Best Evidence: Top 10 UFO Sightings TV - Paranatural: Alien Encounters TV - Shaun Ryder on UFOs TV - News of the World - UFO Files TV - Ancient Aliens TV - UFOs and the Military Elite - Strange But True? TV - Nick Pope - UFOs: The Untold Stories - Alien Mysteries TV - John Burroughs - Jim Penniston - Conspiracies: Extraterrestrials TV - UFO Cover Up: Out of the Blue TV - Charles Halt - Our World is Changing TV - Larry Warren - The Rendlesham UFO Incident 2014 - Conspiracy: Alien Cover-Up - Out of the Blue 2003 - Alien Files Unsealed TV - UFO Hunters TV - UFOs Declassified TV - Unidentified: Inside America’s Investigation TV - UFOs: The Lost Evidence TV - Conspiracy: UFOs TV - Craig Charles: UFO Conspiracies TV -
Rendlesham Forest: One of the best documented and most famous encounters by military personnel. Best Evidence: Top 10 UFO Sightings, 2007
Rendlesham Forest: It’s an event that’s become known as Britain’s Roswell ... December 26th 1980 when two groups of servicemen go out to investigate a strange light ... The British Defence Ministry dismisses the case as Cause Unknown. Paranatural: Alien Encounters: Paranatural, National Geographic 2013
The incident in Rendlesham Forest has been dubbed Britain’s own Roswell. Shaun Ryder on UFOs IV, History 2013
UFO Lands in Suffolk: And that’s Official. News of the World front page
Throughout the 1970s official UFO sightings continued but were largely unremarkable. That is until the most famous or infamous UFO sighting in Britain which took place during Christmas 1980 close to the twin US airbases at Bentwaters and Woodbridge in Suffolk. The bases are bounded by Rendlesham Forest. At almost midnight Christmas Day US servicemen on duty at one of the perimeter fences reported seeing strange lights deep in the forest. UFO Files s2e3: Britain’s X-Files, History 2005
The men drove into Rendlesham Forest. Suddenly Stevens noticed a strange light in the woods just off the road. Burroughs felt nervous. Alarmed, the men sped back to the gate to call the Flight Desk from a secure phone line. UFO Files s2e15: Britain’s Roswell
Within minutes Penniston and his driver arrived at the East Gate. Burroughs and Stevens directed his attention to the woods ... Sergeant Penniston approached within ten feet of the object. And the bright light dimmed ... Penniston took photos with his military-issue camera ... He then circled the object making descriptions in a notepad. ibid.
Two nights later the UFO returned. And this time the deputy base commander [Charles Halt] made a chilling record of his own encounter. ibid.
Another intriguing British UFO sighting took place in December 1980: US Air Force personnel stationed in Suffolk reported seeing a brilliantly illuminated spaceship that landed in Rendlesham Forest on two consecutive nights. Ancient Aliens s1e5: The Return, History 2010
‘This was a landed metallic craft that some of the witnesses claimed they got so close to, they could touch the side of it.’ ibid. Nick Pope
What stood out was the credibility of the main witnesses – trained military personnel. ibid.
Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, 80 miles north-east of London ... Shortly after midnight on December 26th 1980 military radar detected an unidentified flying object. Also there were civilian reports of strange flickering lights in the sky. Within minutes military policemen, including Staff Sergeant Jim Penniston and Airman first class John Burroughs, were sent into the woods to investigate. What they encountered was something the experienced servicemen had never seen before. Ancient Alien s2e10: Alien Contacts
Could the strange numbers from James Penniston’s vision be some type of code? ibid.
Rendlesham Forest: For three decades Penniston kept the numerical sequence between the covers of his Air Force notebook. They remained unexamined. And undeciphered. ibid.
To his [James Penniston] astonishment, after feeding the numbers into a computer a fragmentary sentence seemed to emerge. Exploration of Humanity Continuous for Planetary Advance. Another portion of the message revealed what appeared to be navigational coordinates. ibid.
26th December 1980: Shortly after midnight an unidentified object was picked up on radar over RAF Bentwaters. It appeared to go down in the nearby Rendlesham Forest. 3 enlisted men including Sergeant Jim Penniston and Airman Jim Burrows entered the forest expecting to find an aircraft. As Penniston approached the object he saw strange heiroglypic inscriptions on its side. Reaching out to touch it, his mind was suddenly bombarded with images of numbers. The following day, Penniston was compelled to write the strange series of numbers in his notebook. Ancient Aliens s5e2: Aliens & Cover-Ups, History 2012
Both men claimed they were pressured to leave out certain details of the event, especially those suggesting the craft might have been extraterrestrial. ibid.
Over the next two evenings more mysterious sightings were reported by other servicemen. ibid.
