rrom southeast to northv/est."I t passed vew rapidly, presunably in a run of abour ten se-conds, and none of the-byewitnbsses rvere in a position ro accountfor the clearness of the't"tp;i;id sight. .rhe observer,s state-ments' in regard-19 time and^appeaianc6, o*uu"i,-ui"-in crose agree-ment, and there was agreement irat it .ouia noi-rlu*"iy'"irpr*",likewise neither fire"nor *ote .fp"ar;-i, ;;;tili witrr thisphencrnenon,n-contrast to wrrai r'"! tn ..r"-"itr,-in;;;y which wasobserved over sweden." 10g. wrLr ! Lrrs u(

Hearst news'aDer chain (at tr i tu t i r ,g rrr , scoop to sone ,,unnameci, ,but "t rustr i r r inv sourcei" ; , - . -urn" i ; i -n; ; - ; i l_ i ro; ; rocketsthat r+ere suppoied to. be i , i p i"Jr. t ion at Bert inrs KaiserWilhelm Inst i iu te. There ,r" ! , ro evidence otfered, however.that suggested a rerat ionship ir i t r , - ; ; ; " ; ; " ; ; ' ; ; ; [ ; . ; : ' i6e." ,The correspon


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26.Frorn the city of Ovrekal ix carne this statement:

"The Army reports that a ghost-bornb hadentered the lake, Kolrnj ervs j on. The ob ectwas rocket l ike, about nine feet long, andsone painted let ters had been seen on it t s ide." ' iL1.A nyster ious "1ight phenomenonrrwas observed Monday night ,{y1y. 291 by some motor ist ! in central sweden. Two comet-1ikef irebal ls- r_acing on a paralIel course passed overhead ana-Ji i -appeared behind some trees. tLZ.July 3Lst and another nystery f i re.swedish author i t ies launched an invest igat ion of a f ireat the Black and white runber ni l l near t t re I i ty of sundsval lwhere a ni l l ion cubic feet-of pulpwooa reni r f - i" - i r " r" r .s ince the cause was myster iou; , oire theory t i ,5t -"" , proposedwas that the blaze was star ted-by,q ghost ' roir ,ut i r . i t r , 'ar- -though nothing was found that woir ld 6;" ; o; i - ; f , " ia"" .People di.d not se.e anything that mlght uu ionsiaei"a " , , rocket , , ,but on the other hand, no 6ne courd"expl" i ; - i l ; ; - ;he wood .; ; ;hif i re with such sudden-fury out in the; ; ; ; . ' i ; ; ; ; atso sug_gested that a ghost rocket-may have soin i rerat ionships wii i r :another f i re at the-,c i ty of Hir jedalen when a b"; ; - i ; ; * ; i i l .uryburst into f1ane5. 113.Nlystery object over Greece.About the end of Ju1y, 1-946,? greek by the nane of Anphistionl'foslionos, who lived on the isle of Sanos ir the Aegeansea, saw ssne-thing very_odd in the sky about 9:00 p.m. At that"tine tre'noticea ateardrop shape glowing a bright orangb s1owly rnwing Nu to slf. It rnoveds.os19wlr- t took about 15 minutes to cross the heaiiens. A sormd, likethe wind b.lowing thru trees, was heard and was thought-to have a connect-1onwlth the strange object . 114.August.At two places in the Norr land distr ict there were obser-vat ions of a netal l ic appear ing object . I t was viewed forseveral- minutes by seven to eight persons because its speedwas not part icular ly-great . The object ref lected br ight ly inthe af ternoon sun and f lew at a fai i ly low height bef6re irass-ing behind a nountain. one est imate i:ut t r te s6undless objectsix to e ight ki lometers away from the-witnesses.Furthermore, in central NorrLand tuo Dersons at 10:30Thursday night v iewed a couple of objects ;hich zoomed towardthe seacoast . The object in the lead had a luminous yel lowtai l and exploded over the water. The second objecr wascigar-shaped. No more detai l was given.115.

The SvenskaDag,bladethad more to say about this Arrsust Lst ca-se nc entra I centraT-N-orrTana


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"The first went higher and erploded over the water, It had astrong bright luninous yellor-white tai1. The other space project-i1e was thought more brightly lighted. It exploded too. Bothobjects were cigar-shaped." 116.

