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The National Archives issued this UFO research briefing guide, written by Dr David Clarke of Sheffield Hallam University in March 2008 and revised in August 2011. It traces British government interest in UFOs from the 1909 phantom airships and wartime foo fighters through the 1951 Flying Saucer Working Party, Air Ministry and MoD investigations, and the 1979 House of Lords debate. It lists key files held at Kew, including Rendlesham Forest papers, plus suggestions for further reading.
“UFO Files”11 pages
13 and the deputy base commander, Lt Col Charles Halt, took a team of handpicked men into the woods to investigate. During the expedition Halt saw several unidentified lights and made a live tape recording of the incident. Early in January 1981 Halt produced an official report on the incidents, titled 'Unexplained Lights' that was sent to Defence Secretariat 8 (DS8) at Whitehall. Halt's original typewritten report and the follow-up inquiries made by MoD can be seen at reference DEFE 24/1512. A file dedicated to the Rendlesham incident was opened by the MoD several years after these events. This file was opened at The National Archives in August 2009 (DEFE 24/1948/1). This contains Halt's memo and briefings prepared for a Parliamentary question tabled by Major Patrick Wall MP in 1983 when the News of the World published the story. The remainder of the file covers internal discussion of the case and correspondence from the public between 1983 and 1995. Another file transferred to The National Archives in August 2010 contains details of the 2002 judgement by the Parliamentary Ombudsman that led to the release of further MoD papers on the incident which were not part of the original 2001 release (DEFE 24/2042/1). The Ombudsman’s judgement can be found in DEFE 24/2028/1, released in March 2011. Another file opened to the public in August 2010 (DEFE 24/1995/1) contains the transcripts of interviews with two of the key US Air Force witnesses, Jim Penniston and Charles Halt, while DEFE 24/1983 contains the MoD’s position statement on the incident. Two files of parliamentary correspondence on UFOs, DEFE 24/2033/1 and DEFE 24/2034/1 contain responses to a series of questions on the Rendlesham incident tabled by Lord Hill-Norton in the House of Lords between 1998-2001. Further information on UFOs released by the MoD can be accessed online via their FOI Publication Scheme at: http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FreedomOfInformation/PublicationScheme This includes a recent policy statement on UFOs, a copy of the Flying Saucer Working Party report of 1951 and responses to a number of FOI requests received by the MoD from members of the public since 2005. A comprehensive tabulated list of UFO sightings reported to MoD's Directorate of Air Staff (DAS), between 1997 and 2007, is available via the Publication Scheme here: 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
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.