Ufological situation
Great Britain consists of England, Scotland and Wales (which make up Britain), as well as the province of Northern Ireland. It is one of the first countries to undertake ufological research. Today the UK ranks second after the United States in terms of the scale of public interest in UFOs and the activity of the UFO community. Scientific UFO activity far exceeds that in most European countries of comparable size and is at least one of the main sources of information about UFOs. Popular publications, television series and films are published in the country, and lectures are also held with the participation of famous ufologists who come from the United States.
The result of this activity was a rather strange situation, which essentially gave birth to two ufologies. In the mass consciousness, thanks to books, TV shows and newspaper articles, an extraterrestrial hypothesis dominates, suggesting that UFOs are a real phenomenon, which is probably associated with aliens visiting Earth on their aircraft. Among the most respected authors of books on UFOs is the world-renowned ufologist Tim Goode of British descent. His book "Supersecret", published in 1987 and tells about the world conspiracy to hide information about UFOs, is still the number one bestseller in the world of ufological literature.
Despite this, in the British UFO community there is a very strong sentiment against this popular interpretation. Opponents of the extraterrestrial hypothesis view the UFO theme from different, but generally more pragmatic points of view. Although Goode enjoys a reputation among his colleagues as a conscientious and highly professional scientist, it can be said that his work is more welcomed in the United States than at home. The UK is far more skeptical about the alien reality hypothesis than the exterior façade of British ufology might suggest. This trend is rarely reflected in the media, although an analysis of the British ufological literature, second only in volume to the American one, makes it easy to verify this. Skeptical or at leastAs many books about UFOs are filled with an unbiased attitude to the possibility of alien visits to Earth, as are books that support an extraterrestrial hypothesis, only mistakenly considered the dominant mentality of the British. Be that as it may, proponents and opponents of this view get along much better in Britain than in most other countries; they often speak at the same conferences and carry out joint investigations of some cases.
Waves of sightings of airships repeatedly swept Britain between 1909 and 1913 and spawned the world's first official government statement regarding the UFO mystery, when the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and later Prime Minister of Great Britain Winston Churchill warned the public about the risk that there is a certain reality hidden behind unusual observations. However, Churchill did not mean that the observed objects are of alien origin; on the contrary, he suggested that Germany was preparing for a military invasion and was sending airships for reconnaissance. As is known today, this point of view turned out to be erroneous. A study of the "fu-fighters" seen during the bombing raids over Europe in the last year of World War II began with reports from RAF pilots around the same time.as well as from American pilots flying on missions from East Anglia. The author of this book had a personal interview with an intelligence officer assigned to a bomber squad in East Anglia, who heard many stories from returning crews about lights playing tag with their planes. In November 1944, the officer was asked to hand over his materials to the US Air Force, which led an allied investigation into the theory that Germany had developed a new generation of secret weapons. So the UK from the very beginning fell into dependence on the United States in relation to ufological research.who has heard many stories from returning crews about lights playing tag with their planes. In November 1944, the officer was asked to hand over his materials to the US Air Force, which led an allied investigation into the theory that Germany had developed a new generation of secret weapons. So the UK from the very beginning fell into dependence on the United States in relation to ufological research.who has heard many stories from returning crews about lights playing tag with their planes. In November 1944, the officer was asked to hand over his materials to the US Air Force, which led an allied investigation into the theory that Germany had developed a new generation of secret weapons. So the UK from the very beginning fell into dependence on the United States in relation to ufological research.
One of the first "real" UFO encounters after the war occurred in Britain in January 1947, five months before the official birth of the flying saucers mystery. The Mosquito fighter set off in pursuit of the object detected by the radar. UFO disappeared over the North Sea off the coast of Holland. A detailed report of the incident was passed on to the US government, and the US military soon began collating the findings. As the Allies feared that the USSR had captured Nazi weapons and used them in their daring espionage raids, intelligence began investigating in early spring 1947.
