Following the event, the Ministry of
Defence (MoD) denied that it posed any threat to national security and
stated that it was therefore never investigated as a security matter.
Later evidence indicated that there was a substantial MoD file on the
subject and this led to claims of a cover-up. Some interpreted this as
part of a larger pattern of information suppression concerning the true
nature of unidentified flying objects, by both the United States and
British governments (see the UFO conspiracy theory). However, when the
file was released in 2001 it turned out to consist mostly of internal
correspondence and responses to inquiries from the public. The lack of
any in-depth investigation confirmed that the case was never taken
seriously by the MoD.
Location
Rendlesham Forest is owned by the
Forestry Commission and consists of approximately 15 square kilometres
(3700 acres) of coniferous plantations, interspersed with broadleaved
belts, heathland and wetland areas. It is located in the county of
Suffolk, about eight miles (13 km) to the east of the town of Ipswich.
The incident occurred in the vicinity
of two military bases (now both abandoned by the USAF). These are RAF
Bentwaters, which is situated just to the north of the forest, and RAF
Woodbridge which extends into the forest from the west. At the time,
both were being used by the United States Air Force (USAF) and were
under the command of wing commander Colonel Gordon E. Williams. The base
commander was Col Ted Conrad, and his deputy was Lieutenant Colonel
Charles I. Halt. It is Halt’s written memo to the Ministry of Defence on
the incident, and his personal involvement in the second night of the
sightings, that has given the case credibility.
The main events of the incident,
including the supposed landing, took place in the forest, almost a mile
(1600 m) to the east of the East Gate of RAF Woodbridge.
Orford Ness lighthouse, which skeptics
identify as the flashing light seen off to the coast by the airmen, is
another five miles (8 km) further east of this location.
All these locations are shown on the
adjacent map. Commentators have published more detailed maps of the
location and a modern aerial view of the region can be found on Google
Maps.
Date
Retired Sgt. John Burroughs (LE)
states that the events took place over three successive nights (pm into
am); 25th-26th, 26th-27th and 27th–28th December 1980. One of the key
pieces of primary evidence—the “Halt memo”, described below—suggests
that the first sightings were on the 27th, rather than 26th. However,
the memo was written almost two weeks after the event and its author
later agreed that he had probably made a mistake in his recollection of
the dates. This discrepancy in dates has not only confused subsequent
researchers but also led to confusion at the time, for example in the
MoD’s investigation and analysis of contemporaneous radar records.
Main events
26 December
Around 3 a.m. on 26 December 1980
strange lights were reported by a security patrol near the East Gate of
RAF Woodbridge. Servicemen initially thought it was a downed aircraft
but, upon entering the forest to investigate, they saw many strange
lights moving through the trees, as well as a bright light from an
unidentified object. Shortly after 4 a.m. local police were called to
the scene but reported that the only lights they could see were those
from the Orford Ness lighthouse, some miles away on the coast. Some
reports claim that local farmyard animals had been behaving in a state
of fear and panic, although this was an arable farm and had no animals.
Three servicemen were sent out to
investigate and came upon a triangular and brightly lit object silently
hovering in the woods several feet off the ground. It was a conical
metallic object, suspended in a yellow mist, hovering over a clearing in
the trees, with a pulsating blue and red circle of light above. One
made detailed notes of its features, touched its “warm” surface, and
copied the numerous symbols on its body. The object flew away after
their brief encounter. One eyewitness claims to have seen triangular
landing gear on the object leaving three impressions in the ground that
were visible the next day.
The airmen were allegedly debriefed,
threatened and ordered to sign documents that vowed silence; one even
claimed to have been forced to sign a document claiming the UFO was a
lighthouse. Some reports suggest that they were reportedly ordered to
stay quiet, with the warning “bullets are cheap”. Lieutenant Colonel
Halt, however, claimed in a 2008 interview for U.S. news channel CNN
that to this day he has not been debriefed over the incident.
After daybreak on the morning of 26
December, servicemen returned to the small clearing where the conical
object had been seen, and found three small impressions in a triangular
pattern, as well as burn marks and broken branches on nearby trees.
