The UFOs of 15'

1915, the early days of man made flight, and a time of turmoil as the planet shook from the effects of the Great War raging through Europe.

In the midst of this, there are a number of interesting UFO accounts to be found.  Since military activity was high, experimental aircraft could account for some of the reports of strange activity in the skies.  That seems to be the likely explanation behind a case out of Russia.

Ufologists Phillip Mantle and Paul Stonehill reported on an encounter from September 1915 out of the Kazan region.  Reportedly, locals observed an object described as a huge balloon traveling through the sky.  Witnesses also reported hearing the sound of a motor roaring and saw spotlights shining down from the object.  Additional reports from the same time describe a cigar shaped object with a large fin hovering over a village in the region.  Witnesses to the event also claim they observed humanoid shapes in a "boat' under the belly of the object.  In hindsight, this could well have been a dirigible of some type, especially considering the human shapes in the basket, or boat, under the object.

Not so easy to explain is a weird encounter from Scandinavia:

Sulitjelma, Norway, summer.  Six year old Bjarne Westvand witnessed a dark, bell shaped object descend from the western sky and land behind a hill.  Two humanoid figures came from behind the hill and approached a nearby road before they turned and headed towards the witness.  Once close, the humanoids stopped and one of them smiled at the young boy.  The figures were described as being the same height as the child (about 3 feet) and had long, wavy hair, gray skin and oversized heads.
The beings were dressed in brown or dark coveralls and after a moment, walked back behind the hill.  Shortly afterwards, the bell shaped craft rose up and quickly disappeared in the sky.

A puzzling, object observed the same year also leaves many questions in the air:

It's another report from Norway and involved a witness named Hansen.  One evening in the town of Bergen, around eleven o'clock, an object that appeared twice as large as the moon showed up in the northern sky.  The object was stationary for about 30 seconds, descended and stopped for about 15 seconds, then rose back to its former position.  The witness watched as the object repeated the same actions another two or three times, then it suddenly sped away and vanished over the western horizon.  The weather was clear and the object was described as being brown-red in color.

Perhaps the weirdest account I've run across so far from 1915 comes out of Puglia, Italy.  Purportedly, several locals captured what they described has a "little green man."
The report is listed in several UFO related sources, but unfortunately no one has been able to track down any further details.  There could be nothing at all to it, or it could be a fascinating case.  If there's any truth behind the story, there could be a fascinating account buried somewhere in Italian documents.