The Allied research base was located at Hamilton Field in California, and Britain again handed over the reins to the Americans. This state of affairs was characteristic of the early stage of ufological science and, probably, influenced the attitude towards UFOs on the part of the English-speaking countries, in particular Australia. Back in the 1950s, photographs and filming of UFOs obtained here were sent not to Canberra, or even to London, but to Washington.
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In 1948, the United States informed the British government that the study of the UFO phenomenon did not reveal any threat to the defenses of the allied countries. At the same time, it must be remembered that in those years it was about a completely earthly threat emanating from the USSR, and not about the threat of an alien invasion. In this sense, the assurances of the American government were justified, although it is not entirely clear what Washington was going to do if it turned out that UFOs had a different origin, and how it was possible to protect itself from UFO flights over secret military objects such as Los Alamos and White Sands - flights that took place in those years with enviable regularity.
Until 1952, there was little fuss about flying saucers in the UK, and many viewed UFOs as a quintessentially American mania. Nevertheless, the first UFO book appeared in the country back in 1950, when the author of books on aviation, Gerald Heard, published an overview of the most famous cases that occurred in the United States in the early years of the UFO era. The only truly British press was captured by the public scandal surrounding the UFO invasion of the airspace over the American capital in 1952, which provoked a discussion of this topic at the cabinet level. Ralph Noyes, who was Secretary of the Air Ministry in those years, recalls how his superior, the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, said: "I thought Vandenburg put an end to all this back in 1948!" The minister meant thatas the head of the American military administration ordered the termination of ufological research, which could not find material evidence of the existence of a UFO. This negative reaction also influenced the attitude towards ufology in the UK, which once again followed the lead of the Pentagon.
On August 6, 1952, Prime Minister Winston Churchill sent a memorandum to the British Air Secretary Lord Cherwell, the contents of which were not disclosed for 30 years. In this document, Churchill demanded an explanation for the next wave of UFOs, using catchy phrases like the question "Where is the truth?" Ralph Noyes recalls that his ministry consulted with representatives of the United States, who again assured their British colleagues: no matter what the press wrote about the burst in July, UFOs have a completely terrestrial origin, and even if individual cases defy explanation, this is not at all means they pose a threat. On August 14, Cherwell personally conveyed this "you have nothing to worry" response to the Prime Minister, but this calm was soon put to an end by the flying saucers themselves.
From 19 to 21 September of the same year, a joint NATO exercise, codenamed Mainbrace, was held in the North Sea. During the days of the maneuvers, several UFO contacts were noted, including the incident over Yorkshire, where British planes chased unknown objects, and the report of a disk hovering in the sky, which was photographed from the only bomber built at that time carrying nuclear charges. Needless to say, the news caused a stir on both sides of the Atlantic. A team of British Air Force intelligence officers visited Washington and Dayton, Ohio, where the British held a series of consultations with their American counterparts. As a result, a secret British UFO project was launched in January 1953, headquartered at Farnborough Air Force Base. The commander of one of the British Air Force formations Cyril Townsend Weaver personally experienced contact with a UFO in broad daylight in Canberra and before his death told the author of this book that, according to the working hypothesis behind the project, UFOs may have an unearthly origin. During the same period, secret orders were sent out to the military to prohibit British Air Force personnel from publicly discussing their observations. The official rationale was that the public was inclined to take such reports too seriously. The official rationale was that the public was inclined to take such reports too seriously. The official rationale was that the public was inclined to take such reports too seriously.
The Farnborough project was coordinated by a team of scientists and intelligence officers from the Royal Air Force, known at the time as DI-I-Tech. The group allegedly collated thousands of reports, a significant percentage of which came from army personnel. Not a single case was made public, as a specially issued government act prohibited the publication of intelligence information. In 1984, the retired deputy director of the project, Captain Harold Collins, sent a letter to the now also retired Ralph Noyes, who left the Department of Defense with the rank of Air Commodore, and decided to publish the materials he knew about UFOs. Collins wrote that 90% of the cases collected by the DI-I-Tech group had a rational explanation. However, the remaining 10% of messages from highly qualified personnelincluding from test pilots, looked very convincing and were accompanied by evidence (for example, radar readings). There was no answer to the question of what the eyewitnesses observed.
