When Worlds Collide: UFOs and the British Military's Encounter in Rendlesham Forest
By Jack Ripley | June 20, 2023
Rendlesham Forest Was The Last Place anyone expected to see a UFO
Welcome, seekers of the extraordinary, to a realm where the boundary between reality and the inexplicable blurs—a place where whispers of otherworldly encounters send shivers down our spines. Brace yourselves as we delve into the enigma that is the Rendlesham Forest Incident, a haunting tale that has captured the imaginations of UFO enthusiasts, paranormal aficionados, and truth-seekers alike.
Nestled within the ancient woods of Suffolk, England, lies a mystery that defies explanation—a gripping encounter with the unknown. Join us as we explore the bewildering events that unfolded on those fateful nights, where military personnel and eyewitnesses found themselves face to face with an enigmatic presence from beyond the stars.
Buckle up, dear explorers of the extraordinary, as we embark on a journey that will challenge your perceptions, ignite your curiosity, and leave you yearning for answers. Step further into the shadows and let the quest for truth begin. Continue reading to uncover the captivating secrets of the Rendlesham Forest Incident.
Rendlesham Forest, a picturesque woodland that covers about 5.8 square miles, is currently under the ownership of the Forestry Commission. Situated in Suffolk County, this area lies about 8 miles to the east of Ipswich. Notably, the forest finds itself in close proximity to two former military installations: RAF Bentwaters, which is just north of the forest, and RAF Woodbridge, which extends into the forest from the western side and is bordered by the forest on its northern and eastern perimeters. During the time of the incident, both bases were utilized by the United States Air Force and fell under the command of wing commander Colonel Gordon E. Williams. The base's commanding officer was Colonel Ted Conrad, with Lieutenant Colonel Charles I. Halt serving as his deputy.
A UFO Buzzed The Base On Boxing Day
At about 3am on December 26, 1980, the reported UFO incident took place in close proximity to the East Gate of RAF Woodbridge, which is essentially located at the far end of the base's runway. It was in this specific area that security guards initially witnessed a series of peculiar lights descending towards the forest, near the border of a farmer's field known as Capel Green. At the time it was unclear what the lights were, but it was initially believed to be a meteor or a downed aircraft.
Animals Were Freaking Out After The Craft Landed
Upon their initial assessment, the servicemen maintained that what they saw was a downed aircraft. They ventured into the forest and were met with the unsettling sound of animals going "into a frenzy." As they drew nearer to the area, their eyes fell upon an extraordinary sight: a colorful object adorned with vibrant lights, something they couldn't comprehend. Swiftly, the strange craft soared away, vanishing into the direction of the adjacent coastline.
Sergeant Jim Penniston later made claims of a personal encounter with a "craft of unknown origin" while within the forest, although such assertions were not made public at the time and there were no witnesses to back up his claim.
The Police Came Out But Didn't See Anything
Shortly after 4:00 a.m., the local police received a call and promptly arrived at the location. However, they reported that the only lights visible were emanating from the Orford Ness lighthouse, situated several miles away along the coastline.
During the night of the initial incident, the police officers on duty affirmed that the sole source of illumination they observed originated from the Orford lighthouse. They attributed the depressions in the ground to animal activity. In 2005, the Suffolk constabulary made public their file on the case in accordance with the UK's Freedom of Information Act. The document can be accessed on the police department's official website. Notably, Inspector Mike Topliss penned a letter dated July 28, 1999, within the file, mentioning that one of the police constables who responded to the scene on the first night revisited the area during daylight hours, in case anything had been overlooked. The letter reads in part:
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.
The Craft Left Impressions In The Ground
Once the sun rose on December 26, servicemen revisited a small open area located near the eastern boundary of the forest from the previous evening. To their astonishment, they discovered three small depressions on the ground, arranged in the shape of a triangle. Additionally, they noticed scorch marks and snapped branches on trees in close proximity. Recognizing the significance of these findings, they summoned the local police once more, who arrived at 10:30 a.m. to examine the impressions. The police entertained the possibility that these imprints might have been created by an animal.
A Full Investigation Was Launched Two Days Later
One the morning of December 28, 1980 (as reported by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt, although noted as December 29), a group of servicemen, accompanied by the deputy base commander, ventured to the location under investigation. Their objective was to assess the situation firsthand. Equipped with an AN/PDR-27, a standard U.S. military radiation survey meter, they proceeded to take radiation measurements within the triangular area of depressions and the surrounding vicinity.
During their examination, they registered a reading of 0.07 milliroentgens per hour within the triangular depressions. In comparison, other areas displayed levels of 0.03 to 0.04 milliroentgens per hour, which aligned with normal background radiation levels. Additionally, they detected a similar brief surge of radiation occurring at a distance of over half a mile from the initial landing site.