The Rendlesham Forest Incident: 200 miles east of Rudloe Manor lie 6 square miles of woodlands that has become notorious as the site of Great Britain’s most incredible UFO encounter. On December 26th 1980, near an air force base leased to the United States Air Force by the RAF, strange lights are reported on the horizon in what appears to be a possible downed aircraft. Two US servicement are dispatched to the site. According to accounts, radios failed as they approached the targeted area, and the air itself felt electrically charged as they closed in. Ancient Aliens s12e3: The Mystery of Rudloe Manor, History 2017
One of the most famous cases ever took place in England in 1980 near the US military bases of Bentwaters and Woodbridge ... The first group of military that inspected the forest found itself face to face with the strange brilliant object silently floating among the trees a few inches from the ground. PSTV.tv – UFOs & The Military Elite
At the centre of the triangle Halt’s men recorded radioactivity levels far higher than normal ... The trees around the landing site showed freshly broken branches. ibid.
During the monitoring of a night-flying exercise a strange object was picked up. The radar officers were mystified. Back on Woodbridge Base near the east gate Airman John Burroughs was on security patrol with a colleague ... Burroughs and his colleague raced back to the gatehouse where they contacted the security controller ... The Sergeant contacted Jim Penniston ... The men went through the forest towards the lights. Then they saw it ... The Americans watched for about twenty minutes. On their return to the airbase the man were called in by the officer in charge. Strange But True? ITV 1993
When Burroughs and Penniston approached the site, they found in a small clearing not a crashed aircraft but a landed UFO. Nick Pope, interview Alien Files Unsealed
They went out into the forest and saw not a crashed aircraft but a metallic triangular-shaped craft through the trees. The guard patrol actually got quite close to the object. Nick Pope
This really was the Holy Grail. This was certainly Britain’s most famous UFO case. Nick Pope
What made this case particularly unusual is that this was not vague lights in the sky – this was a landed metallic craft that some of the witnesses claimed they got so close to they could actually touch the side of it. One witness saw strange symbols on the hull which he likened to Egyptian hieroglyphs; he made a sketch of this in his police notebook, and took some photos though he was subsequently told they didn’t come out. The Ministry of Defence looked at this and the Defence Intelligence staff assessed radiation readings that had been taken at the landing site as being ‘significantly higher than background’. Nick Pope
Rendlesham, England, 26th December 1980: On a high-security US Air Base bizarre events are unfolding. An unknown object caught on radar, mysterious lights in the forest, and the strange experience of two Air Force security guards. The Rendlesham Forest incident is one of the most mysterious of all UFO tales. UFOs: The Untold Stories s1e1, National Geographic 2016
Just two nights later the mysterious lights were back. ibid.
‘We just stood there in awe.’ ibid. Halt
Halt wrote an official report of the night. ibid.
There were strange lights out in the forest. To me it almost looked like Christmas lights at first. A Christmas display. At that point we looked at each other and we decided we had better take a closer look. John Burroughs, USAF Airman retired, witness to first visitation, televised interview
The air was filled with electricity that you feel on your skin as we approached the object. It was about the size of a tank. It was triangular in shape; underneath the craft was a high intensity white light emanating out of it, and that was bordered by red and blue lights alternating. Jim Penniston, USAF Technical Sergeant, witness to first visitation, televised interview
The craft was triangular in shape and measured probably nine feet wide by about eight feet high. I couldn’t tell the front or back to it ... It was all completely smooth on the outside of the craft. Jim Penniston, interview UFO Files: Britain’s Roswell
You could feel it on your clothes, your face, your hair ... The craft was finger in shape and measured probably nine feet wide by about eight feet high. I couldn’t tell the front or back to it; there was no engines to one side or no cockpit, nothing like that. It was all completely smooth on the outside of the craft ... The fabric of the craft was smooth like glass. It was warm to the touch but not hot. There was like lights on it somehow in the fabric of the craft ... They were like markings, not numbers, not language; there was several maybe six symbols measuring three feet wide ... The speed of the craft leaving the area ... was like in the blink of an eye. Jim Penniston, USAF Technical Sergeant, witness to first visitation, televised interview
‘That night over 80 Air Force personnel all trained observers assigned to the 81st Security Police Squadron witnessed the take-off.’ Jim Penniston, re Rendlesham Forest, cited I Know What I Saw, evidence to National Press Club
‘It looked like black glass ... It was warm. It had some kind of markings on it.’ Conspiracy: Alien Cover Up s1e6, Jim Penniston interview
Only reported by Penniston years after the event. ibid.
Next morning, one of the first to hear this bizarre tale was the Air Base’s Deputy Commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Halt ... Unconvinced, Colonel Halt led a group of airmen into the forest to lay the story to rest. He brought with him a pocket tape recorder. Conspiracies – Extraterrestrials