Four documented cases from June 1–17, 1952.
1952: June 1st–17th
UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
June 1952 opens the year’s peak flap month in earnest — a radar-tracked Hughes Aircraft target that climbed to 55,000 feet, the celebrated Oskar Linke landing case near Hasselbach, Germany, and a steady stream of USAF pilot and radar-operator reports across three continents. Given the volume, June has been split into two archive pages; this page covers the opening seventeen days.
Date: Summer 1952: Windham Ohio Encounter
Date: Summer 1952: Alien found in New York City New York
Date: Summer 1952: 3 Human-Like Aliens in Ukraine
Date: June 1952: Humanoid Encounter in Corby New Town England
Date: June 1952: Newton, England Humanoid Sighting
Date: June 1952: Encounter in Little Spring Creek, Tennessee
Date: Summer 1952
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Time: Unknown
Summary: F-86 shooting incident (see also the related September 1952 case elsewhere in this archive).
Source: Ruppelt
Date: Summer 1952
Location: MacDill AFB, Florida
Time: Unknown
Summary: A USAF Colonel and B-29 pilot investigating a radar target saw a glowing ellipse, which reversed direction and sped away.
Source: UFOE, III
Date: June 1952
Location: Tombstone, Arizona
Time: Unknown
Summary: Cataloged as “Cat 11” — the Williams case.
Source: Unknown
Date: June 1, 1952
Location: Los Angeles, California (Hughes Aircraft Company)
Time: Unknown
Summary: A crew of Hughes Aircraft Company test-section radar technicians, tracking what they believed was an airliner, watched the target suddenly climb rapidly to 55,000 feet, level off, and speed away.
Source: Ruppelt
Date: June 1, 1952 (BBU 1245)
Location: Walla Walla, Washington
Time: 1 p.m.
Summary: Ex-military pilot Reserve Maj. W. C. Vollendorf saw an oval object with a “definite airfoil” perform a fast climb.
Source: Berliner
Date: June 1, 1952 (BBU 1246)
Location: Soap Lake, Washington
Time: Approximately 3 p.m.
Summary: Ray Lottman saw three glimmering objects fly straight and level.
Source: Berliner
Date: June 1, 1952 (BBU 1243)
Location: Rapid City, South Dakota
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Summary: A/1C William Beatty noticed two civilians pointing at something in the sky, then saw five or more long, slender, silver-colored objects flying in a box-like formation with a leader in front, heading south at high speed with no sound or exhaust visible. Watched for 15–20 seconds before disappearance. Beatty was firm that the objects were not conventional aircraft.
Source: Berliner
Date: June 1952
Location: Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland
Time: 12:00 (lunchtime)
Duration: Approximately 2 minutes
Shape: Circle
Summary: A witness, checking the town clock near lunchtime, looked up to see a flying disc almost directly overhead — circular, shining like stainless steel, with a rim that may have been revolving. It was a bright, sunny day with only a few low clouds. The object appeared to descend, roughly the apparent size of a full moon, and made no sound as it lowered further; it entered a cloud and the witness never saw it re-emerge. The sighting was reported through a Royal Air Force contact, who forwarded a form to the Ministry of Defence in London; no further response was ever received. The witness noted that a forester reportedly had a contact encounter in the same area in the 1970s, later covered in the Edinburgh press.
Source: Unknown
Date: June 2, 1952 (BBU 1249)
Location: Bayview, Washington
Time: 5:02 p.m.
Summary: Larry McWade saw a purple object for an unknown length of time. No further information survives in the files.
Source: Berliner
Date: June 2, 1952 (BBU 1250)
Location: Fulda, West Germany
Time: Unknown
Summary: 1st Lt. John Hendry, photo-navigator on an RB-26C reconnaissance bomber, saw a porcelain-white object flying very fast.
Source: Berliner
Date: June 3, 1952
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Time: 9:27 a.m.
Summary: Six to ten targets were detected on the 755th AC&W Squadron’s AN/CPS-6B radar, heading 310° at 25,000 ft, estimated speed 450 mph. The controller checked with the CAA and MFS for flight plans and found none; the targets were declared unknowns and an F-86 was scrambled from O’Hare Field. Flying at 29,000 ft and radar-directed to merge with the track, the F-86 pilot was unable to visually sight anything at the indicated position. At 9:46 a.m. the unknown track turned to 140° and followed the lakeshore, then to 90°, then to 120°, fading out at 10:16 a.m. Target indication was very strong on the PPI scope throughout. Eight aircraft were scrambled from three different bases during the incident; no interception was achieved.
