The Rendlesham Forest Incident

December 27th-29^th 1980

Twenty-five years ago something happened in the forests of Suffolk. Witnesses and re­searchers tell us that for three nights USAF servicemen observed, investigated and encoun­tered what is possibly the best evidence for the existence of alien spacecraft not of this world.

The obvious likening to The Roswell Incident is unavoidable but where Roswell was confirmed and denied in the same day back in 1947, the Rendlesham incident was documented by the Deputy base commander Lt Col. Charles Halt on both an official memo and the actual events of one of nights was recorded on a pocket 'Dictaphone' recorder.

These are not the claims of 'friends of friends or I heard he saw^’ incidents but hard evidence that is out there in the public do­main. The document was acquired through the American free­dom of information act and the tape came from an active service-man of the time.

It was some three years after the events that Sunday tabloid news­paper The News of the World ran with the headline “UFO LANDS IN SUFFOLK and that's Official”, and the events of Christmas week 1990 were jet-propelled into the UFO history books.

Of course the UFO Community had knowledge of events long before the newspaper published its sensational headlines and some serious research and lobbying had been carried out. Researchers such as Brenda Butler and         Dot Street along with BUFORA bigwig at the time Jenny Randles were hounding the MOD and Police amongst others for information.   

The story is well-known in UFO circles, but the very basics of the claims are that on two, possibly three, nights between 26th-29th December^, 1980, military security staff observed strange lights in the skies above Rendlesham For­est. The forest separated RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge, both very active bases during the heady days of the cold war. Greenham Common, well known for its peace campaigners and nuclear weapons, is also not very far from this area.

After observing the lights on night one, base staff were amazed to see similar activity on a second night. They informed Deputy Base Commander Halt that “They were back” and permission was given to leave the base and investigate into the forest.

The 'Halt Tape' was recorded on this night by Halt using a small pocket memo recorder.

The dramatisations by television documentary makers report that jeeps and trucks towing ‘Light Hauls’, powerful mobile floodlights, were deployed into the forest and we are told that these floodlights would not operate reliably, diesel generators would cut out etc.

The reports go on to describe a frightening encounter with some­thing unknown and at one point, something actually touched down in the forest just yards from military personnel.

This is described in chilling detail on the actual tape recording made that night.

Now encounters such as this are as rare as hens’ teeth and take UFOIogy into areas far above speculation and second hand tales and as such you would expect researchers to jump at such a Holy Grail of an opportunity. This they did and there are several good books and a handful of documentaries produced about the case.

Of course the debunkers, the sceptics and others who would counter the claims also came out in full swing to play down the claims and generally ridicule those who believed in the ET Hy­pothesis.

When it comes down to numbers you will find many thousands in favour of this being an “Unknown Event” and also happy to accept the testimony of those there and accept at face value official documentation that is on re­cord.

But the debunking community is based around a handful of ‘usual suspects’ who go out of their way to knock and ridicule witness testimony and the integrity of all in­volved.

They should though be allowed their say.

It is up to researchers to present the evidence in a way that can't easily be countered and ensure that those who knock and ridicule are starved of the ammunition that gets fired at the negative, for instance.

It is on record that a Russian Cosmos satellite re-entered the earth’s atmosphere on the 26th Dec 1980. Some sceptics use this as evidence that that is what was seen by the airmen on the ground.

Debris re-entering the atmos­phere is governed by the laws of physics. As it enters the upper atmosphere it gets hot and starts to burn, leaving a fiery trail in its wake. It does this once quite quickly and it's gone.

So to claim this happened on three nights would be silly but it keeps the debunkers happy...

We are told by a forestry worker who the BBC at that time used as their ‘expert’ that all that the serviceman saw was the light from Orford Ness lighthouse.

Hello!

These guys spent their days looking after Nuclear Weapons and had the welfare of the western world in their hands. They were highly trained, highly skilled people not someone who could fantasize over a lighthouse who's light was visible every night of the year.

One television production ‘Strange but true’, hosted by veteran presenter Michael Aspel actually showed the revolving light of Orford Ness appear to be in sync with comments on the Halt Tape, something Ilka ‘There it is... There it is again...’ But on closer inspection of the programme, it was obvious that the filmed footage of the light­house had been slowed down to sync up to the Halt Tape.

Once again the debunkers cry ‘Told you so’. Please let's have a fair playing field.

