My colleague Roland Horn was kind enough to gift me the book "Flying Saucers and Gremlins" by T. Angiola, for which I would like to express my sincere thanks! The author primarily focuses on a phenomenon so bizarre that I had to double-check the facts on the internet first, as I had never heard anything about it before!
Mysterious Visit in the Cockpit
It concerns reports from British and American pilots who, in the time frame between the 1920s and 1950s, suddenly received a "visit" in their cockpits from entities that most closely resembled our elemental beings, such as fairies, dwarfs, goblins, etc., and acted like characters from a cartoon.
The pilots referred to the creatures as "gremlins," which is derived from the Old English word "gremian" or "gramian," meaning something along the lines of "to vex," "to irritate," or "to disquiet."
The Gremlin Question in the Second World War
Most reports emerged during the Second World War, increasingly during the "Battle of Britain" in 1940. In 1942, the "Royal Air Force Journal," edited by a certain Hubert Griffith, covered this in an article titled "The Gremlin Question" and naturally speculated about psychological approaches to a solution.
The first case mentioned in the book is said to have taken place in 1923 on or over Malta, which at that time was equipped with a British air force base.
A pilot took off from there in an AVRO 504. When he reached regular cruising altitude, a small figure materialized in his cockpit:
A blue creature, no larger than 30 cm, equipped with pointed ears and a nasty grin on its face. It was encased in a spherical "bubble" and boldly grabbed the control stick in order to plunge the machine into the sea.
The pilot survived, though that is likely to have been his last flight, as he reported exactly what had occurred – an unconventional way to ruin one's military career.
By the way, it is astonishing how many crews reported their contacts, even though the consequences should have been perfectly clear to them!
Encounters Over the English Channel
In 1943, over the English Channel, a B-24 Liberator was en route, whose pilots suddenly noticed stowaways:
One of the creatures was the size of a beer glass, appeared to be "female," and possessed a shimmering, oily skin and eyes that looked "intelligent."
The companion was dressed in black and yellow and was apparently the male counterpart. They, too, immediately began tampering with the control stick to provoke a crash, which in this case was in vain, however, as the Americans managed to prevail in the struggle.
After the assassination attempt failed, the perpetrators vanished without a trace! In the same year, the Royal Air Force published a report in which the incidents were addressed once more, released as "Notes on Aerial Phenomena."
Similarities with the Foo Fighters
It is revealing that the Allied bomber pilots at that time were confronted with two different (?) phenomena:
Foo fighters, meaning pursuing balls of light, as well as the aforementioned gremlins, who often arrived in a "bubble" or "sphere."
The question naturally arises whether both phenomena are connected – who was sitting inside the foo fighters?
German pilots were not familiar with either phenomenon, at least they reported nothing of the sort, which was perhaps more sensible and spared them a psychological examination!
The creatures appeared as if from a cartoon, reflected legendary and fairytale figures, and in some cases communicated telepathically with the pilots. In places, the entities patched into the pilots' radio communication and babbled incomprehensible things.
A Psychological Weapon of Berlin?
The phenomenon "jumped" over to the US Air Force, and a 1943 memo speculated whether the creatures might have been a psychological weapon of Berlin.
It remains unclear how many aircraft were "grounded" by the visitors. Taking sides for a combatant is remarkable!
I have already reported on National Socialism and its occult roots in a previous article!