The Woods Turned Radioactive
During the investigation into the levels of radioactivity in the surrounding woods, a flashing light was seen on the eastern end of the field, directly in line with a nearby farmhouse, just like the witnesses saw on the first night of the event. Critics of this UFO sighting have noted that the Orford Ness lighthouse is also directly in the line of of sight of the farmhouse.
According to Halt's memo, a notable development occurred later on. Three lights resembling stars were observed in the sky: two situated towards the north and one towards the south, positioned approximately 10 degrees above the horizon. Halt detailed that the most luminous light remained stationary for a duration of two to three hours, intermittently emitting a stream of light downwards. Astronomers have attributed these star-like lights to the presence of exceptionally bright stars.
What's Up With The Lighthouse
The Orfordness Lighthouse, often cited by skeptics as the light that everyone was seeing, was positioned in close proximity to the coast and aligned with the direction where the airmen reported seeing a flashing light. The lighthouse, situated approximately 5 miles farther east from the forest's boundary, held the distinction of being one of the brightest lighthouses in the United Kingdom during that period.
The Halt Memo
The first piece of significant evidence that was released to the public was a memo written by Lieutenant Colonel Charles I. Halt, who served as the deputy base commander. This document, commonly referred to as the "Halt Memo," was addressed to the Ministry of Defence (MoD). It became available to the public in the United States through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act in 1983. The memorandum, titled "Unexplained Lights," was dated "13 Jan 1981." It is worth noting that a two-week gap between the incident and the report may have contributed to potential errors in the provided dates and times. Importantly, the memo was not classified in any manner, indicating an absence of restricted access or confidential designation.
Lieutenant Colonel Halt Truly Believes That He Experienced An Extraterrestrial
David Clarke, an expert working with the National Archives, has thoroughly examined the details surrounding the memo and the response it received at the Ministry of Defense (MoD). Through interviews with the individuals involved, Clarke confirmed that the MoD's investigation into the incident was brief and lacked in-depth scrutiny.
Additionally, no additional reports from the United States Air Force (USAF) or the United Kingdom (UK) regarding the incident, apart from the Halt Memo, were discovered. It is important to note that Lieutenant Colonel Halt, in later statements, openly expressed his belief that he had witnessed an event involving extraterrestrial phenomena, which he suspects was subsequently concealed or kept secret.
Enter: The Men In Black
Halt sent his memo to the MoD about two weeks after the event, and aside from local chatter no one outside of the military was aware of the events of December 1980. Allegedly, government agents were keen to make sure that things stayed that way. Forest worker Vince Thurkettle claims that he was visited by two men in black suits who bombarded him with questions about the nights in question, which makes this one of the first times that Men In Black have been included in a British UFO sighting. Thurkettle says the conversation went like this:
They said 'Did you leave the house at all? Did you see anything?' I said, 'What?' They said, Oh, there's a report of some red lights in the forest... We're just checking.' And the two of them, very politely but firmly, asked me probably about 20 questions. I thought they were journalists. They suddenly said, 'Oh well, fair enough. There's probably nothing in it.' And left.’ So, I bought the papers every day for the next few days to find out what was going on and, of course, there was nothing.
The Halt Tape
In 1984, Colonel Sam Morgan, who had taken over as Lieutenant Colonel Halt's superior after Ted Conrad, released a copy of what is now referred to as the "Halt Tape" to UFO researchers. This tape provides a firsthand account of Halt's investigation in the forest as it unfolded, capturing various events such as measuring radiation levels, witnessing a flashing light amidst the trees, and observing hovering and twinkling star-like objects. Researcher Ian Ridpath transcribed the tape, offering an audio download and a detailed analysis of its contents, providing a comprehensive understanding of the entire recording.
Eyewitnesses Say That The Woods Were Glowing When The Craft Arrived
In 1997, Scottish researcher James Easton got ahold of the original witness statements made by the servicemen involved in the sightings from December 26. In his statement, Ed Cabansag, said:
We figured the lights were coming from past the forest since nothing was visible when we passed through the woody forest. We would see a glowing near the beacon light, but as we got closer we found it to be a lit-up farmhouse. We got to a vantage point where we could determine that what we were chasing was only a beacon light off in the distance.
The Lights May Have Been A Lighthouse
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Another servicemen, John Burroughs, made a testimonial, stating:
We could see a beacon going around so we went towards it. We followed it for about two miles before we could [see] it was coming from a lighthouse... [There was a noise] like a woman was screaming... you could hear the farm animals making a lot of noises.
The Halt Affidavit
In June 2010, Colonel Charles Halt, who had retired by then, signed an affidavit that was notarized. In this document, he provided a concise summary of the events that occurred on the night of the incident. Additionally, he expressed his personal belief that the incident involved extraterrestrial elements and further claimed that both the United Kingdom and the United States had concealed the truth surrounding the event.