Even If the light did happen to sync up with the tape, don't forget the pocket recorder was battery operated, the tape would have been transferred at least a couple of times from the original micro cassette, different tape players vary in playback speed, only slightly but enough to drop the accurate sync claimed on the film.

The MOD have also been criticised for not taking the reports seriously. Having checked with military radar at RAF Neatishead to see if any un­known traffic was recorded on the nights in question they were told that Radar Cameras had been switched off on the nights of the events. This seems to have been accepted as OK. The fact that the Russians or anyone else could have paid a surprise visit to our nuclear bases unannounced does not bear thinking about.

But this answer given to the MOD does not fit in with the comments of a RAF Radar operator who worked at RAF Neatishead at the time.

The interview was conducted by Graham W. Birdsall and myself for a production of UFOs Hard Evidence_. You can download an MP3 version of that interview on our downloads page on the website. There are many pages across the internet devoted to the events of December 1980 some are well researched, professional pieces, soma are not There have also boon several books written on the events:

Left at East Gate by Larry Warren and Peter Robbins

You Can’t Tell the People by Georgina Bruni

Skycrash by Jenny Randles, Brenda Butler and Dot Street

Open Skies Closed Minds by Nick Pope

Many of those involved in the UFO subject believe that The Rendlesham Forest Incident involved the 'Real McCoy^’, Nick Pope who fronted the MOD's UFO desk in the early 1990s and still works for the Ministry spent time during his Air Staff 2a tenure researching the incident remains convinced that something ‘not of this earth’ was involved at Rendlesham.

Having read the books, studied the players and chewed on the known facts, I too remain con­vinced that something extremely important happened that Christ­mas In Suffolk, England, something extraterrestrial.

The story starts like all good UFO mysteries, in denial. As the truth trickles out it is still denied it took over 20 years but when the UK Introduced its Freedom of some Information Act, the trickle began to flow but still we only see the tip of the iceberg. In years to come those brave souls who dare to poke and prod the corri­dors of power might just find the Holy GraiI.

Such Is the interest In the forest area these days that the Forestry Commission has set up an actual ‘UFO walk^’ through the forest.

In the following article Richard Davies a forestry worker at Rendlesham is interviewed by the BBC local radio reporter Mark Murphy.

What do you think happened at Rendlesham Forest back in 1980 - a UFO sighting?

Report courtesy BBC News Online Where I Live

“I think the briefest way to put it and I must stress this is a per­sonal opinion and not an official one, is that something fell off something. We don't know what. It is debatable whether we will ever know certainly in our lifetime, but I suspect there was some form of security alert directed in the line military hardware of some kind or another that had to be covered up,” said Richard Davies.

Over the years there have been all sorts of stories and rumours, all sorts of different things have been said to have gone on here in the forest from aliens landing to crash landing, to bits falling off satellites. It's prompted interest from around the world and still to this day.

"Yes it's not that long ago that we had a film crew from Japan over  here recording this as one of the big 10 internationally and of course nowadays this is acknowledged as one of the big two, with Roswell being the other one,” explained Richard.

Once a year, you get guides out and have a troop through the forest, an opportunity for people to see where this thing is supposed to have happened. Also throughout the year enthusiasts come and have a look as well and just sit and watch to see if even today anything is going to happen.

"Yes there are quite a number of folk who come particularly at night time to see if there are re-visitations and we've had plenty of stories from them about alien interaction during the night  hours,” said forester Richard Davies.

This means that people are convinced that there are still things happening to this day.

"I've always held the point of view that I believe there is actually terrestrial life. I don’t think this was a case of a visitation. It’s even possible to accept the fact within what I've just said that there may be other visitations here, but I don’t think it has any direct relation to what happened on that night," said Richard.

We are just approaching the site where the crash landing is supposed to have happened and it’s just inside the trees here inside this little clearing, so well just walk through and see what we can find. Could it have been somebody messing about for instance with torches or fares or something?

"I think the consistency of what people have seen over here through the years does actually rule that out.”The other thing you have to bear in mind is that the crop we're walking through at the moment is a young crop that was replanted after the proceeding crop had been felled, and that was starting with trees getting on 70 or 80 foot tall -whereas at the moment, we're in a dense young plantation of stuff about 10 or 15 foot tall, so it would have been a very different atmosphere down here at the time.

"It would have been probably lass peaceful than il is now because of the ability of the wind to blow through and the noise that would have been going on In the crowns of the trees would have destroyed that peace to a fair extent," continued Richard.