In the 1960s, the Department of Aviation became part of the Department of Defense, and a division was announced to deal with civil cases. By that time, interest in UFOs had grown significantly, and in 1962, from several local UFO groups, which began their work in Bristol in 1952, the first national organization BUFORA (British UFO Research Association) was formed. The Defense Department's decision was perceived as a reaction to public interest in the issue, but in reality it was nothing more than a handout. The D-D-I-Tech group continued to investigate all the most interesting cases and material evidence obtained through the army channels. The functions of this organization, known today as the Directorate of Scientific and Technical Intelligence, were and remain largely secret to the public.and many believe that the officially recognized Department of Defense, now called Air Force 2A, is the only official UFO project in the UK. More specifically, this is nothing more than a screen designed to divert public attention from the real work. The Scientific and Technical Intelligence Directorate is still collecting data, although it has not released it.
Experienced diplomat Gordon Creighton served in the same building that housed the DI-I-Tech headquarters in the 1950s. In a conversation with Tim Good after his resignation, he confirmed that the organization occupied the entire top floor, and he was well aware that government-hired ufologists were working full time in the building. It often hosted joint meetings with US Air Force and CIA intelligence agents. Ralph Noyes, who had to be in the building on duty in the Department of Defense, told the author of this book in 1984 that just to get into the same area of the building with the archive, which contained the UFO material, a special pass was required. A wall map with colored pins stuck into it showed areas of increased UFO activity.
In 1968, Noyes took over as head of the entire department of the Ministry of Defense, which included the UFO research group "Air Unit 2A". He conducted special briefings with the staff of this service.
Noyes was shown footage taken by the onboard cameras of combat fighters while chasing a UFO. Defense officials acknowledged the reality of the imprinted phenomenon, but could not determine its nature. As Noyes recalls, they believed that we were talking about some strange natural phenomena, although they could not completely exclude the possibility of an alien invasion. In any case, secrecy was necessary. The author of this book learned the details in 1980 during a UFO briefing she held with members of both houses of the British Parliament in London. The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and several other influential figures, including the head of the Department of Defense. The author was explained that secrecy is necessary not so much because the employees of the ministry were afraid to openly declareas if we were talking about aliens, so much because they did not want to admit the presence of a phenomenon that is not amenable to government control. Moreover, the secrecy was dictated by the terms of the technological cold war. Military intelligence evaluated any information about UFOs, regardless of its origin, in terms of whether it was possible to create new types of weapons based on this data. The question demanded extreme caution and active disinformation, which prevented independent experts from showing excessive interest in UFO topics. The government wanted answers, keeping secrets and not sharing the results of its research with a "potential adversary."Military intelligence evaluated any information about UFOs, regardless of its origin, in terms of whether it was possible to create new types of weapons based on this data. The question demanded extreme caution and active disinformation, which prevented independent experts from showing excessive interest in UFO topics. The government wanted answers, keeping secrets and not sharing the results of its research with a "potential adversary."Military intelligence evaluated any information about UFOs, regardless of its origin, in terms of whether it was possible to create new types of weapons based on this data. The question demanded extreme caution and active disinformation, which prevented independent experts from showing excessive interest in UFO topics. The government wanted answers, keeping secrets and not sharing the results of its research with a "potential adversary."keeping a secret and not sharing the results of their research with a "potential enemy".keeping a secret and not sharing the results of their research with a "potential enemy".
