04-09-1970

04-09-1970

MYSTERY FLYING OBJECT ROLLS ALONG A GERMAN ROAD

by Hubert Malthaner

Herr Malthaner, who lives In Munich, has been an Investigator of the UFO problem for twenty years. He served for twelve years in the technical branch of the Luftwaffe and is now a teacher in a vocational school. His German text, and the English version of it which he was good enough to supply, and which were dated March 1972, have been collated and edited by Gordon Creighton.

On April 9, 1970, a retired electrician named Max Krauss, aged 65, was walking along a country road towards his home in Langenschemmern after a shopping trip to Aufhofen (Kreis Biberach/Riss, Württemberg, South Germany), when he had the strangest encounter of his whole life, which he is today still able to describe precisely, in all its details. His account is as follows:

"It was at about 4.00 p.m., a disagreeable sort of afternoon, with an almost completely overcast sky. Just as I was leaving Aufhofen, I heard what seemed like two sound-barrier bangs, though not as sharp and hard as they usually are, but quite dull, as though muffled in cotton-wool.
"I was walking along on the left side of the road, in order to face the oncoming traffic. The wind, quite boisterous, was in the direction of 255°, and was catching me in the rear at an angle of about 15° from the left. On the slightly sloping macadamized road, to the right, was water from the recent rain, which was flowing out from a field track.

"Suddenly, I can't say why, ! turned round, and was astonished to see what looked like a torn-off portion of the skeleton of a plant coming whirling along on the right-hand side of the road. I waited for the wind to drive it into the ditch. But, on the contrary, despite the boisterous cross-wind, the 'something' carried on its course, straight ahead, close to the ground. Slowly it overtook me, on the right-hand side of the road, and I could now see that this was no plant. What at first glance had looked like the skeleton of a plant was in fact a transparent ball some 40 cms. wide, which had spokes inside it

Detail map of the district showing the location of the sighting. scale; 1:25000.

Key: a. direction of wind

b. route taken by witness

c. point where object took on water

d. flight path of object

"From a dark spherical nucleus with hazy edges there came eight radials or spokes which, as viewed together from the centre, all projected at an angle of 70° or 75°. The spokes tapered off towards their outer extremities, their tips extending to the perimeter of the globe, which was almost as clear as glass but non-reflecting. Seen from where I was, the thing was rotating on a vertical axis and anti-clockwise, and was floating, indeed gliding along, rather than rolling, a mere hand's breadth above the ground.

The Scene of the Sighting

A=150 M along the road

B=Where it stopped and took in water

C=Where it crossed the road

D=Point of vertical takeoff

"As the thing passed me, I increased my pace and stepped out after it. At the moment of the encounter I was not frightened, merely astonished and curious. But I was incapable of doing anything whatsoever: such as picking up a stone, or going over to the thing and giving it a kick with my foot. I was stopped from doing so, and could only look on and observe. The thing may have rolled along in this way beside me for about 150 metres or so. Then it halted, did a right-angle turn towards the little stream of water, and stopped there. The rotation stopped too.
"What I now observed is beyond my power to comprehend. From the dark centre of the ball there emerged, downwards, something resembling a hose-pipe, which bent itself back and upwards like a 'U' and then writhed about sideways several times (see sketches). In the bend that was nearest to the ball there appeared a gleam like brightly glowing hot iron. The glowing colour grew darker towards the more distant convolutions, and was only visible on the outward facing sides of each convolution of the hosepipe.

"The hosepipe started wriggling about like a worm, extended itself, and went down to the ground. I am convinced that it reached into the water. The 'worm' remained there for a short while, and then was drawn back in again. At the same time, the central part of the ball changed colour throughout half of its radius, becoming milky, like water just before it boils. The outer shell of the ball now displayed a bluish tinge, somewhat like the ionized air to be seen around electrical high tension generators. Then the strange object slowly started its rotating, gliding movement again, passed across the road, quite close to me, to a point a pace or so into the field. And there it vanished, so absolutely silently, and at such lightning speed, straight upwards into the sky, that I was unable to follow it with my eyes.

"One thing however that did strike me was that, shortly before the occurrence, all the birds had flown off in the opposite direction. Never before have I seen a crow move its wings so fast.

"Next day I made a search of the surroundings, but without finding anything remarkable, I also took a photograph of the section of road in question. At the time of the experiences I suffered no harmful effects in any respect. My wife dismisses my story as a piece of fantasy. If the affair ever becomes known here locally, I suppose it will be all up with my reputation.

"I assure you that I have told the truth in every respect."

* * * * *

Having been an investigator of the U FO Phenomenon for many years, I was able to glean the following additional details in a thorough interrogation of Herr Krauss:

(1) In the dark central portion of the ball, which portion was only faintly visible, a tetrahedral prism was seen briefly by the witness as the object passed by him.

(2) The spokes were telescope-shaped and probably extensible. Their colour seemed to be greyish-green (as though anodised). The thin outer points of the spokes were about 3 mm. thick.

(3) The four spokes on the left-hand side showed a 45° displacement with regard to the four spokes on the right side.

(4) The hosepipe was ten times as thick as the points of the spokes (i.e., it was 30 mm.).

(5) The diameters of the component areas of the ball were approximately as follows:

Dark nucleus 10 cms.

Milky zone 20 cms.

Bluish transparent outer shell plus tips of the spokes 40 cms.

(6) Over the distance of about 150 metres for which the witness and the object were proceeding side-by-side, the gap between them was no greater than precisely the mere width of the road, that is to say 6 metres. Just before its take-off the distance between the object and the witness was only 2 metres.

Herr Krauss is a quiet, well-balanced man with over 40 years of experience in electrical installations, automobile electrical equipment, and as a specialist on engines. His hobby now that he has retired is amateur short-wave reception.

The sketches illustrating this article were made by me under his guidance.

Note by Gordon Creighton

While many of the details are admittedly different, this case puts one most powerfully in mind of Charles Bowen's Cross-Country Cog Wheels (FSR, September/October 1966) in which he describes the fantastic "cog wheel" which, at Attignéville, France, at 1.30 p.m; on March 26, 1966, "rolled" in a dead straight line across the fields without the slightest wobble or deviation, for a distance of at least 700 metres, despite a very gusty cross-wind, being observed by a shepherd and passing close to his flock of sheep which were alarmed by it. The "cog wheel", estimated to be about 80 cms. in diameter (or twice the size of Herr Krauss' ball) was doing about 25-30 km.p.h., and the shepherd's two dogs apparently failed to catch it. These two cases certainly deserve to be studied together.

This reference: Flying Saucer Review. Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 15-17, July/August 1972.

UFOCAT – 65154

UFOCAT URN – 075917 UFO Nachtrichten, March 1971

UFOCAT URN – 065154 Flying Saucer Review, July 1972, p. 15

UFOCAT URN – 089542 APRO Bulletin April 1976, p. 4

UFOCAT URN – 088711 Flying Saucer Review, May 1976, p. 19

UFOCAT URN – 109643 MUFON UFO Journal, September 1976, p. 6

Europe – Germany, Baden-Wurtte

Munich – München Latitude 48.09 N, Longitude 11.35 E (D-M)

Langenschemmern Latitude 48.10 N, Longitude 9.48 E

Aufhofen Latitude 47.56 N, Longitude 11.32 E

Reference: Germany-Federal Republic and West Berlin Gazetteers Vol. 1 & 2, Prepared in the Office of Geography, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.

UFO Location (UFOCAT) Latitude 48.10 N, Longitude 9.80 E (D.%)