Latest news with #RendleshamForest
Daily Mail
24-07-2025
- Daily Mail
When US soldiers based in Suffolk saw lights, triangular aircraft and 'non-humans' the MoD 'shut it down'. Now 45 years later they tell their story for first time - and astonishing truth about how clo
Did aliens land outside an American airbase in Suffolk 45 years ago to probe its secret stash of nuclear warheads? Or is the story a fisherman's tale that just gets bigger every time it is told? Clearly something unusual happened in the early hours of Boxing Day morning in Rendlesham Forest, near the twin RAF bases of Bentwaters and Woodbridge, that's still being talked about today. Some claim the latter Nato base was visited by UFOs, leading to a 'meet and greet' with silver-suited aliens and American top military brass that was caught on film. Others, as the Mail can exclusively reveal, are convinced the Christmas visitors were interested in a secret nuclear missile stockpile, stashed just a few miles from Ipswich, where the good people of Suffolk were obliviously sleeping off their Christmas indulgences. What everyone agrees on, however, is that the full story has never been disclosed. Until now. A new feature length documentary, eight years in the making, re-ignited the decades-old Rendlesham Forest UFO mystery when it premiered last week. Called Capel Green, after a field situated between the RAF Woodbridge airfield and the medieval Butley Priory in Suffolk, where the story is set, it re-creates the action seen through the eyes of a US airman who claims he witnessed it. As a keen UFOlogist who has closely followed the Rendlesham story for decades, I fear the truth won't be the Close Encounters tale everyone craves, but rather yet another example of the British and American governments using UFO conspiracy stories as a convenient cloak for their nefarious, top-secret activities at the height of the Cold War, as confirmed last month in a bombshell report published by The Wall Street Journal. Yet, that will be cold comfort for those Suffolk residents, who, in 1980, had no idea how close they were sleeping to the weapons of Armageddon that Christmas night. The Capel Green film includes interviews with US security police, some of whom have never spoken on camera before, plus a newly recruited US airman, Larry Warren, just 19 at the time, who claims he had a front-row seat to the whole happening. Larry Warren claims he had a front-row seat to the whole happening at Rendlesham Forest when he was 19 The Capel Green film includes interviews with US security police, some of whom have never spoken on camera before In the film, he describes how he was told to hand over his rifle and driven in a Jeep to a clearing in the forest that was covered in glowing mist. It was then, he says, that he saw a 'basketball sized red light in the sky' followed by a 'blinding flash of light'. It was then he saw a triangular-shaped 'machine, object or craft' on the ground and – most astonishingly of all – three 'non-human beings' emerging from it. These beings, he said, were then greeted by a tall man he believed was the most senior officer at the Nato complex, US air force wing commander (later brigadier general) Gordon Williams. According to Warren, footage of this incredible meeting was captured on film, the footage handed to the pilot of a F-15 jet and later flown to the US air force HQ in Germany, never to be seen again. Which is all very intriguing – and understandably greeted with a huge amount of scepticism. Wing commander Gordon Williams, it should be noted, has never publicly commented on Rendlesham, but in 2003 described Warren's claims as 'a flight of fancy'. Whatever happened, the incident wasn't a one-off and UFOs were seen around the base for at least three nights. On December 28, 1980, the deputy base commander, lieutenant colonel Charles Halt, led a team of airmen into the forest to investigate his colleague's strange report. As Halt made a running commentary of events on his hand-held tape recorder, his men gasped as they spotted a pulsing red light that resembled a winking eye between the trees. Later three star-like lights in the sky were seen low in the north and south, hovering until daybreak. Halt claims one of these projected a pencil-thin beam of light into the weapons storage area of nearby RAF Bentwaters 'like it was looking for something'. In the film, US security policeman Sergeant Steve Longero, who was assigned to protect the nuclear warheads at the Suffolk base, also claims to have seen a beam of light scanning the whole of the weapons storage area. Charles Halt's memo summarising the Rendlesham sightings was sent to the British Ministry of Defence in January 1981 and became one of the most famous documents in the history of UFOlogy when it was leaked to the media. As a teenage UFO enthusiast, I clearly recall being gripped by the headline 'UFO LANDS IN SUFFOLK: And that's