In late 1967, just before Noyes was appointed to his new position, a powerful wave of observations swept the UK. Discussions were held in parliament, after which Vice-Secretary Merlin Rees announced that the Air Force 2A department would henceforth be required to preserve all of its documents, which, according to the protocol, were previously destroyed. This meant that the materials collected before 1962 did not survive, although in fact, individual fragments of the Air Force memorandums and other papers were found. However, materials received after 1962 were to be sent to the Public Records of Great Britain at the end of the thirty-year quarantine period imposed by the State Secrets Act. Since 1993, a continuous stream of documents from Air Force 2A or its predecessors has been declassified in January each year and transferred to the archives. These documents contain only scant information about backdated analyzes of some cases and no reports of UFO field studies, but there are scant references to close contacts and military incidents. Full information about them, apparently, remains in the archives of the Directorate of Scientific and Technical Intelligence and is not subject to disclosure. Although most citizens believed that even a small fraction of UFO information would be published after Reese's 1967 decision, this is essentially not happening. The public succumbed to a colossal ploy that sent their anger and protests to the wrong address - the "Air Force 2A"- while the most significant observations and investigations freely penetrated the secret archives of D-D-I-Tech, and later - the Directorate of Scientific and Technical Intelligence.
Meanwhile, private UFO research in the UK has been taken to the next level by a series of initiatives. While the media mercilessly exploited the ufological sensations in the yellow press and on television, British ufologists improved their professionalism. New theories have been proposed, including the "earthly fires" hypothesis by Paul Deverier, according to which UFOs are freely floating balls of energy. This was followed by the theory of "plasma vortices" (electric winds), proposed in 1989 by Dr. Terence Meaden and the BUFORA group, as well as the hypothesis of "electronic pollution" (saturation of the atmosphere with microwaves and other elements), expressed in 1995 by Albert Budden. All these theories added fuel to the debate and caused some departure of British UFOlogy from the extraterrestrial hypothesis.
The next major step forward was the introduction of a professional code, adopted in 1982 by an unprecedented symposium of local groups and endorsed by BUFORA as a national policy. The document fulfilled the role of a code of honor for ufologists, like the Hippocratic oath for doctors, and at that time had no analogues in the world ufological practice. A direct consequence of the restrictions imposed by this code on the use of special techniques, in particular regression hypnosis, was a complete ban on the use of this method, adopted by BUFORA following an open vote in 1988. The British example was followed by ufologists from Italy and Scandinavia.
It is curious that although, under the influence of the press and television, the version about the alien origin of UFOs is actively being introduced into the mass consciousness, the ufological community began to treat such hypotheses more and more skeptically. This is reflected not only in the fact that scientists are seeking to reproduce such physical mechanisms as earthly fires and plasma vortices in laboratory experiments, but also in the search for commonality between UFOs and other paranormal phenomena. It was in Great Britain that the idea of the existence of a special state of consciousness was born, contributing to the experience of many unusual phenomena, including UFO sightings. British writer Ian Watson's excellent novel Wonderful Visitors, illustrating this theme, reflects the typical point of view of British ufologists. The concept of the "Oz factor" - an altered state of consciousness,provoking close contacts - was also put forward in the UK. There is now a keen interest in comparing the reports of survivors of clinical death and victims of abductions - a trend that is unlikely to generate a positive response about British UFO research among supporters of the extraterrestrial hypothesis.
Yet the belief in aliens in Britain is not completely buried. Its revival was the spectacular appearance on the ufological scene of Nick Pope, who from 1991 to 1994 headed the representative office of ufologists from the Ministry of Defense in Air Unit 2A.
