This Paranormal Life - #411 Germany SHOT Down a UFO in WWI

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

The Red Baron was a German pilot during WWI known as the ‘ace of aces’ for his incredible streak of over 80 confirmed kills in the sky. But one of those 80 successful targets was very different to the others… Described by Baron and his comrade as an ‘upside-down saucer with a row of orange lights’, it sparked a paranormal mystery in the midst of the Great War — did Germany just shoot down a UFO?Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunitySupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeIntro music by www.purple-planet.comEdited by Philip ShackladyResearch by Ewen Friers Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will World War III be against aliens? Did Harry Potter have any spells for getting high? Answers to these questions and more on this episode of... This Paranormal Life! Hello and welcome back to This Paranormal Life, the weekly comedy podcast where every Tuesday we get into a different paranormal tale, deciding by the end of the episode whether we think,

as experts, it's really paranormal or not. Hell yeah. My name is Kit Grimovena this is my co-host Rory Pars. How you doing today Rory? Hello everyone good morning or good night whoever you're based in this world. Excited to be back with another episode of this paranormal life. Probably my favorite podcast in the world I think. Slightly biased but that's fine. That's fine. Love that intro question as to whether or not Harry Potter has spells to get him f***ed up. I just think, I went on a mental train of thought,

a dark train of thought, I'll be honest, of like, you're telling me you give teenagers a wand. Yeah. It's like, and they're not gonna use that for nefarious reasons. I think we've talked before about me and you burned down a house once. Oh, slow down there. No, no, no, no.

We almost killed a guy. I don't think we should talk about this on the podcast. We got f***ed up every night of the week. I think, I think, I don't think that we're still legally allowed to talk about the house thing. Okay. That's still within, yeah, that was, I really know that long ago in hindsight. So yeah, we've had some crazy times.

We've had some crazy times is what kids trying to say. What I'm saying is, what I'm saying is, any normal movie about teenagers depicts normal teenage life, you know, I don't know, paying a homeless guy to buy them beer. Yeah. Things like that. Do you think they pay a homeless wizard

to get them spells? I'm saying, I'm saying there's like a guy outside Diagon Alley. He's like, Hey, you kids want some weird spells. And like, I understand they got up to a little bit of mischief. There was like a whole little fun rhyme about doing mischief in the school, making yourself invisible, sneaking around. I'm saying realistically, they must have been holding a wand to their head, like a loaded gun and saying, Abracadabra fentanyl. And just getting f**ked up and just seeing how high they could get off spells.

Such an uncreative spell. Well, I've had to think of it in the moment. You just say magic words and then you say the name of the drug. That's not how any spell works in Harry Potter. That's not how it works. Okay, well you can pick that up. But hey, I actually think there's probably a chance, right?

Because even in Hogwarts, they don't teach the children the dark arts, but they do have classes that are like, defense against the Dark Arts. Yeah. Part of that I'm pretty sure is just teaching them the Dark Arts so that they never use them or they can recognize them in a wizard duel. So who's to say that there isn't a defense against the Dank Arts? Right. And it's like, hey, these are some weed spells you can do.

Please don't use them. Some weed spells? Well, there was, there was like, wasn't there like herbology? Like there was like- Oh, you know there was. There was a kind of plant form. I think I studied that one in high school.

Oh yeah. Out the back near Hagrid shack. Oh yeah. Rory, welcome to this Paranormal Life. Welcome listeners. We do of course have a fantastic case for you wouldn't know it by our intro, but we do have a fantastic case lined up for you know it by our intro But we do have fantastic case lined up for you today one that I think we get right into I can tease it by saying

We're going back to somewhere. We've been Not that recently semi recently, but somewhere where I think we only scratched the surface Mmm, and I think we need to go a little bit deeper. Okay, any clues World War one Oh, we're going shit, but don't worry, this isn't dark, this isn't depressing, this is just kind of crazy and badass. But a kind of case you might not be expecting to come out of World War One. I think before we've had ghosts to come out of World War One, but we're looking somewhere different, looking to the skies this time. It was a harrowing time. There was a lot of horrible things going on both in the normal world and the paranormal world. Absolutely,

enough harrowing stuff going on that the paranormal bit often gets glossed over in historical terms but... Which is fair. It's been long enough I think we can now say let's look for some of the other things. Let's do it. Right after a couple of words from today's sponsors and a quick reminder, every episode of This Paranormal Life is ready. Ready for your listening pleasure right now over at patreon.com forward slash This Paranormal Life. Link is in the description of this podcast.

Or if you're on YouTube, check that description area, click the link, head over to Patreon. Rory, today's case takes place in spring 1917, and the world is, you guessed it, at war. And in the fields of the Western Front, European powers have been drawn into the deadlock of trench warfare. And as we sadly well know, in the three years up to this point, millions have now lost their lives. Like I say, this is super familiar. Only a couple of months ago, if you've been listening to this paranormal life, you know we tackled the angel of mons. That's right. That was a great episode

We've done a surprising amount that have kind of taken place during world wars But as I said, it's a very traumatic time people experience some pretty paranormal things Of course the angel of mons was when a battalion of essentially condemned men went over the top of the trench into oncoming fire and said that despite everything that should have happened, some strange mystical ghostly angelic presences essentially came down like Gandalf's army down the hill and saved them from death. Yeah, quite literally, I think the ghosts had bows and arrows.

