Did Aliens Visit Rendlesham Forest? | Unveiled

Did Aliens Visit Rendlesham Forest?

The 1947 Roswell Incident is probably the most well-known alleged extraterrestrial event in the world... But, did you know that the United Kingdom has its very own Roswell, too? So, just how close was this particular encounter?

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; did aliens visit Rendlesham Forest?

Between the nights of December 26th and December 28th, 1980, personnel at the military base RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk, England, witnessed a series of bizarre events. The base was being occupied by the US Air Force at the time, with the most notable witness being the deputy base commander Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt. The Rendlesham incident was detailed by Halt in the now notorious “Halt Memo”, which was sent to the British Ministry of Defence to recount what had happened...

At roughly 3 AM on the 26th, it’s claimed a patrol witnessed “unusual lights” and went out to investigate thinking they might have seen a downed plane. What those airmen reportedly found, however, was a strange, “metallic”, “triangular” object covered in “pulsing” lights and hovering some way off the ground. According to Halt, nearby animals began to act strangely in the presence of this unexplained thing and, when he returned to the site the following day, he found unusual marks in the dirt below where the craft had been floating. Finally, Halt also describes witnessing three “star-like objects” on the next night, the 28th, which reportedly hung in the air for hours - with one even at times “beaming” down a stream of light. In terms of British UFO sightings, Halt had just logged one of the most extensive and attention-grabbing reports ever.

At the time and in the years since, there have been various explanations put forward for what happened… but the explanation which Halt himself still adamantly believes is that Rendlesham Forest was the site of an alien visitation. For supporters of the theory, it’s the simplest way to explain the unusual craft, the flashing lights, the strange animal behaviour, and so on. And the high rank of Halt as colonel lends some credibility to his report. He had previously seen combat in Vietnam, Japan, and Korea, making him an experienced member of the US Air Force… someone whose word could be trusted, and who would’ve been well-trained in identifying aerial phenomena (including UFOs).

There are similar theories, too, which propose that it was visitors from the future that Halt and those with him saw. Crucially, though, none of the airmen present were able to communicate with whoever – or whatever – was in the craft, so we’re none the wiser about what they actually wanted. Even so, the Rendlesham Incident offers something that plenty of other UFO sightings don’t - military backing. The reports are based on the word of multiple airmen of various rank. So, while the likes of Roswell have been widely written off as a military cover-up, here it was the military themselves blowing the whistle on the alleged encounter, and asking the public to believe them.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of sceptics who… don’t. For those not on board with the “aliens in England” theory, the biggest discrepancy is that in his account Halt neglects to mention the existence of the Orfordness Lighthouse nearby. When local police were called out to investigate the depressions in the ground (which they also said could’ve been simple animal tracks), they noted that the lighthouse was visible over the trees and could certainly have looked like a pulsing light or a beam. And since the base wasn’t occupied by the RAF at the time but US airmen, it’s not too difficult to imagine that they may not have known the lighthouse was there – at least not well enough to pinpoint its position in the middle of the night.

The existence of a nearby, possibly unfamiliar lighthouse of course doesn’t debunk everything Halt saw, but it did become a major sticking point in determining the reliability of his report… especially as there are some claims that Halt at one stage misreported the location of the lighthouse, seemingly to make it appear as though his alleged “spaceship” couldn’t possibly have been it. Then, when in 1997 more, original eyewitness reports came to light, it was revealed that some of the accompanying soldiers had claimed - even back then - that they thought the light was “coming from a lighthouse”; a detail which went against Halt’s version of events, and is often left out of the Rendlesham narrative.

Another thing that naysayers are quick to point out is that there was a reported fireball in the sky at 3 AM on the morning of December 26th, right when Halt says he saw the first signs of an alien craft. This fireball was noted by astronomers as a piece of space debris and was reported by the British Astronomical Association in early 1981. Though, this is only one event - on its own, it can’t explain why sightings allegedly continued for the following two nights, as well - astronomers have also claimed that the “star-like objects” Halt says he saw afterwards were most likely just that: ordinary stars. Add in that Halt’s superior, a Colonel Ted Conrad, also denied seeing anything at all… and that it was argued by others that Halt’s account bore some striking similarities to the popular-at-the-time sci-fi movie, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”… and the case against Rendlesham being aliens mounts up.

Despite this, Halt has always stuck to his story, even claiming that the British government is covering up what really happened. Naturally, the UK’s Ministry of Defence doesn’t see it that way… deciding that the incident wasn’t a threat to British national security and didn’t warrant further investigation. In 2001 the files on Rendlesham were even released to the public, and were disappointing to say the least; they added nothing new to the by then well-known story.

But there’s one last explanation that could be the most interesting and surprising of all. It’s been alleged by an unknown source speaking to Doctor David Clarke, a respected folklore expert in the UK, that the incident was actually an elaborate prank carried out by the British Special Air Service. According to Clarke’s source (whose true identity remains unknown, including whether he was ever actually in the SAS himself), the whole thing was payback for another unfortunate incident between SAS operatives and the American personnel stationed at RAF Woodbridge.

That initial incident, according to Clarke’s source, came about because Woodbridge was allegedly, at the time, being used to store nuclear weapons. So, during an SAS mission to test the security measures that were in place, British soldiers parachuted into the base unannounced and were captured by the US airmen, but then were roughly treated and referred to mockingly as “aliens” by them - until the British government intervened, and they were released. What Halt saw a few months later, then, was - according to the source - the SAS getting its own back, by deliberately trying to make the Americans believe they really had seen an alien. The UFO spoof was supposedly made using just black helium balloons, remote-controlled kites and coloured flares. If true, the plan obviously worked… but, it should also be noted that other, non-anonymous SAS sources have also come forward, saying that they didn’t hear anything about such a prank at the time. So, there’s understandable doubt around this particular explanation, but it would at least explain why the MoD were so keen to sweep it all under the carpet!

No matter what really happened in December 1980, the incident has certainly created a legacy of its own. Today, there’s even a monument to it built to look like a flying saucer, along Rendlesham Forest’s three-mile-long “UFO trail”. It’s undoubtedly one of the UK’s most intriguing alien encounters, and the forest is still a magnet for new UFO sightings to this day. Most official accounts say what Halt saw was the nearby Orfordness Lighthouse, and possibly a timely space debris fireball… but the encounter will always carry an undercurrent of extraterrestrial mystery. What do YOU believe happened at Rendlesham Forest?