Early UFO Disc Reports.

[Karl12]

Considering they're not meant to exist, flying discs do seem to pop up quite a bit in government documentation..

Silver rotating UFO over US Atomic facility


• Flying discs over Hanford Nuclear plant


• Flying disc over Topcliffe


• Circular objects over Langley AFB


• Rotating saucer shaped object over Georgia


• Maxwell AFB Emergency Report - Flying Saucer


• Disc shaped object over Minot AFB - 1966


• Flying disc over Chicago's O Hare airport - 1952



Documents

..and contrary to popular belief flying disc reports also seem to pop up in the literature way back before the 1947 Kenneth Arnold case.

For folks interested there's some relevant research below delving into the historical aspect citing Dewitt Miller's early UFO reports (who was himself sourcing Charles Fort) and the page is well worth a look for anyone with an interest in (or opinion on) the UFO subject.


















Link








• Charles Fort - First Ufologist?

Charles Fort was an early-twentieth-century thinker and writer often credited with "inventing" the supernatural, or the paranormal, by creating a neutral category for anomalous observations, discoveries, and experiences.

Before Charles Fort, anomalies were typically explained away, or else absorbed into pre-existing explanatory frameworks like religion and mythology. Thanks to his efforts, they can now be set aside for further research, even if they're still often ignored in mainstream science.

[Karl12]

Anyone aware of any other early pre 1947 flying disc reports then please post as it would be interesting to see just how many are out there.

I know I've read quite a few over the years and there's an intriguing daylight case below from 1927 where pilot Bertand Acosta reported 'four manhole covers' flying alongside his aircraft.





See 46:10














Also some pretty freaky descriptions below involving flying disc shaped objects taken from the Spanish Civil War of the 1930's.

UFOs Over Spain During The Civil War.



Researchers have gleaned a wealth of accounts which make mention of this type of object, since at the start of the century, when no one spoke of flying saucers and much less of UFOs. In fact, some ten years prior to the start of the modern UFO age and Arnold’s sighting, Spain was fighting its Civil War.

Located at a considerable distance, and at an altitude of 200 meters, the soldier saw an object resembling “a Mexican hat” the color of flat aluminum. The sun’s rays, reflecting off its surface, enabled him to see that it was a metallic device. It flew slowly as it approached the witness’s position. It was then that he was able to observe it with greater detail:

“Seen from below, its shape was exactly that of a cartwheel. In its center, from where the spokes emerged, it had what looked like a photo camera lens and gave a sensation of depth.”

When the object approached even closer, passing almost directly overhead, the soldier was even able to make out some curved black windows which appeared on the side of the remarkable “Mexican hat”. The following is a transcript of an interview with the ABC Andalucía newspaper:


Link

The article now hides behind a paywall but here's Nick Redfern on WW2 'discs'.

Yes, “Foo Fighter” was the primary term used to describe what was seen during the Second World War. But, the term “Disc” was also used during the hostilities with the Nazis. I mentioned this to a certain UFO researcher recently and who practically had a fit. I was wrong, he assured me, stating that when it comes to unidentified “things” in the sky, the word “Disc” was not used until 1947.

Actually, that’s wrong, as I pointed out. Granted, many people – even within Ufology – may not know just how widely “Disc” was used during the Second World War..

See Link.

..These are just two examples of many from the Second World War – and declassified by the British Government – which refer to UFOs as “Discs” several years before the term “Flying Disc” was created in 1947. In some of the declassified wartime files, the “Discs” were described as being mere inches in size. On other occasions, though, pilots reported such “Discs” as being several feet in diameter – and in a few cases even bigger.

And, while we’re still on the game of the name, it’s worth noting that the words “Unidentified Flying Objects” were used as early as just two months after the Kenneth Arnold sighting of June 24, 1947. This was when the words “Flying Disc” and “Flying Saucer” were on the minds of many. The relevant document originated with the U.S. Air Transport Command’s Weekly Intelligence Summary and is dated August 1

Mysterious Discs Of The Second World' War

• E-Books:


• New Lands by Charles Fort

• The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort

• Passport to Magonia - On UFOs, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds (PDF File)

[midicon]

Just a quick reply here. My memory tells me that Arnold didn't describe discs or saucers. The saucer thing came from how he described their movement...like scipping stones. Then the flying saucer meme took off.

