BIL? B OTTAWA n: r ,uc THE MONTREAL DAILY STAR August 12,1946 SWEDEN SEEKING ORIGIN OF ROCKBT SHOWER STOCKHOLM, Aug. 12-(B.U.P.) The owedish Army sent investigators to central Sweden where rookets were repprted to hav crashed last night during a veritable shower of the mysterious missiles, The first reports seeping through a military blackout indicated the Army investigators found nothing at the scene of the rpported exjLosions, They gave rise to a theory that the rookets are made of material of which little or nothing is lert when they explode in the air. The strange rookets zoomed through the Swedish skies in greater number thn ever before. An Army source said the visitation wa* re- garded as "most serious", He said the time had oome for an all-out effort to establish origin of the rookets. Most unconfirmed theories were that the Russians were experi ment ing with rookets or flying bombs and German soientists were helping them with their work* The Baltic was the favorite testing zone for the Nazi V-weapons during the v/ar, Peenemuende, village in Pomerania near the Baltic, was one of the Nazis1 biggest bases for secret weapons. Rockets were reported to hav crashed at three points or more in central sweden last night. In dispatching investigators, military aughorities hinted that they were seeking information upon which to base protests against firing of the missiles ver this country* They refused to go into detail, The rockets streaked in ver Sv/eden beginning about 9 o1 dock last night, Newspapers in south and central Sweden were besieged with calis from alarmed and curious citizens, Hundreds of callers reported the passage of the comet-like objects v/ithin an hour*s The Army was maintaining a blackout ver exactly what happened, But spokesmen who declined to be identified made it plain that high authorities were coming around to the view that a showdown might as well be sought in the rocicet firing which has been feoing on for weeks* Witnesses said that one of last nightfs rockets passed direct- ly ver Stockholm and exploded north f the city, An editor of the newspaper Aftontidningen, one of the many persons who reported seeing it related: "A brilliant light suddenly appeared on the Southern horizon, on a straight course at an altitude of some 600 feet, Although it could be seen sharply against the dark night sky, a determination of its size and construction was impossible because of its blinding, sparkling tail of blue fire" 60 Feet In Length A Swedish Air Force lieutenant, after seeing one of the rocket* in central Sweden, estimated the length of the body at some 60 feet He said it was shaped like a cigar, with the forepart green and the sies white. It moves "terribly fast" at a low altitude, he said. Many experts think the things which crashed in Sweden were not bombs, but the accumulation of what is leftof propulsion material, with the rockets themselves being radio-dir^cted back to base after a tour of SwedeM.