The city of Warminster is preparing to celebrate 50 years of events that have forever made it "the UK capital of UFOs."
The events that unfolded in the city of Warminster in Wiltshire in the southwest of England began with strange sounds of incredible volume coming from the sky. They were accompanied by a feeling of pressure of such force that even in houses people could be knocked down.
On the street, the fall was inevitable. The sound resembled a howl or hum overlaid by a rumble. To those who were at home, it seemed as if “a giant hail was beating on the roof”, or there were “giant cats jumping and sharpening their claws on iron”.
Mrs. Marjorie Bye was the first to appear in the local Warminster Journal. The newspaper had a circulation of 4,000 - enough for a city of only 11,000 people.
Marjorie was walking to church when an unbearable sound hit her. It seemed to her that literally in a few steps "a jet plane was taking off." An invisible force knocked her down onto the pavement and continued to finish her off. Although the "shock waves" seemed soft, after a couple of seconds, the back and neck were completely numb. Soon it was all over, but the woman came to her senses for a long time and waddled with difficulty to the church.
UFO filmed over the city in those days
The sound struck in a narrow beam, capturing no more than one house or section of the street. The victims could not believe that the neighbors had not heard the terrible rumble. For people, the "sound beam" was not fatal, and small animals did it badly. The caged birds fell dead, the cats howled into the far corners.
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One cat then did not get out of the shelter. The hostess found herself paralyzed. In the courtyards of the affected houses, dead mice were found with skin punctured with tiny holes or with traces of burns. Birds fell from the sky. When they were picked up, it turned out that the corpses had already become numb despite all the laws of nature.
At first, the residents thought they were victims of military trials - there is a training ground near the city. Then it became known that the military was making a helpless gesture in the same way. The barracks in the Nook military camp, located 6 kilometers from Warminster, were hit by a "sound beam" in the middle of the night. It seemed to the sergeant that something "tore off the chimney and, crushing it, scattered around the camp." The platoon ran out to the parade ground, but saw nothing. The pipe above the barracks stuck out intact.
UFOs become visible
On May 19, 1965, Hilda Hetbridge saw a UFO in the skies over Warminster. As reported to the local newspaper. The journalist Arthur Shuttlewood published this letter. And his life became very difficult.
“The phone was literally torn apart by the calls of anxious people watching all kinds of flying objects in the sky,” he recalled many years later. - In late May and early June, I still laughed at these stories, considering them unacceptable for print. My skepticism was first challenged when reports began pouring in from neighboring counties."
The final change in the reporter's mood came a month later. On June 19, Kathleen Penton saw a luminous object slowly flying over the trees. The woman compared it to a railway carriage, “only the ends were not blunt, but round.
And he flew not straight, but slid sideways. There were giant windows along the side, with a yellow light burning in them. On the same day, Shuttlewood received a call from six more townspeople who described the unusual object in very similar words.
Another UFO over Warminster
Soon, reports came in unambiguously linking UFOs and sonic attacks. At 3.45 am on August 10, Rachel Atwill and her husband were awakened by an eerie sound. Despite the pressure and vibration that shook the house, she found the courage to reach the window. Between two neighboring houses hung "a bright object, shining like a huge star."
Despite the light, one could see that it consists of two parts - the dome and the body. The woman did not leave the window, although the sound made her feel as if the skull was being crushed by a metal band. After 25 minutes, the object disappeared and the sound stopped immediately. Her husband, a pilot, never dared to crawl out from under the covers!
In the summer of 1965, sonic attacks reached their climax. On 17 August, residents in Borham Field were roused to their feet by the sound of a powerful explosion. The earth was shaking, glass was breaking in the windows. Those who ran out into the street saw a "huge orange flame" in the shape of a "pear or light bulb".
Then the flame, extinguished, turned into "a huge plume of smoke with an orange core." When the low-flying "club" touched trees or hills, crackling and hissing were heard. In other parts of the city they continued to sleep - for some reason the sound of the explosion did not reach them.
The situation was aggravated by crowds of curious people from all over the country. For the first time since the war, alcohol has run out in city bars. The head of the city council, Emlyn Rees, offered to discuss the current situation at a general meeting. It was attended by well-known British ufologists and journalists. Residents agreed that the city should "learn to live next to this something."
