I told him I would look it up in the Star's morgue. Jack said he would
meet me there at three o'clock; in the meantime he would see what he
could find out about Steele.

Jack was a little late, and I went over the Star's file on the foo
fighters. Most of the facts were covered in a story dated July 6,
1947, which had been inspired by the outbreak of the saucer scare. I
copied it for later use:

During the latter part of World War Two, fighter pilots in England
were convinced that Hitler had a new secret weapon. Yanks dubbed
these devices "foo fighters" or "Kraut fireballs."
One of the Air Force Intelligence men now assigned to check on the
saucer scare was an officer who investigated statements of
military airmen that circular foo fighters were seen over Europe
and also on the bombing route to Japan.
It was reported that Intelligence officers have never obtained
satisfactory explanation of reports of flying silver balls and
disks over Nazi-occupied Europe in the winter of 1944-45. Later,
crews of B-29'S on bombing runs to Japan reported seeing somewhat
similar objects.
In Europe, some foo fighters danced just off the Allied fighters'
wingtips and played tag with them in power dives. Others appeared
in precise formations and on one occasion a whole bomber crew

{p. 35}

saw about 15 following at a distance, their strange glow flashing on
and off. One foo fighter chased Lieutenant Meiers of Chicago some
20 miles down the Rhine Valley, at 300 m.p.h., an A.P. war