The Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident, Commonly Referred To As ‘Britain’s Roswell’
Wikimedia CommonsThe location in Rendlesham Forest where the alleged UFO encounter occurred.
Around 3 a.m. on Dec. 26, 1980, soldiers stationed at an Air Force base near Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk, England, reportedly witnessed a bizarre UFO.
Two security patrolmen near the eastern gate of Royal Air Force Woodbridge saw lights in the forest. The patrolmen requested permission to investigate what they believed to be a downed aircraft, and a third man joined them to search for the plane. That was when they encountered “a strange glowing object” in the forest.
When they approached, they found a metallic, triangular UFO that was about 10 feet across and six feet high. In a report known as the Halt Memo, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt recounted the experience:
“It illuminated the entire forest with a white light. The object itself had a pulsing red light on top and a bank(s) of blue lights underneath. The object was hovering or on legs. As the patrolmen approached the object, it maneuvered through the trees and disappeared. At this time the animals on a nearby farm went into a frenzy.”
An hour later, witnesses spotted the craft near the back gate of the base — and then it disappeared, never to be seen again.
The next day, officials returned to the supposed landing site and noticed three clear depressions in the ground where the object had sat. The military called local police to corroborate the findings, and the officers likewise made note of the indentations.
Halt, meanwhile, kept a detailed log of everything on a cassette recorder. A copy of the “Halt Tape” was released in 1984 by Colonel Sam Morgan. In it, Halt described “a red sun-like light” through the forest trees, which “moved about and pulsed” as it emitted glowing particles and broke off into five pieces before disappearing.
The whole account was so shocking that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher allegedly said, “Don’t tell the people.”
The Rendlesham Forest UFO incident now carries the same weight and infamy in England as Roswell does in America.
