Somewhere in the Skies - Bite-Sized UFOs | Fireballs over the Adriatic

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Starting point is 00:00:23 Sign up for your $1 per month trial at Shopify.com slash special offer. 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. Welcome to Episode 11 of Bite-Sized UFOs. In this installment, let's have a look at a case from March 1945 when an RAF light bomber was apparently chased over Italy and the Adriatic Sea by six strange objects. In December 1997, an Italian UFO. magazine ran a story about the foo fighters of World War II. Included was the tale of an RAF Douglas Boston-like bomber crew, returning to their base between Bologna and Rimini on a moonlit night

Starting point is 00:01:13 after a raid on a target somewhere in the Alps in March 1945, just weeks before the end of the war in Europe. The aircraft was flying over the Adriatic Sea, just west of Trieste, when six fireballs chased after the bomber and caused a pilot to take evasive action. According to one of the the crew, the aircraft had taken water into its tail section during these maneuvers, as it had briefly touched the sea at one point. The crew thought that the altimeter in the aircraft had been affected by the fireballs. According to the primary witness, the aircraft's navigator come bomb-eamer, Eric Anderson, they were flying over the coast at 10,000 feet when what were described as flying spheres were first sighted 8,000 feet below them. After some discussion on the intercom

Starting point is 00:02:00 as to their identity and purpose, the crew believed an attack was imminent, so the pilot flew a large circle around them at 2,000 feet. The spheres were a deep red colour and strung out in a line, looking like the pearls on a necklace. After completing one full circle, the fireballs turned and headed straight for the Boston bomber. Some 10 minutes of violent evasive manoeuvres followed, and the aircraft headed out over the sea with a mysterious object still in pursuit. At one point, briefly touched the water, flying at 250 miles an hour, but no damage or crash ensued. The crew finally lost sight of them and headed for their home base with a strange story to tell their colleagues and the squadron's intelligence officer. This sounds like an incredible story,

Starting point is 00:02:47 one that should be better known than it currently is. But how true is it? Checking the records was easy enough. Number 55 Squadron's operational record book is available via the National Archives in London. A document for March 1945 provides a brief rundown of each operational mission flown, together with details such as the aircraft involved, its serial number, the time of departure and return, and more importantly for our purposes, the names of each member of each crew that flew that month. In the Italian UFO magazine article, Eric Anderson provided the names of his fellow crew members that day. They were flying officer Dave Uri, the pilot, flight sergeant, Dennis Evers, the wireless operator, an air gunner, and flight sergeant Murphy, who was also another gunner.

Starting point is 00:03:37 Anderson, although a pilot himself, was apparently acting as a bomb aimer on this mission. According to the article, the squadron's commanding officer, wing commander Leon, had given the pre-mission briefing. From the squadron records, he left for South Africa on 10th March 1945, so we can narrow down the possible sorties that month that involved the crew. mentioned in the article down to just four. Dave Uri flew Boston Mark 5, BZ 588 on all four raids. However, Anderson's name does not appear anywhere in the list of crewmen. The navigator bomb aimer on each flight was a Lieutenant Nlittle. And going by this rank listed, he was a South African Air Force officer rather than an RAF crewman.

Starting point is 00:04:22 This was not an uncommon practice, since numerous South Africans flew with RAF squadrons in the Mediterranean theatre. Flight Sergeant Murphy, the gunner who was also named in the crew manifest, according to Eric Anderson, only flew on two of the four missions, but there was no Eric Anderson. Anderson had originally contacted British researcher Andy Roberts in the late 1990s or early 2000s. He was apparently recalling the events from memory, as he'd mislaid or lost his original pilot's logbook for the period concerned. This is a pity, as the details that would have been listed could have cleared up the mystery of why he is not among the 55 Squadron crew names for March 1945. Was it a different month? I've checked the records for January, February and April that year, but there are still no mention of him anywhere. The only reason I can think of is that because Anderson belonged to another unit and was then temporarily attached to number 55 squadron,

Starting point is 00:05:22 and therefore his name might not have appeared for administrative reasons. Crewmen were posted from squadron to squadron, either on a permanent or a temporary basis, and detached duty was commonplace. However, there was usually some sort of paper trail, which is missing for the available records in this case. Wars are never one with paperwork, but that never stopped bureaucracy, trying is best to do just that. In documentation, it's often critical when researching UFO cases. did a 55 squadron crew see foo fighters too. Nothing in euphology appears to be straightforward.

Starting point is 00:05:58 On the face of it, Eric Anderson's testimony is an intriguing and compelling tale from the last months of World War II. Yet delve below the surface, and we are faced with a riddle. I've so far been unable to solve it to my own satisfaction, so the case, at least for me, remains a mystery. And not just the nature of the strange fireballs. If anybody can corroborate the witness's connection with the squadron, than are more ears. But until this issue is resolved, the case must simply remain an interesting story,

Starting point is 00:06:28 but only a story. An examination of this and other cases from World War II appear in my 2021 book, UFOs before Roswell, available from Amazon in e-book, softback and hardback formats, together with a look at what truth lies behind the Nazi flying disc myth and other exotic technology that was proposed as an explanation for the, the foo fighter phenomenon. And that's it for this 11th installment of bite-sized UFOs. Remember, this channel is all about the facts. This has been bite-sized UFOs with your host, Graham Rendell.

Starting point is 00:07:07 Be sure to rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. For a full video version of this episode, subscribe to the bite-sized UFOs YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.

Somewhere in the Skies - Bite-Sized UFOs | Fireballs over the Adriatic

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