Source: Dan Wilson
Date: June 4, 1952
Location: Stuttgart, West Germany
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Summary: The USAF pilot and copilot of a C-47 transport — pilot Capt. Gerald M. Jones, with Lt. Colonel Whitman (shortly thereafter assigned to Air Force Headquarters Directorate of Intelligence) as a witness — saw a circular object with white lights on its leading edge cross in front of the aircraft at about 7,000 ft, roughly 2,000 ft above the C-47, heading 270° at a speed equal to or greater than a jet fighter’s cruise speed. The object made a tight 145° turn about one to two miles west of the aircraft; Capt. Jones turned to try to intercept, at which point the object approached rapidly enough for him to observe its circular silhouette with white leading-edge lights, before it made a sharp 270°-heading turn and disappeared under the aircraft’s nose. Total observed time: under three minutes.
Source: Weinstein; BB files; Dan Wilson
Date: June 5, 1952 (BBU 1255)
Location: Lubbock, Texas
Time: 11 p.m.
Summary: Dan Benson and Mr. Bacon saw a total of eight yellow, circular, star-like objects — the first two in trail formation, the rest singly.
Source: Berliner
Date: June 5, 1952 (BBU 1256)
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Time: 6:45 p.m.
Summary: S/Sgt T. H. Shorey saw a shiny round object fly five to six times as fast as an F-86 jet fighter.
Source: Berliner
Date: June 5, 1952 (BBU 1257)
Location: Offutt AFB, Omaha, Nebraska
Time: 11 p.m.
Summary: 2nd Lt. W. R. Soper — a Strategic Air Command Top Secret Control Officer and former AFOSI agent — and two others saw a bright red stationary object for 4½ minutes before it sped away trailing a short tail.
Source: Berliner
Date: June 6, 1952
Location: Kimpo AB, Korea
Time: 8:42 a.m.
Summary: A Flight Sergeant saw a flat, cylinder-section disc-shaped object (width-to-diameter ratio roughly 1:7) perform a series of erratic spinning and tumbling motions, level flight, hovering, shooting straight up, more level flight and tumbling, changing course, disappearing into the sun to the east, and reappearing back and forth across the sun. At one point an F-86 fighter passed in front of the object.
Source: Battelle Unknown No. 7
Date: June 7, 1952 (BBU 1260)
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Time: 11:18 a.m.
Summary: The crew of B-25 bomber #8840, flying at 11,500 ft, saw a rectangular aluminum object roughly 6 ft by 4 ft fly 250–300 ft below them.
Source: Berliner
Date: June 8, 1952 (BBU 1263)
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Time: 10:50 a.m.
Summary: Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Markland saw four shiny objects fly straight and level in a diamond formation.
Source: Berliner
Date: June 9, 1952
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Time: Unknown
Summary: Unknown — Blue Book unknown case number is missing from the surviving file.
Source: Berliner
Date: June 12, 1952 (BBU 1269)
Location: Ft. Smith, Arkansas
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Summary: A U.S. Army Major and Lt. Colonel, using binoculars, saw an orange ball with a tail fly with low angular velocity.
Source: Berliner
Date: June 12, 1952 (BBU 1270)
Location: Marrakech, Morocco
Time: 11:26 a.m.
Summary: T/Sgt. H. D. Adams, using an SCR-584 radar set, tracked an unidentified target at 650 knots (roughly 750 mph) at an altitude above 60,000 ft.
Source: Berliner
Date: June 13, 1952
Location: Fox Hill, Virginia
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Summary: An aluminum awning salesman saw an object roughly 25–30 feet in diameter hovering about 200 feet over a group of pine trees, making a slight whistling sound. After about 10 seconds it tilted slightly, then flew upward at a 45° angle and away at tremendous speed. Logged as an OSI UFO report.
Source: Unknown
Date: June 13, 1952
Location: Le Bourget Airport, France
Time: Unknown
Summary: Control tower operators and a pilot watched a brilliant light source hover for about an hour before crossing the sky to the southwest of the field.