I also fancy that perhaps what he saw was some sort of atmospheric mirage phenomenon given his description of their movement. Like traffic in a line at night on an undulating road over the horizon.

Or indeed the world war two flying wing aircraft developed by Germany (Horten Ho 229 ).

[Karl12]

Just a quick reply here. My memory tells me that Arnold didn't describe discs or saucers. The saucer thing came from how he described their movement...like scipping stones. Then the flying saucer meme took off.

Yes fair point mate and I suppose I should have mentioned that in the write up - it's brought up in the 'UFOs In The Spanish Civil War' article along with erroneous assumptions about the flying disc 'meme'.

Ten years would have to pass before the so-called “modern age” of UFOs would kick off in 1947 with Kenneth Arnold’s famous sighting. However, strange flying objects and their crews were already plowing across our skies, even as Spain was embroiled in a civil war.

Nationalist and Republican soldiers at the front wondered what those unidentified flying objects might be.

“Kenneth Arnold did not describe the objects he saw as “flying saucers”, rather he said that the artifacts he had seen moved like saucers skipping off the water’s surface.” It was the press that came up with the equivocal designation. Curiously, from that moment onward, witnesses described objects resembling flying saucers.” this is one of the arguments wielded by pseudo skeptics to deny the reality of the UFO phenomenon. To them, the UFO “myth” was born from a journalistic error. However, the truth is quite different. The “champions” of rationalism forget (whether intentionally or not) that much before Arnold saw those boomerang-shaped objects (for this was the actual description given of the objects), hundreds, if not thousands, of witnesses around the world had already described disk-shaped unidentified flying objects.

And Spain was no exception.

Link

Kenneth does pop up in this vid where he's not too happy about pilot UFO sightings being ignored and apparently he also reckoned UFOs and USOs are one in the same.

When it comes to the sheer number of disc reports from that year then also found these two books to be a good read:

• Report on the UFO Wave of 1947 - by Ted Bloecher, Introduction by Dr James E. Mcdonald.

Link





• Alfred Loedding and the great flying saucer wave of 1947 - by Michael D Hall & Wendy A Conners.

PDF File

Oak Ridge, Hanford etc certainly had a few eyebrow raising 'incidents' and Bruce Maccabee goes into more detail below about Fred Johnson's Mount Adams case and the Snake River Canyon sightings.

[Karl12]

Never known a UFO source being put behind a firewall before lol (they usually just delete them).

Anyway looks like the same day as the Roswell newspaper report there were six flying discs over Catalina:





Saved Content:

One of the first such reports to make it into the local paper, was the supposedly widely-viewed account of several “flying discs” over Avalon in 1947, just about the same time as the infamous Roswell incident...

Not as widely reported at the same time, however, were a number of other “disc” sightings both before and after the Roswell incident.

On the evening of June 26, 1947, U.S. Army Major George Wilcox of Warren, Arizona, reported a series of “eight or nine” disc-shaped objects traveling near his home and at an altitude of about 1,000 feet above the nearby mountains.

That same evening, a Captain E.B. Detchmendy reported seeing a “white disc glowing like an electric light bulb” passing over Pope, New Mexico, a sighting echoed by several local townspeople.

Dozens of other sightings—many by military officers—were reported in the region in the coming days and weeks.

But the Southwest wasn’t the only venue.  Similar sightings were reported throughout much of the western United States as far north as Washington State and as far west as California—including Catalina Island.

On July 8, 1947, the very same day that Roswell’s Daily Record was reporting the initial “flying disc” story, a remarkable incident reportedly occurred in the skies above Avalon.  An article on the front page of the week’s issue of the Catalina Islander details an alleged sighting by three visiting Army veterans of six “flying discs” traveling at high speed from the northeast and passing directly over Avalon before disappearing over East Peak.