Guests from the planet Aenstria
By September, the situation became even more tense. Now the inhabitants saw not only UFOs, but also humanoids. Among the eyewitnesses was 22-year-old secretary Annabelle Plowman:
“I was almost blinded by the bright light,” she said. - The motor began to junk, the headlights flickered. I made out a dark apparatus standing across the path. Then his "light" turned to the road, the car stalled. The central ring on it began to rotate, red and blue sparks fell. The object soared like a bird and sped away. At that moment, I noticed two people on the road. They wore something like a balaclava, revealing only part of the face. The motor started up and I rushed home."
Farmers now and then stumbled upon circles of fallen vegetation, very similar to the current "crop circles". The cattle suddenly began to go crazy, fled and demolished all the fences in their path. And the townspeople, leaving the city, were expecting a new type of nightmares - out of nowhere, a man appeared and threw himself under the wheels.
The drivers clearly felt the impact and heard the crunching of bones, the car was thrown, as if it was running over someone's body. However, when the shocked passengers left the cabin, there were no bodies on the road. As well as traces of blood on the bumper.
By then, Arthur Shuttlewood not only believed in UFOs, but had seen them personally. He tried to shoot the object with a movie camera, but was prevented by a "paralyzing beam". And then the aliens themselves began to call the reporter.
"Although, as a realist, I still believe that the cryptic calls were a hoax, and a very bad form, I must admit that there was a lot of common sense in their content," - admitted Shuttlewood.
Attempts to track down where the calls were coming from have been unsuccessful.
The strange characters were introduced as Kellsan, Celoric, and Queen Trellison of the planet Aenstria. Their tales were characterized by abundant idle talk about peace, love and harmony, sharply contradicting the real actions of UFOs. They said about the mysterious sounds that the townspeople should not be afraid: it is their ray that “overcomes the barrier of space and time” works.
London newspapers wrote about the events in the city under arshin headlines
Ufologists from all over the country spent long night watches in the hills outside the city. They didn't get bored - UFOs appeared quite often. And when the objects were not there, they were replaced by a raging imagination, wanting to see the "plates" in every satellite or plane.
Skeptics did not lag behind - they launched "objects" from balloons with bright bulbs or pyrotechnics, and then waited for witnesses to write about it in the press, so that the "exposure" sounded as loud as possible.
This is how a local eyewitness artist depicted a "carriage" flying over the city.
Warminster today
By early 1969, the wave of UFO sightings had begun to decline, and sound attacks had stopped altogether. Nevertheless, ufologists continued to come to the city, because the chances of seeing the "real plate" were still markedly different from zero. Arthur Shuttlewood spent almost every night with them, becoming a real fanatic.
In 1974, he claimed to have seen "over 800 UFOs." Most of his "saucers", of course, were just satellites or flares above the range.
Despite all the misconceptions, some UFOs were impossible to confuse with anything else. Small balls "the size of a head" often flew up to ufologists at close range, now and then changing the speed and trajectory of flight. Sometimes they emitted a sharp, high-pitched whistle that made the ears clogged. Shuttlewood himself called them "intelligent light" and believed that they were alien reconnaissance probes.
Today Warminster is still the "training base" of British ufologists and the venue for seminars. The city council, forgetting past fears, actively encourages tourism. They believe that the 50th anniversary of the once ominous events will attract fans of the unknown.
The last attraction for tourists was a professional UFO-themed painting that adorned the wall next to the highway. She is not only painted with ordinary paints, but also luminous to make an impression at any time.
Graffiti for the 50th anniversary of the UFO invasion
“The picture has already attracted a lot of attention,” says George Rich of the Warminster Information Center, with joy. - People took a bunch of photos. This is exactly what we wanted - for people to stand against its background, for example, where the ray is drawn, and take a selfie, and then post it on social networks. The artist's name has not been released to add even more intrigue.
The final chord of the festivities will be the Warminster 2015 conference on 29 August. The townspeople hope that it will attract not only the press, but also guests from distant Aenstria.
