Rendlesham Forest
52°05′N, 1°27′E
Suffolk, England — pine plantation adjacent to the former RAF Bentwaters / RAF Woodbridge twin-base complex
[from the public record]
52.0833, 1.4500 · view on OpenStreetMap →
What's documented
Rendlesham Forest is a coniferous forest in Suffolk, England, between the former NATO airbases RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge — both leased to the U.S. Air Force during the Cold War. During the early-morning hours of 26 and 28 December 1980, U.S. Air Force security personnel from the 81st Tactical Fighter Wing investigated lights in the forest and reported a tangible craft. The "Halt Memo" of 13 January 1981 — an official Air Force memo from Deputy Base Commander Lt. Col. Charles Halt to the UK Ministry of Defence — documents the encounter.
Notable & intriguing
-
Lt. Col. Charles I. Halt, USAF Deputy Base Commander at RAF Bentwaters, made an audio recording on a microcassette during the second night of the incident, 27-28 December 1980. The 18-minute tape — which records Halt and security personnel reacting in real time to lights moving in the forest — is in the public record.
Halt tape, MoD release; transcript published in Pope, Burroughs & Penniston, ‘Encounter in Rendlesham Forest’ (2014)
-
The ‘Halt Memo’ of 13 January 1981, sent to the UK Ministry of Defence subject-lined ‘Unexplained Lights,’ reports that radiation readings at three indentations in the forest floor measured 0.05 to 0.07 milliroentgens, ten times the local background, with peaks at the indentations themselves.
Halt Memorandum, 13 January 1981 (released by USAF under FOIA, 1983)
-
On his death-bed in 2010, retired Air Force veteran Sgt. James Penniston provided notes he had written on the morning of 26 December 1980 describing pictograms he claimed to have touched on the craft’s surface. Penniston went on the record about the binary-code interpretation in 2010.
Penniston notebook, dated 26 December 1980; testimony in Pope et al., ‘Encounter in Rendlesham Forest’ (2014)
-
The UK Ministry of Defence’s Rendlesham Forest file (DEFE 24/1948) was released to the National Archives in 2001; the file confirms no conventional explanation was found and remained under DI55 (Defence Intelligence) review.
UK National Archives, DEFE 24/1948
Public-record items already documented about this subject. Folklore is labelled. Sources cited where the specificity warrants it.
Suggested watching
-
UFO: The Lost Evidence — Rendlesham (2017) episode
On-camera interviews with Charles Halt, John Burroughs, and Jim Penniston. The Halt Memo is shown in facsimile. Recreation footage is uneven; the witness testimony is the value.
good first watch — sticks close to the primary witnesses
-
Britain's Closest Encounters — Rendlesham (2008) episode
ITV-produced episode walking the forest sites with Halt and the security police, including the trees with bark damage and the alleged landing depressions.
primary-source heavy
-
Lt. Col. Charles Halt — Rendlesham Forest Testimony (2010) interview
The Halt audio tape from the second night, plus subsequent on-camera interviews where he reads the memo and walks through the timeline.
primary source — the audio tape itself is the document
Public-record imagery