Plaster casts of the imprints were taken and have been shown in
television documentaries. At 10.30 a.m. the local police were called out
again, this time to see the impressions on the ground, which they
thought could have been made by an animal.
28 December
The servicemen returned to the site
again in the early hours of 28 December 1980 with radiation detectors,
although the significance of the readings they obtained is disputed. The
deputy base commander Lt Col Charles I. Halt investigated this sighting
personally and recorded the events on a micro-cassette recorder (see
“The Halt Tape”, below). The site investigated by Halt was near the
eastern edge of the forest, at approximately 52° 05’ 20” N, 1° 26’ 57”
E.
It was during this investigation that a flashing light was seen across the field to the east, almost in line with a farmhouse.
Later, starlike lights were seen in
the sky to the north and south, the brightest of which seemed to beam
down a stream of light from time to time.
There are claims that the incident was videoed by the USAF; but, if so, the resulting tape has not been made public.
Primary and secondary sources
The first public report of the
incident was published in the tabloid newspaper News of the World, on 2
October 1983, beneath the sensational headline UFO lands in Suffolk –
and that’s official. The story was based on an account by a former US
airman, using the pseudonym Art Wallace (supposedly to protect himself
against retribution from the USAF), although his real name was Larry
Warren.
The Halt memo
The
first piece of primary evidence to be made available to the public was a
memorandum written by the deputy base commander, Lt. Col. Charles I.
Halt, to the Ministry of Defence (MOD). Known as the “Halt memo”, this
was made available publicly in the United States under the US Freedom of
Information Act in 1983. The memorandum (left), was dated “13 Jan 81″
and headed “Unexplained Lights”. The two-week delay between the incident
and the report might account for errors in dates and times given. The
memo was not classified in any way.
Picture right: Letter from Lt. Col. Charles Halt. Click to enlarge.
Statements from eyewitnesses on 26 December
The Scottish researcher James Easton
succeeded in obtaining the original witness statements made for Col.
Halt by Fred A. Buran, 81st Security Police Squadron, Airman First Class
John Burroughs, 81st LE, Airman Edward N. Cabansag, 81st Security
Police Squadron, Master-Sergeant J. D. Chandler, 81st Security Police
Squadron and Staff-Sergeant Jim Penniston, 81st Security Police
Squadron. These documents are now in the public domain and scans of them
are available on Ian Ridpath’s website.
These documents describe the sightings
of strange lights. Penniston, for instance, states that a “large yellow
glowing light was emitting above the trees. In the center of the
lighted area directly in the center ground level, there was a red light
blinking on and off 5 to 10 sec intervals. And a blue light that was
being for the most part steady.”
There were some strange noises, too.
Burroughs reported a noise “like a woman was screaming” and also that
“you could hear the farm animals making a lot of noises”. Halt heard the
same noises two nights later. In a CNN interview in January 2008 he
said: “The livestock around the barn seemed to be going crazy”. However,
other sources dispute that there were animals on the nearby farm. Such
noise could also have been made by Muntjac deer in the forest, which are
known for their loud, shrill bark when alarmed. Burroughs’ statement
also states that “We could see a beacon going around so we went towards
it. We followed it for about two miles [3 km] before we could [see] it
was coming from a light house.”
Penniston’s statement is the only one
that positively identifies a mechanical object as the source of the
lights. He states that he was within 50 metres of the object and “it was
defidently mechaniclal in nature” [spelling as in original]. Penniston
has shown on television a notebook in which he claims to have made
real-time notes and sketches of the object. The notebook is headed with
the date 27 December and the time 12:20 (00:20 GMT), which does not
accord with the date and time given by the other witnesses for the
encounter. In addition, Penniston claims that he saw the object at a
different landing site from the one investigated by Halt, much closer to
RAF Woodbridge.
The witnesses were unnerved by their
experience and believed that they had witnessed something, as Buran
expresses it, “out of the realm of explanation”.
The Halt Tape
Also, in 1984, a copy of what became
known as the “Halt Tape” fell into the hands of researchers.
