Somewhere in the Skies - Bite-Sized UFOs | A Mothership over Italy

Starting point is 00:00:02 Welcome to bite-sized UFOs, a show where we break down lesser-known UFO cases in 20 minutes or less. And now here's your host, Graham Rendell. My name's Graham Rendell, and it's my pleasure to welcome you back to another episode of bite-sized UFOs. I'm the author of UFOs before Roswell, a book looking at World War II UFOs, including the foo fighter phenomenon over Europe. So for this installment of bite-sized UFOs, we're going to turn our attention. attention to World War II and strange set of circumstances that involved a Lancaster bomber crew in November 1942 over northern Italy. 61 Squadron was one of two RAF Bomber Command units based at R.A.F. Syaston, an airfield

Starting point is 00:00:58 located near Newark in Nottinghamshire. By the end of 1942, aircraft from this squadron were already attacking targets right across Western Europe. On the night of 28th November 1942, Lancaster bombers from 61 squadron were among 200 aircraft sent out to attack the Fiatworks in Turin. It was on this raid that the crew of Lancaster Whiskey 4767 saw something very strange indeed. Oddly enough, the official mission report for the crew in question

Starting point is 00:01:35 for that raid does not include anything which seems out of the ordinary. The entry in the relevant operational record book for 61 Squadron reads as follows. Warrant Officer Lever reported many large fires after identifying target by flares and railway northeast of aiming point. He bombed from 8,000 feet seeing the burst of £4,000 bomb. The pilot of Lancaster Whiskey 4767 was warrant officer Rennie Lever. He and his crew had a very strange story to take. tell when they return to base. On the 2nd of December 1942, the following report was sent by RF station Syaston to headquarters number five group, Bomber Command. Report by the crew of 61 squadron

Starting point is 00:02:26 aircraft, J, Captain Warrant Officer Leaver, of object seen during raid on Turin, night of November 28th, 29th, 1942. The object referred to above was seen by the entire crew of the above aircraft. They believe it to have been 200 to 300 feet in length and its width is estimated at 1 5th or 1 6th of its length. The speed was estimated at 500 miles per hour and it had four pairs of red lights spaced at equal distances along its body. These lights did not appear in any way like exhaust flames, no trace was seen. The object kept a level course. The crew saw the object twice during the raid, and brief details are given below. 1. After bombing, time 2240 hours, aircraft height 11,000 feet. The aircraft at this time was some 10 to 15 miles southwest of Turin

Starting point is 00:03:23 traveling in a northwesterly direction. The object was traveling southeast at the same height or slightly below the aircraft. 2. After bombing, time 2245 hours, aircraft height 14,000 feet. The aircraft was approaching the Alps when the object was seen again travelling west-southwest upper valley in the Alps below the level of the peaks. The lights appeared to go out and the object disappeared from view. The captain of the aircraft also reports that he has seen a similar object about three months ago north of Amsterdam. In this instance, it appeared to be on the ground and later travelling at high speed at a lower level than the heights given above along the coast for about two seconds. The lights then went out for the same period of time and came on again, and the object was still seen to be travelling in the same direction. What was something 200 to 300 foot long and 30 to 40 feet wide doing flying over northern Italy in November 1942?

Starting point is 00:04:29 No doubt pilots and their crew members came back with all sorts of weird and wonderful tales at times, but on this occasion it was believed. For warrant officer Lever's story to be taken seriously, a number of hurdles had to be navigated. The first was the post-raid briefing carried out by a squadron intelligence officer. The information that Lever and his crew provided was clearly taken seriously enough for it to be passed up the chain of command. Firstly, the report would have been forwarded from the squadron through to the station headquarters at Sireson. We know from the memo contained in RAF files that Syleston passed on the report to the headquarters of No. 5 group R.A.F. Bomber Command, and the message was also specifically directed at Major Mullock, a Royal Artillery Officer, who also had the initials after his name, FLO.