OFFICIAL' that broke the Rendlesham Forest story in October 1983. To many UFOlogists, the Rendlesham incident offered the exciting possibility of a 'British Roswell' right on our doorstep. The News Of The World front page from 1983 reads: 'UFO LANDS IN SUFFOLK: And that's OFFICIAL' To many UFOlogists, the Rendlesham incident offered the exciting possibility of a 'British Roswell' right on our doorstep Roswell, as every UFO buff knows, was a mysterious incident in Roswell, New Mexico that happened in 1947, when a downed balloon used to spy on Soviet atomic tests was spun into a story of a captured flying saucer. For those who wanted to believe, Rendlesham appeared to have everything Roswell had: impressive military witnesses, official documentation and what appeared to be a determined government attempt at a cover-up. As an investigative journalist seeking answers, I used the precursor to the UK's Freedom of Information Act to persuade the MoD to release their own 150-page file on the case in 2001. Sadly, I found no smoking gun, although I did find a letter written by the then-defence minister, Michael Heseltine, shortly after the story broke, giving unequivocal assurance 'that there is not a grain of truth in the allegation that there has been a cover-up about alleged UFO sightings'. But remember, this was the Eighties and the height of the Cold War, where 'truth' could be subjective. The Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan a year earlier and tensions were high in Eastern Europe. Not so many miles away, at Greenham Common in Berkshire, the first tents were being pitched in a protest camp outside another American airbase, where cruise missiles were being stored. The protest would go on for the next 19 years and draw worldwide media attention – something the US and UK governments were keen to avoid in Suffolk. In 2002, I met with RAF squadron leader, Don Moreland, who was the British liaison officer for the two bases at the time. The question of nuclear weapons was dodged deftly. 'The MoD thing was, we don't confirm or deny it. I don't know whether there were nuclear weapons there, and I was the RAF commander,' he told me. 'I could probably guess that there might have been there but they wouldn't tell me.' But last summer a US intelligence officer-turned UFO whistleblower, Luis Elizondo, claimed in his explosive book, Imminent, that the Rendlesham incident was indeed linked to the secret stockpile of nuclear weapons at nearby RAF Bentwaters – now a Cold War Museum. He said the 'beam' described by multiple witnesses had 'hovered specifically over an underground bunker' where the stash was held. He said the visit triggered a 'flash override' that gave the US president, Jimmy Carter, direct control of the weapons in the event of a surprise attack. Many theories have come and gone over the years, the earliest being put forward by astronomer Ian Ridpath who discovered the initial sighting coincided with a bright fireball meteor that appeared to fall into the forest in the early hours of Boxing Day. Ridpath believes that once the airmen on the patrol became convinced a UFO had landed, they walked into the forest, where they saw the pulsing beam from the Orford Ness lighthouse, about six miles away on the Suffolk coast. Professor David Clarke has spoken to several key men regarding the mysterious events that took place 45 years ago Others have come forward to claim the sightings were caused by pranksters: in 2015 I received a letter from an anonymous source claiming to be a 'retired SAS trooper with inside knowledge of Rendlesham' who immediately got my attention. He claimed the UFOs were created by pyrotechnics rigged up by Special Forces in the forest, in revenge for being caught and roughed up by US security forces during an exercise to test the base defences. But, however exciting this theory might sound, the date stamp on the letter gave the game away: it was carefully timed to arrive on April 1. Four decades have passed and the basic story has become ever more complicated and exaggerated, with numerous claims and counter-claims from both believers and sceptics. Halt's straightforward, if bizarre, account of 'unexplained lights' seen in a forest at Christmas time has been transformed into a complex modern legend involving missing time, conspiracies and messages from time travellers. Even the most dedicated supporters of the UFO story have struggled to reconcile the ever-changing accounts told by the principal witnesses. Sergeant Jim Penniston's account of having approached the landed UFO in the forest on Boxing Day and made sketches of it was once regarded as good evidence. But his credibility crumbled when he announced, on the 30th anniversary, that he had received a 'download' of binary code when he touched the object that he wrote down in a notebook. He also claimed to have received a telepathic message from the craft's occupants who'd come from our future to gather genetic material. 