During the 1950s, Martin Caidin was the official historian for America’s Fifth Air Force during his stint in A-2 military intelligence. In that capacity, he had full access to military combat files. In his book “Ghosts of the Air,” he described a story he found in one of those files that was reported from air force operations in North Africa during WWII--a story that he admitted was “flatly impossible” but that was nevertheless “witnessed, and attested to, by several hundred officers and men of the U.S. Army, and Army Air Forces, who were there.”
Unfortunately, at the time he discovered this record, it was still classified, meaning he could take notes from the document, but not remove it from the vault. In later visits to this vault, that particular file could not be found. In other words, there is nothing to corroborate Caidin’s incredible yarn, leaving him to sigh, “Take it as it is, because that’s what you’re going to get.”
So, the caveat is duly noted. However, it’s such a bloody good yarn, I decided to “take it.”
Our story begins with a day of standard combat operations in the Mediterranean Sea. Among that day’s missions was a long-range patrol of Lockheed P-38 Lightnings, which set off along the North African coast into airspace that was then controlled by the Germans. The Lightnings encountered some of the enemy, and, inevitably, a fierce air battle ensued. When the fighting was finally over, the Americans realized that one P-38 was not accounted for. They were unable to make radio contact with the missing pilot. A search found no trace of the plane in the water. It was as if the P-38 and its pilot had simply vanished into air. Finally, as the other Lightnings began to run low on fuel, the group was forced to return to their home base. The one absent pilot was simply listed as “missing in action.” They still held hope that he had just become separated from the others and would eventually return safely.
However, as the hours went on with no word from the missing fighter, everyone accepted that the worst had happened. Just another casualty of war. Then, the air-raid alert suddenly blasted through the base. Radar had picked up an unknown aircraft heading toward the field. Soon, a P-38 came into view, getting ready to land.
The defense system radioed the plane. No answer. Flares were sent up, as a signal for the pilot to give some response. The plane took no notice of them. When the P-38 was over the center of the airfield, it suddenly began shaking, and to the shock of all observers, the plane suddenly, inexplicably, began to disintegrate mid-air.
The men saw the pilot fall free from the wreck, and they frantically shouted to him to open his chute. The parachute indeed opened, and the pilot fell gently to the ground. As ambulances--and everyone else on the base--frantically drove to the site, it was noted that the man was not moving.
The base’s medical team reached the pilot first. As soon as they saw the body up-close, they could only stand there in stunned disbelief. It was impossible enough to realize that the P-38 somehow approached the base with no fuel left in its tanks, but with both engines running. But when it was found that the pilot had flown the plane and parachuted to the ground with a bullet hole in his forehead…
The man had been killed by German fire hours before.
A report had to be made about the incident, but it was marked “Secret,” hidden away in the most obscure file possible, and everyone involved did their best to persuade themselves that what they had just seen happen…did not happen.
What else could they do? What else could you do?