1944—Bomber Encounters Giant Disk

This is one of the earliest "flying saucer" sightings, predating Kenneth Arnold's encounter by more than three years.
I tried a couple searches and nothing came up, so I apologize if I have re-posted this.


Our story starts on August 11, 1944. The witness, Ronald Claridge, was a crew member on a RAF Lancaster bomber returning to its base in England. Ron and his fellow officers were returning from a raid in France, when suddenly Ron's radar screen went blank.

I was the radio and radar operator and as such was concentrating on my 'Fishpond' screen looking for the blips of German fighters... suddenly my screen went blank—I thought it was an electrical failure. I was reporting this to the skipper when he shouted over the intercom, 'What the hell is that?'

I moved into the astrodome, which gave 360-degree vision. I stood looking into the night. On our starboard side was a sight I have never forgotten. By this time our Lancaster was flying straight and level. There was a string of lights shich streched ahead and behind us for what seemed miles.

As my night vision improved I saw a grey saucer-like object emarge as part of the lights. It is still difficult to describe its size... Our Lancaster was a large aeroplane but the only comparison I can make is that we were but a dot on a sheet of foolscap paper. We all watched this object for about three minutes. We watched it shoot away—it was just a flash of light and the vast size was gone in less than a second, without any noise...

The crew was left speechless for some time. Ronald had the feeling that he was being watched, but he and the rest of the crew (strangely) felt very calm and relaxed. The entire sighting had lasted about three minutes.

Upon landing the men were debriefed by RAF intellegence, who warned them not to discuss the incident or make any entry about it in their logbooks.

Ronald was an artist and he made a painting of what he saw that day. I have not been able to locate the picture online, so I took a picture myself of the painting as found in a book. (the book is 'The UFO Files', it is listed in my sources). The picture didn't turn out very well, but you can still see how big this saucer was...





I am surprised this encounter is so little-known, it seems amazing and it occurred some time before Kenneth Arnold had his sighting.

For me, the report seems very interesting. The craft was described as huge, but able to shoot away at incredible speed in an instant. It would also appear that the saucer affected Ronalds radar screen, as it went black only moments before he saw the UFO.

Any thoughts guys?

Sources:

www.ufodigest.com...

The UFO Files: The Inside Story of Real-Life Sightings, by David Clarke

Need to Know: UFOs the Military, and Intellegence, by Timothy Good (look at pages 22 and 23 for information about this particular sighting)

reply to post by thesearchfortruth


is that horizon lookin thing suppose to be the ufo?

reply to post by thesearchfortruth


Excellent S+f for you .
This is unknown to me to , it sounds like an interesting report so I will delve into your link ,

Originally posted by dayve
reply to post by thesearchfortruth

 

is that horizon lookin thing suppose to be the ufo?

Yes, sorry about the quality. That is a painting made by the witness of what he saw.

Originally posted by gortex
reply to post by thesearchfortruth

 

Excellent S+f for you .
This is unknown to me to , it sounds like an interesting report so I will delve into your link ,

thanks gortex
The more interesting link is the ebook, it has the quotes from Ronald Claridge. (the end of page 22 and all of page 23)

Reports like this are always interesting to me, they were made before the the "craze" of saucer sightings were upon us, and before the mass of science fiction films> that this happened during the war is interesting also, I often feel WW2 was the set of sequences that encourage our interstellar neighbours to start taking serious notice of us. Rocket technology being developed in Germany, and nuclear technology being developed in the USA, considering the murderous nature of humans it probably sent serious concerns across the galaxy

For how deep our knowledge exists in UFOs it is amazing to me how little is known still about their occupants...

Inconsistency: Report details seeing lights and 'object' on starboard side of Lancaster aircraft.

The painting, unless it's been reversed shows Lancaster aircraft pointing to right of canvas, where the large lenticular cloud looking thing, if meant to be in the background further away, would then be on the Port side of the Lancaster.