Yeah. And they were firing them at the enemies. I think the Axis bars were literally being shot by ghosts. It was pretty unbelievable in the sense that we give it a double no case. But yeah, a lot of people believed that and told that story. No reflection on how today's going to go.

No. No, I'm glad to say today is utterly, utterly different. Like I say, at the end of that episode, one of the most famous cases set in World War 1, we teased that this World War was littered with a huge amount of paranormal tales, some of which have remained mostly unheard over the years. This is one of those stories. The story of the Red Baron. Ooh. Rory the Red Baron was a legendary and feared World War I German fighter pilot. Also known as Manfred

Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen. Oh, holy shit! That's a hell of a name. And that is what he looked like. Alright, classic old-timey military looking guy. Wouldn't it be weird if he was smiling in his military photograph Yeah, a little creepy. You shouldn't smile in a military photograph. He looks

Appropriately serious and at this moment in 1917 The Red Baron is on a reconnaissance flight in the skies above the Belgian line in the early morning light He flies low over a forested area Rick Toffin is an ace of aces who was so damn good even his enemies had to respect him. The British even called him quote our gallant and worthy foe. That's because he was undefeated in the skies having shot down 80 planes in his career so far. Damn! Especially when you remember that planes didn't even exist when he was

born. Essentially. But it is, to put that in perspective, I think, I'm not a military historian, sorry in advance if you are, but from what I gather, if you had shot down like seven guys, you were considered like a hero. This guy had shot down 80 planes. Is he the pilot or the gunman or is it both in this crazy? I think both actually. Yeah from the planes I've seen. Basically he was German Top Gun. Got it. So this guy knows flying and he knows a plane when he sees one.

A detail which will come in handy very soon. Come in Baron. Do you see anything? Over. handy very soon. refuel. No problem, we'll have a cold chocolate milk waiting for you. Over. Wonderval, over. Wait, what is that? It was just then, straight after a really normal and realistic wartime conversation, that the Baron saw something. A strange shape hovering in the sky above the trees. He later described it as looking like an upside down silver saucer with orange lights. Oh shit. Thankfully, it wasn't just him that day. A fellow pilot, Peter Waitstrik, flanked the

Baron and witnessed the whole dramatic event. Baron, are you seeing this? We might have to put that chocolate milk on ice. We should check this thing out." Weitzrich described how he looked on with fear at the object as it was unlike anything they had seen before. He kept his distance, flying nearby in observation. But you don't earn a badass nickname like the Red Baron by sitting on the sidelines. The Baron lived up to his reputation and engaged. Oh yeah. Baron! Baron!

I love that the Baron spots this thing and he's just like you might see something crazy but I see a target right in my crosshair launches the rockets and as they're like jetting through the sky he just hears on the radio Baron I forgot to tell you you might be able to spot our new floating hospital blimp See he's like watching the missiles Your mission today is to protect the blimp at all costs The missiles are still going it's like there's nothing I can do. Although it is experimental, we loaded it with 105 orphans. Can you see it Baron? Baron? Hello Baron? We were actually flying

them to Disneyland. It's gonna be a really nice little day out for the kids, you know, out for the kids, you know, fly an experimental aircraft, you know, see the mouse, the house of mouse as I call it. But no, that isn't what happened. It was not a flying orphanage, a flying hospital for children. The fearless ace immediately accelerated towards the strange craft and a full-scale dogfight ensued. Hell yeah. accelerated towards the strange craft and a full-scale dogfight ensued. Hell yeah.

The UFO attempted to maneuver, but he was too quick, and his machine guns made light work of the saucer. Damn he hit it! Waitsrick recounted. The Red Baron immediately began firing on the UFO and it went down, crashing into the woods, mowing tree limbs on its way. But the next moment would live on as a crucial moment in the story.

The squadron then flew over the crash site and Waitstrik specifically witnessed two pilots of some kind, two beings, clamber from the wreck and disappear into the woods. Well, Waitstrik and the Baron returned to the base, shaken and confused by what they had seen. But this was amidst total war. So with no time to spare,

the Baron slurped down a chocolate milk and was back in the skies in a matter of hours. Which I honestly get, I've worked customer service jobs where they wouldn't have given me five minutes of work to process seeing an alien. Let alone if my job was basically being a Nazi master chief during World War I.

And there is one good reason why we're not hearing more from the Red Baron today and instead more from Waitzrich, because he had to get back to work and then he only lived for one more year until 1918. He was shot down and killed by a Canadian pilot over northern France. Talk about one day from retirement. He almost made it to the end of the war in 1918. He was aged only 25.

Holy shit, that's young. And so that is why Waitstrik comes to be kind of our key witness, really the witness in this entire story. Okay. It was, I suppose, for that year corroborated by the Red Baron himself, but he sadly, or not sadly, it's a bit emotionally turbulent given he was fighting for the Axis powers, but he did not survive in order to be our paranormal witness.

Yes, that's what I was literally just thinking about. I don't remember the dynamics of World War I. but he did not survive in order to be our paranormal witness. Yes, that's what I was literally just thinking about. I don't remember the dynamics of World War I. It was different than the second time around. Yeah, I will say it is funny reading a story about the Red Baron where I'm like, sadly he was killed or not sadly. I don't know how to feel about when someone is killed

because he was a famous guy and he was respected both sides of the war, but not for good reasons. Yes, Germany are widely seen as the bad guys in World War I. What did you Google to get that information? I Googled... Who was the bad guy? Germany, World War I, good or bad. I just... World Wars...