What about the people who used to serve here al the air base? Do you ever see those people com­ing back to revisit the scene of this incident?

"I think I've now twice known ex-USAF people come on these walks and they’ve always got something Interesting to say,” noted Richard.

And what sort of people come on the walks - enthusiasts, people who just have a passing interest or real believers?

"Well strangely enough every­thing, you've more or less covered the range. Because we do have those people, especially the early walks we did, who were very much on the investigative side of looking into the UFO incidence. I think it's more those people who think well that’s a nice thing to hang a walk onto. "But I don’t think I've done a sin­gle walk, and we actually do them twice a year and I've been doing it for six or seven years now, I don’t think I’ve done a single walk where there hasn't been at least one person who passion­ately believes In this as being a genuine UFO sighting and at the same time one person who thor­oughly and is heartily sceptical about it, which puts me in a diffi­cult situation,” explained Rich­ard.

 What about you and your colleagues. You work the forest day in, day out- it’s a big place. Have you seen anything out of the ordinary?

"Given the fact that personally, I am rarely out at night here, cer­tainly during the daytime and in the evenings and in the early nights going home front work, I've never seen anything and I can also say that my wildlife ranger who does work in far more night-time situations than I do, has never been back and reported anything, but I wouldn't necessarily say that that ex­cludes everything because you just don't know, do you.”

Close to the site where the UFO incident is meant to have hap­pened is a tree which has mark­ings that look like an alien face.

See the site and hear the tale!

UFO walks at Rendlesham Forest are available please phone for more details

Advance booking Is essential. Cost: £5.00 adult, £2:50 child (under 16). Suitable footwear re­quired. An adult must accompany all children

Booking: 01842 810271 Email: jim.smith@forestry.gsi.gov.uk

Web: www.forestry.gov.uk

To suggest such a case is of ‘no defence significance’ it has attracted the attention of many highly plausible individuals from within the corridors of power.

The late and sadly missed UFO truth campaigner 'Lord¹ Peter Hill-Norton was never shy of presenting the subject to ministers and government officials alike. Below is a transcript of questions posed partly on behalf of author Georgina Bruni after the release of her 2001 work on the Rendlesham Incident, You Can’t Tell the People.

Georgina Bruni adds her comments to former Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral the

Fleet, the late Lord Hill-Norton's Questions in the House of Lords:

23 Jan 2001: Column WA7 Blundeston Prison and Hollesley

Bay YCC (now YOI-Young Offend­ers Institution): Possible Evacua­tion

Lord Hill-Norton asked Her Maj­esty's Government whether staff at Blundeston Prison or Hollesley Bay Youth Correction Centre received any instructions to pre­pare for a possible evacuation at sometime between 25 and 30 De­cember 1980; and if so, why these instructions were issued.

[HL319]

23 Jan 2001 : Column WA8

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Bassam of Brighton): We can find no record of any such instructions.

G.Bruni Comments: Lord Hill-Norton asked a similar Question a few years ago concerning Highpoint prison. The Answer was that the warden’s log for that period was no longer available. The reason for these Questions was because a prison officer had claimed that Highpoint had been on alert for evacuation on 27 December 1980. Since then (see my book) I have learnt of two more local prisons that were said to be on alert (as above). I am not satisfied with the answer and hope that Lord Hill-Norton will ask it again in more detail. We need to know why they can find no records. Have these logs gone missing too and, if so, why?

25 Jan 2001: Columns WA21/22

Rendlesham Forest Incident

Lord Hill-Norton asked Her Maj­esty's Government whether they are aware of any Involvement by Special Branch personnel in the investigation of the 1980 Rendlesham Forest Incident [HL303]

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: Special Branch officers may have been aware of the inci­dent but would not have shown an interest unless there was evi­dence of a potential threat to na­tional security. No such interest appears to have been shown.

G.Bruni Comments: According to the Deputy Base Commander off AFOSII RAF Bentwaters/Woodbridge (at time of incident) Special Branch would have been alerted. My argument is that the incident was a threat to national security because these objects were intruding on British territory and could have been anything from Soviet craft to terrorists, therefore ‘‘SB’’ Special Branch should have at least checked out the incident before passing it over to another agency. The commander actually offered the names off the ‘‘SB’’ officers that would have had this information. I did not publish their names for obvious reasons. If no interest was shown then we must question our security agencies.

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. [HL3O1]

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.

