MYSTERY
The Rendlesham Forest Incident: Britain's Most Famous UFO Case
In the last week of December 1980, in Rendlesham Forest on the coast of Suffolk in eastern England, something happened that has been argued over ever since. The forest lay between two adjacent airbases, RAF Woodbridge and RAF Bentwaters, then used by the United States Air Force at the height of the Cold War, and it was American servicemen stationed there who became the witnesses to what is now often called 'Britain's Roswell.' In the small hours of 26 December, security personnel at the base saw strange lights descending into the forest, and, thinking an aircraft might have crashed, went in to investigate. What they reported finding — a metallic, structured craft with lights and strange markings, hovering or resting among the trees — became one of the most famous UFO accounts in the world. Two nights later the base's deputy commander, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt, led his own investigation into the forest and recorded it on tape as it unfolded, describing pulsing lights and objects in the sky. His subsequent official memorandum, released years later under freedom-of-information laws, gave the case a documentary weight that few UFO stories possess. And yet the incident has a strong and well-argued mundane explanation, centered on a nearby lighthouse, a bright meteor, and misperceived stars — an explanation the witnesses have always rejected. This is the story of what happened in Rendlesham Forest, and of why, more than four decades later, it remains unresolved.