Pope did not run a department like Ralph Noyes did. In this regard, it is interesting to note that Noyes had access to airborne footage of military aircraft operated by the Directorate of Science and Technology Intelligence, and Pope stated that he was not shown such evidence. Nevertheless, he claimed that the stream of incoming data convinced him of the reality of UFOs and the likelihood of their extraterrestrial origin. Moreover, in 1996, Pope published a book in which it was said that he had made a similar statement while serving with the Department of Defense, although by that time he was no longer an employee of Air Force 2A. In 1997, the first book was followed by a second, which talked about abductions and his belief in their alien nature, and in 1999 a novel was published,describing the possible reaction of the Department of Defense to a massive alien invasion. Thanks to his authority as a key figure in the Department of Defense, Pope quickly became a cult figure in the media and advocated for UFOs, convincing many skeptics to seriously consider the extraterrestrial hypothesis. Nevertheless, Pope declined to discuss the role of the Directorate of Science and Technology Intelligence in UFO research, as well as the role of another department, DI-55, a special military intelligence unit. An accidental leak of documents from the Ministry of Defense proved the involvement of Di-I-55 in the study of UFOs, and subsequent checks revealed that this unit was engaged in collecting information, went to the scene and secretly interrogated local residents, extracting information from them and "offering" them be silent. In fact,they were the very "men in black" whom eyewitnesses had long mentioned, but whom serious ufologists had too little interest in. Pope suggests that people who met with eyewitnesses could play professional ufologists and that, as far as he knows, the Department of Defense did not send staff to interview eyewitnesses. A number of available evidence contradicts this claim.
There is a split in the modern ufological community in Great Britain. Some ufologists, following the example of Nick Pope and Tim Goode, insist on the release of data on the likelihood of an alien invasion. Naturally, the media hype this version to incredible proportions. However, no fewer serious scientists are studying NAL - the unknown physical energies of natural origin that cause the effects of UFOs - as well as the borderline states of the human psyche: according to this point of view, close contacts are a figment of the human imagination, and their study can provide insight into the secrets of consciousness. These alternative approaches do not receive much media attention and are rarely appreciated by the general public, although they form an integral part of British UFO culture. With regard to government organizations,then Air Unit 2A continues to collect data on about 200 cases a year, and if you believe the answers of the staff of this organization to the questions of journalists, most of them can be explained. The rest, according to the military, do not pose a threat to the country's defense.
Most of the British population is not even aware of the existence of "DI-55" and the Directorate of Scientific and Technical Intelligence, let alone the details of their activities. Nevertheless, it is these services that should be blamed for the fact that many incidents turn out to be classified, which gives the impression that freedom of information is still lacking in the UK. In November 1999, Prime Minister Tony Blair submitted a Freedom of Information Bill to the British Parliament. The bill was expected to be passed without any complications. The Ministry of Defense immediately made it clear that it was ready to publish its UFO archives even before the adoption of this law, noting that, according to experts, nothing prevents the publication of these materials before the expiration of the thirty-year quarantine period.
Contacts
UFO sightings have been recorded in the UK for thousands of years. The first known alien contact in the 20th century occurred in Bernbrook in 1901. Waves of airships soon followed, and cigar-shaped craft were seen over East Anglia and Kent in 1909 and 1912.
In the era of modern ufology, Britain has been the scene of many significant incidents. Apparently, a lot of interesting observations came to DI-I-Tech after the involvement of this group in UFO topics in 1953, but we know only a small number of contacts directly from military eyewitnesses. Some reports came from eyewitnesses who were near death, and therefore did not fall under the law on state secrets, which obliged them to remain silent for many years.
Among the largest is the episode over East Anglia in August 1956: a UFO was spotted by onboard radar and seen from an American transport aircraft flying over the object, as well as from British Air Force fighters sent in pursuit. In addition, fighters and UFOs were observed from the ground by local residents. Another incident occurred in April 1957 over Southwest Scotland: the civil defense center sounded an alarm when it spotted a UFO flying at an altitude inaccessible to any known aircraft and making sharp turns at high speed that were considered impossible from the point of view of the laws of aerodynamics. Probably, dozens of such cases are still classified.
