Ghost Rockets
In 1946 was an occurrence of unidentified flying objects in the sky over Sweden and neighboring countries.The first report came in the February 26, when around 2000 observers from Finland spotted the phenomena which were later verified by radar returns. There were also fragments collected after the incident by local authorities, which is when the phenomenon were thought to be ghost rockets.
It is though that the sighting of ghost rockets was caused by meteors coming from space.
The reason being, is that when the most sightings were observed there was an annual meteor shower. The only problem was that the usual sightings during a shower are unheard of which meant the theory was inconsistent with the many reports.
To this day people continue to debate where the ghost rockets came from and what caused them, however one possibility is that they came from a facility in Peenemunde where German rockets were under long range tests. When this possible explanation was put forward the Swedish Army ensured that newspapers did not give the exact location to the general public. They were also stopped from reporting the direction the ghost rockets travelled or the speed.
The first theories were disbanded by British, Swedish and American military due to the fact no fragments of rockets were found. The ghost rockets didn't have a trail which usually occurs when a missile is fired, plus they were going too slow and were manoeuvring into formations. The sightings were mainly consistent with being of rocket speed and in the shape of a missile that was missing wings. They were only seen for seconds at a time and people reported that they emitted a rumbling sound.
Although crashes were not a rarity they usually crashed into lakes. It was in lakes that some reported seeing objects crash and that before they sank they first were propelled across the lakes surface. The lakes that were affected were explored however apart from a few craters and plants being torn no evidence was found.
The most reported crash happened on July 19, 1946. The object was reported to have crashed into Kolmajarv in Sweden and witnesses said that they heard a loud noise. The area was explored by military in secret but nothing was reportedly found. The leading officer Karl-Gosta Bartoll made a report which said that although there were signs of disturbances in the lake nothing was found to verify the cause. it was said that maybe the object had disintegrated if it was created using lightweight material.
Because many of the reports by onlookers were pretty vague they were treated with scepticism. Of the people that had more in depth reports there has yet to be an explanation for the sightings. Unfortunately even though radars picked up on the objects they didn't give any more information that could explain them.
Over 100 reports were made and retrieved from the site were 30 bits of debris. This was at the beginning of December when it was reported that the objects were definitely physical and every single one was noticed during daylight. The ghost rockets brought attention from America where the US intelligence made non public documents which were leaked to the times.
It was thought that it was an experiment to check radars while studying the market. Another theory came on August 22, 1946 when the CIG director wrote a memo which was supposed to be secret stating that the evidence indicated that the missiles originated from Peenemunde. It was thought the missiles were developed to be of extended range and aimed at the Gulf of Bothinia to intimidate, but self destruct while in transit however there are no reports to verify this.