The word you might be looking for is aggressor. Who is, who is maybe the aggressor in a given war. Yeah. Cause I weirdly, I do know more about the second world war. I think hopefully it's a green flag of mine that I don't want to know about any wars. Cause I think they're all dumb. You do understand that people don't want to know about war because they like war, right? Some people do.

Some people are like, military history is fascinating. That's not true. I think there's a few guys who wear cravats, who live in the English countryside, who like war and own a lot of helmets. But I think most people who like history just like history. Fair. Like some of the cool bits of history. Because they like history because they're f***ing, if they're English, their grandfather probably fought.

Imagine having the choice to learn about ancient Greece and all the sick shit that went down there. Alright, here we go about ancient Greece. Alright. Put on a coffee, Phil. Alright, we're gonna be here a while. Yeah, that's all I'm gonna say. There's a lot cooler history to learn about out there. I actually think it's pretty interesting to know about where the greatest generation died, but you know.

The ancient Greeks. As I say, Waitric is our only witness, really, in this story. And his story only unbelievably came to light in 1999, when he was aged 105 years old. Ooh, but I bet he was a really sharp 105 year old, Roy. But despite his age, he was insistent on what he saw that morning. And the story was instantly picked up

by numerous newspapers. One paper in the UK wrote that Waitrick and his squadron initially thought the UFO was a secret US aircraft until he read other reports about flying saucers. Then he had no doubt that what he saw was one of those. Waitrick said, there's no doubt in my mind that the Baron shot down some kind of spacecraft from another planet and those little guys who ran off into the woods were space aliens. Okay yeah because you just said at one point beings came out of the craft and ran into the woods. There are human beings. Yep. So there was no kind of confirmation there that these beings were from another planet. They could have been very normal or humanoid but now he's like they were green,

they were made of goo, one of them said, Gushmorgen, as it ran off. Well, he doesn't know that, but it's the craft itself that is the smoking gun here, aside from the red barons. Whew, smoking gun. Nice, that was smooth. I think we do need a cutoff for witnesses. In the same way we don't take testimonies from anyone under the age of six,

I think once you're in triple digits, I'm gonna be kinda skeptical of anything you say. Rory, the world is a changing place and I think if former President Biden and current President Trump have shown us anything, it's that old guys can still do it too. You know, I think if anything... If they've shown us anything, it's that the mental health of the human body tends to deteriorate from 60 onward. So yeah, f*** it, why not do over 100? Because it's gone anyway.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I will say this is one of those strange kind of like, we see it a lot in the world of the paranormal, kind of deathbed confession. For some reason, people just, it's not for some reasons, for a pretty good reason, people don't want to be ridiculed,

that they hold onto things towards the end of their life, and then they might reveal something. They're just like, it's been nagging them their whole lives, and they're like, I gotta tell somebody this. I gotta talk about it. Yeah, yeah, I guess so. They're right on their deathbed. They're like, I saw an alien.

I actually would go as far to say that someone like this is probably more understandable, actually, that you... Isn't this guy a war criminal? That you do... He's on the wrong side for sure. Why do we let him live this long? And, well, they don't... Again, I don't think they don't necessarily round up everyone and shoot them in the head

after the war. Yeah, but he lived long enough to be involved in the second one too. Right, where was he? Where was Waitsrick? Yeah, that's not good. I don't think he was making bratwurst necessarily. But yeah, I think someone from this era, from this vintage, probably has a better reason than most to not talk about it because kind of like we said at the beginning, everything else that happened to them during their horrific, horrific

life kind of overshadowed that detail. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So whether- Kind of all the death and pain and suffering that they experienced and inflicted on others. Right. And so we're left with the question always is, is that impeding judgment? Yeah. Or does that mean in fact that whatever you saw was extra real because you should have been focused

on everything else that was going around you? Yes, exactly. Hard to say. Yeah, yeah, but we've said it many times. When you're in a life or death situation, as these guys are, who are constantly, constantly in a kind of fight or flight scenario, it does seem weird to take time out of your day to be like, I've seen a lot of f***ing planes, that is not one. That categorically we talk to

each other, we were like, that is not a f***ing plane. Yeah, I think I still want to punch the Nazi. I think I still want to, I know he's like a hundred years old or something and he's probably in an old folks home, I think I probably would still hit him. Definitely, I think were he alive today, Rory, that wouldn't make him, I think, 126 years old. Right, he would turn to dust. So he's probably, sorry, 131 or so?

Yeah, he's not still alive, I don't think. Unless he's one of those 135 year old AI men on Facebook who post pictures like it's my birthday today and no one wished me happy birthday I'm so sad. One of those old people. He was reborn as Grock the Nazi AI. Boy did you see that Grock now has sexy mode? Move on. Move on. Kit said that to me the other day and I almost had a stroke. Grok has a sexy mode. As you said afterwards, none of those words are in the Bible.

I was reading to Phil, shout out Ryan Broderick and Garbage Day. I was reading Garbage Day newsletter whose coverage about Grok's new sexy mode for AI really made me laugh. He said, I'm trying to imagine what type of person you would have to be to use this. He's like, my instinct is you would have to be essentially functionally dead as a human being. Some kind of soul so lost and devoid of spirit that you have turned to an AI chat bot owned by Elon Musk to feel horny.