According to the story, the six discs appeared at about 1 p.m. and flew in a formation of two sets of three and were witnessed not only by the veterans, but by “hundreds” of others as well.

Alvio Russo, one of the reported witnesses and an Army Air Corps veteran who had flown 35 bombing missions over Germany with the Eighth Air Force, estimated the velocity of the discs at “850 miles an hour,” according to the story.

Bob Jung, listed as a “former aerial photographer” agreed with this estimate and said they were flying roughly as fast as the U.S. Navy’s “Tiny Tim” rocket, which he had photographed numerous times for the Navy.



Firewalled Link?

Mysterious Island: UFO Action Galore

Also looks like the Catalina islands have been a UFO/USO hotspot for decades (and decades) now:

Writes Ann Druffel,


“This body of water lies between the coastlines of Southern California and Santa Catalina Island, 20 miles offshore to the southwest. The area has for at least thirty years been the scene of UFO reports of all kinds: surface sightings of hazy craft which cruise leisurely in full view of military installations, aerial spheres bobbing in oscillating flight, gigantic cloud-cigars, and at least one report of an underwater UFO with uniformed occupants.”


Another researcher, Robert Stanley, editor of the now defunct magazine Unicus, writes,


“Even in the sixties, families were going down to the beach and waiting for a UFO to pass by…. By the 1970s, whole families were going down to the beach at Point Dume at night to watch the multi-colored UFOs [that] would sink under the water at times.”


MUFON field investigator Bill Hamilton writes,


“For years witnesses have seen many types of UFO cruising off the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Southern California. UFOs have actually been seen to come out of the water in the San Pedro Channel.”

UFOs/USOs Off The Southern California Coast

[Karl12]

Other early disc reports:

Date: September 2 1902
Location: Lowestoft, England
Time: 07:00
Summary: A daylight disc was observed by a female witness.
Source: Hatch, Larry






Date: 1901
Location: New Haven, Missouri
Time: Night
Summary: A flying disc was observed. One disc was observed by three witnesses, two of them an experienced observors, in a forest (Welter). A noise was heard
Source: Rogerson, Peter World-Wide Catalog of Type 1 Reports






Date: 1905
Location: Bucovina, Romania
Summary: During the evening a retired doctor saw a brightly glowing elongated, saucer-shaped object bigger than the moon traveling steadily westwards.
Source: Hobana, Ion






Date: Mid- 1900
Location: Caddwst, UK
Time: Dusk
Summary: A flying disc was observed. One disc, about 20 feet across, was observed by one female 12-year-old witness in a forest.
Source: Lorenzen, Coral E. UFOs: The Whole Story Signet T3897, New York, 1969

Link

Some other old Australian reports - first three examples also describe paralysis from occupant light beam.

• 1893 Central New South Wales

An anecdote handed down within a farming family told of an extraordinary UFO story that was alleged to have happened in 1893 in Central New South Wales.  A farmer claimed that a saucer-shaped object landed in a paddock on his property.  As he approached the object, a man in strange clothing emerged from it.  The farmer walked towards the being. The stranger shone some kind of beam at him, whereby the farmer was thrown to the ground, stunned.  His hand where the beam had hit him was paralysed for life.
Source:  Chalker, Bill The Oz files. Duffy & Snellgrove. Potts Point, NSW. 1996. p.28.  Citing that the story was told to Dr Miran Lindtner, UFO Information Centre, Sydney in the 1960's.

Note:
1.  Details similar to the 1919 Central NSW case and the 1913 Nuriootpa, SA case.  Are one or more of these three similar events, a distorted recollection of an original story?






• 1919 Central, New South Wales

While travelling down a country road, a man came across an artifact resting near the roadside.  He saw that a 'man' was apparently working on it, and went over to offer assistance.  The stranger turned as if surprised and pointed something at the witness, who was knocked senseless.  When he came to, the object and the man had gone. He found that his memory was never the same again.
Source:  Chalker, W C. “The CEII experience in Australia.” “Australian Co-Ordination Section” (for the US based Center for UFO Studies) Bulletin, March 1977, number 9, p11.

