341 110448 Records Relating to the Collection and Dissemination of Intelligence 1948-1955-TS CONT No.2 2-5300-2-5399

This file holds messages sent on 4 November 1948 from U.S. Air Forces in Europe to General Charles Cabell, then the Air Force’s director of intelligence. They came early in official UFO history, when Project Sign was still weighing whether the objects might be foreign aircraft or something stranger.

What the messages report

One forwards a complete set of reports from a special European Command intelligence unit, advising caution because most were passed on as received. Another relays a sighting from the 307th Bomb Group during an exercise: on 5 September 1948, three bomber crews at 30,000 feet off the west coast of Holland saw an unidentified aircraft cruising at normal jet speed that then left smoke and condensation trails, accelerated suddenly and climbed. The crews agreed it was probably a single jet with rocket assistance and tremendous reserve power; it never came close enough to identify.

The longest, marked Top Secret, says flying saucers kept being reported, including one seen hovering over Neubiberg Air Base for about thirty minutes, so they could not be disregarded. It reports that Swedish air intelligence officers told visiting Americans some qualified Swedish experts thought the objects showed technology beyond any known culture, possibly from outside the Earth. It describes a Swedish expert who saw an object come down in a lake and a navy salvage team that found an uncharted crater on the lake floor. The writers said they would keep an open mind and asked for Washington’s reaction.

Reading it today

These are secondhand reports passed up the chain, not findings. The file does not record what the Swedish search ultimately found.