Starting point is 00:05:25 So what was an FLO and why did it relate to reports of strange objects being seen by aircrew during World War II? bite-sized UFOs is where the truth matters. An FLO was a FLAC liaison officer, usually a Royal Artillery Officer who was a specialist in anti-aircraft weapons. These specialists were attached to RAF and United States Army Air Force bomber groups. Their role was to analyze German anti-aircraft defense effectiveness, and to do this they often accompanied bomber crews on their missions over Germany, compiling detailed reports of what they saw en route. The Flack Liaison Officer reports that were compiled during World War II

Starting point is 00:06:12 are an absolute goldmine for potential UFO sightings. But let's return to the report that was sent to Headquarters No. 5 group and also to Major Mullock. What happened to that? The answer to that question lies in a memo dated 3rd December 1942, sent from Headquarters No. 5 group to Headquarters' R.F. Bomber Command. Enemy defences, phenomenon, here with a copy of a report received from a crew of a Lancaster after a raid on Turin. The crew refuses to be shaken in their story in the face of the usual banter and ridicule. We know that pilots and aircrew who reported UFOs in the late 40s and throughout the 1950s

Starting point is 00:06:52 received their fair share of stigma and ridicule, but it's surprising to see that this response actually started much earlier. More importantly, what happened to the report when headquarters bomber command received it? The answer is, we don't know. There is no reference to the incident in any of the intelligence summaries that are available through public records. Nor does it appear in any of the Flack Liaison Officer reports or summaries. Did another department, one that hasn't released its records yet, deal with such incidents? The answer is, we don't know. Let's go back to Rennie Lever, the pilot of the aircraft,

Starting point is 00:07:35 crew reported seeing the strange object over northern Italy, what did he have to say for himself after the war? Was he even interviewed about this incident? Unfortunately, the answer to that question is no. He was killed in 1947 in a motorcycle accident. Was Reni Lever a reliable witness? Well, we have information that suggests that he was. The announcement that he had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for Valor in the face of the enemy was only announced eight days before the incident. The citation for his DFC read as follows. Warrant Officer Lever has participated in many operational sorties over some of the most heavily defended areas in Germany. In October 1942, he was captain of an aircraft forming part of the force which successfully attacked LeCruzzo.

Starting point is 00:08:22 He also captained aircraft which recently attacked Genoa and Milan. At all times, this officer has displayed continuous courage and devotion to duty. In April 1943, Lever was promoted to pilot officer, the lowest commissioned officer rank in the RAF. Rennie Lever received two further promotions before the end of the war, first to flying officer and finally to flight lieutenant. However, despite his seemingly impeccable war record, there are a number of questions about Rennie Lever's service in the RAF.

Starting point is 00:09:00 Before we examine the possible identity of the mysterious object that was reported over the Italian Alps back in November 1942, There are a number of statements made about Rennie Lever's war record, both in official records and in the newspapers, that need to be looked at. Firstly, let's go back to the DFC citation that mentioned that he was the captain of an aircraft that raided the Lucruzzo Works in October 1942. The raid on Lecruso took place on the evening of 17th October 1942. 61 Squadron sent seven Lancasters out as part of the attacking force,

Starting point is 00:09:37 yet Rennie Leaver's name does not appear on any of the crew manifests for the seven aircraft. Did he fly with 106 Squadron, the sister unit based at Seisden? A check of their records indicates no, they didn't fly on that raid. There is the remote possibility that he was transferred to a different unit on a different airfield to fly that raid, although nothing has been found to support this so far. Yet the citations for DSCs were usually accurate. So why does this disson? discrepancy exists. Another question that simply can't be answered. Reni Leaver's father Harry