Oh yeah, forgot I have this. This is a cool photo, man. So this is just to remind you what a plane looked like in 1917. Not the thing I need evidence of. That's a plane. I know what a plane looks like. Right, but that informs us as to it can't have been anything else than a UFO. Ah, that's actually kind of true. Because it's not even a... Like, I... In my head, I think because we default to World War II, which had things like Spitfires and jets, early jets or whatever the f***.

I forgot what they looked like during World War I, which is very bloody rudimentary. This looks like a go-kart that my mate's dad would have made when we were eight years old. Yeah, this looks like if you recruited the Wright brothers to fight in the war. This is like an old-timey... You know when planes had like four wings stacked on top of each other? Yeah. Like that's what we're looking at right here, big old propeller. Back when you... Back when if you wanted to fly somewhere, you needed a lad to spin the propeller for you? Not a good sign. If the plane is so rudimentary that it can't even start itself, you know, and there's blocks on the wheels and they go to take the block. It doesn't even have

brakes. You need to put physical blocks in front of the wheels. Yeah. I think that one is definitely older than others. No, don't do this. Don't't do this don't pull your like we actually had 8k red dragon cameras in 1917 don't do this to me. That is what a plane looked like. There are some like you know there's like slightly more modern ones that one is a little more old-fashioned but I think like... What year is that? That's a World War one plane from I guess America or America or Britain or France, actually, judging by the tail. Yeah, yeah, slightly more, but look, I'm on your side.

Okay, great, it has two f***ing sets of wings rather than three. Oh, real modern, yeah. Completely utterly different. It's just a tin can with a machine gun strapped to it and they shoot it through the air. I want to also point out though, because you said if it wasn't a plane it had to be a UFO. We had blimps. World War I, we had huge military blimps. That was a thing. And they are very cylindrical, shaped like domes, probably metal or silver.

I'm not saying that's what it is, but there were other things in the sky. Put the phone away. For sure, stop researching my case for me. Rory is just now Googling what did we have? What flew during World War I? And then he's just trying to pick little holes in my case. Anything else to add? What else do we have? That's a confusing question to ask, what flew during World War I? Because they're like, bro, anything was fine in World War I. You could get away with anything. Yeah, I know. Yeah, birds. Do you want, anything was fine in World War I. Yeah, anything went. You could get away with anything. Yeah, I know.

Yeah, birds, do you want me to add other things to your list? Yeah, f*** yeah, was it an eagle, who knows? I'm just worried, I was hoping we were gonna see a photo of the wrecked craft, not just of a thing. Where was the, because we probably didn't have cameras either, so I don't know how we'd have a photo. When your two key witnesses are Nazis as well,

it just makes it a little hard to. I don't think the Nazi'd have a photo. When your two key witnesses are Nazis as well, it just makes it a little hard to... I don't think the Nazi movement existed at this point. So I don't think we need to even keep calling Nazis. Sorry, sorry. An upside down silver saucer with orange lights. These guys weren't even English and they were talking about tea cups and saucers. That means it's a UFO.

Look, Rory, the elephant in the room here is that this thing was shot down. That means it should have landed somewhere and is or was recoverable. Well for the Germans of course it went down over enemy Allied lines so they didn't have access to it themselves and as far as they and we know nothing was ever recovered. Which feels both suspicious and unfortunate, but if this thing really did go down, I figure there are a couple of plausible possibilities for what happened.

One, it is possible this is an experimental aircraft from the Allies side. That would explain why they never found it and talked about it because it was to remain hidden and classified. Yep. After all, World War I was a test ground for all manner of new experimental technologies. Tanks, Zeppelins, planes and submarines all got their first proper use in the field during this period. Was a metallic saucer some new tech on a trial run? So you know there were Zeppelins.

I know now because I read it. Hadn't read that bit before. I had, but I glossed over it. But on the downside to this theory, we probably definitely should know about it today because it would have been declassified at some point in the last Chex Notes 107 years that have passed since. We talked about recently, was it a bonus episode about the Avrocar?

Or was it even an after party or something? I don't remember. Maybe you, yeah. Yeah, I can't remember. But anyway, we talked about this. It's on Patreon. Anyway, if you search Patreon for the Avrocar, I'll maybe put the link in the description of this podcast.

It's a really fun investigation and one that I think right at the end, you were like, why wasn't this a main episode? This is fully a main episode that the United States government in coalition with the Canadian government built a flying saucer, a quote unquote working flying saucer. In the late 40s, early 50s. Yeah, maybe we should put a clip from it at the end of this episode. Okay.

There's a little teaser. Let's do that. That'd be great. And then you can listen to the whole thing on Patreon. Don't know how it took me so long to get to in the history of this paranormal life, but it's insane. But if you see photos of it,

it is what you think crashed at Roswell. It is just a perfect flying saucer that they claim was just, we just came up with this design. She's, oh yeah, one of the engineers was just in the canteen one day and just drew it on a napkin and was like, that's pretty cool. That could work. Yeah. They spent a lot of money trying to get it to work. Sadly, it failed as a design. They couldn't get it to go above a certain speed, a certain height off the ground, and it was ultimately scrapped, as far as we know,

and doesn't exist today. Point being, the US government had the most resources at the time, even it didn't have anything like that until decades later in the 40s. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I do want to point out though, this isn't the thing we're talking about today, didn't accelerate to light speed or turn invisible. Upside down saucer! I'm just saying! With orange lights!

