The Fighters of Foo

Toward the end of the second World War, U.S. Air Force flyers patrolling the German skies would encounter a number of strange aerial phenomena in the area between Hagenau in Alsace Lorraine and Neustadt an der Weinstrasse in the Rhine Valley. Similar to modern reports of UFOs or so-called "flying saucers," these objects would come to be referred to as "Foo Fighters" ("Foo" being slang for the French "feu" or "fire") or, by those who believed the highly maneuverable balls of light to be a newly developed German weapon, "Kraut Balls."