Unfortunately, because of static and the fact that the tape had been
dubbed on an old machine, much of its background conversations could not
be discerned. The US Sci Fi Channel acquired the original recording,
which documents Halt and his patrol investigating a UFO sighting in
Rendlesham Forest in December 1980. This tape not only reveals much more
of the background conversations but features names that could not be
heard on the poor-quality 1984 dub. The tape has also been transcribed
by researcher Ian Ridpath, who includes a link to an audio download.
Suffolk Police log
Suffolk Constabulary have a record,
dated 26 December 1980, of a report from the law Enforcement Desk of RAF
Woodbridge, stating that “We have a sighting of some unusual lights in
the sky, we have sent some unarmed troops to investigate, we are terming
it as a U.F.O. at present”. The police investigated this report and the
result is recorded as follows: “Air Traffic Control West Drayton
checked. No knowledge of aircraft. Reports received of aerial phenomena
over southern England during the night. Only lights visible this area
was from Orford light house. Search made of area – negative.” The
“aerial phenomena” probably refers to the re-entry of the Russian Cosmos
749 rocket which was widely seen over southern England on the evening
of December 25. A letter in the police file notes that one of the PCs
returned to the site in daylight in case he had missed something. “There
was nothing to be seen and he remains unconvinced that the occurrence
was genuine. The immediate area was swept by powerful light beams from a
landing beacon at RAF Bentwaters and the Orfordness lighthouse. I know
from personal experience that at night, in certain weather and cloud
conditions, these beams were very pronounced and certainly caused
strange visual effects.” A scan of the report is available at Suffolk
Constabulary’s website.
Other military installation involvement
Some researchers have claimed that
personnel from Porton Down visited Rendlesham in 1980 after the
Rendlesham Forest Incident. However, no evidence has been presented and
there seems to be confusion with other alleged UFO incidents.
Lord
Hill-Norton asked Her Majesty’s Government: “Whether they are aware of
any involvement by Special Branch in the investigation of the 1980
Rendlesham Forest Incident [HL303]”. Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
gave the reply that “Special Branch officers may have been aware of the
incident but would not have shown any interest unless there was evidence
of a potential threat to national security. No such interest appears to
have been shown.”
In 2001 the British Government
released its file on the incident to researchers following a request
from Dr David Clarke under the Code of Practice for Access to Government
Documents, a precursor to the Freedom of Information Act. The Ministry
of Defence has since made these documents available online. However, the
United States continues to remain silent despite the SciFi
Channel-sponsored investigation entitled “UFO Invasion at Rendlesham”,
the History Channel’s “UFO Files – Britain’s Roswell” and Coalition for
Freedom of Information inquiries.
Scepticism
Jim Penniston and John Burroughs went
to investigate the craft together. However, there is a major
inconsistency in separate interviews of Jim Penniston and John
Burroughs. In an interview with Larry King on November 9, 2007, Jim
Penniston claimed that he did a 45 minutes full investigation of the
craft on the ground, touched the craft and took photos of the craft.
However, in a separate interview in Robert Stack’s Unsolved Mysteries,
John Burroughs described that after suddenly encountering the craft on
the ground, “we all hit the ground, and it went up into the trees”. The
interviews with Jim Penniston and John Burroughs have subsequently been
made available on Youtube.
Science writer Ian Ridpath
investigated the incident in 1983, initially for BBC TV’s Breakfast Time
news programme, and on 5 January 1985 wrote an article for The Guardian
which did much to discredit the accounts of the UFO sightings at
Rendlesham. Ridpath asked local forester Vince Thurkettle about the
flashing light, and he indicated that it originated from a nearby
lighthouse, which as seen from the forest edge appears to hover slightly
above the ground and would appear to move as the witnesses moved. Also,
if a UFO was present, the airmen should have reported a second source
of light (the lighthouse) in the same line of sight. In the Halt tape
(mentioned above), one can hear an unidentified airman call out “There
it is again…there it is” with an interval of 5 seconds, the same
frequency at which the Orford Ness lighthouse flashes. Video footage of
the lighthouse as seen from Col Halt’s vantage point at the edge of the
forest shows it flashing at this rate.