The loudest case in the UK involves the UFO landings at Randlesham Forest, Suffolk in December 1980. The small triangular object left physical traces here and was spotted by both local residents and guards from a nearby American military base. In the event zone there was a base for research of ray energy. Over the course of a two-month wave that included the Randlesham Forest incident, the UK's most famous abduction also occurred when police officer Alan Godfrey came across a hovering UFO near Todmorden in Yorkshire, blocking his patrol car. Alan's memories of medical tests taken from inside UFOs filled the front pages of British newspapers and sparked alarming attempts to spare the police from burdensome press communication.which the incident with this officer provoked.
The victim of the first abduction in Great Britain, which was investigated in 1977, was a whole family - two adults and three children who managed to remember in dreams and during hypnosis sessions about being inside a UFO, where two types of creatures lived side by side. Some were tall "northerners" - the most typical form of aliens seen in the UK prior to 1980. Others were short, ugly creatures, supposedly robotic creatures, created by a more intelligent humanoid form of life. The "gray" - small, stocky, big-eyed creatures that today dominate abduction reports around the world, were not seen in the UK until 1982, and since 1987 have been mentioned almost regularly. But it was precisely in 1987 that the books of Whitley Strieber and Budd Hopkins, which were sold in large print runs in Great Britain,introduced the inhabitants of this country to stories about the "grays" with whom the inhabitants of the American continent allegedly came into contact. Such coincidences, suggestive of a cultural influence on the UFO phenomenon, help to understand why the British preferred a softer approach to this problem, looking for clues in the human mind.
In the UK, all types of contacts have been recorded, from lights in the sky to the alleged remains of UFO crashes by military services. The Air Force 2A archives add 200 to 400 cases annually, and BUFORA maintains a web-based database of over 15,000 cases since 1962. NUFON maintains a collection of about 2,000 reports on the Penine Hills Special Zone, available for study at the organization's headquarters in Manchester.
In the late 1990s, there was a whole triangular invasion of spacecraft that had become so dominant among UFO reports that by 1988 more than half of the reports contained references to triangular objects. Some researchers consider these objects to be secret warplanes and believe that authorities interested in spreading belief in their alien origins are allowing pilots to test these planes over civilian areas, believing that the locals will mistake them for UFOs. In 1999, the television series "Origin Unknown" was released on the British screens, where some such cases were described for the first time, and in six weeks of the show, viewers saw one of the best collections of materials telling about the activities of the British ufological community. However, viewers often found it difficult to understand whether this or that scientist was among the skeptics or active supporters of the UFO reality, since the points of view of the former and the latter largely coincide.
Crop circles in Wiltshire, which filled almost the entire field with interconnected ornaments.
Waves and special zones
The European wave of 1954 did not affect the UK as much as the mainland, although the first serious sightings in October of this year were noted here. The creatures seen at Ranton in Staffordshire were tall, fair-haired "northerners," like most of those later reported. A huge wave swept the UK in 1967. Many reports came from police officers from Devon and Cornwall, and public reaction pushed the government to investigate such incidents and decide to store UFO materials in archives and subsequently release them. Another wave of shorter duration swept the country in 1977. This time, mainly lights were observed in the sky, but the subsequent wave of the late 1980s was already characterized by close contacts,and in April 1984 there was a short spike centered around areas of military activity. Several relatively small waves followed, one of which dates from March 1993, although none of them reached the 1967 and 1977 scales.
The small Scottish town of Bonnybridge became known throughout the world as a special zone, although reports of events in these parts began to arrive only in 1992. Perhaps, this city owes its fame rather to the increased interest in UFOs from local residents than to real events. The town of Warminster in Wildshire gained, like Bonnybridge, a reputation as a center for UFO activity in the mid-1960s, hosting what the locals simply called "this." The legends of soaring fires got a new boost in the 1980s, when twists and turns in the fields appeared in the vicinity. Much of the interest was sparked by intensive military operations in this area. The most active special zone in Great Britain is undoubtedly the Pennine Hills - the triangle between Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds. Numerous reports of UFOs in these parts are rooted in antiquity. One in five of the known kidnappings in the UK took place in this area.
Author: Randles Jenny. From the book: “UFO. Sensational eyewitness accounts"