What Were Foo Fighters?

In the latter stages of the Second World War, some Allied pilots flying on missions over Germany reported sightings of strange, brightly-lit balls or discs that would follow their aircraft for miles. They called these objects Foo Fighters. The Foo Fighters did not show up on radar yet were reported to have extraordinary manoeuvrability and be capable of moving at remarkable speeds.

Often pilots reported that the presence of the Foo Fighters caused disruption to the aircraft's on-board radar systems and missions were sometimes aborted for this reason. The Foo Fighters were mentioned in many official reports of the period and there was speculation that they represented some kind of Nazi secret weapon, perhaps a remotely-controlled radar jamming device. More mundane explanations were also offered. Some scientists expressed the view that the so-called Foo Fighters were no more than a manifestation of the well-known electrical phenomenon known as St Elmo's fire.