'They are time travellers,' he said. 'They are us.' Charles Halt went on, after retirement from the US air force, to write a book and has made frequent TV appearances. In 2010 he signed a statement that said he believed the UFOs were 'extraterrestrial in origin and that the security services of both the United States and UK have attempted – both then and now – to subvert the significance of what occurred in Rendlesham forest and RAF Bentwaters by the use of well-practiced methods of disinformation'. But Halt's superior officer, Colonel Ted Conrad, responded with a scathing account of Halt's credibility when we met in 2016. The Texan-born former top gun fighter pilot told me, in no uncertain terms: '[Halt] should be ashamed and embarrassed by his allegation that his country and England both conspired to deceive their citizens over this issue. He knows better.' Colonel Conrad was base commander and said he carried out the only formal investigation of the UFO sightings on behalf of General Williams, his boss and, according to Larry Warren, the man who officially greeted the aliens that night. But he failed to find any hard evidence and said the MoD decided to 'shut down' the whole incident. Despite his scepticism, Conrad admitted that something unexplained really did happen that Christmas but claimed the whole saga has taken on a life of its own. 'I don't recognise the details anymore,' he told me. 'It resembles science fiction and I have a low opinion of those telling these stories.' Then there is Larry Warren, the homesick teenage airman, whose story is the focus of the film Capel Green. The film's director, Dion M Johnson ,describes him as 'the original military witness and whistleblower' who has 'fought for the truth to be revealed'. But others have cast doubt upon his credibility, including Peter Robbins, with whom he co-authored a book about the incident, called Left At East Gate, in 1997. He later publicly disowned Warren, saying 'my former author has taken me for the ride of my life'. Former MoD UFO desk officer Nick Pope has gone further, describing Warren's story as 'largely fabricated' and 'part-stolen from other witnesses', such as Halt, that he believes are credible. Astronomer Ian Ridpath says 'on the face of it the Rendlesham story sounds inexplicable, but when broken down into its individual elements it is possible to work out what actually happened. 'As with most UFO cases, it amounts to a series of misidentifications of natural and man-made objects, namely a fireball, the lighthouse and twinkling stars. However, the UFO believers have no interest in solutions. 'For them the case has become a modern myth, and films like Capel Green simply add to that mythology.' Much like its American cousin Roswell, the Rendlesham story is likely to keep on growing as a snowball does rolling down a hillside, that keeps getting bigger and bigger with every re-telling.
The Guardian
19-07-2025
- The Guardian
Where the wild things are: how to immerse your kids in the great outdoors this summer
'Aliens!' The call came loud and shrill from the trees as I scanned the foliage for the unmistakable shape of my four-year-old son. For a moment, nothing stirred. The beams of light from the sun spotlit a nearby clump of bracken so intensely it reminded me of the torches Mulder and Scully used in The X Files. Then, a rustle came from up ahead. 'Quick! I found them,' he yelled before disappearing into a clearing between the pines. I walked on, to find, in front of us, the curved edges and spherical lines of a UFO, coloured so dark it nearly blended into the shadows. It was, of course, a metal sculpture representing the alien vessel said to have landed here over 40 years ago. On top of it stood my son. Even before I managed to take a decent picture, he wanted to run on again. 'We've got to find number four now,' he declared. We were in Suffolk's Rendlesham Forest, a 15-mile drive from Ipswich, walking a free UFO trail, based on the sighting of unexplained flying objects by US military officers based here in 1980. Loving to follow a trail of any kind over several hours – but especially one where he can tick off numbers, so he knows there is an end (handily, this one culminates in a playground) – he walked, ran and skipped the three miles, while I enjoyed spending time outside with him. When it comes to the summer holidays, it can feel as if we are doing a countdown. Of the 13 weeks most children get off school each year, six are lumped together over the summer, making July and August feel like a stretch of endless time. Not only can it be a nightmare, due to the juggle of childcare and work, but keeping kids entertained and – crucially – active rather than sat in front of screens can be expensive. So many activities cost a fortune. But there is another way. And it is completely free. And that is the