. Thg very next day, August 2nd, the Stockholrn press toldits readers how si lvery project i les were spot ted si :eeding justabove the forests in the northern sect ion ir t sweaeir . qu6t ingas i ts source the newspaper Dagens Nyeter . the Stockhoimpress stated that at least eigtr- t1*-!Te Ead witnessed thepassage of the objects. Moreover, i t was reported that theDagens Nyeter had_l is ted yet another s ight in! of two missi lesseen coming out of the inter ior and heading ior the coasttryrng at g-very low al t . i tude. Both missi les blew up wi tha yel1ow_-_white lash as they reached the seawaters oi theBal t ic . 117.An al leged impact crater in central Sweden was the sub_ject of discussion August 2nd when the hole was suggestedto have had something_to do wi th phenomenon that wi i recent lyobserved. The Air Defense author i t ies sent special . is ts toexamine the si te and.up to-August Znd no f inal word had beenreceived about the case.- f fg.However, the next day the crater r , ras less rnyster ious -ress reported that t t re al leged crater in central Swedenhe press reported thatthat some said had sonehat some said had sone relat ion to a ghost rocket fa l l hada_natural explanat ion. Mil i tary experts on August , 3rd de-c lared that the hole was actual ly c ieated by t [e underniningact ion of subterranean water .119.

an actual object was picked up in Denmark.of Sonderborg bel ieved he had- found onebonbs in his f ie lds. He was so happy hein his l iv ing room next to the farni iv

In another caseA farner in the areaof the fanous spookhung it on tbe-wal1Photograph5. 120.He.had dgg up the object which had bored 25 to 30 cent i -neters into the earth. The object recovered was l ike an oi1can .of about 10 cent ineters i -n length. on one end rhere wasattached a copper wire about 50 neiers long. The canisterrtselt weighed approxinately one ki lograrn. - The farmer didnot da-re to inspect his f ind too closely s ince he was afraidrt might contain a high explosive. . 121.A loca1 constable was stumnoned:

"The constable ventured no investigation of the fi-nd other thanto notify the military authorities. Afterwards it was renorted tothe defense staffts air defense division that the obiect was a de-tached Swedish airplane antenna." 122.


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28.August 3rd a shiny object leaving a vaporous trai l f lashedover central . Norr land. Likewise a red object wi th a faint ta i lf lashed over southern Sweden the next n i .ght on August 4th. 123.The Chicago Dai ly Tr ibune learned August 4th that Bri t ishand American Intel l igence services bel ieved the Russians had

reopened the Peenernunde aci l i t ies in spi te of Soviet asser-t ions that the Bal t ic test . base was st i l l j .n ruins. A1so, i twas speculated that the Russians were probably : 'ushing workon i rnproving the German V-2 to counter the adv antage theUnj. ted States possessed as the world 's sole nuclear power. t ' * .At Skane, Sweden, on August sth, a strange object wasobserved at 11:00 p.n. The object :

" . . .was circular and gl i t tered in the sunl ike si lver. I t . rnoved with high speed, but nosound was heard. I ts posi t ion was somewheremidway between the zeni th and the hor i .zon. tidway between and the hor i .zon, thedirect ion of f l ight being towards the south-west. t ' 125.Was the forement ioned a ba1loon, or a "f ly ing saucer?, 'A person in southern Sweden Monday night, August Sth,test i f ied that he sav a f i rebal l wi th a short . ta i l f ly ing fromsouth to north at an al t i tude he est imated to be 400 metersand on a perfect ly hor izontal course. The pel5sn observingthe object bel ieved that i t was not a meteor.126.Later that n ight at 9:30 p.rn. three Swedes in the samepart of the -c_ountry witnessed a high speed f i rebal l wi th ashort 17i1. L27Tuesday night another ba1l ofSweden. i t was seen by a Norwegianthe dent ist the thing ippeared fo bewas a lack of noise but black smokeobj ect . 128.

f i re f lashed over centraldent ist on yacat ion. To"spoo1-shaped. " Therewas not iced near theThe Svenska !gg!1949! reported on August 5th:

"Reports frcm Swedenon expelirnents with V-2'sa Germanrocket exDert toin Frankfurt an l.lain.

