Flying saucers, strange lights in the sky and objects that look like alien spaceships… every year Brits report hundreds of sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) and have been doing so for more than eight decades.
Great Britain is considered to be one of the most active UFO hotspots in the world, despite the fact that government officials have long insisted they are not concerned about reports of strange activity in the sky.
Ufologists would disagree. They suggest the British government’s own files tell a very different story – one that finally came to light in 2008 – when the Ministry of Defence finally released its UFO files.
British author, researcher and TV presenter Lynn Picknett who writes about the paranormal says: “The MOD released 60,000 files on the subject. Which basically backs up the assertion over the years that they’ve been researching all sorts of anomalous phenomena.”
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In fact the British Ministry of Defence has files on military personnel encountering UFOs going back over 80 years, according to a new programme on UFOs coming to Sky History.
One of the most famous sightings occurred at a Royal Air Force base where American soldiers were stationed, Rendlesham Forest, on December 26, 1980. Shortly after midnight, military personnel at RAF Woodbridge, 80 miles northeast of London, detected a strange object on their radar.
Andrew Collins, a science and history writer says: “Airmen were sent out in a vehicle to investigate, and came across this clearing in which was this otherworldly object surrounded with light. It rose up slightly, then moved backwards and disappeared. Over the next few nights, more and more sightings occurred. The whole episode was written up and recorded by the deputy base commander, Lieutenant Colonel Halt which was very unusual.”
It’s one of the most discussed UFO events on record, but just one of many that have been reported near British military bases. On August 13th, 1956, British Royal Air Force officers stationed at RAF Bentwaters claimed they saw fifteen unidentified flying objects on their radar screen racing along the coastline.
Nick Pope, a former British Ministry of Defence (MoD) employee who investigated UFOs for the government from 1991 to 1994 and is now a leading commentator on the subject says: “Military jets were scrambled to try and intercept these things. At one point, one of the objects was recorded at speeds of around 4,000 miles an hour.
“That was way faster than anything anyone had at the time. And reliable witnesses, the pilots saw them. They’re simultaneously tracked on radar. At one point, these things are going in formation, and then they appear to converge and form a single object.”
If the British military has witnessed so many unexplainable events, why has the government always professed to have no interest in UFOs Ufologists say the answer can be found by examining the earliest British military encounters on record which were reported during World War II.
UFO investigator and podcaster Dan Zetterstrom says: “Files released show that Prime Minister Churchill was being briefed on these encounters during World War II. He was worried that any release of information would lead to mass hysteria, public panic.
“So, he covered up every UFO sighting that happened. He put a blanket secrecy ban on reporting on UFOs for 50 years. But while Winston Churchill wanted to hide UFO sightings from the public, he also felt it was important to study them, and initiated government funded projects to do just that.”
While many ufologists suspect the British government is still keeping their most explosive UFO files close to their chest, civilian research groups have investigated thousands of unexplained incidents. Some of the most intriguing occurred in a single town over the course of a decade: Warminster, England.
On Christmas Eve, 1964, local resident Mildred Head was startled awake by an unnerving noise coming from above her bedroom. Lynn Picknett explains: “It sounded like thousands upon thousands of tiles being ripped off and then thrown back on, which was utterly terrifying and also there was a vibration going through the house.”
The only explanation Mildred could come up with was that the noise may have been the result of military testing at a nearby Royal Air Force Base. That was until her neighbour, Marjorie Bay had a strange experience of her own.
Nick adds: “The very next day, Marjorie Bay was going to church when she was assaulted by a series of strange vibrations that she felt reverberating through her body, and shortly afterwards, dozens of other witnesses in and around Warminster reported the same thing. It was as if some unseen force was just taking a hold of people and shaking them.”
After residents reported hearing humming or droning noises and seeing strange lights in the sky, more than 300 assembled at their local town hall demanding answers. National papers took an interest and people started flocking to Warminster for nightly sky watches where others also witnessed these mysterious lights in the sky.
David Clarke recalls: “There was a classic photograph of a disc shaped object that was taken by Gordon Faulkner. And the Daily Mirror immediately put it on the front page, big splash. From that point onwards Warminster became the place to go and see flying saucers. It was the first sort of UFO hotspot in the British Isles.”
One area of Great Britain that has experienced UFO sightings on a near daily basis from ancient times right up until the present day, is Yorkshire. Private investigator Paul Sinclair and his team began researching and surveilling the area in 2009, setting up cameras around the clifftops along the North Sea. During one night in 2020, what they captured was particularly intriguing.
“We saw an object rise out of the water. I started filming. The entire sequence of events lasted about 90 seconds. We estimated the speed to cover six miles in 90 seconds was about 240 miles per hour before it seems to turn in and drop into the sea. So we’ve got an object that’s gone below the surface, risen from the sea, traveled six miles and then gone below the surface.
“We have footage of objects beneath the surface of the water. Or luminous light beneath the surface. And we’ve no explanation for that. We’ve filmed that on three occasions.”
Ancient Aliens Britain’s UFO Files is available to watch on Sky History platforms.
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