outdoors. The UFO-themed walk was on Forestry England land, which is one of the first places to turn during the holidays. From interactive app-based trails that allow you to take videos of your child pretending to be a dragon complete with AI wings, to crafting missions where you work together to find natural items on the woodland floor to make the face of the Gruffalo, they are an inexpensive way to immerse yourself in nature. On the UFO trail, a free leaflet at the start guided us around the trees where I could tell the story of the key sites. My son was so enamoured of the map and tale that the next morning at breakfast he asked me to read it again while he followed the map with his finger and remembered our adventure. But an outdoor adventure doesn't have to be deep in the forest, where maps are required. The next day, we headed to Thorpeness, home to the much-photographed House in the Clouds, a former water tower that was disguised as a red and black clapboard house in 1923. Our mission was to find a way to get a good photograph of it. We followed a footpath up a hill, past quirkily painted weatherboarded houses which were popular after the first world war. While I was in awe of the house we had come to see, my little one found it way more exciting to discover the windmill opposite (bought by the creator of the House in the Clouds to help pump the water). Adjacent to Thorpeness is the town of Aldeburgh, where we spent hours on the shingle beach filling buckets with 'magic stones', chasing the waves, paddling in the North Sea and taking shelter under Maggi Hambling's giant scallop shell sculpture when rain fell. The day was rounded off with a hearty helping of fish and chips from Aldeburgh Fish and Chips, owned by the same family since 1967. Weeks on, my son still talks about this day as one of the best in his life. Beaches are always a winner when trying to convince kids that nature is cool. On a previous trip, I took my boy to New Quay in Ceredigion, west Wales (one of a few places that lay claim to being the inspiration for the characters and town in Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood). We didn't set foot indoors for an entire day. When the tide was out, we set up a beach 'base camp' with some shade under a giant parasol, then proceeded to bury each other in the sand. Then we looked for jellyfish washed up on the shore (a great opportunity to teach him about them), went rock pooling in the shallows (we found crabs, limpets, anemones and periwinkles) and built an elaborate fortified river, hewn from the silt using our buckets and spades. As the temperature rose, we swam in the sea and, just before the end of the day, we were treated to a spectacle of the resident bottlenose dolphins putting on an impromptu performance at dusk. None of this cost a penny. Yet we'd shared some of the best quality time I've experienced – bonding over the natural world, revelling in getting sand between our toes, and shivering in the cool waters of the Irish Sea. For something that feels like a bigger trip to my son, I try to involve a train. A couple of summers ago, we took the fast train to Scotland, then caught the ferry to the Isle of Mull as foot passengers. There, I hired an e-bike with a child seat and trailer, and we stopped off to wild camp near a loch. He helped me put up the tent, I cooked our dinner on a stove and we bonded over a shared love of marshmallows. We stayed up watching the sunset, despite it being way past his bedtime. 'I love the sun so much,' he told me as we saw the sky turn purple. 'I don't want to go to sleep.' He did, thankfully, nod off under a sky full of stars, with not a mention of Bluey, Peppa Pig or any of the other characters he usually demands entertain him. On one of the last days, we woke before dawn. I packed a chocolate croissant in my bag and we climbed the nearest hill to watch the sun rise. He still talks about it and asks when we will do it again. One of my most memorable trips with him was paddleboarding on the river near our house. I packed a picnic and we paddled to an island, where we sat and watched the birds, while he asked what each one was called and demanded we collect some of their lost feathers to take home, in the hope we might one day be able to make a cape that allowed us to fly back here. Memories like this are priceless. I know, given his age, he probably won't remember everything we do, but I hope going into the wild places will instil in him a knowledge that the natural world is a wondrous place and the backdrop to some of our happiest times together. For me, it helps to remember that when it comes to the holidays, instead of counting the days, I need instead to make the days count. Phoebe Smith is the author of Wayfarer and the 2025 recipient of the Royal Geographical Society's Ness award for promotion of accessible adventure, particularly to women and those from underprivileged communities
