Rendlesham Forest Incident

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The Rendlesham Forest Incident is perhaps the most famous UFO event to have happened in Britain, and ranks among the best-known UFO events worldwide. It has been compared to the Roswell UFO incident in the US, , along with the Berwyn Mountain Incident. It is most commonly referred to as "Britain's Roswell" or the "English Roswell".

Like the Roswell incident, it occurred in the proximity of two military bases, RAF Woodbridge and RAF Bentwaters (now abandoned), which were being used by the USAF, eight miles outside Ipswich, Suffolk. At the time these USAF/RAF NATO bases were under the command of Major General Gordon E Williams (ret.) and under the Deputy Base Commander Colonel Charles I Halt.(Unlike the alleged Roswell Incident, no EBE's were said to have been recovered.)

The Rendlesham Incident occurred over a three-day span in 1980. It is uncertain whether the incident first occurred on December 26 or December 27, although witness statements suggest the 26th. The "Halt Memo" [6] discussed below states the 27th, but Halt admits that it should be the 26th. On the 27th, the "Halt Tape" [7] was recorded - this is also discussed below.

The Ministry of Defence deny that this incident posed any threat to national security and was thus not investigated. However, ample evidence contradicts this claim, including later MOD releases of documents, which include the Halt Memo. Due to this incident and its subsequent cover-up, the UK Government is sometimes seen just as complicit as the US Government in regard to UFO/Alien existence/knowledge. See the UFO conspiracy theory.

Some explanations for the incident have included downed Soviet spy device, a nuclear incident and a nearby lighthouse.

Nick Pope, a British Agent and high ranking Government Official, says that "the Rendlesham Forest Incident is bigger than Roswell" (Sci Fi Channel - see TV documentaries below.) He also stated on the History channels documentary, The UFO Files: Britain's Roswell that: "This was the holy grail, this was certainly Britain's most famous UFO case" (see TV documentaries below.) Pope also went on to say that: "With any investigation, whatever you're investigating, if you don't, if you don't really use the first 24 hours to try and chase it down, your chances of success dims rapidly. The problem with the Rendlesham incident is that this happened over the Christmas period. A lot of the key personnel were on leave and I think that there was a bit of a decision making vacuume." He also said that "everyone had heard of Roswell but only UFO researchers really know about this case and yet in many ways I can see this case to be bigger than Roswell. This could be the biggest UFO incident of all time. Let's put it where it deserves to be, in peoples minds." (see the History Channels "UFO Files - Britain's Roswell". [8]

In March 2006 Pope sought and obtained a commission from the Ministry of Defence's magazine Focus, to write a feature on UFOs. The article ran in the March issue of Focus with only very minor editorial changes. The article can be found here.

Georgina Bruni is quoted on the History channels documentary, The UFO Files: Britain's Roswell that: "There's no doubt about it, this is Britain's Roswell." see TV documentaries below.) Bruni is also one of the most respected 'reporters' on the event and is author of the book You Can't Tell the People which is also an account of these events.

Contents

The Rendlesham Forest Incident

News of the World, October 2, 1983, first headline after the incident [1] [2]
News of the World, October 2, 1983, first headline after the incident [1] [2]

An unidentified flying object was seen in the area, probably on the evening of 26 December. At first, servicemen thought it was a downed aeroplane, but upon entering the forest to investigate, they saw many strange lights moving through the trees, as well as a blinding light from an unidentified object. Some U.S. airmen claim to have seen 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 eyewitness claims to have seen triangular landing gear on the object. The servicemen claimed that the object seemed clearly aware of their presence and moved away from them, forcing them to give chase. Later the servicemen were found in a dazed state, and local reports said that local farmyard and domestic animals had been behaving in a possessed state of fear and panic; some cows went on a stampede.

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".

Map of local area
Map of local area

It has been rumored that small beings with domed heads left the craft, and that twin base commander Gordon Williams claimed to have made sign language communication with the aliens. It must be stated that these rumours have no evidence to back them up and come from unconfirmed reports.

The next morning, the servicemen returned with radiation detectors and found three small impressions in a triangular pattern; these impressions were reportely radioactive. Later that night, the lights returned and nearby civilians witnessed the bright red light moving in the forest. There are claims that the incident was videoed by the USAF but has not been made public.

