samedi 27 décembre 1980 à 03 h, 2 patrouilleurs de sécurité en ronde de routine sur le périmètre de la base RAF/USAF de Woodbridge dans le Suffolk virent des lumières brillantes dans les arbres de la forêt adjacente de Rendlesham. Leur 1ère supposition fut qu'un appareil might have overshot or misjudged the runway and been forced into the trees, although they had hear no noise. They asked permission to investigate beyond the camp gates, which was duly granted. In the forest it soon became clear that the object was no aeroplane. They saw a metallic, triangular craft unlike anything they had seen before and chased it through the trees. And that was not the end of it. 2 nights later, there was a similar sighting and a larger team led by the deputy base commander, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Halt, went out to investigate.
Halt and his men advanced into the forest, leaving others in the vicinity of the powerful lights, known by the military as light-alls, that had been brought up to illuminate the scene. Their equipment behaved strangely. Although the tape recorder, Geiger counter and night-vision scope were in perfect order, all three machines experienced interference. The light-alls refused to work. It is eerie to hear the 18-minute recording of Halt and his team as they edged their way through the undergrowth to within 150 yards of the light source.
Strange flashing red light ahead.
No, it's yellow.
Weird.
It's definitely coming this way.
Halt remembered the light vividly in later years : It pulsated as though it were an eye winking at you and around
the edges it appeared to have molten metal dripping off it. Here I am, a senior official who routinely denies this
sort of thing and works to debunk them, and I'm involved in the middle of something I can't explain.
What he couldn't explain was that the moving light, now red, now yellow, suddenly exploded into pieces, each of them
in a white light, and then disappeared. Immediately he saw 3 objects in the sky, like stars, except that they gave off
red, green and blue lights and darted in all directions in sharp, angular movements. Those to the north appeared
elliptical when viewed through a power lens, but their shape changed into full circles. They were visible for 2 or 3
hours and occasionally flashed down beams of light or energy — Halt didn't know which. His scepticism vanished. I
was really in awe
, he confesses.
A mile away, U.S. airman Hohn Burroughs was with his vehicle, still trying to repair the malfunctioning light-alls. A blue light streaked past him at head height and the light-alls came on. The light passed through the open windows of his truck and vanished into the distance. Then the light-alls went out.
U.S. airman Larry Warren was with another team. He is still able to pinpoint the exact spot where he saw the light, in a strange circle of mist, in a field. The whole field was lit by a bright light. A glowing red ball approached from across the field and at first Warren thought it was an A-10 aircraft coming in to land. But it stopped over the circle of mist and exploded, without sound, without heat, into a galaxy of coloured lights.
Somehow — and Warren was at a loss to explain how — the vapour of the mist and coloured lights transformed into a structured object. He estimated it to be 30 feet across the base and 20 feet hight. There was a bank of blue lights on the underside and the whole thing shone with a rainbow or mother-of-pearl effect, so bright it was difficult to look at it.
There are also reports of local farm animals going into a frenzy.
Halt's report mentions that the following day checks were made in the woodland. 3 depressions, 1 1/2 inches deep and 7 inches in diameter, were found in the soil. The ground readings on the Geiger counter were 25 times the normal background level.
A cloud of secrecy hung over Rendlesham. Unscheduled flights came and went. People were told to keep quiet and forget the lights. Even Halt was left in the dark. His superiors told him to submit his report to the Ministry of Defence, which he did. My predecessor on the UFO desk seems not to have acknowledged this. Bewilderied and angry, Halt is still awaiting his reply from us 15 years later.
Que s'est-il donc réellement passé dans la Forêt de Rendlesham ? L'auteur scientifique Ian Ridpath suggère que les lumières dans les arbres étaient en fait les rayons tournants du phare de Orford Ness, à 6 miles de là. A timing de l'enregistrement de Halt correspond aux rhythmes du phare. Mais, comme le dit Halt, un phare ne se déplace pas au sein d'une forêt, n'explose pas, ne change pas de forme, ne projette pas de rayons de lumière sur le sol.
We have no proof that an alien craft landed in Rendlesham Forest, but we have no proof that it didn't. Clifford Stone, a former intelligence officer, believes that Washington has the answer and is
keeping it secret. A highly advanced technology appeared in those woods and there was an intelligence involved. That
intelligence
, says Stone, did not originate on Earth
.