Orange lights aren't paranormal! Lights were probably white back then! Not that weird! They didn't have philip shu lights yet bud! This thing wasn't like when we hear about UFOs they travel at light speed they make zero sound they do impossible turns in the night sky this thing just turned up and then got shot down and crashed. That's it. They were distracted They were they were like on tik-tok while they were like cuz they had tik-tok in the 20s Did they? And they were like they were like, they were like, huh? No, check out this funny video. Oh shit Oh, we're going down

Okay, cool. So I'm gonna remember that part of the conversation when we reach conclusions The aliens had TikTok and that's why they got shot down. It's just an idea. Don't take it so literally. Show me more pictures. I will. I will in a second, though you're not going to like the point of the photo I'm showing you because point two, theory two, was the craft simply destroyed by the war itself?

And for reference, take the German artillery barrage at the beginning of the Battle of Verdun in 1916. You're talking 10 hours of continuous bombardment of 19 miles of countryside. Damn. With one million shells raining down over the landscape, which would essentially evaporate pretty much anything.

That's how I describe Thanksgiving dinner with my family. Ten hours of constant bombardment. So I get it. I understand. Me deep behind enemy lines. A f***ing massacre on my ego and sense of self. Like in 1917, Rory's running sideways through the battlefield trying to deliver a message.

It's like, Rory, why don't you have a girlfriend? Oh, in the arm. I'm blown sideways at a hundred miles an hour. Rory, why don't you have a real job? Oh, didn't your brother buy a house last year? Oh. You know, this is the kind of landscape you're kind of left with during most of Europe during the war.

Okay. Yeah. Wow. It looks like a forest just completely devastated, wiped clean. This looks like after the Tunguska event or whatever it was called. Yeah. The loudest recorded explosion in mankind's history. Where like an asteroid basically landed outside Russia and just decimated miles of forest. Mm-hmm. Crazy, crazy. Yeah, it does help you understand the scope of this thing. Now, look, I know it seems like I'm putting up a very like strong argument in defense of the Baron and this being a real UFO case. I'm going to play both sides here, there is nuance to this, even people in the paranormal camp do have some issues with the story itself. For example, one paranormal investigator, Scott C Waring, studied this case in detail. He believes this

very well could be a legitimate UFO sighting, but based on his prior UFO knowledge, a little bit like what you're saying Rory, he questions whether the firepower available in World War 1 would really be able to do this. No. He said while it's unlikely the Red Baron's two machine guns could have damaged the entire UFO, maybe it could take down some component of it. if it had an antenna or something that was caused it to crash in the first place, and it was forced to crash. But I do concede, a little bit like you were saying, would a futuristic craft really travel light years across the galaxy at faster than light travel and not be able to survive a few 20th century bullets? Yeah, I just don't really see that as a possibility. But you know, take War of the Worlds for example, a very famous story where aliens come down to earth,

all of our super high tech military weapons cannot kill them. But you know what it does in the end? F*** COVID or something. I was like, they just couldn't deal with germs. Yeah. Or water in signs. In signs it's water. It's water, they just don't deal with germs. Yeah. Or water in signs. In signs it's water.

It's water. They just don't know what to expect. Yeah. So, yeah, is this like, it's like, okay, we literally, these aliens show up, but they're like, we have the most high-tech craft that's capable of blocking the most deadly, focused plasma laser cannons available in the galaxy. And we like throw a rock at them and they're like, what the was that? The rock just goes through the window

and like sucks them out into space. They just don't know. You just, they're not ready for it. You don't know how different it is. Yeah. It's like, you know, like a top of the line, 2025 Navy SEALs commando SWAT team operative in the United States, he could still get shanked. It's like we might have moved on from knives and swords. Yeah.

It's like it could still be possible. That's why if I ever make it to an alien planet, first thing I'm going to do is get one of those little guys in a headlock. Because that's kind of like a universal move that I don't think all the technology in the world can protect you for. Right. You think that would just kind of universally assert dominance over the pack?

I think so. Yeah. Because they might have like, you know, like ray guns, they might have lightsabers, they might have special armor like in Doom that can kind of protect you from laser bullets being shot from a cannon. But if I just grab, I can give them like a noogie as well, you know? I don't think they have very strong necks. So you can grab onto that and big heads too.

You can kinda do that. You go to noogie him and his head is just the consistency of mac and cheese. Your fist just goes straight into his brain. You're like, oh! Oh God, I killed him! Jesus! Oh, f**k!

They're like, what did you do? They're just borderline liquid. You didn't know your own strength. Their gravity is so much weaker than ours. Weird borderline Superman to them. We've got super strength. That's so disturbing. Mac and cheese skin.

F***ed out. This is what I'm saying. Their planet might be different. They might land down in a borderline bugs lifestyle paper mache plane thinking they're all down on a leaf and the red Baron is like, they're not expecting it. I don't know. They get caught slacking in the streets. I am expeditiously losing Rory, so let's power through.

Rory, at this point I know you are just asking yourself, if there were really UFOs flying around the battle sites of World War I, wouldn't there be other witnesses? Other cases? And let me tell you, you wouldn't be half wrong. There were a whole series of UFO style reports and anecdotes from the time. Sure. In fact, planes were so damn new that one case from 1916 is actually thought to be the first ever UFO sighting from an airplane pilot.