Starting point is 00:10:18 died in 1956. Yet a local newspaper article detailing Harry Leaver's death also included a very strange statement about his son's wartime activities. Flight Lieutenant Reni Lever, DFC, who took part in the Dambusters raid, was killed in a motorcycling accident at Wally in 1947. Reni Lever was a pilot in the Dambuster's raid? That was news to me. I thought I was aware of all of the names of the pilots who were associated with No. 617 Squadron in April and May 1943 during the run-up two and the execution of the dams raid. Had I somehow missed seeing Reni Leaver's name? The quick check of the records indicated no, I was right first time round. His name doesn't appear in the squadron lists. He might have joined number 617 Squadron later in 1943 or perhaps in 44, but he certainly wasn't a pilot

Starting point is 00:11:12 on the dams raid. Let's go back to the mysterious object that Rennie Lever and his crew saw on two occasions over the Italian Alps in November 1942. What on earth was it? Was it a German airship known as a Zeppelin? These machines had been used on bombing raids over Britain during the First World War. But by 1921, All German airships had either been shot down, destroyed, dismantled, or had been handed over to the Allies as war reparations. It was not until 1928 that a new Zeppelin, LZ127 Graf Zeppelin, was constructed. However, this machine was dismantled in early 1940 so its material could be used in other war projects.

Starting point is 00:12:02 Two further airships were built by the Nazis in the late 1930s. The first one, LZ129 Hindenburg, was first flown in 1936, but lost in the Lakehurst disaster of May 1937. The second one, LZ130, also called Grafzeppelin, was built in 1938, but also fell foul of the scrapping order in early 1940. Work had also started on a third Hindenburg-class airship, LZ131, but only a few fuselage frames had been completed before the festival. every 1940 order to scrap all three airframes came through. These airships were also in the region of 700 feet long, so two or three times the length of the object that Rennie Lever and his crew had seen over the Italian Alps. And no airship in the world could travel at 500 miles per hour,

Starting point is 00:12:54 even if it was being assisted by a tailwind. Putting aside the dimensions of the mysterious object for a moment, what did Germany have in 1942 that could travel at 500 miles an hour? By the end of 1941, the first prototype of the Measurement ME163 comet rocket-powered interceptor had already broken 600 miles an hour in test flights. Only a handful of these aircraft were available to the Germans at the end of 1942, and in any case, none of them measured over 20 feet long. The third prototype of the Measurement 262 Jet Fighter was the first of its type to fly under jet power, this occurring in July 1942. However, this and other prototype M.E262s were never operated outside of Germany during this time, so therefore couldn't have been responsible for something that was seen over the Italian Alps in November that year.

Starting point is 00:13:50 And in any case, the ME262 was only around 34 foot long. And what about the V2 rocket program? By 28th November 1942, the date of Lever citing, the first seven test launches had taken place, with varying degrees of success. However, these launches took place at the secret Piedamunda test facility located on the island of Ustom on the Baltic coast. This was of course nowhere near Italy. In fact, no V2 rockets operated either from or over Italy during World War II. And finally, what about barrage balloons? Well, the Germans certainly employed them.

Starting point is 00:14:29 They called them spareballon. These devices were usually tethered, but if they did get loose, then they didn't travel at 500 miles an hour, nor were they two to 300 feet in length. There's definitely a mystery here, a huge, fast-moving object seen twice over the Italian Alps, something that the pilot of an aircraft had also seen three months earlier, near Amsterdam, on the ground or near to it,

Starting point is 00:14:59 and fast-moving there as well. The report of the object in November 1942 was taken very seriously and passed up the chain of command for further analysis. However, what analysis was done is completely, unknown. With hindsight, we know it wasn't the German weapon system already in service, under test, or in development. But 80 years later, we're no further forward establishing the identity of this strange object. It remains one of a number of mysteries dating back to World War II.

Starting point is 00:15:32 This has been bite-sized UFOs with your host, Graham Rendell. Be sure to rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. For a full video version of this episode, subscribe, to the bite-sized UFO's YouTube channel. Thank you for listening. Lots of places can expose you to identity theft. Oh, no. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity,

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Somewhere in the Skies - Bite-Sized UFOs | A Mothership over Italy

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