claim that the lussians are in fact carryingat Peenemunden northern Pomnerania,assertsthe NewYork Herald-TYibture's correspondent"The nan rvho spoke to the Arneri.can newsDaper. who worked at peene-munde and at other experirnental stations durinl the war, sa1,s thatthere have been unconfirrned reports frcrn the Fussian zone aLout rocketsfactories and Laboratories at ilordhausen, Bleicherode, Sonderachausenand saalfeld being again in action, In lrlordharrsenwas located an ex-

tensive underground factory fo r V-2 bonbs durine the war, and if reportsfrcm Stockholm are ture, it indicates that thc ihrssians have set in'motion the far'rous rocket base at Peenemunde. This place was bcrnbed


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29.?Hii'ff.:Id$i:iii'Jin3"l"IlT":[+HP"::1;:':liffi;.,*;,or the mostDart una*ig"Ji.. l"rzs.,""n, tn" llq:Il !gg!la.lg! report on the 6th that B ,,square,,projectiJc was

"[Ver the west coast at rnidday]:rg"y a space projectile wasilii;i' xlliloil*"i3tl;:';;ili{: heignt'wJni'fi;"!i;vowardhehappened to bt;"Lr'"-i,,ii:Ei#J*Jti"isJ*:i'#;i:iff'*i [,:laseportedo be he'*" "i-"r passenseri;"i;.Ii;is;, ,ll3r]nTtoauf"n*"rp"ffp$ also informed its readers about a sighting by a mernberolathe

"" 'Lieutenant Irmart Necr*an of tfrg


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Lucius Farish and Jerone clark, two excel lent researchersof the UFO problem, cane across a reproduct ion of a picture ofan al lesed etost i6ctet, a photo takin by a gent leman namedr. i t - [" i i " r i* 'aerd. The'p icture, pr inted in the London Qai lyTe1egTaph, shows what aptears to be a glowing, elongated'tear-drop snape. ih; ne'gat ive, according !9,t1: , 9gl1vccording to

the D3i lY 'l rcen sna' lvzed bY thei ; i ; * ; ; ; t , - r " ' t t ,rpposed io havi been analvzed bv theSAA.f f i ; " " i t i - si irr , which. deterrninea uy,:p: : i "1. :r t t i . - t a" tei tni"ea by speciat - scient i f ic; : ; t ; i l ; ; ; ; ' ;h. - ; : : : ; , " i " i i i i " ln i i l . . . ' i , ' the rnidstof themethods that the ".. .prolecr:" re twa5., " ' i - ' r r !1-ei i " r " - i r " .k, instead bf 6eing in front of i t '133'

News frcrn the "crash site at Overkalix on August 6th was that the-pro-off anrl that hatf the search team had beeniectile l0cation work had slacked off and that hali. the searcn team nao Deeltl^r-..J frm rlrfw .. lir".r-.mtfd return hcme. Apthorities felt that ccrnbingieleased frcrn dutY so they couldthe lake bottcrn nay not Producehave to be done. 134.

30.

";tiii;" results and draining the water rvould

nnf lane

One of those baff l ing " lory al t i tude" case-s-made hereport l is t the "ui i -" ! i i 'aui (a"gust.7th) ' . tJ t r ! :9-dr iv ing inl"I i i lr- i ;"a"" " ;; ' t . ; i ; i heird a"loud whistJ.ingsoundandat the sane insta" i i igt t t "d an object which f lew by at asreat veloci ty, . tJ ai" . - f t " ight oi Z ' 3 me'Leors bove theEi."r ra.- - i t -p '" i r "a tn" auto ien rneters away and cont inued ont i ; ; ;h tr t" i " "ai . A passenger 1n the auto uas also a wit-ness io the Phenomenon.-35'The Swedish Press ccmmented:

' "Fron Norr land has come further reports ofproject i les pla in ly seen' One was seen at sun-set--a spool: ;h; t ; l t forn, tapered' that movedwith fa ir ly great speed in a.norther ly direct ion 'vi"""a glq in ine reai , i t looked l ike a strong1ight. " 136.Englandts lu lanchester Guardian coinnented that daySrvedish Lt. Lennamrt of a clear-yel low;; ; ; ; ; ; i ; ; ; ;d ' io* ol ' " ' the swldish countrvsi


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:::. j-:- '-" i3o-AI(ro IOON .oo ,r..,,

,ffi- --- -.t f'.&nffru?,.o}- iiffi$.xjr+pff'jti""ii],tt:dl"ful$:#r'!i"fif Llr,#,iii?.in",?lt"