It's actually in the Guinness Book of World Records. Wow. 31st January 1916, a British pilot near Rochford, Essex, reports seeing a row of lights resembling the lighted windows of a train carriage that rise up into the sky and then disappear. Wow. Okay. So we know this, we know that UFO cases not only go back a hundred years, but go back hundreds of years. Yeah. That's not a surprise. The only reason we don't talk about them more is due to a lack of physical evidence usually.

You know, you're catching me at a good time as well because last week we did the Kelly Cahill UFO abduction case and I don't know why that felt like the first time we talked about a UFO where it was a row of lights, orange lights, that were kind of supposed to be the interior of a craft. And I feel like now, when we're talking about UFO cases, that keeps popping up all the time. Even in today's case, they said that it was orange lights along a craft. The one you just said, the first mention right there, was a row of lights, similar to like how a row of windows would be on a larger craft.

So it's interesting. It's you know, human brain is designed to see patterns. And this is one I think we're seeing quite a bit these days. Yes, we do love to see a pattern in a UFO case. Yeah, in some ways I do prefer this to maybe a traditional saucer with tractor beam or whatever it is. Yeah, or what else do we have A diamond, an orb, an egg. A lot of weird shapes out there. I could go through a very long, long list of kind of

World War One era UFO sightings. There truly is no end to them. But I thought I would give you probably the most mad of all the World War I UFO stories. Okay. Which comes out of Turkey, when an entire battalion was abducted by aliens. What?

This is known by a variety of names, like the Gallipoli incident or the abduction at Gallipoli. But on August 12th, 1914, towards the start of the war, at Gallipoli, an entire British battalion advanced against the Turkish lines to take a strategic hill. But as their New Zealand comrades behind them watched, a mysterious haze or fog closed in over the battalion and when it lifted, they were gone. Oh my god, that must have been scary for the New Zealand guys, because at that point, we didn't know what kind of weapons were out there.

Yeah, yeah. So you're like, they have mists. They have weaponized mists somehow, and they could take out an entire platoon. I think we surrender now, actually. One of the New Zealand soldiers runs to talk to his general. Sir, I've got some news from the front lines. What is it, soldier? Sir, you're not going to believe this, but the Turkish...

missed. What do you mean they missed? They don't have good aim? They missed all their shots? No, no, sir, you don't understand me. They've got to miss. Those soldiers were never seen again. Oh.

And could not be accounted for by the Turkish authorities after the war either. Their fate is an unsolved mystery." End quote. You might think I'm with you right now, but I'm not. I will say this is a heavily debated event and story, but it is true that a huge number of men went missing on the battlefield that day and couldn't be accounted for. I think a huge number of men go missing on the battlefield all the time. And it ain't a mystery, brother.

And again, this is like saying a bunch of men went missing under weird circumstances at the Men Goin' Missin' convention. It's like they know what a real weird moment looks like for men going missing. You know it's weird when the academics are like, this is a ridiculous story. It was really more like 250 men, not a thousand men. It's like, okay, so with 250 men vanished that day, Rory, do you think it's possible

a cloud-shaped UFO or some kind of space intelligence captured them in? No. No, No, no. I think they were probably obliterated by a bomb. I think that's probably what happened. Something just kind of dropped on them and poof. And the reports from the New Zealand soldiers? All they said was the men, like a mist came in. Wasn't there like mustard gas in that war as well? There was like a lot of like dark shit. There were no bodies after they were supposed to, if they were supposed to have died. I don't know. This is uh, this is...

Paranormal, that's what that is. All right. I don't think so. Moving on. Look, I will leave you on this. It is worth pointing out. I guess the point I'm trying to make is the Red Baron and his UFO sighting and his UFO shooting is certainly not in a vacuum. There is a high number of World War I UFO sightings. Worth pointing out that even in our recent investigation we mentioned at the top, into the Battle of Mont, where angels or sky people stepped in to save the British forces, many reported, and we heard it at the time, seeing strange aerial phenomena,

bizarre vapors, clouds, and unexplainable lights. Surely, surely, it's all tied together somehow. It seems like I definitely don't know what's going on, but yeah, it has to be all tied together. The sheer number of sightings, shooting down a craft I'd never seen before, it's not recovered. Yeah.

I mean, this is the problem though, when you're investigating something weird happening during a war. Maybe the weirdest thing that can happen in the world. It's like someone being like, you're not going to believe this. The other day I was out and about, I saw a clown. It's like, okay, where were you? And it's like, a clown. It's like, okay, where were you? And it's like the circus. It's like, okay. Well, that's where clowns are. That's where weird Colorful shit happens. So if you're like, hey, I saw like an I saw like an insane explosion in the sky So where were you World War one? Okay, but it wasn't an explosion. It was upside down saucer shaped object You understand right? It's not like these things.

I'll give you, there's a lot of things flying about. We're not in f***ing Bristol in the 1990s, or like the Cotswolds in the countryside, in the middle of nowhere in a field and someone sees an EDM light show taking place on the horizon. We're in the most chaotic setting in the world. A war. There's a lot of crazy shit going on. So you need to have evidence at the end of the day. You can't just say the evidence was blown up. Really?

