Britain has its own Roswell incident
Here in the United States, UFO researchers and ordinary people alike talk a lot about what happened in Roswell, N.M. in July 1947. It has become a part of American folklore. But something also very weird happened in Suffolk, England in December 1980 and it has become known at “Britain’s Roswell.”
Located about eight miles east of Ipswich, England, Rendlesham Forest covers about 3,700 acres. The forest is also located close to two military bases, called RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge. In 1980, both bases were being used by the U.S. Air Force and were under the command of Col. Gordon E. Williams. Remember, this was during the Cold War and more American servicemen were stationed in England at that time.
At about 3 a.m. on Dec. 26, 1980, a security patrol near the East Gate of RAF Woodbridge reported seeing a unidentified flying object in the dark woods. At first, the servicemen thought it was a downed aircraft. But as they entered the forest to check it out, the servicemen saw numerous strange lights moving through the trees, as well as a bright light from an unidentified object. Shortly after 4 a.m., the local police were also called to the scene but reported that the only lights they could see were those from a nearby lighthouse.
Some of the airmen who were there that night later claimed to have seen a metallic object shaped like a cone and suspended in a yellow mist. It reportedly hovered over a clearing in the forest. The UFO had a pulsating red light on top and a bank of blue lights underneath. One airman claimed to have seen triangular landing gear on the object which left three impressions in the ground that could be seen the next day.
The airmen also reported that the weird hovering object seemed to move away from them as they approached it. The airmen followed the object as it hovered over a nearby field. The UFO then disappeared into the night sky, according to a Web site. At daybreak, the airmen returned to the small clearing where the UFO had first been seen. They found three small impressions in a triangular pattern, as well as burn marks and broken branches on nearby trees. In addition, they found extremely high levels of radiation where the branches were broken. At 10:30 a.m., the local police were called out again, this time to see the impressions on the ground. The English police concluded that they might have been made by some kind of animal, according to the Web site.
On the night of Dec. 28, Lt. Col. Charles Halt, who was the deputy base commander, assembled a large team of airmen to investigate the sighting and hopefully put an end to the wild rumors.
Instead, Halt and his men ran right into another UFO. They supposedly encountered a “red sun-like light” that moved about and pulsed in the Rendlesham Forest. Then, the UFO divided itself into five separate white objects and disappeared into the night sky. Immediately after that, the airmen noticed three star-like objects maneuvering in the sky, one occasionally beaming down a narrow stream of light.
It was during this investigation that a flashing light was seen across the field to the east, almost in line with the nearby farmhouse. Halt also recorded a narrative of what he was seeing as it happened by using a voice tape recorder.
According to one account, small alien beings with domed heads supposedly left the UFO and Col. Gordon Williams communicated with them using sign language, like something out of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” However, this tale comes from an unconfirmed rumor.
As part of the legend about the Rendlesham Forest incident, the airmen were allegedly debriefed and ordered by their superiors to keep silent about what they had seen. One of the eyewitnesses claimed to have been forced to sign a document stating the UFO was really a lighthouse. Some accounts state that they were threatened to keep quiet with the warning that “bullets are cheap.” But in recent years, some of the eyewitnesses have come forward with what they saw. The American shows “Unsolved Mysteries” and the History Channel’s “UFO Hunters” have devoted programs to the Rendlesham Forest incident. British journalists have also looked into what happened.
Today, the forest appears quite different from the way it looked in 1980 because of a massive storm that hit England in 1987. But there is a UFO trail that goes through there informing visitors of what occurred during those cold nights in December 1980.
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