Note:  Note the similarity with the 1893 Central New South Wales report and the Circa 1913 Nuriootpa event.






• Circa 1913 Nuriootpa, South Australia

A farmer discovered a landed object and was “zapped” by a humanoid which appeared from within it, leaving a lasting paralysis in the witness.
Source:  Personal communication from Darryl Tiggeman of Adelaide to Keith Basterfield. 2004.  Citing the source as a radio talk back show featuring Adelaide UFOlogist Colin Norris in circa 1984.

Notes:  Note the similarity with the 1893 Central New South Wales event and the 1919 Central New South Wales case.






• 1911 Gumeracha, South Australia

As a young lad in 1911 a man had been working on his father’s farm, milking cows.  While carrying two buckets of milk, he felt a pain in his head and placing the buckets down, he observed, in front of him some distance away, a disc shaped object.  It was about 10 feet across and was silver and glowing like the Moon.  He watched it for about 15 seconds, then it rose into the air and disappeared at a very fast rate into the horizon.
Source:  UFOPI’s “Panorama” magazine Volume 3 Number 5 page 18, Jul-Aug 1964






• Spring 1921 Prospect, Adelaide, South Australia

One evening, a man named Felix Jones saw a circular-like saucer.  It was 12-15 feet across, and 3 feet deep.  It was a lightish colour but reflecting green from within it.  It had neither wings nor propeller, but did have rectangular windows.  It was seen in the north-north-west, stationary from three minutes.  It then moved off to the west, slowly, then quickly.  When it moved it glowed at the back.
Source:  Australian Saucer Record volume 2 number 4 1956 page 7.  The item stated that the report was received 15 Oct 1956.






• 1924 60 miles south of Coolamon, NSW

‘Some years ago, an elderly man, Ian Rogers, rang me about an incident when he was a boy in 1924.  One morning he was checking their rabbit traps in the Lysterfield State Forest, south of Coolamon.’  He heard a humming noise and saw a landed object, some 100 yards distant.  It was a ‘long, cylindrical shape, rounded at both ends, with four square windows along the side.  It was at least 30 feet long…’ At one stage ‘people’ got out of it. It then flew off into the sky.  The witness said the ground was burnt black and trees singed.  At one stage he said he had a ‘small piece of metal’ and that ‘When I rubbed it with my hands it would move off of its own accord.’
Source:  McGhee, M. (2016.) ‘Contact Down Under.’ Independent Network of UFO Investigators. Katoomba. Pp 97-98.






• 1925 Moora, Western Australia

Two young men came across an object resting in a paddock.  It was described as two saucers on edge, with oval shaped 'windows' and four 'legs.'  The men beat a hasty retreat and didn't return for several days.  When they did, they reportedly found the earth scuffed about.
Source:  Chalker, W. C. “The CEII experience in Australia,” “Australian Co-Ordination Section” (for the US based Center for UFO Studies) Bulletin, March 1977, Number 9 p12.






• About 1945 Wilcannia NSW

‘A senior police officer told me of an elderly country woman, now deceased, who saw a traditional flying saucer, during daylight hours, near Wilcannia, in Western New South Wales, in the 1940’s, just after World War 2.  She claimed that after reporting the sighting to the authorities, she received a letter from the Australian Air Force confirming the report, and warning her not to tell anyone about the craft.  The police officer attested to having seen the letter, which appeared to be genuine.

Source:  McGhee, M. (2016.) ‘Contact Down Under.’ Independent Network of UFO Investigators. P. 112.

A CATALOGUE OF PRE 24 JUNE 1947 AUSTRALIAN UNIDENTIFIED AERIAL PHENOMENA

Also quite a few pre -1947 reports of unknown objects submerging into (or emerging from) the world's oceans found in USO archives and below are a few potential disc shape candidates

1943: Persian Gulf

Seaman Matthew Mangle, from the bow of his ship, sighted a huge disc beneath the surface of the water. The object, glowing with a soft, greenish light, paced the ship at about 12 knots before speeding up and moving out of sight.





