Unknown object on ground - Oslo, Norway - 1943

Hi all,

This post continues with material drawn from audio recordings made by James E McDonald, during his visit to Australia in 1967.

One of the individuals whom McDonald interviewed, was a Mrs I Palmer, of Melbourne, Victoria. She told McDonald about a sighting which had occurred in December 1943, some 30 kilometres from Oslo, the capital city of Norway. The whole event lasted some twenty minutes, and was observed by Mrs I Palmer; a Captain L Witzke; a Mr O Ortland and some other not named Norwegians. 

After I provide the details found in the audio recording, I will add some additional information from an issue of the Australian Flying Saucer Review, published in 1967. 

The event - from the audio recording

Two Norwegian families saw these lights.  It wasn’t talked about at the time, as the Second World War was taking place during this time.

Three cars were travelling down a mountain, in Oslo Fjord, 30 kilometres from Oslo, Norway.  The occupants of the cars saw a, ‘Strange thing,’ on a clear night.  It was a moving coloured light.  It was initially seen as a light, then as an object on the ground.  The object was 18 metres in diameter and on the ground.  It looked like a big church bell, but flatter.  They actually saw the light settle on the ground.

Image courtesy Google maps

It was first seen as a yellow/orange coloured glow, 500 metres away.  They saw it over the fjord, and coming towards them.  They thought it was an explosion and then it came closer.  The engines of all three cars stalled at a point where they saw the object on the ground.  They later thought, ‘Magnetism,’ may have caused the cars to stall.  They all got out of the cars and walked towards the object.  The object then departed straight upwards, before turning and travelling away horizontally.  The object may have been warm, because the snow had melted in an 18 metre diameter circle where the object had landed.

Mrs Palmer said that she had heard of other sightings as follows:

1. Same type of object seen in the north of Denmark.  Tractors, etc, could not be started.  Date unknown. 

2. Near Hanover, Germany in about 1948, ‘A crop circle,’ was found.  An object was seen in the cornfield.

The Australian Flying Saucer Review

AFSR 1967 Number 5 front cover

The December 1967 issue of the Victorian edition of the Australian Flying Saucer Review (number 5) on page 17, carried an article titled 'UFO lands in Norway - in 1943. Witness described first recorded E-M case. By Neville Thornhill.

The former secretary to a Norwegian shipping corporation executive has reported a strange sighting of a UFO with accompanying E-M effects, which she and friends observed on the Oslo Fjord.

The witness (personal particulars on VFSRS file) says the sighting occurred between 10 and 11 o'clock one night in December 1943. Her report is a s follows:

"The sighting occurred as some friends and I were having supper opposite the wharf in Oslo Fjord. Suddenly, we saw a light which appeared to be on the wharf. Fearing sabotage, we hopped into our cars and drove to the wharf. As we drove around the mountain road, we entered an 's' turn. When we were approximately on the inner 's' of the turn we were in a direct line with the object. At this stage all three cars stalled and could not be started again.

Leaving the cars we travelled down a snow-covered hillside towards an object which appeared to be an orange light shaped like a church bell.

As we came out of the trees to some open flat land where the object was stationary on the ground, my three companions wanted to stay behind in case some sort of sabotage was taking place. This I refused to do, and so all four of us approached close to the object from which was emanating a hissing sound like air being released from an air compressor. On hearing this, I threw myself in the snow fearing that someone was going to start shooting at us.

Moments later, the object rose up and hovered some 9 or 18 feet above the water. It then moved off at a fantastic speed without any apparent acceleration. Finally, it turned to a deep blue colour as it disappeared from sight towards the open Oslo Fjord.

As soon as the object had disappeared, my companions and I examined the spot where it had rested and observed a crater-like impression which looked like a saucer from a tea cup. The inner ring of the depression was about four and a half feet in diameter and about three feet deep. Outside this diameter, the snow had melted as though heat had been generated by the object. The heat had caused the snow to melt in such a way that that at a distance of 54 feet the snow had not melted at all, whereas inside this diameter the snow had melted gradually, until at four and a half feet it had melted completely.

The cars stalling, the crater in the ground and the bell like light moving away. What was it at this early stage where only the V-2 rocket had been developed?"