Thurkettle saw the alleged “landing
marks”, as did the local police, and believed them simply to be old
“rabbit diggings” covered with pine needles. USAF photographs of the
marks discovered by researcher Georgina Bruni were sent to the MoD by
Lord Hill-Norton in 2001 and released under the Freedom of Information
Act in 2007. Moreover, the supposed burn marks in the trees were
actually axe cuts made by foresters that indicated the trees were ready
to be felled. To give further pause to accepting the alleged UFO
sighting, a meteor “almost as bright as the full Moon” was spotted over
southern England at exactly the time of the initial reports of a bright
object “landing” in the forest, according to Dr John Mason, who collects
reports of meteor sightings for the British Astronomical Association.
Crucial amongst the evidence is the
interpretation of the levels of radiation in the area (clearly heard on
the “Halt tape”). Experts at the UK’s National Radiological Protection
Board (NRPB) have pointed out that the equipment used for this
measurement was not intended to measure background radiation and
therefore the readings at the low end of the measurement scale are
meaningless.
Steuart Campbell proposes an
alternative explanation. He agrees with the standard explanation that
the incident began with the sighting of a fireball (bolide) which was
interpreted by guards at the base as an aircraft falling in flames in
the nearby forest. In fact it would have been hundreds of miles away
over the North Sea. Campbell argues that the object subsequently seen by
Halt and his men on their nocturnal expedition was the lightvessel
Shipwash and that the supposed “spacecraft” were actually bright
planets, such as Venus. Campbell is critical of the USAF’s abilities
with their equipment.
Another theory is that the incident
was a hoax. The BBC reported that a former US security policeman, Kevin
Conde, claimed responsibility for creating strange lights in the forest
by driving around in a police vehicle whose lights he had modified.
Conde has since withdrawn the claim that he was responsible for the
incident. “It is my impression that I pulled my stunt during an
exercise. We would not have had an exercise during the Christmas holiday
[when the UFO sightings occurred]. That is a strong indication that my
stunt is not the source of this specific incident”. However, it remains
possible that the coloured lights seen in the forest on the first night
of the incident were due to a hoax by a perpetrator who has never come
forward.
Other explanations for the incident have included a downed Soviet spy satellite or a nuclear incident.
Researchers and commentators
Some of the first people to examine
the event in detail were the British Ufologist Jenny Randles in her book
“Sky Crash”, and Nick Redfern in his books “Cosmic Crashes” and “A
Covert Agenda”.
Georgina Bruni has researched the
subject and in her book You Can’t Tell the People publishes a photograph
of the supposed landing site taken on the morning after the first
sighting. The late Lord Hill-Norton, (Admiral of the Fleet and former
Chief of the Defence Staff of the UK) also believed that a UFO landed at
Rendlesham and repeatedly questioned the UK Government on the issue.
Larry Warren who was the source of the
original News of the World article has written extensively on the
subject and is a firm believer in an extraterrestrial explanation.
Warren was certainly a USAF airman at the Woodbridge base, but his own
claims that he was a witness to the incident are disputed by others,
notably by Col. Halt.
Bruni and Warren do not, however,
agree on the details and have clashed publicly over the supposed
inaccuracies of their respective accounts.
Prominent amongst the sceptics is Ian
Ridpath (mentioned above). Much of his research is available on his
website, which also includes much of the raw evidence, including the
original eyewitness statements.
Jenny Randles, who originally brought
the case to prominence, wrote an extensive article in her book with
David Clarke and Andy Roberts, (The UFOs That Never Were) entitled
“Rendle Shame Forest” where she came to the conclusion that “While some
puzzles remain, we can probably say that no unearthly craft were seen in
Rendlesham Forest. We can also argue with confidence that the main
focus of the events was a series of misperceptions of everyday things
encountered in less than everyday circumstances.”
One of the most prominent believers in
the extraterrestrial origin of the Rendlesham UFOs is Nick Pope who
worked for the MoD, researching and investigating UFO phenomena between
1991 and 1994. He discussed the Rendlesham Forest Incident in his
various books and in his articles: “Selected Documents”, which relates
to the MOD documents on the Rendlesham Forest incident, “Rendlesham –
The Unresolved Mystery”, “The Rendlesham Files Reviewed” (a detailed
commentary and analysis of the MOD documents) and “Rendlesham Forest UFO
Incident”. He has gone on record as saying that “the Rendlesham Forest
Incident is bigger than Roswell”.
