FT238

The long campaign for ‘disclosure’ of the Ministry of Defence files on UFOs is over – but it will be four years before the process is complete. The contents of the ‘X-files’ were always guaranteed to create a media sensation, but even seasoned staff at the National Archives didn’t anticipate the intensity of internat­ional interest when they activated their online UFO resource in the early hours of 14 May. By midnight on the first day, over three million visitors from across the world had logged on to read and download the files – one of which is 450 pages in length.

The files are being released chronologically, and the first eight (containing almost 2,000 pages) cover UFO reports, policy and correspondence between 1978 and 1987. Four of the files originate with the MoD Air Staff secretariats DS8 and Sec(AS), known to UFO researchers and the media as the MoD’s ‘UFO desk’. The remaining four were compiled by the secretive Defence Intelligence Staff branch DI55, long suspected of involvement in covert UFO investigations (see FT226:32–33). DI55 were also the MoD department which drew on the sighting reports in these files to produce the database used in the ‘Condign report’ on UAPs (FT211:4–6).

The first batch of files provides a snapshot of British ufology from November 1981 to November 1987, when the Rendlesham Forest mystery first hit the headlines and crop circles became the new ufological obsession. The papers contain sparse details of several hundred sightings made to police stations and airbases on standard MoD UFO report forms or letters. Others arrived at Whitehall in the form of military signals from a variety of official sources. Most reports came from ordinary members of the public, but there are a smaller number from police officers, coastguards, air traffic controllers and civil aircrew. The vast majority can be easily explained by the usual suspects: bright stars and planets, aircraft, balloons and space junk. In one case, staff and customers at a Tunbridge Wells pub reported a UFO with flashing red and green lights, moving across the sky. When asked to describe the direction of movement, the answer was simply ‘Gatwick’ (the site of London’s second major airport).

Among the weirdest letters detailing ‘close encounters’ was that from a Cheshire man who claimed he had been in physical and psychic contact with aliens since he was a child. One of them, Algar, was killed in 1981 by rival space beings just prior to arranging a meeting with the Government. This letter is marked with the words “No Reply”. Another tale, sent to the MoD by ufologist Tim Good, describes how fisherman Alfred Burtoo was taken on board a flying saucer after meeting two small green-clad humanoids on a canal bank near Aldershot. Burtoo, 78, claimed he was placed under a scanner before being told: “You can go. You are too old and infirm for our purposes.” While Good told the MoD he believed Burtoo was “thoroughly honest”, a journalist who wrote up his story for a newspaper has said he “was one of the most obvious liars I have ever interviewed”. (FT198:29; 201:74)

Some reports were harder to dismiss as either misperceptions or hoaxes. But even when sightings were made by credible witnesses, such as military pilots, little effort was made by the MoD to investigate them in any depth. Their primary concern was to check if any UFOs were threats to defence, which in the context of the Cold War meant intruder aircraft from the Soviet Union. This remit never included alien spacecraft, or any interest the reports might have to science. One of a small number reported from military sources came from the crew of a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter who tracked two unknowns moving at incredible speed on their airborne radar while on an exercise from RNAS Culdrose, Cornwall, in September 1985. Although nothing was seen visually, the crew was convinced they were not “spurious contacts” created by weather conditions. Nothing was picked up by other radars, however, and the MoD quickly dismissed this report as “anomalous propagation”.

Another file contains a comic-book sketch of a dome-shaped flying saucer sighted in Stanmore, north London, in April 1984. Seven Police Officers and a number of residents watched for more than an hour as the UFO appeared to hover, flashing red, pink and white lights. Their report, filed with Scotland Yard, provides a classic description of the illusion known as auto-kinesis, caused by staring at a celestial object for an extended period of time. But this account has an intriguing aftermath. Ruth Novelli was one of the Stanmore residents who called police to report the light in the sky that night. In May this year, she was traced by BBC Radio 4 and had an even more sensational story to tell. She claims that shortly after the sighting a black car containing three swarthy Italian-looking men dressed in dark suits arrived at her home. She was out, but a neighbour spotted the strange visitors. Were these ufologists or the dreaded Men in Black?

Rendlesham Forest
The papers contain a withering briefing on the Rendlesham Forest incident (which became an international sensation in 1983 when the News of the World published Col Halt’s famous memo to the Ministry of Defence; see FT204:32–39). They reveal how Lord David Trefgarne, Tory Defence Minister, agreed to an ‘off-the-record’ meeting in 1985 with the retired Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Lord Peter Hill-Norton, who was pressing the MoD to reopen their inquiries into the case. The briefing is of interest because it provides a clear explanation of why the MoD did not share ufologists’ fascination with the sightings made by the USAF deputy base commander and his men at RAF Woodbridge. It says that, on receipt of Halt’s report on 15 January 1981, checks were carr­ied out by air defence staff but these “failed to reveal any radar trace of anything unusual in the area at the time”. They decided no follow-up was necessary because Lt Col Halt “does not ask for further investigation”. Lord Hill-Norton was told: “I think you will agree that it is highly unlikely that any violation of UK airspace would be heralded by such a display of lights. I think it equally unlikely that any reconnaissance or spying activity would be announced in this way… we believe that the fact Col Halt did not report these occurrences to MoD for almost two weeks after the event, together with the low-key manner in which he handled the matter are indicative of the degree of importance in defence terms which should be attached to the incident.”

The files also contain letters from another MoD official who became fascinated by UFOs. In 1985, Ralph Noyes wrote a novel based on the Rendlesham Forest incident and used the publication of A Secret Property to quiz his successor as head of DS8, Brian Webster. He also reported his own sighting of “three yellowish-white balls of light in triangular formation” that hovered in the sky near Elstree studios one night in May 1985. Like Hill-Norton, Noyes was convinced the MoD was hiding something, but discovered nothing further than the standard line that Halt’s report had been examined and dismissed as “of no defence interest”. Noyes also asked his successor about the fate of “some interesting gun camera clips” of UAPs taken by RAF pilots during the 1950s that he was shown at Whitehall in 1970. The answer was that no trace of the films could be found!

Many more files are being prepared for release over the next four years, bringing the developing story of the MoD’s involvement in the UFO mystery up to date. Eventually, all 160 files covering UFO reports, correspondence and official policy from the mid-1980s to the present will form part of a unique resource. I have produced a detailed research guide to the entire collection of UFO records held at TNA for those who wish to explore the papers further. A sample from the early 1950s has been scanned and is available to download from the TNA website for a small charge. Both the guide and a podcast can be downloaded from:
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos.
See also www.drdavidclarke.co.uk/news2.htm.