World War I, London: A German airship bombs and breaks the capital.

They announced an alarm, several airplanes lifted and flew to attack enemy invaders.

Along with the giant Zeppelin, British pilots also see a mysterious object in the sky.

"One of the pilots described him as looking like a railroad car with the lights turned down," said Nigel Watson, who was investigating a hundred-year-old sighting event.

"One pilot started firing at him from his revolver, but the object was so far away that he suddenly came within range:"

The strange incident is just one of many more strange encounters described in Plympton's latest book, UFOs Of The First World War.

There are many more: reading Negel 's book, many reconsider their belief that UFOs - unidentifiable flying objects - did not arrive until after World War II, after 1945.

The truth is that the term 'flying saucer' was first used in 1947 (after someone described an inexplicable object that flew 'in the same way as a saucer that would jump on water after being thrown.')

UFO people have been watching for centuries, but their description has changed over time and evolved.

"It's called 'cultural surveillance,'" adds Nigel. "People tend to see things in the sky that are well ahead of the current technology of the time, but are still within the credibility and capabilities of the time.

"What we see is heavily influenced by media and culture."

Therefore, during the First World War, which took place between 1914 and 18, what people saw, they tried to explain and describe in terms of the time in which they lived. It was the time of airships and biplanes.

Nigel (60) is an expert on the history of UFOs. His latest book is the fourth in a row to deal with this topic.

He obtained data for his work from the files of the war intelligence service, which were stored in the public records office - the police passed the data on surveillance to the government department accused of managing British forces during the conflict. He obtained further data for his work from the press (which has been strictly censored since 1915).

"Military intelligence officials were investigating the sightings," adds Nigel. "Many of them, after several phone calls, were marked as misidentified. Others did not explain at all. "

"There have been many UFO sightings in the Lake District. So they sent an army to look for an enemy air base in Scotland. "

"They have not found anything, even though they have listed the 100 £ (for some of this, it corresponded to the annual salary) for those who would find something."

The Ashburton area was another place of observation. Lieutenant Colonel WP Drury, an officer in a Plymouth military unit, was sent in June and July 1915 to investigate a series of reports of strange hovering lights in the sky.

The officer once witnessed the occurrence of lights and confirmed that further observations appeared on the line of the map that passes through Buckfast Abbey.

"There were some German prisoners there," says Nigel.

"He thought the light might have come from them and signaled to the enemy, but there weren't many war targets in the Dartmoor area."

None of what he found convinced Nigel of the presence of extraterrestrial life in connection with the observations.

He himself says he remains an "optimistic skeptic."