Case description
This wartime story entered print retrospectively through Harold T. Wilkins's 1955 book Flying Saucers Uncensored. His unnamed informant, described as an Australian air-force major, placed it in the summer of 1942. The crew were supposedly patrolling after fishermen reported lights at sea. At about 5:50 p.m., east of the Tasman Peninsula, a bronze-colored airfoil emerged from cloud and flew alongside their aircraft.
The witness estimated a length near 150 feet and width near fifty, with a beaklike prow, rippled surface, upper cupola and finlike tail. Sunlight reflected from something inside the cupola that might have been a helmet; the account expressly left an occupant uncertain. A grinning cat emblem within a white circle was described on the dome. Blue-green flashes came from below. The object then accelerated away, revealed underside fins and reportedly plunged into the sea, producing disturbed water.
The informant said the crew did not report it at the time for fear of being grounded. No corroborating contemporary operational record has been located in the consulted source review. Later catalogues vary between 1942, an assigned August date and even 1944. The season-only ledger date is therefore retained without converting it into an exact June day. The Cheshire cat is a claimed marking, not an entity; the image does not turn the possible reflection into a confirmed alien pilot.