Additionally, Lieutenant Colonel
(later Colonel) Charles I Halt, the former Deputy Base Commander of USAF
Bentwaters and Woodbridge, who was a major witness to these events, is
also a firm believer and contributor to books and documentaries.
Forest clearing in the UFO Trail at Rendlesham Forest
Rendlesham Forest today
Today, the forest looks quite
different: the Great Storm of 1987 (winds equivalent to a category 3
hurricane) caused extensive destruction of trees, and the Forestry
Commission undertook a massive replanting programme in its aftermath.
However, some of the locations associated with the supposed incident are
still identifiable and the Forestry Commission have marked a trail (the
UFO Trail) for walkers, which includes the principal locations such as
the small clearing where the object allegedly landed.
At the start of the UFO trail, there
is a large triangular shaped metal information board. It features a map
of the forest, clearly marking the UFO trail and gives a basic account
of what happened in 1980, although with an erroneous date for the
initial sighting:
“In December 1980 several sightings of
UFOs were reported in Rendlesham Forest. Many think these mysterious
events are the most significant UFO incident to have occurred in the UK.
“During the evening of 26 December a
resident of Sudbourne, a village approximately 6 miles (10 km) to the
North East of Rendlesham Forest, reported a mysterious shape (like an
upturned mushroom) in the sky above his garden. Later that night two
USAF patrolmen at the East Gate of RAF Woodbridge spotted unusual lights
in the forest, and were given permission to investigate. What they
reported was very strange.
“This was the time of the ‘Cold War’
and because of the sensitive military situation at the time, the
incident was officially reported to the Military Authorities by the
Deputy Base Commander Lt. Colonel Charles Halt, USAF.
“There is, of course, no tangible
evidence of a UFO on the ground – no debris was found apart from some
broken tree top branches. We can, however, piece together, from
transcripts and recordings which were taken at the time, an intriguing
picture.”
Official government sources
* MOD Documents covering the UFO
incident at Rendlesham Forest in 1980 were first released in May 2001 to
Dr. David Clarke of Sheffield University who had requested them under
the Code of Practice for Access to Government Information (which
preceded the UK’s Freedom of Information Act). Dr Clarke discusses them
on his website In 2008 the files were transferred from MoD to The
National Archives (TNA) and removed from the MoD website.
* As of August 2009, all documents
relating to the incident are available on the National Archives UFO
section under reference DEFE 24/1948. These documents include the
request above, along with details of the Ombudsman judgment which
followed. For the next few months, access to this file, and other files
released on the same date will be free to view and download.
This is a military document that reports a UFO landing near airforce base in England in 1980. They were 3 witness on site that day.
Bentwaters UFO Case Dec 1980
A look at the Bentwaters UFO case in the UK of December 1980.
SCI-FI Declassified – UFO Invasion At Rendlesham
The Rendlesham Forest Incident is the
name given to a series of reported sightings of unexplained lights and
the alleged landing of an extraterrestrial spacecraft in Rendlesham
Forest, Suffolk, England in late December 1980. It is perhaps the most
famous UFO event to have happened in Britain, ranking amongst the
best-known UFO events worldwide. It has been compared to the Roswell UFO
incident in the United States and is commonly referred to as “Britain’s
Roswell” or the “English Roswell”.
Following the event, the Ministry of
Defence (MoD) denied that it posed any threat to national security and
stated that it was therefore never investigated as a security matter.
Later evidence indicated that there was a substantial MoD file on the
subject and this led to claims of a cover-up. Some interpreted this as
part of a larger pattern of information suppression concerning the true
nature of unidentified flying objects, by both the United States and
British governments (see the UFO conspiracy theory). However, when the
file was released in 2001 it turned out to consist mostly of internal
correspondence and responses to inquiries from the public. The lack of
any in-depth investigation confirmed that the case was never taken
seriously by the MoD.
Part 1Part 2
Part 3
_____________________________________________________________
November 2, 2010 UPDATE:
Rendlesham UFO tapes released
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