Guardian, January 2, 1985, [3] The first headline after the incident that explained the case in detail, by Ian Ridpath, incorporating the News of the World headline of October 2, 1983. [4] [http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/headline.htm
Guardian, January 2, 1985, [3] The first headline after the incident that explained the case in detail, by Ian Ridpath, incorporating the News of the World headline of October 2, 1983. [4] [http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/headline.htm

A short while after the incident, the Deputy Commander of Bentwaters air base, Lt. Col. Charles Halt, issued the following report to the Ministry of Defence (MOD): "The object was described as being metallic in appearance and triangular in shape, approximately three metres across the base and two metres high. It illuminated the entire forest with a white light ... As the patrol men approached the object, it manoeuvred through the trees and disappeared. At this time the animals in a nearby farm went into a frenzy. The next day three depressions were found where the object had been sighted on the ground." [9]

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 Sci Fi Channel has now acquired the original recording, which documents Lt. Colonel Halt (USAF) 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. Below are five excerpts from the 17-minute-and-52-second recording, and a brief introduction to the material by UFO researcher Georgina Bruni. The tape can be heard at this external link: [10]

Letter from Lt. Col. Charles Halt
Letter from Lt. Col. Charles Halt

The British Government has released files to researchers, as exposed first by Georgina Bruni [11], [12], [13], but the United States continues to remain silent despite the SciFi Channel-sponsored investigation entitled "UFO Invasion at Rendlesham" [14], the History Channels "UFO Files - Britain's Roswell". [15] and Coalition for Freedom of Information inquiries.

Other Military Installation Involvement

It is believed that personnel from Porton Down [16] visited Rendlesham in 1980 after the Rendlesham Forest Incident. In 1999 Nick Pope published a book, Operation Thunder Child, talking about alien bodies (EBE's), being taken to Porton Down [17]. In 1996, British researcher Tony Dodd surfaced with a story about alien bodies supposedly taken to Porton Down from the site of an alleged UFO crash on the Berwyn Mountains in North Wales most commonly referred to as the Berwyn Mountain Incident. [18] [19] (However, the Berwyn Mountains event has seen a detailed debunking by Andy J. Roberts))

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: "Special Branch officers may have been aware ofthe 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." You Can't Tell the People

The Ministry of Defence's usual comment when describing the "alleged" incident is that it was merely "lights in the sky". But here we have confirmation that there was an incident and that Special Branch may have been aware of it.

Porton Down: did they investigate the RAF Watton incident?

According to Harry Thompson, a former RAF security police officer at RAF Watton, a team of four British Government scientists had visited the forest after the Watton incident. Thompson suspected they were from Porton Down. On 25 January 2001 Lord Hill-Norton asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether personnel from Porton Down visited Rendlesham Forest or the area surrounding RAF Walton in December 1980 or January 1981; and whether they are aware of any tests carried out in either of those two areas aimed at assessing any nuclear, biological or chemical hazard. [HL301][20] [21] - You Can't Tell the People

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: The staff at the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) Chemical and Biological Defence (CBD) laboratories at Porton Down have made a thorough search of their archives and have found no record of any such visits. [22] [23] - [You Can't Tell the People]

One has to ask, if it was not a unit from Porton Down, who were these men and where were they from? Recall also that Americans were seen in the forest on the perimeter of the Watton base. Could these have been researchers from Langley (the CIA research establishment)? Could this same group, who were said to have investigated the Rendlesham Forest landing sites, also have investigated the perimeter of RAF Watton. - You Can't Tell the People.

Georgina Bruni commented that "that should have been RAF "Watton" not Walton. According to my witness from RAF Watton, some agency, presumably from Porton Down, did visit Watton and investigate the area on the perimeter of the base. Then the question is, if they were not from Porton Down, which is the place one would expect it to be, where was the unit from? I expect like the first Answer, any reference to this event has been carefully logged elsewhere." [24] [25]

RAF Rudloe Manor is also an issue.