You just can't. You can't. Hurts to hear. Hurts to hear. At the end of every episode of this paranormal life, we have to give that case a yes or a no. Do we think it really happened or not, Rory? In the case of the Red Baron and him shooting down a UFO, what are you saying today? Look, I don't want to be too pessimistic about it. I can still be critical. Well, you've done that already. You don't have to be now because you've done it. You've stamped your card. You've clocked. You don't have to be now because you've done it. I can be critical of the case.

You've stamped your card. You've clocked in, clocked out at the negativity factory today. I want to highlight some examples of what was going on in people's minds during these periods of war, okay? Yep. As you said, we've had multiple cases of paranormal events during the war. Here's some of the other things people said happened during the war. As Kit mentioned, ghosts appeared with bows and arrows and fired at the enemy's front line.

The World War I and II, I think, was also the creation of the concept of gremlins, where people, multiple people throughout the war said while flying their planes, there were little men on the wings ripping parts out of the planes. These are just some of the other paranormal phenomenon that are taking place. So you throw a UFO in there. Yeah, you're right. It's like, that's not even the most unbelievable part really. It's another unbelievable part for sure. It just shows you what like the human brain is being put pushed to its absolute limits the horrors of war Unconceivable and how that manifests itself in someone's experiences could be creating things that aren't actually there or

Having your memory retell certain events in in different ways than how they actually happened And I think that's probably what we're seeing today. I think probably something was shot down out of the sky. I don't think it was a UFO. So it's a no from me this week. It's a no from me this week. Wrong, wrong, wrong, Rory. God, how could you be wrong in any more ways than you already are?

And your conclusion? Also no, also no. It is a double no. Cool. I think we do, I think I have more time for, you know, the, I think you're wrong on one thing and right on another. I have more time for the wartime paranormal stories. I think they're compelling. I think they are dramatic.

I think they're interesting and certainly plausible. But you hit the nail on the head. It doesn't eliminate the need for evidence. We just don't have enough evidence. Yeah. I would fully believe this. Give it a yes if we saw something else. I think that's it.

I was waiting for someone to say, oh, they were part of a team that actually went to the site where the object went down. And apparently there's photographs, but they were buried. Something like that. That'd the site where the object went down and apparently there's photographs But they were buried something like that. That'd be nice. That would be really nice. Oh nice, but we just don't have it today unfortunately, sad Lee So cool. The yes streak is over as quick as it started One and done great. Well, it's not a streak then is it? Well, it's the start of a streak

I feel a bit complicated about Well it's the start of a streak. I feel a bit complicated about hosting an episode on the Red Baron and wearing my new red jumper. You are. As if I'm like channeling him. I almost wore a red jacket too. Was I'm not, because as we talked about, wrong side of the war in it. To us at least.

So that's not what I'm doing here today. I just thought I looked nice. Pure coincidence that he's wearing the red jacket. I don't support the Red Baron. But thank you for listening to this episode. Hope you enjoyed this investigation. What are you looking up this time? What are you looking at?

What are you? Royce pulled out his phone. He's probably looking up. Did the color red exist during 1917? I don't really believe any of this story. Yeah, it did. It did. I was like, I think, I thought for a second, I was like that the Red Baron was so evil

that he was like a villain in the Captain America comics. But I'm getting the Red Skull and Baron Zemo mixed up. If you're comic book fans, you know what I'm talking about. Those are two different evil Nazis that Captain America fights in the comics. Got it. The Red Baron, real person. It is horrifying and fascinating, isn't it, how young these people were.

So whenever the war started, he was 21. Yeah, probably was trained up and whatever, started when he was 20 or 21. Crazy. It's sometimes crazy to remember that, that these times when we're imagining these scary people, or these people who had to do these unbelievable things, or killing people, or killing each other. Man, we're talking about kids, this is absolutely nuts.

Yeah, very sad, very depressing. Mental stuff, guys. War's bad. War is bad. Cue a clip of that other fun episode I mentioned. What would I mention? The Avrocar. The Avrocar! Listen to this! This is crazy. I'll show you, first of all, a blueprint of it. Alright, let's see what you got going on here.

Oh shit! Jesus, I thought this was going to be, like, I don't know, way more tattered and photocopied and battered and classified with bits redacted. Kit just sent me what looks like a screenshot from an Ikea manual. This thing is clear as day. And the next image I'm about to send you, Rory. You can see.

Well, I ain't done, brother. You can't just. They built the thing. Oh, Joe, my, slow down slow down we're moving too fast I just found out it existed I'm trying to figure out where the fuselage combines with the main rotor and you just send me the completed bitch I'm starting to remember why I forgot. It's all coming back.

And so the image I've just sent to Rory is a black and white image. And this, this is crazy. You look at this image and you go, this can't be real. This is surely from crystallinks.org. This is a staged image. Like this feels like, like this is the smoking. Like if we didn't know that this was a government project, you would, like this is the smoking, like if we didn't know this was a government project, you would say that this was the smoking gun that the government own,

crashed flying saucers. It is a bunch of men and women scientists standing around just a straight up flying saucer. Where did you get this? This feels illegal. I feel like I shouldn't be looking at this. Then you know, you're looking at that and you're going, okay, but sure they built it. Oh god, don't send me a third.

