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"The Polaroid camera would never have been able to get a clear picture of something flying overhead - I mean, even pictures taken under 'ideal' conditions were poor with those things."

He also posted several old and faded polaroid photos, probably some of the worst he could find?

I'm no photo expert, but here are a few polaroids that show us that you can take stunning photos of the milky way (objects overhead and much much much more distant than Richard's saucer I might add) with an original Polaroid camera.
Astro-Polaroids-2-770x939.jpg

Astro-Polaroids-4-770x940.jpg

Astro-Polaroids-5-770x940.jpg

Astro-Polaroids-6-770x936.jpg

Astro-Polaroids-8-770x935.jpg

Astro-Polaroids-9-770x939.jpg

Astro-Polaroids-10-770x939.jpg

Photo Credit Daniel Stein.

These comments are an insult to intelligence. If something is extraterrestrial or interdimensional, how do we know exactly what it is supposed to look like? You have no way of knowing, if it's not from here why would you assume it must behave and look like earth objects do? Most of you probably couldnt handle the confirmation of aliens to your fragile phony reality so I guess these comments are expected. Sad, but expected.

Yet again the witness and his evidence are so quickly debunked on yet another forum by yet another arm chair expert, "oh it must be a fake because I say so", really?

Read his statement, it says the object was glowing, illuminated, huge etc etc, so how do you know how it would or wouldn't show up on a photo, it could look so bright because of the scanning software used, who knows.

I found his story very interesting to read real or fake and I would rather read that all day than listen to the likes of ridpath and others bang on about that bloody lighthouse and other nonsense, marks, scratches and bark on tress and other bullshit, people dont want to hear it, they want saucers, dead aliens, conspiracies etc etc etc, so good on Richard or whoever the person is.
 
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We have discussed two of Penniston's sketches:

1. The original - depicting that 'box-like object - submitted with his official statement.

2. In later years, his profoundly more elaborate drawings of a triangular-shaped object, replete with symbols.

There is another sketch, which seems to be an, 'intermediate' version.

Although I have this single image, if I recall, when I came across it online many years ago, there was no background information re the origin.

It looks like a sketch drawn not long after the incident, as it attempts to illustrate the, 'landing marks'.

Anyone maybe help with this?

JPDRAW2.JPG
 
I don't know whether instant cameras were being used in UK police forces in 1980.

l don’t remember ever seeing Polaroid cameras or their prints. lt’s entirely possible, however, that this is because:

a) l was never a SOCO or detective, just a uniformed patrol bobby, or;

b) My memory is fallible.

Edited to add: My wife (served 1995-2005 in the same police force as me) doesn’t remember Polaroids being used either.

maximus otter
 
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... There is another sketch, which seems to be an, 'intermediate' version.
Although I have this single image, if I recall, when I came across it online many years ago, there was no background information re the origin.
It looks like a sketch drawn not long after the incident, as it attempts to illustrate the, 'landing marks'.
Anyone maybe help with this?

As far as I can tell this sketch surfaced on the Rendlesham Incident Forum at ufowaves.org in 2010. The first appearance was in August 2010:

... Apparently there's some Rendlesham-related documents in the newest batch of 'UFO files'.

The two interviews are well-known and were conducted by Salley Rayl. There are two sketches by Jim Penniston included, the second of which has not received much attention (I hadn't seen it before). This sketch looks like it is part of Jim's original witness statement (note the chunky writing) but the bottom half, which appears to be missing, does not match up with any of the other pages.
2iawhub.jpg
SOURCE: http://ufowaves.org/rendlesham/Rend...dent.co.uk/forum/viewtopica6d4.html?f=3&t=760

The image appears in another post in a different thread 3 days later from another member ...

Admin, in another thread on the recently released MOD files, showed an interesting additional sketch allegedly made by Jim Penniston and copied from his notebook:

SOURCE: http://ufowaves.org/rendlesham/Rend...ncident.co.uk/forum/viewtopic37fa.html?p=6730

Note that the later post attributes the image to Penniston's notebook - an attribution nowhere apparent in the earlier post.

