The Evidence for Extraterrestrial Colonization of Earth: Alien Base
After the Liberation, Leger got a job at an American Army Air Forces unit, where some USAAF gunners told him that during several missions they were accompanied by luminous disc-shaped objects — nicknamed foo-fighters’ — which they assumed were German or Russian in origin. This conversation later inspired Leger to discuss the 1943 report with his workshop leader, one Sergeant Chappedelaine. The latter informed the colonel commanding the unit, who asked Leger to relate the incident to him in person.
At the end of 1945 Leger began to work with the Renault company in Le Mans, a job he held until his retirement in March 1982. After the war, he followed closely developments in aeronautics, hoping to find information about the unusual aircraft he had witnessed at Gdynia. He studied everything he could about the Peenemunde experimental centre on the Baltic coast, 130 miles to the west of Gdynia, where the Germans developed the V-1 flying bomb, the V-2 rocket and other weapons under the direction of Dr Wernher von Braun.
Of particular interest to him was Hanna Reitsch, the legendary German female test- pilot who had flown aircraft such as the V-1e (a piloted version of the V-1 flying bomb, developed to test control problems with the V-1) and the Messerschmitt Me-163 rocket-powered fighter. Facts Leger gathered about research by German aeronautical experts supported a growing conviction: he had seen a unique fighter aircraft, tested not by Hanna Reitsch, but by a colleague of hers. (Reitsch’s features, which he had seen in various magazines, did not match those of ‘his’ aviatrix.)
Because of the V-7 project — allegedly involving several conventionally propelled German aircraft or helicopters, some with lenticular-shaped wings, which had been developed towards the end of the war — rumours circulated in the sensationalist press that Nazis exiled in South America after the war had developed these ‘flying saucers’, with which they were planning to avenge the Nazi defeat. Such rumours further confused Leger, who remained uncertain how to explain his own astonishing encounter.
Interestingly, there is circumstantial evidence that at least one of the V-7 project aircraft was prototyped. According to the researcher and author Mark Ian Birdsall, several projects involving a circular-wing aircraft were conceived during the war, the most elaborate of which was constructed by Dr Richard Miethe at facilities in Breslau (Wroclaw), Poland, and in Prague. A small prototype was rumoured to have flown over the Baltic Sea in January 1943, and two full-scale aircraft with a diameter of 135 feet were eventually built. Also, reports Birdsall, another V-7 project was a ‘spinning saucer’, based on helicopter principles, about 35 feet in diameter, designed by Rudolf Schriever, a small prototype of which was allegedly first flown in 1943.
Could either of these small prototype aircraft have been the one seen by Leger in July 1943? It is unlikely. Apart from being of differing designs, small prototypes would have been unmanned. This is not to rule out the possibility that the Germans actually produced a number of circular flying machines at this time. The question remains: Did they actually fly? Though the majority of aviation experts are completely sceptical, it is difficult to disregard altogether the testimony of Professor Hermann Oberth, one of the great pioneers in astronautics and the teacher of Wernher von Braun, who claimed, rather extravagantly, that the V-7 and various modifications were responsible for many UFO reports during the closing stages of the war: At the end of the war we developed, first in Prague, then in Vienna, the V-7 helicopter ¯ this could easily have been mistaken for a flying saucer.
Instead of having rotor blades like an ordinary helicopter, the V-7 had rotating tubes which released an ‘exhaust’ of flame. As the tubes rotated, the helicopter appeared to have a circle of flame round it, and at a distance it looked like a shining disc. When it hovered, the flame was dark-red and dim. At higher speeds the disc appeared lighter and the flame looked yellowish, then white.
At its highest speed . . . the V-7 tipped over and flew on its side. A significant feature is that it was extremely noisy in flight, and produced a thick trail in the stratosphere. Dr Oberth (who was firmly convinced that unexplained UFOs were extraterrestrial in origin) added that: ‘The V-7 certainly does not explain UFO reports before the end of the war.’ Certainly too, from information provided by Oberth, the V-7 helicopter was nothing like the grounded disc reported by Leger, and a great deal noisier. Furthermore, despite Oberth’s claim, I doubt that a full-scale version of the V-7 ever flew. Science writer Brian Ford, author of a book on German secret weapons, believes that although some progress may have been made towards the construction of a small disc-like aircraft, the results were destroyed, before they could fall into enemy hands.
Ronald Humble, an aerospace and defence expert, also concludes that there is no hard evidence for German disc-aircraft having actually flown. It was not until the late 1950s, when Leger read about flying saucer sightings as well as the first artificial satellites, that he became divided in his opinion as to the origin of the craft he had seen, though he remained convinced that it was most likely a prototype of a revolutionary aircraft that the Germans were unable to develop in large numbers, owing to the intensive Allied bombing missions at that time.
In spite of his many contacts with first-generation French UFO researchers, such as Rene Fouéré and Marc Thirouin, Léger’s natural reserve prevented him from discussing his experiences with them. Furthermore, he had read about ridicule heaped on many UFO witnesses. Then, in June 1989, he approached Jean Sider. This led to several meetings, and so impressed was Sider that he published the accounts in Ultra Top-Secret.
https://scienceandspace.com/ufos/later-developments-part-2/