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to discern any vapor. An est inate of a mere 200 meters wasgiven by one of those watching. Af ter being vis ibLe for ashort- t ime, the bal l vanished abrupt ly. I t was assuned thatthe object turned a dark s ide toward the observers. 139.Thursday norning at a si te in central Sweden, a greatstore of s lag and coal- l ike substance was discovered and

brought to the at tent ion of author i t ies. How the nater ia lcame to be at the pLace was not innediately known and i twas suggested that the nater ia l feLl f rom the sky.An area chemical stat ion was requested to exanine somesamples. I t seemed obvious that the mater ia l had bcen sub-jected to high tenperatures 140.Th" Uglegn-Ilqgnegt reported :

"A strange phenonenonwas witnessed by a man in west SwedenonThursday Auguit 8th evening. At 10 p.rn. he cane cycling on a road' when ust ahead of hin at abcnrt 8 neters distance and at lor'r height hesaw an egg-shaped hing of the size of a fist and with a yellowish shine,which wal-so biigtit it-lighted up the surroundings so that the cyclistcould see the electric wires on the roadside. The object, ilhich wentlower than the wires, brushed by hi:r so closely that he rvas rearlystruck, continued over the road and fe11 15 to 20 meters onward in anoat field. During the objectrs passagea hissing sotnd rvasheard."The nysterious thing which cane frcrn the east had an unheard-ofspeed. The cyclist could very cLearly fo11ow he object's course. Hestopped, rnadea mark on the el-ectric pole which was closet to the pointof ^inrpact, and on Friday inorning madea repolt of tlte occulTence to thepolic-e, who at Friday noon were out to the place and_ earched for thebblect, without finding any trace of it. Because he oats grew highand in certain places had fal1en over frcrn the rain-, of course a greatdifficultly was presented in finding such a sma11object. as the cyclistdescribed bspecihtly if it buried itself in the grotmd. Investi.gationscont inue." ' 141.The Dagens Nlheter had a-bynch of the odd "meteor"stor ies to te l l about August gth:

"A ye1low f i rebal l was seen travel l ingeastward at a height of approxinately 1,500feet (no locale given)."North Sweden: Another f i rebal l of thesame type, also t ravel l ing eastward."Stockholn: Yet another of those yel lowf i rebal ls, th is t ime seen twice dur ing theday. On the f i rst occasion the object wasseen only as an intense l ight ." I42.The next day the same newspaper had more about happeningson August 9th:


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32."0n the gth a rocket- l ike object was seensonewhere in Central Sweden that produced awhist l ingsound as i t crossed the-sky at highspeed. The object had a t r iangular nose andi . ts color was almost black. There were noappendages and no l ight was seen."Late that night a f i rebal l fe11 to earthin Stockholrn, and a 1i t t1e later another passedover the ci ty in a wester ly direct ion.r ,143.

Meanwhi le, Major General Aurand, GeneraL Eisenhower 'sexpert on rockets, ca1led a news conference in Washington topu! !o rest- any l inger ing rumors of sharp di f ferences-ofopinion vi th in the war Department over research and develop-ment concerning America's guided mi.ssi le program. Evident iythe news conference was to shore up publ i t m5ra1e at homeand to restore any lost conf idence- in American technicalsuper ior i ty abroad. General Aurand claimed that jur isdic-t ionar disputes between the di f ferent services hai been takentoo. ser iously by-everyone concerned and that a hear ing wouldbe held soon to iron out any minor disagreements that st i l lexi -sted and t,o lay down sorne needed for lnal guidel ines.{Pparent ly wi th the "myster ious demonstrat i6nsi l over theBalt ic regions in rnind, Army Air Force General Curt is LeMay then replaced General Aurand at the microphone and boastedto. the news.. reporters that uncle sarn would sobn produce an"arr rocket" that would be capable of zooming to'100,000 feetand would be equippped with an "ant i -meteor Eun., , I t wasstrange talk for a general who was a long "a! f ro, having arel iable jet f ighter of much more nodest-capiuir i t ies. Thepress then asked General Aurand i f Amer ican'and Br i t ishresearch was being coordinated concerning nissi les; thequest ion- .apparent ly touched a sensi . t ive i rea , for he repl i .edcurt l .y, " I cannot answer you that . , ' I44.' News f rorn Par is on August l l th told of st i l l rnore unusualoccurrences in Europers atmosphere. Francers puy du Doneobservatory issued a statement saying that a ctoird of unnaturalcomposi t ion had been l inger ing over ihe French capi ta l at zo,ooofeet for three weeks. Airplanes with special ins ' t ruments hadf lor . 'n through the cloud up to twenty t i ines in an ef for t tolearn more about i t . A runor circuiated connect . ion withAner ican at.omic tests at Bikin i . 145. 15"ve was another guessthat for tunate_ly did not gain publ ic at tent ion. Experts atthe t ime speculated that the spread of radioact ive cloudsmight be as ef fect ive as a bomb, therefore, who was ro saythat the ghost rockets were not 'Russian radioact ive cloudlspewing weapons, since the Soviets did not yet have theknowledge to bui ld an explosive device. The chicagg_Tr ibune's Lloyd Norrnan wrote from stockhormIn August that "80 rockers" had crashed in both sweden andNorway- (obviously he was-count ing every rumor rnaking therounds). Norman marveled that the soviets would r i ik theloss of an advanced weapon. Quot ing both General Aurand and


