June 1945 — Four anchor cases: nine-year-old Chebotaryov's recorded conversation with an occupant at Taganrog Bay, the Delarof sphere off the Aleutians, a Baka-bomb radar scare south of Okinawa, and unexplained fireballs over Japan. thinkaboutitdocs.com.
1945: June UFO & Entity Sightings Archive
June 1945‘s strongest entry is also its strangest: on the shore of Taganrog Bay, a nine-year-old boy named I. Chebotaryov watched a fifteen-foot metallic disc smash into the shallows near where he was fishing, then a silver-suited occupant emerged, spoke to him in plain Russian, invited him aboard, and — when the boy politely declined because his mother was expecting him for fried fish — apologized, climbed back in, and submerged like a submarine. Elsewhere the record is more familiar: the Aleutian Delarof sphere makes its third and best-dated appearance in this archive, a naval officer south of Okinawa braced for a Baka bomb that outran his radar at a thousand miles an hour, and a 9th Bomb Group veteran on Tinian recalled, decades later, asking General LeMay himself what the “balls of fire” over Japan had been — and getting no answer, because there wasn’t one.
Date: Summer, 1945
Location: Aleutian Islands, past Adak
Time:
Summary: Aboard the US attack transport Delarof, 14 sailors saw a dark sphere rise out of the ocean, follow a curved trajectory, and fly away after circling their ship. An official report on the incident was reportedly sent to Washington. [Full Report]
Source: Robert S. Crawford witness account, NICAP investigation and Dr. James E. McDonald interview, 1967; NICAP UFO Evidence, 1964, Hall, IV; Magonia #54
Editorial note: This same case, with matching core details, also appears on this archive’s January page (dated simply “1945”) and March page (dated “Mar. 1945”). Based on named witness Robert S. Crawford’s own account as independently investigated by NICAP and Dr. James McDonald, this “Summer, 1945” dating is treated as the most reliable of the three and is where the full report for this case now lives.
Date: Summer, 1945
Location: South of Okinawa, Pacific
Time: 11:00 AM
Summary: E. L. Wells, then a Lieutenant J.G. serving as interceptor officer aboard the escort aircraft carrier USS Salamaua (CVE-96), and his group were disturbed by a radar “blip” traveling toward them at a terrific rate of speed. No shape could be distinguished, but the object was estimated at roughly 1,000 miles per hour, on a course of zero-one-zero, inbound from the direction of Formosa and heading toward Japan. Fearing a Baka bomb (a Japanese rocket-propelled guided suicide weapon) but noting it was moving faster than a Baka’s known performance, the crew braced for impact. After tracking the contact to within a few miles of the ship, it was lost on the radar’s next sweep.
Source: E. L. Wells witness account, USS Salamaua (CVE-96) Source Status: VERIFIED — named witness with specific rank, role, and vessel hull number.
Date: Summer, 1945
Location: Taganrog Bay, Sea of Azov, Rostov region, Russia
Time: Daytime
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: Nine-year-old I. Chebotaryov, fishing alone for his family’s meal, watched a metallic, disc-shaped “giant plate” descend and smash into the shallow water of a sandbar only a few feet from him, soaking him in the impact spray. The disc was approximately 15 feet in diameter. Bubbles rose around it, and a silver-suited occupant emerged, wearing a non-transparent oval helmet and a dark tank-like device on its back, and approached to within about 20 feet. After a silent standoff, the boy asked if it was from the Moon; the figure replied in fluent Russian that it was from another planet, deflected further questions, and invited the boy aboard. When Chebotaryov declined, citing his mother’s expectation that he return home for dinner, the figure expressed regret, walked back to the craft — barefoot, with unusually long toes — and told the boy he could tell others of the encounter but that no one would believe him. The craft then rose, hovered, and submerged into the bay like a submarine. [Full Report]
Source: Rullan; thenightskyii.org, “Russian Youth Meets Aliens,” naming the witness as I. Chebotaryov and providing the full recorded dialogue
Date: June, 1945
Location: Burbank, California
Time:
Summary: Well-known photo of “Jack LeMonde” (pseudonym) on horseback with a tall-turreted saucer visible over the horse’s neck.
