RAF Bentwaters HQ
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English Ministry of Defense documents about Britain?s best
documented UFO landing have just been released. The secret
papers on the incident at the U.S. Bentwaters base in Suffolk
in 1980 were uncovered by the author
David Clarke, a
researcher at Sheffield University, who is writing a book on
the subject.
In what was claimed to be Britain?s first UFO landing,
Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt, commander of the U.S.
Bentwaters base near Woodbridge in Suffolk, reported that
two of his security patrolmen had seen ?unusual lights? early
in the morning of December 27, 1980. Thinking that an
aircraft had crashed, they reported seeing ?a strange glowing
object in the Rendlesham forest.? The object was described
as being ?metallic in appearance and triangular in shape? with
a ?pulsing red light on top and bank of blue lights
underneath.?
Animals on a nearby farm were said to have gone into
a ?frenzy.? The following day three depressions were found as
well as traces of radiation, Col. Halt reported. His report was
released under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act two
years later. What wasn?t disclosed until now was the Ministry
of Defense response to it.
The Halt report was sent to the ministry with a cover letter
written by Squadron Leader Donald Moreland, an RAF liaison
officer, who referred to ?some mysterious sightings.?
The ministry?s scientists said they could offer ?no explanation
for the phenomena? or the radiation. Radar tapes from the
night in question were impounded from nearby RAF bases to
see if there was any evidence that British airspace had been
invaded. The papers make it clear that the English
government was more concerned about protecting the base
from unwelcome publicity than about the alleged UFO
sightings.
According to the newly-released documents, the report by
the deputy commander of a U.S. nuclear base in East Anglia
of an unidentified flying object set off panic in the Ministry of
Defense. The ministry was worried that rumors might be
spread that the ?alien landing? was a cover story for an
accident involving nuclear weapons, the crash of a prototype
Stealth aircraft, or even the secret recovery of part of a
Soviet satellite.
It was also worried that anti-nuclear forces would be alerted
to the presence of nuclear bombs at Bentwaters.
But they must be hiding more than that, because 5
documents are still being withheld on the grounds that they
contain confidential briefings to ministers, relate to national
security, or affect Britain?s relations with the U.S. Dr. Clarke,
whose book is due to be published next year, has asked the
Ministry of Defense to release them. He says, ?Here we had
USAF servicemen at a highly sensitive NATO base chasing
UFOs around a forest in the middle of the night. The files
raise questions about how easily our defenses could be
fooled.?
To read the documents,
click
here.
For more information, click here.