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Feb 26, 1942

When in the Timor Sea, the cruiser Tromp was approached by a large aluminum disc that flew at tremendous speed. It then circled the Dutch vessel for about three to four hours. Finally, it flew off at an estimated speed of 3,000-3,5000mph.






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1945

Object witnessed by crew emerging from ocean aboard the U.S. attack transport 'Delarof':

Summer of 1945; Aleutian Islands

A large UFO was seen by crew members of the U.S. Army Transport Delarof which had been hauling munitions and supplies to Alaska. Robert S. Crawford was serving as one of the Army radiomen aboard. The attack transport ship, heading back to Seattle, was in the open sea past Adak. Crawford was on the port side near the radio room when he heard shouts from some of the crew. He turned and saw a large, round object which had just emerged from the sea..





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May. 15, 1879

Persian Gulf. Two very large "wheels" were seen spinning in the air and slowly coming to the surface of the sea. Estimated diameter: 40 m. Distance between the objects: 150 m. Speed: 80 km/h/ Duration: 35 min. Witnesses aboard the ship "Vultur"





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1929 - Saucer/Disc

..about a sponge diver in his home town of Tarpon Springs, Florida. It seems that an old Greek sponge diver back in 1929 was underwater doing his sponging in his old-type sponge diver’s suit and helmet, and as he looked up from what he was doing, he saw a saucer-shaped silver disk fly by him under water with lights on it, and then it flew by him again, this time in the other direction.





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1910 The Danish Meteorological Institute

Capt. Breyer of the Dutch steamer Valentijn was in the South China Sea, midnight, Aug. 12, 1910, he saw a rotation of flashes. "It looked like a horizontal wheel, turning rapidly." This time it is said that the appearance was above water. "The phenomenon was observed by the captain, the first and second mates, and the first engineer, and upon all of them it made a somewhat uncomfortable.

[Karl12]

Report of silver disc zig zagging object - Argentina, July, 1947.



Argentina's First UFO Sighting – 1947

A serious person and - according to his son - not much given to rumors...Therefore, this gentleman told the following story over the dinner table: at the break of day on Monday, he saw a silvery object shaped like a disk pass by at an incredible speed at an estimated altitude of 1000 meters. It was disc-shaped, flying in an impeccable zig-zag pattern. Suddenly, it plunged vertically, falling into a field five hundred meters distant from the observer's perspective..

Source: El Día (Argentina) and Marcelo G. Metayer
Date: July 13, 1947

Link

[Blaine91555]

[sup]Ezekiel 1: 15-21
15 [/sup]Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.
[sup]16 [/sup]The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.
[sup]17 [/sup]When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went.
[sup]18 [/sup]As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.
[sup]19 [/sup]And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.
[sup]20 [/sup]Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
[sup]21 [/sup]When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

Matthew 2: 7-10

7 Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.
[sup]8 [/sup]And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.
[sup]9 [/sup]When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.
[sup]10 [/sup]When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

[Karl12]

Each to their own mate

Here's one from Argentina in the early 1940's - EM effects also reported on police car.


Eyewitness sketch:

After covering a significant distance in the police car, their guide pointed out the possible impact site: There, some 200 meters away from the group, near a hill, was an exceedingly strange, glowing, disc-shaped object, which remained on the ground and in their sight. Surrounding the object was an undetermined number of figures that “came and went”.

At a distance, these being appeared to be very tall, clad in seemingly metallic and luminous outfits. They moved slowly and they carried in their hands what looked like “mugs”. We must imagine such a sight in the early 1940s.

THE FIRST HUMANOIDS IN ARGENTINA

[VulcanWerks]

Good topic to call out!

Reports of disks or “lights in the sky” go way back in history - albeit not as concisely or specifically reported like the above examples.

To me, very early reports like the ones above reinforce “they” have been here for a very long time - which puts my money back on “them” being “watchers” of us as humans and more specifically what we are doing to the planet/environment and recon about our evolution.

An aside, I think there’s a non-zero probability they have been here longer than we have.