Scepticism

The Guardian reporter Ian Ridpath investigated the incident and wrote an article on January 2, 1985, [26] that did much to discredit the accounts of the UFO sightings at Rendlesham. Ian first investigated the case for BBC TV’s Breakfast Time and published a subsequent report in The Guardian. [27]. Ian Ridpath asked local residents about the lights, and most of them indicated that the light originated from a nearby lighthouse. The coastline was at a slightly lower elevation than the surrounding area, and it can create the impression of a light hovering slightly above the ground. If a UFO was present, the airmen should have seen a second source of light (the lighthouse). Further details on the case can be found on his website [28]. However, today much of Ian's research has been discredited.

Locals in the area also believed the alleged "landing marks" to simply be "rabbit diggings." Moreover, burn marks in the trees were actually axe cuts that indicated the trees were ready to be felled. To give further pause to accepting the alleged UFO sighting, a meteor was spotted in the exact same area at exactly the time the report drawn up about the incident was created, according to the Guardian's own investigation of the matter. [29] [30]

Andy J. Roberts is a very well known skeptic

The BBC reported that a former US security policeman, Kevin Conde, claimed responsibility for strange lights in a forest which sparked claims of a UFO sighting. [31] [32] [33] [34] However, he is "unsure exactly when the prank took place, and therefore is not sure if he was inadvertently responsible for the so-called UFO incident." [35], [36], [37], [38] Kevin Conde now states (2005) that he was not responsible for the incident. He said this long before he was famously interviewed by the BBC 'Inside Out' or the Daily Mail Newspaper. "This incident [hoax] occurred right after Christmas. For reasons that are hard to explain it is my impression that I pulled my stunt during an exercise. We would not have had an exercise during the Christmas holiday. That is a strong indication that my stunt is not the source of this specific incident". [39]

Jenny Randles wrote an extensive article in her book with Andy J. 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."


See the Bruni-Warren Confrontation.

Believers

Georgina Bruni presents evidence against the lighthouse theory [Question 6] [40] Friend of Georgina Bruni, Lord Hill-Norton, (Admiral of the Fleet and former Chief of the Defence Staff of the UK) also believes that a UFO landed at Rendlesham and has fought to get answers from the Government [41].

See the Bruni-Warren Confrontation.

The first researcher to break this story was the British Ufologist Brenda Butler in the book "Sky Crash" and British Ufologist Nick Redfern in his books "Cosmic Crashes" and "A Covert Agenda".

One if the most prominent 'Skeptical Believers' is Nick Pope and he discusses this incident in his various books and in his articles "Selected Documents" [42] which relates to the MOD documents on the Rendlesham Forest incident exposed by Georgina Bruni, Rendlesham - The Unresolved Mystery, The Rendlesham Files Reviewed - A detailed commentary and analysis of the MOD documents and Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident.

Additionally, Lieutenant Colonel (later Colonel) Charles I Halt, the former Deputy Base Commander of RAF/USAF NATO Bentwaters/Woodbridge of Rendlesham, who as a major witness to these events is also a believer. Halt took a patrol of men into the forest where they witnessed several objects under intelligent control. In January 1981 he composed an official Air Force memorandum [43] listing details of the events. The memo was then dispatched to the Ministry of Defence. Halt also made an audio tape recording of the incident. [44]

Also, the controversial Larry Warren is a believer.

Rendlesham Forest today

Image:Rendlesham1.jpeg
Forest clearing in the UFO Trail at Rendlesham Forest

Today, the forest looks quite different: the hurricane of 1987 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. [45], [46]

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:

"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 26th December a resident of Sudbourne, a village approximately 6 miles 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 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."

Picture showing UFO trail information board, can be found at the 'Rendlesham Forest Forestry Centre'. [5]
Picture showing UFO trail information board, can be found at the 'Rendlesham Forest Forestry Centre'. [5]

Official Government Sources

References

  • UFO: Crash Landing? Friend or Foe? - True Story of the Rendlesham Forest Close Encounter BY Jenny Randles - ISBM: 0713726555
  • Left At East Gate: A First-Hand Account of the Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident, Its Cover-up, and Investigation by Larry Warren - ISBN: 159605753X

TV Documentaries

Articles

IN DATE ORDER

  • In March 2006 Nick Pope sought and obtained a commission from the Ministry of Defence's magazine Focus, to write a feature on UFOs. The article ran in the March issue of Focus with only very minor editorial changes. The article can be found here.

Articles In Date Order:

External links

Copyright

"Original data received from Wikipedia on April 23, 2006. Credit given to original authors can be seen Here."

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