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l-:: -:={-";!-FSi- - l ' ' "4 : - : ' i " ' -1(U. S. ,C" Forcc Photo)rHE XS.I . GENERALE MAY'SAIR ROCKET?


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33'Curt is Le l ' {ay, Norman stated that Arner ican Arny Ordnance testsof captured Gernan tr t -2ts had not produced any promise of along range weapon as yet . Norrnan also claimed to have receivedassurances f rom a "highly rel iable source" that the Russianswere ahead of the U.S. in rnissi le research. 146.

Hints that the Soviets were naking str ides in rocketresearch raised a lot of eyebrows in Western Capitals.Dr. R. V. Jones, an important f igure in the invest igat ionof the World War II V-weapon r iddle, was of course at t ractedto the latest rocket controversy. Aside f rom probably beinggreat ly cur ious about the phantom nissi les, Dr. Jones as aBr i t ish Director of Intel l igence, was asked by his governmentto look into the ghost rocket nystery. He was again facedwith the quest ion concerning the existence of an enemy weapon.One would think the problern this t i rne would be easy to soIve.But no, the resul. ts were t r , /o myster ies in the place of one.I t /hat were the ghost rockets and what was Dr. Jones thinking?Dur ing the inquirL Dr. Jones' subordinat .es suddenlybecame unhappy with their director . The evidence stronglyindicated that an art i f ic ial device of some sort was beingseen but Dr. Jones would not agree. He based his skept ic ismon the fact that no convincing wreckage had been found. Inl ight of the fact that more than f ive hundred sight ings hadbeen catalogued, he reasoned that at least one of the rocketsshould have crashed by then due to mechanical fai lure. YetDr. Jones chose to ignore the radar reports and sight ingsof the nystery rnissi les changing course. His staf f favored

the lat ter facts and could not understand the behavior oftheir chief .147.Dur ing the Br i t ish V-weapon invest igat ion back in 1943,evaluat ing reports had been a simple task when the V-weapcnswere not to any great extent publ ic knowledge. Only later ,when Germany put i ts propaganda mi11 in high gear and theA11ied press began to speculate on the natter , did Br i t ishIntel l igence become swarnpedwith fake and 1ow-grade sight ings.Now, in 1946, the Swedes and Norwegians had created a monsterby naking of f ic ial publ ic appeals for anyone and everyone tocontact the author i t ies when they thought they saw something.

with the result ing deluge of let ters, phone cal1s, and crankvis i tors, i t became dif f icul t to read al l the reports, 1etalone fol1ow them up.NewsmanLeonard Lyons was quoted in the Washj-ngton Post :

"A nuddy lake in Sweden now is being dredgedin a hunt for t races of the mystery bomb projec-t i1es. Ten credible witnesses, including anenployee of the Aner ican Legat ion, vow that theysaw i t in f1ight . " 148.Swedish nev{spapers had been carrying ghost rocket reportsalnost dai ly f rom the f i rst of July unt i l August 1l th. On