Source: UFOE, X
Date: June 13, 1952 (BBU 1273)
Location: Middletown, Pennsylvania
Time: 8:45 p.m.
Summary: R. S. Thomas, an Olmsted AFB employee and former control tower operator, saw a round orange object travel south, stop for one second, turn east, stop for one second, then drop down.
Source: Berliner; FUFOR Index
Date: June 15 (or 16), 1952 (BBU 1285)
Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Time: 11:50 p.m.
Summary: Edward Duke, a former Navy radar technician, saw an unidentified cigar-shaped object near Standiford Field, carrying a light on either side of the fuselage and a reddish hue at the trailing end. It appeared to move at roughly 400–500 mph and maneuvered in several directions for 15 minutes before descending and flying away to the northeast.
Source: Berliner; FUFOR Index
Date: June 16, 1952 (BBU 1295)
Location: Walker AFB, Roswell, New Mexico
Time: 8:30 p.m.
Summary: USAF maintenance specialist S/Sgt. Sparks saw five to six grayish discs in a half-moon formation flying at 500–600 mph.
Source: Berliner
Date: 1952
Location: Catalina area, Tucson, Arizona
Time: Afternoon
Summary: A witness walking a desert trail looking for interesting rocks saw a ball of fire descend and disappear behind a nearby mountain ridge. Walking toward where the light had gone down, she stopped to pick up a sparkling rock and noticed a small gray man approaching, telling her telepathically not to be afraid; she then apparently fell asleep. She woke on an examining table in a small, dimly lit room, where four small gray humanoids with large bald heads and huge bulging black eyes were examining her with instruments, including a light apparatus run up and down her body and small devices apparently implanted in her ear and abdomen. She was also shown a book of strange symbols and a three-dimensional star display. [Full Report]
Source: Wendelle C. Stevens
Date: June 17, 1952
Location: Near Hasselbach, East Germany
Time: 2:30 a.m.
Summary: Oskar Linke, former mayor of Germershausen, was riding home on his motorcycle with his 11-year-old stepdaughter Gabrielle when a tire burst near Hasselbach. Sixty yards off they saw what first looked like a deer but proved to be two human figures in shimmering metallic clothing, examining something on the ground. Approaching to within 30 ft, Linke saw an object like a huge oval warming pan, 40–50 ft across, with two parallel rows of one-foot-diameter holes along the sides and a black cylindrical “conning tower” about 10 ft high at the center. When Linke’s daughter called out to him, the figures — one with a flashing lamp on his chest — rushed back and entered the tower; the saucer’s edge began to glow, first green then red, and to spin like a top as it rose up the tower, before the whole machine lifted off and flew away, leaving a circular depression in the earth. Linke didn’t hear about flying saucers until after he had escaped to West Berlin.
Source: Dr. Leon Davidson
Date: June 17, 1952 (BBU 1299)
Location: Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Time: 1:28 a.m.
Summary: A USAF F-94 jet interceptor pilot saw a light like a bright star cross the nose of the jet. No further information survives in the files.
Source: Berliner
Date: June 17, 1952 (BBU 1298)
Location: McChord AFB, Washington
Time: Between 7:30 and 10:20 p.m.
Summary: Many witnesses saw one to five large silver-yellow objects flying erratically, stopping and starting.
Source: Berliner
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A Radar-Confirmed Climb, the Linke Landing, and the Opening of Blue Book’s Busiest Summer
The first seventeen days of June 1952 read almost as a warm-up for what the month’s back half would bring. Hughes Aircraft radar technicians watched a tracked target climb to 55,000 feet and vanish; an O’Hare-scrambled F-86 chased an unexplained radar track along Lake Michigan’s shoreline for nearly an hour without ever achieving visual contact; and, in the case that would become one of the era’s most reprinted European landing reports, former mayor Oskar Linke and his young stepdaughter came within 30 feet of a landed craft and two suited figures near Hasselbach, East Germany. Around these anchor cases sits the familiar steady rhythm of pilot, radar, and civilian light reports that define the Blue Book record.
“The edge of the saucer started to glow — first green, then red — and to spin like a top.”
— Oskar Linke, near Hasselbach, East Germany, June 17, 1952