Story says starboard (right hand) side. Painting says port (left hand) side.

Additionally, since that's not a photograph of a photograph, but a photograph of a painting, I can't say the thing that looks like a lenticular cloud is a lenticular cloud, but, I can say that it does indeed look like one.

Edit:
Lancaster Bomber airplane -


Lenticular Cloud -

The painting, unless it's been reversed shows Lancaster aircraft pointing to right of canvas

It is reversed, I used photobooth (a picture taking app for macs) to take the picture. It automatically reverses things.

All you have is my word, but I have the book right here and in it the plane is facing the opposite direction.

I'm sorry about the quality of the photo, I will attempt to take another picture...

reply to post by thesearchfortruth


aha. Please then, for future reference, when posting photos, ensure things are oriented properly, and not reversed. As you can see from this inconsistency, such things are important.

Originally posted by nineix
reply to post by thesearchfortruth

 

aha. Please then, for future reference, when posting photos, ensure things are oriented properly, and not reversed. As you can see from this inconsistency, such things are important.

Yes I apologize

I have fixed the picture now...You can see by the words in the book above the photo that now it is correctly flipped

It's just an artistic rendition of an eyewitness account. I never heard of it before and it's not proof of anything. However, if it's true then this is the first recorded account of a flying saucer (in modern history). So that's pretty cool. S for you.

I do know of the report, but never seen the painting.

Great find! S&F for you!

one of the better early reports hey?
but even the huge triangles have been reported as far back as 1933.......
Man,the vast size of this floating city.....the lanc looks like it could well land on top of the saucer....with room to spare for the rest of the squadron!
Amazing report, and tell the truth, i have to give these sightings from back then way more credit for details emerging.....
We dont get much info these days....before the obfuscation begins....
Once that starts, just as well move on to something fresh and hope for the best.....

The story is great a shame that more of these stories didn't come up more often during the war. But with this one account and the foo fighters the WW2 pilots everywhere must have seen some extraordinary ufos.

reply to post by thesearchfortruth
I enjoyed reading the part where he recalled feeling changed. Whatever he saw, or thought he saw, it must have been quite an experience to be looking out from the astrodome, at several thousand feet, and wondering what had just happened.



The painting does suggest a lenticular cloud, but the multiple witnesses, blank fishpond and particularly the flash and swift departure are at odds with the misperception of a cloud formation.

David Clarke mentions it in his book, The UFO Files, so I'll have to go and dig it out.

reply to post by dayve
This has to be the dumbest comment i have ever seen
Nice thread op S&F....

Good find.

reply to post by Kandinsky

The painting does suggest a lenticular cloud, but the multiple witnesses, blank fishpond and particularly the flash and swift departure are at odds with the misperception of a cloud formation.

Thanks for the reply, and I understand how the object could look like a lenticular cloud...

However in the original painting there are little 'portholes' of some sort, and certainly a lenticular cloud would not have those. Another factor that isn't getting much attention is all the lights lining the craft, I don't really remember lenticular clouds celebrating Christmas.

I have located the second chapter only of 'The UFO Files', but it does not have the section on this incident. However, if you scroll all the way down here on the back cover of the book you should be able to see a miniature sized painting. It's still not very good quality, but you can make out the little lights or portholes on the craft better.

First heard about this case from Tim Goode, he also mentions it in this lecture:



Personally I don't see how any flight crew can mistake a cloud for something else, sure some clouds look strange but to not see how it is a cloud is crazy. Certainly interesting

A cloud with lights? No. A cloud that moves fast? No.

As my night vision improved I saw a grey saucer-like object emarge as part of the lights. It is still difficult to describe its size... Our Lancaster was a large aeroplane but the only comparison I can make is that we were but a dot on a sheet of foolscap paper. We all watched this object for about three minutes. We watched it shoot away—it was just a flash of light and the vast size was gone in less than a second, without any noise...