In 2010, base commander Colonel Ted Conrad provided a contradictory statement to Halt's that read:
We saw nothing that resembled Lieutenant Colonel Halt's descriptions either in the sky or on the ground... We had people in position to validate Halt's narrative, but none of them could.
In an interview about the event Conrad dug into Halt even more, saying:
He should be ashamed and embarrassed by his allegation that his country and Britain both conspired to deceive their citizens over this issue. He knows better.
A 1983 Omni Article Laid Out The Servicemen's Experience
In 1983, an article in Omni stated that the servicemen not only saw a UFO hovering just above the ground near the base, but that every time they came close to it the craft zoomed away. It reads:
Colonel Ted Conrad the base commander... recalls five Air Force policemen spotted lights from what they thought was a small plane descending into the forest. Two of the men tracked the object on foot and came upon a large tripod-mounted craft. It had no windows but was studded with brilliant red and blue lights. Each time the men came within 50 yards of the ship, Conrad relates, it levitated six feet in the air and backed away. They followed it for almost an hour through the woods and across a field until it took off at 'phenomenal speed.' Acting on the reports made by his men, Colonel Conrad began a brief investigation of the incident in the morning. He went into the forest and located a triangular pattern ostensibly made by the tripod legs... he did interview two of the eyewitnesses and concludes, 'Those lads saw something, but I don't know what it was.'
Was The Whole Thing A Hoax?
One theory suggested is that the incident could have been a hoax from top to bottom. The BBC reported on a claim made by Kevin Conde, a former U.S. security policeman, who stated that he created the strange lights in the forest by driving a modified police vehicle. The thing is, there's no evidence supporting the prank specifically on the nights when the incident took place. It's rare that a hoax is just as hard to prove as the miraculous incident that genuinely would be hard to explain.
Skeptics Claim That The Craft Was Actually A Fireball
The most likely explanation from a skeptical perspective is that the sightings can be attributed to a combination of three key factors. Firstly, the initial sighting on December 26, where the airmen observed something descending into the forest, coincided with the occurrence of a bright fireball in the southern region of England. Such fireballs are often mistaken for UFOs and frequently lead to reported sightings. Additionally, the alleged landing marks were examined by both police and forestry experts who identified them as diggings made by rabbits. No evidence has surfaced to substantiate the claim that any object or entity actually landed in the forest.
The Soldiers May Have Seen Sirius Lighting Up The Sky
Based on the witness accounts from December 26, the flashing light observed from the forest appeared to align with the direction of the Orfordness Lighthouse. As the witnesses tried to approach the light, they realized it was farther away than they initially perceived. One witness, Ed Cabansag, described it as a distant "beacon light," while another witness, John Burroughs, likened it to a "lighthouse."
During Lieutenant Colonel Halt's sighting on December 28, the timings recorded on his tape indicated that the light he witnessed, positioned in the same direction as the light seen two nights earlier, flashed at a consistent five-second interval. This flash rate matched the characteristic pattern of the Orfordness Lighthouse.
Regarding the star-like objects mentioned by Halt, which he reported as hovering low to the north and south, skeptics propose that they may have been misinterpretations of bright stars affected by atmospheric and optical distortions. Such phenomena often lead to mistaken UFO sightings. Notably, the brightest object, located to the south, coincided with the position of Sirius, the brightest star visible in the night sky.
One Researcher Claims That The Whole Thing Was A Prank Against The US Soldiers Near The Base
In December 2018, British UFO researcher David Clarke put forth a claim suggesting that the entire incident was a tricky little scheme orchestrated by the Special Air Service (SAS) as an act of retaliation against the United States Air Force (USAF). According to this story, in August 1980, members of the SAS conducted a planned security test by parachuting into RAF Woodbridge, which included a nuclear site.
However, due to recent radar upgrades by the USAF, the SAS parachutes were detected, leading to their subsequent interrogation and physical assault. The SAS troops were subjected to the derogatory term "unidentified aliens" during this ordeal. Seeking retribution, the SAS purportedly devised their own version of an extraterrestrial event to exact revenge upon the USAF. It read in part:
...As December approached, lights and colored flares were rigged in the woods. Black helium balloons were also coupled to remote-controlled kites to carry suspended materials into the sky, activated by radio-controls.
As fun as all of that is, Clarke's investigation found that the story was nothing more than a hoax.
The UFO Trail Can Still Be Visited Today
We may never know what happened in Rendlesham Forest in 1980, but true believers refuse to let this fascinating story die. In 2005, the Forestry Commission utilized funds from the Lottery to establish a trail within Rendlesham Forest, popularly known as the UFO Trail due to the significant public interest surrounding the area. In 2014, the Forestry Service commissioned an artist to create an artwork that now stands at the trail's endpoint. The artist's inspiration for the piece stemmed from sketches supposedly representing various depictions of the UFOs reported to have been sighted in Rendlesham.
