British author Graeme Rendall comes as an altogether peculiar figure of a researcher, a specialist on World War II history and aircrafts, as well as a passionate for ufology, with a rich series of books and articles on a variety of topics.
As of UFOs his name came to prominence in 2021 with the publication of the book UFOs Before Roswell: European Foo-Fighters 1940-1945 , dealing in detail with sightings made by (mainly Allied) pilots in the European theater of operations during the World War II.
In that book Rendall showed a remarkable care in researching and examining mission reports kept in military archives: each reported sighting was almost invariably accompanied by precise data concerning the names and ranks of the airmen involved, the department to which they belonged and the serial number of the aircraft (for American ones also the name given by the crew and normally shown on the nose along with the relevant nose art), the times and every available detail of the mission: all data being taken from the original and official mission reports. And for each sighting, or type of sighting, a precise examination and evaluation of the German technology available at that time was provided, so that a possible confirmation of the identification proposed by the witness or by charged intelligence officer can be evaluated properly. A truly enormous amount of competent work, indeed!
But Graeme Rendall did not only limit himself to that (which would already be enough to make the work an absolute must for those interested in these topics), he also went on to examine the myth of the so-called Nazi flying saucers, showing the flimsy basis on which it has been built over the years. At the same time, while not bordering on the conspiratorial side but keeping instead his feet firmly on the ground, he showed that there is still much to be said and reasoned about the Foo Fighters, beyond the half-baked explanations offered over the years.
The author announced a second volume devoted to the examination of similar sightings which occurred on the Pacific front during the WW II. Such a work of his has not yet been published, alas, but in the meantime Mr. Rendall had no less then four more volumes printed, all of them devoted to pilot sightings, with the same detailed and specialized style as the first one, one for each two-three years of UFO history:
- Dawn of the Flying Saucers: Aerial UFO Encounters & Official Investigations 1946 – 1949
- Flying Saucer Fever: Aerial UFO Encounters 1950 – 1952
- Intercept and Identify: Aerial UFO Encounters 1953 – 1954
- Chasing Shadows: Aerial UFO Encounters 1955 - 1956
The short time frame in which these books were published (between 2022 and early 2024) may generate the wrong impression of a haste and lack of attention for a correct historical depth, but that’s far from true: all those volumes are well-documented works of the highest standard and of great interest to both the researcher and the buff about this category of aeronautical UFO reports.
We can only hope that the author continues in this way and that his book series is soon enriched with new chapters.
