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UFO files briefing guide

The National Archives · 15 pages · text from the file's own layer

This briefing guide, written by Dr David Clarke of Sheffield Hallam University for The National Archives in March 2008 and revised through June 2012, explains the British government's involvement with UFOs from 1909 onward. It covers phantom airships, foo fighters, ghost rockets, the 1950 Flying Saucer Working Party, Air Ministry and MoD investigations, and the 1979 House of Lords debate. It also lists key National Archives file references, including the Rendlesham Forest papers, and notes that MoD found no evidence of extraterrestrial origin.

  • p. 2 …More sightings of aerial phenomena were made during the Second World War by RAF aircrew. These…
  • p. 4 …number of sightings reported to it by RAF Fighter Command. During their inquiries they questioned a…
  • p. 5 …In December 1953 HQ Fighter Command issued orders to all RAF stations that in future reports…
  • p. 6 …intelligence sections of the Army, Navy and RAF were merged under a new unified structure. S6…
  • p. 8 …DEFE 19/253 contains RAF Chief Scientist papers, DEFE 31/172 contains DIS papers, while AIR…
  • p. 9 …Many reports take the form of military signals received by MoD via a variety of RAF…
  • p. 11 …AIR 2/18564 and AIR 20/9320 contain reports from various RAF stations including RAF West…
  • p. 12 …AIR 2/19125 is a collection of UFO sightings compiled by staff at RAF Patrington in…
  • p. 13 …The sightings took place over two nights late in December 1980 at RAF Woodbridge, Suffolk, an…
14
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FreedomOfInformation/PublicationScheme/SearchP
ublicationScheme/UfoReportsInTheUk.htm
The MoD website also contains a PDF copy of the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) study
'UAPs in the UK Air Defence Region', completed in 2000 and released as a result of an
FOI request in May 2006:
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FreedomOfInformation/PublicationScheme/SearchP
ublicationScheme/UnidentifiedAerialPhenomenauapInTheUkAirDefenceRegion.htm
8. Suggestions for further reading
Publications
Brookesmith, Peter. UFO – The government files. London: Blandford, 1996
Bruni, Georgina. You Can't Tell the People. London: Pan/Macmillan, 2001
Clancarty, Lord with Michell, John. The House of Lords UFO Debate. London:
Open Head Press, 1979.
Clarke, David and Roberts, Andy. Phantoms of the Sky: UFOs A Modern Myth?
London: Robert Hale, 1990
Clarke, David and Roberts, Andy. Out of the Shadows: UFOs, the Establishment
and the official cover-up. London: Piatkus, 2002
Clarke, David. The UFO Files: The Inside Story of Real Life Sightings. London:
The National Archives, 2009 (due for release, September 2009).
Coates, Tim (editor). UFOs in the House of Lords 1979. London: HMSO, 2000
Fawcett, Lawrence and Greenwood, Barry J. Clear Intent: The government
cover-up of the UFO experience. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1984
Gillmor, Daniel S. (ed). The Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects. :
London: Vision, 1969
Good, Timothy. Above Top Secret. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1987
Gough, Jack. Watching the Skies: The history of ground radar in the air defence
of the United Kingdom. London: HMSO, 1993
Jones, R.V. Most Secret War. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1979
Pope, Nick. Open Skies, Closed Minds. London: Simon & Schuster, 1996
Rundles, Jenny. The UFO Conspiracy. London: Blandford, 1987
Randles, Jenny. UFO Retrievals: The Recovery of Alien Spacecraft. London:
Blandford, 1995
Randles, Jenny. MIB: Investigating the truth behind the Men in Black
phenomenon. London: Piatkus, 1997
Randles, Jenny. Something in the Air. London: Hale, 1998
Randles, Jenny. UFO Crash Landing? Blandford, 1998
Redfern, Nicholas. A Covert Agenda: The British Government's UFO top secrets
exposed. London: Simon & Schuster, 1997
Redfern, Nicholas. The FBI Files. London: Simon & Schuster 1998
Redfern, Nicholas. Cosmic Crashes. London: Simon & Schuster, 1999
Ruppelt, Edward J. The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects. London: Gollancz,
1957
Twigge, Steven with Hampshire, Edward and Macklin, Graham. British
Intelligence: Secrets, Spies and Sources. Kew: The National Archives, 2008

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Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 15 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.