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rendelsham UFO film set for Raindance Festival
A documentary charting one of the most famous purported UFO sightings in history is to be shown at a film festival. "The Rendlesham UFO – The British Roswell" investigated reports made by US airmen who claimed to have witnessed a UFO in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, in December 1980. Mark Lee, co-director of the documentary, said the aim was "to create a conversation, as I am getting hundreds of people a week sending sightings and videos". It will premiere at the Raindance Film Festival in London on 24 and 25 June. On 26 December 1980, several United States Air Force (USAF) security personnel stationed at RAF Woodbridge, reported that they investigated "lights" in the surrounding forest. The sighting became headline news in the UK and sparked a host of books, dramas, documentaries and websites, suggesting it was either an actual alien visit, a secret military aircraft, a misinterpretation of natural lights or the beam of Orfordness Lighthouse - or a hoax. According to the creators of the documentary, it will feature exclusive interviews and never-before-seen footage of recent sightings in the forest. The Rendlesham Forest story has been dubbed the "British Roswell" after the 1947 Roswell Incident in New Mexico, USA. The documentary follows Mr Lee and co-investigator Guy Thompson searching for the truth armed with metal detectors and dowsing rods. The film has been described as a "sensational UFO road trip movie". Mr Lee, who has a science degree, said: "There is something unexplained there and there are so many credible witnesses to the event." The 54-year-old from St Albans co-directed the film with Roderick Godman. "I am more of the ideas and production - and Roderick made the film," he said. "There had been sightings of UFOs leading up to the 1980 sighting, and going back in through the decades." He added that he had an "open mind" about what the sightings were. Narrating the documentary is William B. Davis, best known for starring in The X-Files. Mr Lee said he was really excited to work with Davis, who recorded the voiceover in Vancouver, Canada. He added that he only got into the film making industry five years ago, and it "was a dream come true" as he was nominated for best director. Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. 'There's a report of red lights in the forest' UFO 'sighting' becomes legend like King Arthur 'English mythology' and UFO inspire horror rewrite Raindance Film Festival
BBC News
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Rendlesham UFO sighting doco to premiere at film festival
A documentary charting one of the most famous purported UFO sightings in history is to be shown at a film festival."The Rendlesham UFO – The British Roswell" investigated reports made by US airmen who claimed to have witnessed a UFO in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, in December Lee, co-director of the documentary, said the aim was "to create a conversation, as I am getting hundreds of people a week sending sightings and videos".It will premiere at the Raindance Film Festival in London on 24 and 25 June. On 26 December 1980, several United States Air Force (USAF) security personnel stationed at RAF Woodbridge, reported that they investigated "lights" in the surrounding sighting became headline news in the UK and sparked a host of books, dramas, documentaries and websites, suggesting it was either an actual alien visit, a secret military aircraft, a misinterpretation of natural lights or the beam of Orfordness Lighthouse - or a hoax. According to the creators of the documentary, it will feature exclusive interviews and never-before-seen footage of recent sightings in the Rendlesham Forest story has been dubbed the "British Roswell" after the 1947 Roswell Incident in New Mexico, USA. The documentary follows Mr Lee and co-investigator Guy Thompson searching for the truth armed with metal detectors and dowsing film has been described as a "sensational UFO road trip movie". 'Open mind' Mr Lee, who has a science degree, said: "There is something unexplained there and there are so many credible witnesses to the event."The 54-year-old from St Albans co-directed the film with Roderick Godman. "I am more of the ideas and production - and Roderick made the film," he said."There had been sightings of UFOs leading up to the 1980 sighting, and going back in through the decades."He added that he had an "open mind" about what the sightings the documentary is William B. Davis, best known for starring in The Lee said he was really excited to work with Davis, who recorded the voiceover in Vancouver, added that he only got into the film making industry five years ago, and it "was a dream come true" as he was nominated for best director. Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
