Ghost rockets
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🛸 Case
Contents 8
| Type | Case |
|---|---|
| Also known as | ghost rocket, Scandinavian ghost rockets |
The ghost rockets (Swedish: spökraketer) were rocket- or missile-shaped objects reported over Sweden, Finland and other parts of Scandinavia in 1946, a year before the term "flying saucer" was coined. About 2,000 sightings were logged between May and December 1946, and the reports drew the attention of Swedish, British and U.S. military intelligence.[1][2]
The wave
The first reports came from Finland on 26 February 1946. Sightings grew through the summer and peaked on 9 and 11 August. Witnesses usually described fast, cigar- or rocket-shaped objects, with or without wings, visible for only a few seconds; some reported slower objects, a hissing or rumbling sound, or objects flying horizontally and in formation, and many saw no exhaust trail.[1][2]
Lake Kölmjärv
Several objects were reported to have crashed into lakes. The best known fell into Lake Kölmjärv in northern Sweden late on the morning of 19 July 1946, when witnesses saw a grey, rocket-shaped object about two metres long hit the water with a large spout. A Swedish army team under Lt. Karl-Gösta Bartoll searched the lake for about two weeks. The lake bottom had been disturbed, but nothing was found. Bartoll reported that the object had probably disintegrated and may have been made of a light material such as a magnesium alloy. Interviewed by Swedish researcher Clas Svahn in 1984, he still maintained that people had seen real physical objects.[1][2]
Official reactions
Because many people suspected Soviet tests of captured German V-1 or V-2 missiles launched from the former German rocket site at Peenemünde, the Swedish military asked newspapers not to publish the location, direction or speed of sightings. On 10 October 1946 the Swedish Defence Staff said most reports were vague, but that some clear observations could not be explained as natural phenomena, Swedish aircraft or imagination, and that radar and other equipment had registered readings without revealing what the objects were. A committee memo of 3 December 1946 recorded nearly 100 reported impacts and about 30 pieces of debris examined by the Swedish defence research institute; the fragments were later described as meteorite material, coke or slag. Of nearly 1,000 reports received by late November, about 225 were judged to be observations of real physical objects.[1]
U.S. interest
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In August 1946 The New York Times reported that Under Secretary of State Dean Acheson was interested in the reports, and that Gen. James Doolittle and RCA president David Sarnoff had arrived in Stockholm, where the Swedish defence chief wanted to put the reports before them. On 22 August the head of the Central Intelligence Group, Lt. Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg, told President Truman that the weight of evidence pointed to Peenemünde as the launch site, possibly for extended-range V-1 developments. No rocket launches from Peenemünde after early 1945 are known, and investigators found no recognisable rocket fragments.[1][2]
Explanations
Investigators concluded that many sightings were meteors; the August peak coincided with the annual Perseid meteor shower. But many reports did not match meteor activity or described apparent manoeuvres. A 1948 document from U.S. Air Forces in Europe, declassified in 1997, recorded that Swedish air intelligence contacts had said some qualified people believed the phenomena reflected a technology not credited to any known culture, though the Americans kept an open mind.[1]
Greece
Similar objects were reported over Greece in September 1946. Physicist Paul Santorini led a Greek investigation and said in a 1967 lecture that his team had established the objects were not missiles before the army stopped the inquiry after consulting foreign officials.[1]
Assessment
The ghost rockets remain unexplained in part. Meteors account for many reports, and no physical evidence of an unknown technology was found. The episode is often seen as a forerunner of the 1947 flying saucer wave.[1][3]
References
- Ghost rockets — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Joel Carpenter, "Ghost rocket chronology", Project 1947 · project1947.com · archived copy
- "The ghost rockets of 1946", Saturday Night Uforia · saturdaynightuforia.com · archived copy
This page was last edited on 31 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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