On Sunday 31 March, all those interested in UFOs in Norway received not-so-small a shock. NRK public news agency published a long article about, among other things, the case from Bjøringvatnet in 1967, where two ladies and two girls saw an unknown "plane" crash into the water.
NRK journalist Webjørn Svendsen Espeland (and Ingeborg Rygh Hjorten) had managed to get an entire document folder released from the High Command of the Armed Forces. The folder was at the National Archives in Oslo, and contained documents from the period 1954-1970. The entire folder has been scanned and is now available at the Digital Archive. There are 296 pages, but in reality it is only about 156 pages. This is because the National Archives scanned both the front and back of all the documents, and thus the folder contains a number of blank pages.
The folder's title is"Foreign flying objects over Norwegian territory", and it was declassified on 22 January 2024. So what does this folder contain? Is there anything of interest here? Any big revelations?
Besides press clippings and inquiries from the public, both in Norway and abroad, to the High Command of the Norwegian Armed Forces, and the eternal rumors about the saucer on Svalbard in 1952, we find documentation about some reports, among them:
Stavern, 23 July 1954. An unknown silvery object is observed by commanders and personnel during a shooting exercise at Rakke Fort outside Larvik, both visually and with binoculars.
Båsmo, 11 August 1956. Phenomenon filmed by Sigurd Gaasland.
Mjønes/Åstfjorden, 4 September 1956. Object observed in the south-west for 3 hours by 8 people. Looked like a bright dot or star to the naked eye. Through binoculars it looked like an airplane fuselage with wings slightly bent backwards. Shiny glossy. As soon as military aircraft from Ørlandet appeared, the object disappeared.
Ytre Rendal, 5 December 1956. Object from the south, "medium" flight height, speed greater than conventional aircraft, no sound, white light in front and red light behind.
Os/Skjold/Askøy, 17 September 1957. Oval object at high speed northwards, weak curvilinear path, intense white, split in two.
Asker, 22 September 1957. Bright spot in the south-west just after sunset. Probably Venus.
Asker, 6 October 1957. Point of light in a southern direction, after sunset. Probably Venus.
Ullensvang/Hardanger, 15 November 1957. Two luminous objects from north-northeast to south-southwest. Globular with a long tail, one of the orbs split in two, sinking towards the earth.
Oslo, 24 November 1957. Luminous red square object.
Sandefjord/Larvik, 28 November 1957. Strong reddish light in the south.
Kristiansand, 28 November 1957. 3 people observed a luminous object in the south-west, also through binoculars. Stood still at first, then moved in a northeasterly direction.
Oslo, 18 March 1958. Luminous object from north to south, 5-10 seconds, with bushy tail. Probably meteor.
Altafjorden, 1 June 1958. Several witnesses see an unknown plane crash into Altafjorden. Dead fish are discovered in the fjord immediately after the crash. The Norwegian Defense Forces send several ships and divers up and conduct a search for the plane.
Glein, 14 December 1960. Luminous object. Identified as a Norwegian fighter.
Skien, 16 November 196. Dark blue stripe, powerful white light flared up at the tip.
Oslo, 25 November 196. Long silvery rocket-like object on a south-easterly course. Exploded without a sound.
Vardø, 17./18./22. August 1962. Weather balloons and Jupiter.
Kirkenes, 15 March 1965. Luminous object in a north-eastern direction, glossy/green, visible for 4 minutes.
Råstad, 25 May 1965. Strong luminous object in zenith, magnesium-white light, very high speed, disappeared after 30-40 sec.
Ringebu, 3 September 1967. Intensely bright star, low cloud cover/overcast. The star moved towards the observer, descended and was left burning like a bonfire in the form of a giant egg. It had moved so that it was seen towards the mountainside. Glowing with an intense red color, like a bonfire, some rays came from the body that lit up the terrain.
Gardermoen, 24 August 1970. Unidentified object south-east of Gardermoen. Identified as a balloon. Transparent and pyramid-shaped.
Among the most interesting documents we find information on the reports from Stavern 23/7-1954, Altafjorden 1/6-1958, and Aure June 1967. The report from Ringebu 1967 is also interesting.
Otherwise, this seems somewhat thin and sparse. One would think that the Armed Forces would have something more than just a mere 156 pages during the period 1954-1970: 16 years.
We also note a document dated 22 November 1957, in which Lieutenant-Colonel Per Thorendahl (Chief 0 IV/FOK) replies to the flight attaché in London (Lieutenant-Colonel E. Truster), among other things: "During the last 10 years, FOK received a number of reports of unknown flying objects, especially in 1946 when a total of about 135 reports were registered during the months of August-November."
This is interesting because we have found only 44 reports in the newspapers for 1946.
In this context, we have submitted an application to the National Archives for the downgrading of the folder "AV/RA-RAFA-2513/D/Da/Dab/L0081/0007. The Armed Forces, District Command Trøndelag. "Unknown rockets" 1946-1948».