I can't locate any images of Penniston's notebook pages that display this image. I therefore suspect the first poster was correct in suggesting the image came from some document other than the notebook.
 
l don’t remember ever seeing Polaroid cameras or their prints. lt’s entirely possible, however, that this is because:

a) l was never a SOCO or detective, just a uniformed patrol bobby, or;

b) My memory is fallible.

maximus otter
Max, further to that account from "Richard", the writer claims to have had a "high-ranking senior police officer" as a good friend. Tautology aside, was that something you ever encountered during your time in the force - close friendships crossing a gulf in rank? Seems, um, counter-intuitive to me.

More generally, I should add there strikes me as something a little odd in the fact that no fewer than two new accounts should emerge following the recent activity on this thread, which has largely tended towards a mundane explanation for the events.
 
Max, further to that account from "Richard", the writer claims to have had a "high-ranking senior police officer" as a good friend. Tautology aside, was that something you ever encountered during your time in the force - close friendships crossing a gulf in rank? Seems, um, counter-intuitive to me.

lt’s far from impossible. l was just a grunt, but - due to the accelerated promotion scheme for graduates entering the force - l was a tutor constable for several blokes who subsequently zoomed up the ranks. At least one is now a Chief Constable, though we are long out of touch. (He obviously listened carefully to what l had to say, then did the exact opposite.)

l remained quite close mates with one chap until about Chief Inspector rank.

maximus otter
 
As far as I can tell this sketch surfaced on the Rendlesham Incident Forum at ufowaves.org in 2010. The first appearance was in August 2010:
Thank you for taking the time - this is immensely helpful.

The sketches Penniston submitted with his formal statement, illustrate his recollections, e.g., as depicting, 'us', in relation to their vantage point.

This, 'intermediate' sketch also, at the bottom, includes two small 'maps'.

At the left-hand-side, there is an arrow drawn, with three words next to it, the last seems to read, 'Visible'.

We don't know if our image of this page of sketches is a photograph, or scan, etc.

It is, however noticed there is apparently a paper fold at the top right-hand-corner and the backdrop, although this is within the image, i.e., not at image corner.

This looks to myself as something which does date from shortly after the incident.

I shall have a thorough search through all my archives for anything further.
 
These comments are an insult to intelligence.
I completely agree (depending upon whose intelligence to which you are referring.)
Most of you probably couldnt handle the confirmation of aliens to your fragile phony reality so I guess these comments are expected.
I completely disagree. Most of us are actively fascinated by the concept of aliens, and indeed it would absolutely change the whole world's perspective if such confirmation was forthcoming. I would even go so far as to say that most of us actively believe in the objective reality of alien civilisations: where beliefs diverge as a community is whether or not you believe they are routinely visiting Earth.
I found his story very interesting to read real or fake and I would rather read that all day than listen to the likes of ridpath and others bang on about that bloody lighthouse and other nonsense..
Flaming of another member. You get a green warning for that.
..marks, scratches and bark on tress and other bullshit, people dont want to hear it, they want saucers, dead aliens, conspiracies etc etc etc, so good on Richard or whoever the person is.
Again, disagree. Yes, they do want to hear the stories, but at the same time that's all they are. What we do on here is examine it all, respectfully but closely. We don't just accept every account blindly - this is why the FT, the CFI and by extension this place exists. You can't just post vast tracts of material and expect us to swallow it wholesale - that's not what we do. If you want to do the above there are numerous sites which will indulge it, but do not expect this forum to do the same.
 
The retired policeman's (Richard's) account of his 26 December sighting / encounter includes one bit that I find very interesting. Richard is quite clear that his sighting occurred at 0155 on the 26th. This is roughly an hour before the earliest alleged notice of lights in the forest by USAF personnel - the trigger for the famous events of the next couple of days and nights.