It didn't work, did it? I can see the bubbles! I can see the bubbles on my iMessage and I don't like the fact you're going to send me something. I'll send you another picture. Okay, what's this? Where did this come from? There's no way that's real. It's fly. It's the right picture with the flying saucer is now fly. Why wasn't this in the main episode?

This is insane. Wow. I don't know if that bit we played was funny or not, but I'm going to assume it was. That episode is available right now at patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life. Oh yeah. Yeah, really cool little investigation and one that keeps me up at night guys. What are they, what else do they have?

If we're only finding out about that now, what else have they got? It's all coming out. What's there? And, sorry. Oink them out everyone. Yeah, we gotta find someone else to o coming out. What's there? And a little more every day. Oink them out, everyone. Yeah, we've got to opine someone else to oink out. No, we don't.

We really don't. We're going to do a Freedom of Information Act request. We're going to oink out. What was that guy's name? Sean from ARROW? I don't think we need to bring anyone else into this. The Old Domain Aerial Research Organization. We're going to oink out Sean.

The f*** it might be. All right. Let's oink out the great great grandchildren of the Red Baron. I'm going to tease something right now for the first time. It's going to be very half baked tease. All right. You know, I was just saying how I'd love to know what the government is keeping secret from us in the world of UFOs. Maybe we've got a plan.

Maybe we've got a little plan we're cooking up. Yeah, that sounds illegal. To find out for ourselves. The plan is legal, but we are... It is within, currently within the confines of the law. What happens on the day, I don't know. But so was what we did in that house before we burned it down.

Yeah, that is true. That is true, we have something on the horizon. Not quite ready to, you guys are gonna have to file a Freedom of Information Act to get that from us Yeah, but but we're we're working on a plan to see what the government has hiding and let me tell you that is a plan That is only executable because of the incredible support from everyone on patreon Yes, thanks you to our wonderful and loyal supporters over at patreon.com. We started our Patreon account fairly shortly after the start of this paranormal life, all the way back with baby Kit and baby Rory in 2017.

And we were bowled over by the support and success of it at the time, to the extent it continues to this day. On the first month we received $150 from Patreon and I remember texting Kit and saying we did it. Holy ****. I'm going to quit my job tomorrow. Yeah, because to us that meant everything. That meant I think some of the earliest purchases we were able to invest into this paranormal life was like buying a

microphone stand. Yeah. Buying this, buying that. I've said it before. I remember the day we were able to finally, using the support of our community, able to buy good microphones. I believe we were using drum microphones for the first year or something to record our tinny high-pitched voices. So it kind of was fitting. But thanks to our patrons, we've been able to continually invest in the show over the last seven years to the point where we've now built up to a mini paranormal empire.

We have our beautiful studio, these lovely cameras you're watching us on on YouTube, microphones to talk into, and a roof over our heads to record the podcast in. It's so sweet. We really appreciate it. So we always tell people, if you love the show, you want to see it continue for many, many years, which hopefully it will. The best place to show that support is patreon.com.

And we reward that support with a ton of extra cool goodies. Yeah. You know, we might be the ace of aces of paranormal podcasting. We don't have 80 kills, but we have a streak of 80 or more bonus episodes, after parties, giveaways, merchandise offers, whatever you can dream. We have it over there at patreon.com. What's the other cool thing you can get on patreon.com, Kit? A little shout out at the end of the episode to some of our supporters. Let's the other cool thing you can get on patreon.com, Kit? A little shout out at the end of the episode to some of our supporters. Let's do it. So special thank you today to Liam Campbell.

Don't stop. Believe him. But Liam is the biggest optimist when it comes to paranormal cases. He'll believe in anything. You know, you don't even have to give him evidence, photographs. He's just like, hey, I trust you, brother. If you say it's real, it's real. I showed him a pistachio nut that was completely sealed and I told him it was an alien egg. And he was like, that's crazy. You're really smart.

So sometimes if we're going for lunch or something I'll be like, oh Liam, remember you owe me that like, the 20 bucks? And he's like, well I didn't think I did But if you say so brother, yeah, here you go. Yeah, just like give you whatever you want We don't like to take advantage of them all things like you did But now and again, we like to tell him a nut is an alien and he owes me a hundred dollars So thank you Liam and I'll actually lastly today. Thank you to David Moushi

Oh if it isn't David bougie Mousee, this guy likes the finer things in life. Oh yeah. Don't come to the commune then. Well, come to the commune with all your finest things in life. We'll look after you. Bring him on. Yeah. Yeah, no, I know what you're thinking.

I know what you're thinking. You know, he likes caviar and champagne. So do I. And things like that. No, we're talking... bro, that's baby shit, alright? This is much, much finer than that. We're talking faster than like travel. Oh, that's not bougie. Teleportation.

This is just experimental technology. This is the finest things available to the upper classes. You know, blood sacrifices to make you live a thousand years, you know, like that's pretty bougie to be fair. Yeah, I get it. Hey, David, hey, if I was bred it up like you, brother, I'd be doing that too. Thank you for sharing a little bit of the wealth with the paranormal pals. I appreciate it.

Thank you for your support. Thank you to everyone who supports us on Patreon. We'll be back, of course, with more shout outs from next week. And hopefully, Rory can see he's been talking a ton of shit this week, he can get us back on track, right? If it's so easy to get us back on track with a paranormal yes streak. I can't wait. Another double yes coming right up. All right, we'll see you for that, guaranteed, next week.

Bye-bye. Ciao.