G. Bruni Comments: 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.

Lord Hill-Norton asked Her Majesty’s Government whether they are aware of any uncorrelated targets tracked on radar in November or December 1980; and whether they will give details of any such incidents. [HL302]

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: Records dating from 1980 no longer exist. Paper records are retained for a period of three years before being destroyed. Recordings of radar data are re­tained for a period of thirty days prior to re-use of the recording medium.

G. Bruni Comments:  [If media] are re-used [...] there should be paper records. If this is the case then why was researcher Nick Redfern able to get verbatim data (from the logs) in 1987?

Unidentified Flying Objects

Lord Hill-Norton asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is the highest classification that has been applied to any Ministry

of Defence document concerning Unidentified Flying Objects. [HL304]

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: A limited search through available files has identified a number of documents graded Secret. The overall classification of the documents was not dictated by details of specific sightings of "UFOs".

G.Bruni Comments: I think that is very interesting and if the Rendlesham files are secret as I would expect them to be, we may never see them.

30 Jan 2001 : Column WA49

Rendlesham Forest/RAF Bentwaters Incident .

Lord Hill-Norton asked Her Majesty's Government whether they will detail the underground facilities at the former RAF Bentwaters installation; and what is the purpose of these facilities. [HL320]

The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Baroness Symons of Vernham

Dean): There are no underground facilities at the former RAF Bentwaters.

G.Bruni Comments: Actually, there are underground facilities at Bentwaters but they are sealed. The security chief at the installation who gave me a guard and permission to investigate the buildings, told me the underground facilities were sealed when the MOD put the base up for sale. He had written several times to the MOD requesting details of these but although they promised to look into the matter, he received nothing. I also discovered a door in the main command post that was clearly an entrance to an underground facility because it could not lead to anywhere above ground. The guard had no keys for this very important door that was covered in warning signs. According to the chief of security there are still several parts of the installation that are sealed. So, the Answer is in essence is crafty because as the facilities are now sealed, one could surmise that there are none.

Lord Hill-Norton asked Her Majesty's Government whether they are aware of any involvement in the 1980 Rendlesham Forest incident by either Ministry of Defence

Police or personnel from the Suffolk Constabulary. [HL321)

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: The Minister of Defence is not aware of any involvement by the Ministry of Defence Police in the alleged incident. The Ministry of Defence's knowledge of involvement by the Suffolk Police is limited to a letter dated 28 July 1999 from the Suffolk Constabulary to Georgina Bruni that is contained in the recent book.

G.Bruni Comments: According to the Deputy Base Commander of AFOSI RAF Bentwaters/Woodbridge (at time of incident), a member of the ARRS and two other commanders, the MOD police would have been informed immediately. If the MOD have to resort to my book for information then we must question why this is so. Where are these records?

Lord Hill-Norton asked Her Majesty's Government whether they are aware of any investigation of the 1980 Rendlesham Forest incident carried out by the United States Air force, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations or any other United States agency. [HL322]

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: The Ministry of Defence's knowledge of an investigation by the US authorities into the alleged incident in Rendlesham Forest in 1980 is limited to the information contained in the memorandum sent by Lt Col Halt

USAF, Deputy Base Commander at RAF Woodbridge, to the RAF Liaison Officer at RAF Bentwaters on 13 January 1981.

G.Bruni Comments: Notice there is no mention of the covering note from Squadron Leader Donald Moreland which is titled "Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs)" Also no mention of the telephone calls he made concerning the incident, which really should have been logged considering they were from the British Liaison Officer. What has happened with this case is that the MOD have not left a paper trail?

30 Jan 2001 : Column WA50

Lord Hill-Norton asked Her Majesty's Government whether, in the light of the new information contained in Georgina Bruni's book ‘You Can't Tell the People’, they will now launch an investigation into the Rendlesham Forest incident and the response to this incident by the United States Air Force and the Ministry of Defence. [HL352]

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: No additional information has come to light over the last 20 years to call into question the original judgment by the Ministry of Defence that nothing of defence significance occurred in the location of Rendlesham Forest in 1980. Accordingly there is no reason to hold an investigation now.

G.Bruni Comments: This is the Answer that really annoys me (it's the standard line) because I am aware (from a memo that had my name on it) and has since been stamped "restricted" that certain high officials have read my book. Therefore the MOD must have all the new information. If the officials in office at this time are not aware of anything else due to the cover-up, then the information in my book alone should be enough to open an investigation.

‘We are still awaiting such an Investigation.‘