What happened
Ringwald noticed eight to ten balls of red fire moving very fast to the west. Schlueter turned toward them and they disappeared. Meiers named them "foo fighters" after the Smokey Stover comic strip. In an AP story of January 1, 1945, Meiers described three kinds: red balls off the wingtips, a vertical row of three, and a cluster of about 15 flickering lights in the distance. He said one followed him 20 miles down the Rhine Valley and turned when he turned. Ringwald later sent a report listing 14 incidents from December 1944 to early January 1945 to XII Tactical Air Command, which asked SHAEF for help.