The Pentagon released 41 files on Friday, the fifth release in a row, on unidentified flying objects. They describe, among other things, the so-called "ghost rockets" that hovered over Sweden, most of them in 1946. They are said to have been described as "shiny cigar-shaped objects." The Swedish Armed Forces set up a special committee to investigate the phenomenon.
Well over a thousand reports were received by the Swedish military and it was written about in Swedish newspapers basically every day for about six months, says Clas Svahn, UFO expert and chairman of Archives for the Unexplained in Norrköping.
Shaken in the boxes
The "ghost rockets" were seen by several people, sometimes entire villages. Sometimes they hit lakes, but at best, pits were found at the bottom or stones thrown onto land, according to Clas Svahn.
The only thing you can say for sure is that they are physical objects. You hear the sound they make, the splash when they hit, you see the column of water being thrown up into the sky.
In one case, an object fell into Lake Kölmjärv in Norrbotten. The impact was so strong that it vibrated and shook the windows of the houses.
There is a common thread, says Clas Svahn.
If you look at the best cases, they happened between eleven and one o'clock. Always in good weather, and with a landing in a lake. In July, or early August.
Never found
A pilot, Gunnar Irholm, spotted a “ghost rocket” during a reconnaissance mission. He tried to catch up with it, but was stopped by a thunderstorm.
They don't have time to catch up with it, but watch it disappear into this thunderstorm. Whoever flew the object wasn't worried about flying into it, says Clas Svahn, who interviewed Irholm about the incident.
Whatever it was Irholm saw, it was never found.
One hypothesis was that they were V-bombs that the Soviet Union had brought with it from Nazi Germany, according to Svahn.
But during this year, 1946, they didn't shoot any, they were busy trying to get them to the Soviet Union. They examined them, and absolutely didn't shoot any over Sweden. That would have been an enormous risk.
There is generally a shortage of good theories about the "ghost rockets", according to Clas Svahn.
It stands out as something genuinely enigmatic, he says.
