Later during World War II, foo Fighters often accompanied aircraft on missions, as if some alien intelligence were using these remote vehicles to examine the aircraft and the mission they were on.  Is it possible that these balls of light were actually examining the aircraft for radioactive material?  Material like used in an atomic bomb.  Was the purpose to see if mankind had stepped into the atomic age and attained atomic capability for warfare?

Often small glowing balls play a major part of UFO sightings, are these balls remote probes sent by extra terrestrial intelligences to perform examinations in areas that the extraterrestrials feel would be hazardous to them.

When thought about this seems to make sense if the fighters of World War II had been carrying nuclear armed weapons that could have been used against some examining extraterrestrial intelligence, it would be better to use a probe rather than a manned vehicle in case of  the risk of triggering and nuclear incident.  Another point to think about is if the extra terrestrial intelligences were aware mankind was attaining nuclear capability, and knowing mankind's predilection to turn any source of such power into a weapon, it would make sense for them to monitor how far that threat was progressing.

In the 1970s a pair of these glowing balls were witnessed near Fielding, New Zealand in a paddock performing coordinated manoeuvres in an area close to a main road.  An area that the sighting of an actual UFO would have attracted a lot more attention.

Another sighting which involved a small silver ball and possible abduction encounter occurred in Whangamata in January of 1969, a couple walking along the beach spotted six figures emerge from the back of the sand hills accompanied by a greyish metallic ball which had a flat bottom, and was about 1.2 m in diameter.  The couple began running along the beach with the ball in pursuit.  Suddenly the couple had a feeling of coming around, and found themselves knee deep in the sea with the ball hovering in front of them on the dry sand.  The couple once more fled along the beach, their fear gradually lessened and they found that they had managed to out run the objects of their strange encounter.

From the description of the beings involved in this encounter, very much like large black pawns from a chess game, it appears that the ball was there not only for scouting purposes but also as a defence mechanism, as it was not the beings themselves who pursued the people, as from the description they were very slow-moving and hovered as they moved, but the silver ball that went in pursuit, which in no way put the beings in any danger.

Any advanced civilisation capable of producing craft such as those seen in the UFO phenomena would also be capable of producing sophisticated probes, not only for data gathering but also for defensive purposes.