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August l1th, a-news_dispatch frpm Stockholm sent O, " ""p"" j j ,for the Associatea pr.s! -s i l r ; ; , rp i l .u si tuat ion as of thatorning' tn" o. t : r-" t . r , - i t " t " i - i r t " i . t r , " .o. i l i i ' i i , "no*"non hadeached a peak between July i t t rcna July l2th ; ladnumberLdne ,unJ.ui -" 'a ivr s inceJury r2thr" ln i ts l l t r r thenomenonhad sett lea-eo;n*; ; pppearing-" i "-rr . r , 1owei,hough dai lv - rate. - The s*ei lsn- i ruur f -r ,a i !o, , ,1", taken thetarming uai iage l , i t l , ; ; ; r ; ; ; ; ; i rg- ca1m,, ,our i i ' id the Associatedress nan in stockholm. i ; - i i ig"r . "a ir , "- i " i r ' ias probably dueo the lack of .dayagg tr,u -u"! i i i " i l " i r iy i " i^Jur:ects had causedii".;::};il.;"i:lii-:":;.'l:ili$|":;i::iuli,,'il:,,::lu" i ; l ; 'J;;e"' : ' ' i l : :*:; ."Xo::;: : l ' ' Ho*""u., ' l iJ^..o'pracencyii=iii:'li.*i*:i;i:,;":if":":F::'T5ill:lrff :;lili':'p1aceE""- ; i ; ; ; , and,oi i t - ; ; "" i l : . : " f : ' i i , : l " "Ti l t l . " l i .1r i .er,o,. ' l i . i : : ' i ; lr f : l : : : ' ; : : ' j" ; :1.":3:"Brit ishsamp,esr

. ' ,They y_:r" " miscel laneous col lect ion ofi;r"5i:!:#"iJirl"iiii:i".;:i'i:;::, i:u:nore han . i l i ' I r " l : . : l : l a odensi t i - ; ; ; - ; ' : ;^ Ong piece. tested showed 9g rtrace etenrent i r i t " - i r """ ; ; ; #r ! : ;cent carbon with 2 percent

.n",lli.o;51:":l'.;:,,i:;;;l;'i#:: ;il1:il.:l:.il!"5n,ll,T"u"ead1inedLcIar ' ' 's . - ' ' f f i#yster iousRocketsisSeenfl5'olli ::li t;l " f-s'"i"i'."'" .r''i".g9ru*u".- r imiss re ,,o,. roi t " i i " i i iu" l t t t ls 1owover the,i . t . - r -g;" i .J i tnor ,n at ten:,T_i"o,.",,i.,Fil3i'if:i:FH::ii.3;",F:,.i:j::!i;::::i,,rarm as hundreds_of new ro. iuf- i "ports pour!a- i i ' .na runorst a Russian threat spru"d. ---r{ f ' the. Soviet Union, with the: ; : i : : : ' " i l lor i l l i l_.r '1ny. '" t iJ i : ,^:n:,worrd, hi ," to testlg"T"1"';;y";;o;i:iliriii

'i;:,;;::_i:;,;;ifl!,,lon.inu"i-ca r ed a gr m edi t o i a1 f i. r "il,,ci, os1 io. r i l, "#jg$.1#rs*..r,ili. ::ili :il ll;f5:rl.if i;Fjilr.' i ".i "'i"iil" ei:riili.:'l*in|:I :t.:;':ilil5ii.::ii:}Siiiu'li', 'i'in"pparent ly cr ishing: --A; ' " i i i i . , l . "1,Pl .Yngud into the waters,: I:yr,6,;;;3f"l: l_3itiilii,dlii:r"II ljit,$"llF"; i ; : :1, ' ; i :1" i " ; : t I i " l io " ei ' '3 i i_rocketassin!-overhead.l i i : i t ; n"a" i " r i ; tng scene,evident ly o.!r ," i r . '^ i r ' themysteryI ttre u"e;.;;;;;o;;:":l:"1;'1""1;!:";*:rl::,rr:;rff"1".


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1(

exceeded the speed of sound.r l51.The American magazine, I ! ! !9, noted the Swedish exci te_ment by comrnent ing:_- ' , . - .a pT?tuie-reLeas,ed by ;h;- (Swedish)Army last week f inal ly conviaced al l the p"pui ' , i " i . "pt t i , "communi.stsJ that the rockets were rea1, and that foreignpower (Russia) wa: ysing Sweden as a test i r ,g gro.r . ,d. tSZ.Blustered stockhor.m's social Democrat ic t"ror iof , t idnisen :" Intrusiveness must not be al lowed to- ionff i i# f f i i , "aforement ioned photo showed only a short st ieak of '1 ight,but i t d id provi the obj" . t r r" i

1946 ghost rockets 3edr 0

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