Mexican mystery missile (1947)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 12 October 1947, about 8:30 a.m. MST (AP: about 9:30 a.m.) |
|---|---|
| Place | Near Guadalupe, Chihuahua, Mexico, about 48 km south-east of El Paso, opposite Fabens, Texas |
| Object | About a metre long, blue or silver, flame at the rear, no smoke, travelling east to west |
| Effects | Double explosion beyond the horizon; a sizeable crater; no casualties or damage |
| Mexican position | A V-2 rocket, as announced by the Mexican War Department |
| U.S. position | Nothing launched; "available information... not adequate to estimate cause" |
| Local explanation | A meteorite |
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Nuclear & missile sites (topic) |
| People | John Homer |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 39 |
| Year | 1947 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1947 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 3 |
On the morning of 12 October 1947 a flaming object streaked across the sky and crashed near Guadalupe, Chihuahua, in Mexico, across the Rio Grande from Fabens, Texas.[1] The Mexican Army said it was another American V-2 rocket, like the one that had come down near Ciudad Juárez that May. The U.S. Army said it had launched nothing.[1][2] The incident reached the State Department and the Air Force's Vice Chief of Staff, but the surviving records never establish what the object was.[1]
The crash
The fullest description is in a message from Major General John L. Homer, commander of Fort Bliss, telephoned to Army Ground Forces at 7:16 p.m. EST that evening. He called it a "minor unusual incident not of national interest".[1]
- Time and place. At 8:30 a.m. MST "an aerial object landed in Mexico" near the towns of "Cussetta-Reforma-Guadeloupe [sic]", opposite the Fabens customs station.
- The object. It was about a metre long, travelling east to west, "blue or silver in color with flame in rear", with no smoke. It was said to have "detonated with double explosion beyond the horizon".
- No harm. There were no casualties and no damage.[1]
An Associated Press report from El Paso described the object soaring over the border "with the speed of a falling star". At least four people saw it, at about 9:30 a.m. It apparently smashed into the Samalayuca mountains "with a loud explosion and billows of smoke", less than ten miles from where a runaway rocket had crashed south of Juárez on 29 May. Later accounts say it left a sizeable crater.[1]
Mexico's claim
On 16 October the U.S. military attaché in Mexico City reported how Mexico had reached its conclusion.[1]
- The sergeant's report. A sergeant of the Mexican Army's 35th Infantry Battalion visited the crater and reported to the 5th Military Zone commander that the object was a V-2.
- The official announcement. On that basis the Mexican defence ministry announced officially that it was a V-2 like the one near Ciudad Juárez on 29 May.
- The attaché's view. The attaché commented that the sergeant was "incompetent to make a declaration as to whether it was or was not a V-2". He added that "an official U.S. Government announcement seems required" because Mexican sovereignty was involved.[1]
Project 1947 notes that the Mexicans were "understandably gunshy" over stray U.S. missiles after the spring incident.[1]
The U.S. response
Homer, who had witnessed the May crash, made a personal reconnaissance and interviewed the available Mexican witnesses. He reported his findings in the same evening message.[1]
- No U.S. source. "There are no military activities at Biggs Field, White Sands Prov Gd or Fort Bliss that could have caused this incident on this date."
- No conclusion. "Available information at this time is not adequate to estimate cause of the incident. The local papers think it is a meteorite."
- Wider attention. The American consul in Juárez had informed the embassy. Local press and the New York Times were checking the story.[1]
Homer told reporters the story was "inflated". The White Sands public-relations officer said no missiles had been fired there since 9 October, and officials at Southwest airfields said no rocket planes were missing.[1] On 15 October Brigadier General Philip G. Blackmore, commandant of White Sands, noted that it was "the only installation that launches V-2's". He added: "thinking back to the flying discs, one wonders if it was anything at all."[2]
The case nevertheless climbed high.[1]
- 21 October. A teletype from Air Force headquarters to the Air Technical Intelligence office at Wright Field reported that the investigation was continuing.
- 27 October. The daily log of Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenberg recorded that the Air Staff was investigating "alleged missiles over Ciudad, Mexico", at the State Department's request. Every station that could have launched a missile had reported negative, except Fort Bliss, whose answer was expected the next day. The case was being referred to the Inspector General.[1]
No final report appears in the surviving records.[1]
The May 1947 precedent
Suspicion of a stray rocket was not far-fetched. On the night of 29 May 1947 a rocket launched from White Sands swerved off course and crashed on a rocky knoll about three and a half miles south of the Juárez business district.[3]
- The crater. According to the El Paso Times, as quoted by Gizmodo, it gouged a crater about 50 feet wide and 24 feet deep. It sent up a mushroom cloud and broke windows, though no one was hurt.
- The cause. White Sands commander Lieutenant Colonel Harold R. Turner blamed the failure of the rocket's German-made gyroscope.
- The reaction. Mexican officials were notably calm about the incident.[3]
Contemporary reports and Gizmodo call it a captured German V-2. Project 1947 describes it as a Hermes II, a missile derived from the V-2.[1][3]
Later interest
The October object is remembered as Mexico's "mystery missile". Project 1947 lists it in its chronology of "ghost rocket" reports.[1] Patrick Gross notes that some Roswell researchers have wondered whether rocket crashes like this, or confused memories of rocket recoveries, fed into later Roswell testimony. He adds that the newspaper report is too ambiguous to settle much.[2] The case is also cited in the book Majic Eyes Only, at page 81. No document in the record links the October object to anything other than an unidentified rocket, meteorite or misreport.[1][2]
People and topics
- John Homer — Fort Bliss commander who investigated the 1947 Mexican "mystery missile".
- White Sands — The New Mexico missile test range.
On the Timeline
- Selman Graves and the Paradise Valley crash claim (October 1947) — Pilot Selman Graves says he saw a crashed craft and two humanoid bodies recovered in Paradise Valley, Arizona.
- Pretty memo on the Horten brothers (1947) (16 December 1947) — A U.S. Army officer reports locating the German Horten brothers, designers of flying-wing aircraft.
See every 1947 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- "The October 1947 Mexican 'mystery missile' crash", Project 1947 · project1947.com · archived copy
- Patrick Gross, Albuquerque Journal, 16 October 1947, UFOs at close sight · ufology.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- "Remember the time we bombed Mexico with German rockets?", Gizmodo · gizmodo.com · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 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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