Foo Fighters: A Brief History of a Strange Flying Phenomenon

During World War II, fighter pilots and bombardiers reported strange red balls of light, nicknamed “foo fighters” flying alongside them in the European skies.

What were foo fighters? recentufos.com.

Lights in the Sky

There was something strange in the night sky during World War II. Baffled fighter pilots and fretful bombardiers reported being harassed by red balls of light that seemingly kept up with them at high speeds. In some cases, the pilots and crews reported that the lights were “dancing” around the aircraft.

These unidentified flying objects never attacked or appeared to offer any harm. Still, their presence was enough to unnerve these battle-fatigued men, especially when they flew in a flak-shrouded sky.

Some called them gremlins — imaginary flying creatures that supposedly tore up planes in flight. Others called them kraut fireballs since they were spotted most frequently over Nazi Germany. However, the name that stuck with pilots and air crews were “foo fighters.”

Foo Fighters

For the longest time, nobody was sure what foo fighters were. What is known is that they became the precursor for the UFO sighting craze that started in the late 1940s, and they appeared during intense bombing raids over Europe.

Were they UFOs from another planet? Or were they secret Nazi aircrafts? There is some speculation that they may have had terrestrial origins or were an unusual side effect of war. There’s even compelling evidence that they may have been a common optical illusion that was perceived by stressed-laden air crewmen as being something sinister.

Either way, foo fighters have become a legend, part of a strange chapter in a horrible war.

Mystery of the Term

The origin of the term “foo fighter” is a bit of a mystery. Some websites reported that the name may have been a derivative of “Kung-fu.” How that name came to be used was never made clear. There were also claims that the foo fighters were named after the red sun symbol on Japanese planes. Most sites do agree, however, that the name may have come from a popular 1930s comic strip called *Smokey Stover.*

While the name’s origin is uncertain, the group that first coined the term isn’t. Members of the U.S. 415th Night Fighter Squadron are credited with this honor. They were the first to see and report them during their sorties in the European theater of war.

The term “foo fighter” later came to refer to any unidentified flying objects or phenomena that were witnessed over wartime skies (whether this name was given to actual secret Nazi aircraft — such as the first fighter jet that appeared near the end of the war — has never been determined).

Alleged foo fighters (photo may have been doctored to add them). www.manolith.com

Friend or Enemy?

Although scant reports of foo fighters had been reported earlier in the war, the sightings increased after the Normandy invasion of 1944. Most of the recorded sightings had been made by American and British airmen. Still, they were not alone in reporting these lights. Both German and Soviet pilots saw them.

Most of these sightings were made during night raids. Bombers and fighter escorts flew onward above blacked-out cities and towns and vast oceans. Sometimes, the only light to be seen outside the plane was the running lights of other planes, the stars, the moon, and flak from anti-aircraft guns. Foo fighters became another source of light. Yet, this source was an unwelcome sight for an already alert and apprehensive group of pilots and crew flying over hostile lands.

One wild speculation from the History Channel’s Secret Aircraft of the Luftwaffe speculated that the ball of light was another secret weapon meant to “harass and scare.”

The lights were not dismissed as being aberrations by military officials. Many took them seriously. The lights were appearing at a time when Nazi Germany was launching a series of secret weapons — in particular, the German Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet rocket plane.

One wild speculation from the History Channel’s Secret Aircraft of the Luftwaffe speculated that the ball of light was another secret weapon meant to “harass and scare” the Allied air forces. However, the show didn’t present definitive evidence that proved that such a weapon ever existed.

This leads to another perplexing question: Did the Nazis have technology that would (as reported) keep up with high-flying planes and fly in unison with them? And if this was the case, what was the reason to do so? Intimidate the flyers? If so, it didn’t stop the onslaught of bombing raids that happened near the end of the war.

Also, it should be pointed out that numerous secret weapons and/or plans for other weapons and aircraft were found after the war. But, to date, there has been no document detailing anything resembling the foo fighters.

St. Elmo’s Fire. www.blindloop.com

Foo Fighters or St. Elmo’s Fire?

The reports of these lights were turned over to prominent scientists. Many believed that the lights may have been the after-effects of flak bursts. But, they never truly came to any conclusion about them. And, to obscure matters further, information on foo fighters has never been released by military intelligence (if such files actually existed in the first place).

There has been a lot of speculation about what these lights were. Despite claims of them being a super secret weapon of the Nazis, most of the claims and theories on it are based on natural phenomena.

One picture shows a blob of light on a background of deep blue with what appears to be clouds.

One theory suggests that the pilots saw rare ball lightning. Others claim it was St. Elmo’s fire that was created by the aircraft’s wings. St. Elmo’s fires are electrical weather phenomena that are described as “gaps in electrical charges (Lyton, 2026)”. It often is seen surrounding an object. In the case with foo-fighters it could’ve been seen on tips on plane wings that are surrounded by luminous plasma caused by electrical forces in the sky (i.e., lightning). However, St/ Elmo’s fire is not considered to be lightening or the rare ball lightning.

Photographic “Evidence”

The best evidence for its existence is the eyewitness accounts. Many airmen accounted for the sight and actions of these foo fighters. They often saw it through a plane’s windshield canopy, where light can be easily refracted and create the impression of balls of light in front of them (it may explain why they seemingly moved when they moved their heads).

Many websites — in particular those focusing on the paranormal or UFOs — have published photos that were supposed to be the foo fighters. However, the pictures were often grainy or of poor quality. In other cases, some of these photos (especially when they show a WWII plane in flight surrounded by foo fighters) appear to have been doctored through Photoshop or through an age-old process of “burning” a black-and-white picture (actually exposing a portion of a picture to light or chemical longer than the rest of the photo during its chemical printing process).

One picture shows a blob of light on a background of deep blue with what appears to be clouds. Is this object on the water or in the sky? It’s hard to tell. What is certain is that it looks like glare off of a refractive surface or the reflection of a camera flash.

Connection to the UFO Craze

The descriptions of the foo fighters appear to be eerily close to ones made by Kenneth Arnold, the man who unwittingly started the UFO craze. Arnold was flying his plane near Mt. Rainier when he reported seeing “flying saucers” (hence, where the name originated). He described them as disc-shaped lights.

“UFO’s and fighter planes in the skies over Roswell New Mexico” by artist Mark Stevenson.

His description, however, matches what many of the WWII airmen reported, with two exceptions:

• he witnessed his flying saucers below him and
• it was daylight.

Some pilots, however, reported that these images were fairly common. In most cases, the disc-like lights were reflections of the sun or the lights on the plane’s instruments. This may have explained Arnold’s sighting.

It still doesn’t give a full explanation for the foo fighter. But, it is possible that some of these sightings of foo fighter may have happened during a full moon night. Also, lights from other planes or flak fire could be a likely clues to the foo fighters’ origin.

Whatever may be the case, foo fighters have a special place in military history. It was real to the pilots, and it created a lot of panic among the air forces of World War II. As it stands, it will possibly be one of the great mysteries — and legends — of World War II, as well as in modern times.

Original photo of bomber with (most likely) photoshopped foo fighters.

Work Cited

• American History Museum staff: “Smokey Stover” : Smithsonian Institute (Retrieved 2026)
• Julia Layton: “What is St. Elmo’s Fire?”: How Stuff Works (Retrieved 2026)
• National Air and Space Museum Staff: “1947: Year of the Flying Saucer” Smithsonian Institute (June, 2022).
• Adam Janos: “Mysterious UFOs Seen by WWII Airman Still Unexplained”: History.com (August, 2018)

Related Work

• How the Gremlin Ruled the Sky