The Rendlesham Forest incident

Lore & Background

These lights have been attributed by astronomers to a piece of natural debris seen burning up as a fireball over southern England around that time. Servicemen initially thought it was a downed aircraft. According to Halt's memo, upon entering the forest to investigate, they witnessed a glowing object that was metallic in appearance with coloured lights. As they attempted to approach the object, it appeared to move through the trees, and 'the animals on a nearby farm went into a frenzy'. One of the servicemen, Sergeant Jim Penniston, later claimed to have encountered a 'craft of unknown origin' while in the forest, although there was no publicised mention of this at the time and there is no corroboration from other witnesses. Penniston also described touching the encountered craft and finding it to be very warm to the touch. Shortly after 04:00 local police were called to the scene but reported that the only lights they could see were those from the Orford Ness lighthouse, some miles away on the coast. After daybreak on the morning of 26 December, servicemen returned to a small clearing near the eastern edge of the forest and found three small impressions on the ground, as well as burn marks and broken branches on nearby trees. At 10:30 the local police were called out again, this time to see the impressions, which they thought could have been made by an animal.

Reader's Guide

The Rendlesham Forest incident is significant as the most famous alleged UFO event in the United Kingdom, often compared to the Roswell UFO incident. The UK Ministry of Defence stated that the event posed no threat to national security and was therefore never investigated as a security matter. Sceptics have explained the sightings as a misinterpretation of a series of nocturnal lights: a fireball, the Orfordness Lighthouse, and bright stars. The most widely accepted explanation is that the sightings were due to a combination of three main factors: the initial sighting coincided with a bright fireball over southern England; the supposed landing marks were identified by police and foresters as rabbit diggings; and the flashing light seen from the forest lay in the same direction as the Orfordness Lighthouse, which flashed every five seconds, matching timings on Halt's tape recording. The star-like objects that Halt reported are thought by some sceptics to have been misinterpretations of bright stars, with the brightest matching the position of Sirius. Scientific sceptic author Brian Dunning concluded that everything Halt had reported had a simple explanation, noting that separate pieces of poor evidence do not aggregate into a single piece of good evidence. The incident remains a subject of debate between UFO proponents and sceptics.

Did You Know?

• The incident is sometimes called 'Britain's Roswell'.
• The UK Ministry of Defence stated the event posed no threat to national security and was never investigated as a security matter.
• Sceptics attribute the sightings to a fireball, the Orfordness Lighthouse, and bright stars.
• The impressions found on the ground were identified by police and foresters as rabbit diggings.