UFOs have been given different names over the years, based on the era and the description of the object. The “Phantom Airships” appeared in the later half of the nineteenth century. Pilots met what became known as “Foo Fighters” during World War II. In 1946, stories of “Ghost Rockets” flooded the skies of Scandinavia. The phrases “Flying Saucer” and “Flying Disc” were both used in the summer of 1947. People nowadays talk about “Flying Triangles.”
Yes, during WWII, the name “Foo Fighter” was commonly used to describe what was witnessed. During the war with the Nazis, however, the word “Disc” was also employed. When I conveyed this to a specific UFO researcher recently, he had a complete meltdown.
He told me that I was mistaken, adding that the term “Disc” was not coined until 1947 in reference to mysterious “objects” in the sky. As I already stated, this is incorrect. Granted, many people – even within Ufology – may be unaware of how frequently the term “Disc” was employed during WWII. I’ll give you two instances, but there are many more.
The following is from the in-house newsletter of the British Royal Air Force’s, 115 Squadron, from the later part of WWII (the precise year is unknown): “Under this title, accounts of strange and magnificent apparitions observed during our (and American) airstrikes on Germany appear from time to time. We’ve asked a member of our local Inner Circle for his thoughts on the current incarnation of magic. “Believe it or not, this is his tale.”
“On the 11th of December, the Yanks paid one of their daytime excursions to Emden,” the paper adds, a little jokingly. The weather was clear and visibility was superb. In the target region, an unidentifiable item was spotted. It was the size of a Thunderbolt and flew 50 to 75 yards beneath the formation.
That soared straight and level (no, fellas, it wasn’t a Lanc. gone insane…) at incredible speeds, leaving a vapor trail that lingered for a long time. The thing moved so swiftly that the observer couldn’t get a better idea of what it was.
“Suggestions will be welcomed…serious ones…as to what this Loch Ness Monster of Emden could have been,” the paper concludes. (If the publication lasts that long, the prize is a free issue of our News Sheet for a year.) Another of the assaulting planes was struck by a length of wire that pierced the nose.
Something coiled twenty feet around the nose, and the bomb door opened. The wire might have been pulled behind a fighter that had just launched an assault on the bomber, or it could have been linked to a parachute shot by a rocket projectile, albeit no parachute was observed. The wire is currently being examined in the hopes of providing further information on the incident.
There were several reports of silver and red discs over the formations [italics mine]’ in another attack, this time on Bremen. These have been observed previously, but no one has been able to figure out what they are for. Please provide suggestions.”
Then there’s a paper sent to Colonel Kingman Douglas, Royal Air Force Intelligence Wing-Commander Smith, and the British Air Ministry Wing-Commander Heath. We’ve been told:
“Annexe to the intelligence report mission Schweinfurt, October 16, 1943. A partially unexploded 20mm shell carrying the following figures, 19K43, was found above the panel in the cockpit of A/C number 412, according to the 306 Group. The steel in the shell, according to the Group Ordinance Officer, is of low quality. Near Schweinfurt, the 348th Group reports a cluster of discs [italics mine] in the formation’s route; there are no E/A [Authors note: Enemy Aircraft] overhead at the moment.
The discs were characterized as silver-colored, one inch thick, and three inches in diameter [again, emphases mine]. They were floating down in a pretty regular pattern. A/C 026 was unable to dodge them, and his right-wing smashed into the cluster, causing little damage to the engines or the plane’s surface. One of the discs [again…] struck the tail assembly, but there was no explosion.
A quantity of black debris in clusters of 3 by 4 feet around twenty feet from these discs [and one more]. Two more A/Cs were also seen flying through silver discs with no apparent damage. I saw discs [the last one] and debris two more times but couldn’t figure out where it came from.”
These are only two of several documents from World War II that refer to UFOs as “Discs” several years before the term “Flying Disc” was used in 1947 by the British government. The “Discs” were characterized as being only a few inches in size in some of the declassified wartime archives. However, on other instances, pilots reported “Discs” that were several feet in diameter, and in some cases considerably larger.
While we’re on the subject of names, it’s worth mentioning that the phrase “Unidentified Flying Objects” was first used just two months after Kenneth Arnold’s June 24, 1947 encounter. Many people were thinking “Flying Disc” and “Flying Saucer” at the time. The pertinent document is dated August 1947 and comes from the US Air Transport Command’s Weekly Intelligence Summary.
“Unidentified flying objects [italics mine…again…) has been sighted by three enlisted soldiers of the 147th Airways and Air Communications Service Squadron at Harmon Field, Guam,” according to the text.
You can find the document online at the UFO section of the FBI’s website, The Vault.