Source Status: DISPUTED — not believed to be a deliberate hoax, but almost certainly a simple misidentification/double-exposure involving a street lamp, per detailed photographic analysis at rr0.org/Dossier/1945_LeMonde/ (in French).
Source: Credit: Jerome Beau and his RR0.org website, as pointed out on UFO Updates.
Date: June-July 1945
Location: Area of Japan (9th Bomb Group, based Tinian Island)
Time:
Summary: “During our night missions in June and July a UFO phenomenon was reported. Our air crews started sighting balls of fire, i.e., glowing objects about the size of a full moon which flew around in the vicinity of our flying patterns over Japan. One of our crews reported that one of the objects followed their airplane half way to Iwo Jima. I saw them on two missions. I don’t remember any reports of any hostile action by these objects and the reports of sightings stopped after a couple of months. The object of these reports was dismissed by some experts as the planet Venus. And, after these reports started coming in, some crews did mistake the rising full moon as one of these balls of fire. Some reports speculated that these balls of fire were exhausts from a Japanese development called a Baka Bomb, but exhaust flames can only be seen from the rear; and these objects appeared to have the same size and intensity in whatever direction they were traveling. I have never heard of any official assessment as to what these objects were. I had an occasion to ask General LeMay about them several years after the war and he had no explanation. I am sure that what I saw was neither Venus nor the moon nor a Baka Bomb; hence, for me, they were UFOs.”
Source: 9th Bomb Group History, Chapter 3, pages 27-28 Source Status: VERIFIED — named unit veteran account, published unit history.
Date: June 18, 1945
Location: Japan
Time:
Summary: A fluctuating light, round in shape, that changed from bright red to dim orange.
Source: Page 180 Ref.1 (NICAP)
Date: June 19, 1945
Location: Japan
Time:
Summary: B-29 followed by a strong white light.
Source: Undocumented
Editorial note: The Summary and Source fields for this entry were transposed on the previous version of this archive (the sighting description appeared under “Source,” and “Summary” was left blank). Corrected here.
Date: June 19, 1945
Location: Fukuoka, Japan
Time:
Summary: One bright ball of fire; no fuselage or wings observed.
Source: Undocumented
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
June 1945 — A Boy, a Bay, and a Very Polite Alien
The Taganrog Bay encounter is, on its face, one of the more remarkable entity contact cases in this entire archive: a full recorded dialogue between a nine-year-old and a silver-suited occupant, ending in a courteous decline of an interplanetary invitation because dinner was waiting at home. This revision names the witness — I. Chebotaryov — for the first time on this page, sourced to a secondary compilation that preserves the full exchange. The sourcing (a single named secondary source, “Rullan,” plus one further website reproduction) is thin by this archive’s usual standards for a case this dramatic, and it’s carried here as Insufficient Data rather than Unexplained accordingly — the account is detailed enough to deserve full treatment, but not corroborated enough to certify.
The Aleutian Delarof sphere appears on this page for the third time across this archive’s 1945 pages, and this revision identifies “Summer, 1945” — the dating used here — as most likely the correct one, based on named witness Robert S. Crawford’s own account as independently investigated by NICAP and physicist Dr. James McDonald. A naval radar officer’s near-collision with an unidentified Mach-1-plus contact south of Okinawa, and a 9th Bomb Group veteran’s decades-later admission that not even General Curtis LeMay could explain what he’d seen over Japan, round out a month that closes with the war in the Pacific still five weeks from its end — and several of its stranger questions no closer to answered.
“It’s a pity that you do not want to come.”
The Taganrog Bay occupant’s reply, per witness I. Chebotaryov’s account, after the nine-year-old declined an invitation aboard the craft.