Richard also specifies that he was roughly a quarter mile outside the town of Woodbridge when the sighting occurred. This would place him on the opposite side of the airbases from the lights later seen in an eastward direction.

Richard makes no mention of interaction with USAF investigators looking into the incident. Furthermore, at face value his account seems to indicate he never reported his sighting at the time. Nonetheless, he reports having received tacit threats and cautions against discussing or reporting any such events.

Finally, the accounts at the time mention local police being called to the scene(s) (e.g., the landing site) whereupon they generally dismissed everything as mundane or unworthy of further scrutiny.

What if Richard's earlier sighting was the real main event - apparently missed by the USAF folks? What if the classic / canonical events involving the USAF folks wandering into the forest were follow-on events chasing the tail of something the British police (and / or higher UK authorities) already knew about and were quietly suppressing? What if everyone's been looking at Rendlesham in a backwards fashion - concentrating on USAF activities which were unknowingly responses to something local authorities already knew about and were cautioned against publicizing?
 
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These comments are an insult to intelligence.
If you are referring to my analysis of the 'green disk' photo I take exception to your response.
(Many years ago I worked in photographic analysis so I have some experience)
I'm sorry you apparently feel slighted.
Just because I point out the failings of the camera equipment supposedly used to produce the image shown, it does not mean that I am trying to debunk or demean the account given, and should not be a reason for you to attack my comments on the image itself.
Secondly, the further images you have provided to give an example of what can be achieved with a polaroid camera are not really 'excellent' either.
Images 1 and 2 show the washing-out towards the corners/sides.
Image 3 does not look celestial/astronomical to me as the density of the 'stars' seems much too, er, 'dense'. IMO it appears to look more like someone has dropped some yellow powder onto a black surface and photographed it.
Images 4, 5 & 7 are 'time lapse' photographs clearly taken over hours, which would not have been achievable with a polaroid unless someone fouled the shutter mechanism to keep it open for a long period of time, and it was very stable on a tripod mount. Also the contrast and colouration is quite poor.
Image 6 is the only one of the bunch which is a reasonable pic, and TBH that too isn't great - the near-field is too dark and not particularly sharp, and the main light sources in the centre are over exposed.
 
I found his story very interesting to read real or fake and I would rather read that all day than listen to the likes of ridpath and others bang on about that bloody lighthouse and other nonsense, marks, scratches and bark on tress and other bullshit, people dont want to hear it, they want saucers, dead aliens, conspiracies etc etc etc...

Respectfully. The amount of time and work Ridpath has put into looking at Rendlesham for however many years means it would be foolish at best to ignore his work.

You don't have to believe it, of course. But you would be foolish to ignore it.
 
As far as I can tell this sketch surfaced on the Rendlesham Incident Forum at ufowaves.org in 2010. The first appearance was in August 2010

(...)

The image appears in another post in a different thread 3 days later from another member ...
It definitely existed online further back - at least 1997.

Those posts apparently cite a newly released batch of MoD files as a source and helpfully provide a reference number.

I have downloaded these National Archives documents and now understand how a copy of this sketch ended up in the MoD files.

It was forwarded with a letter questioning the Ministry's response to events:

Screenshot_20210428-112302.jpg

Screenshot_20210428-111933.jpg

Screenshot_20210428-111456.jpg

Screenshot_20210428-110332.jpg


So, where was the sketch first published and is a better quality copy available.

Could it have been in AJS Rayl's 1997 OMNI article and perhaps never anywhere else?

Would anyone possibly have a copy of that magazine?

It seems the trail I have been following leads back to that letter and whoever wrote it.

Looks like I did...
 
Perhaps an interesting aside, re a local 1983 'flying triangle' report.

Long forgotten and I've just come across it again. It's from a 1999 discussion on my old, 'UFO Research List (UFORL) and the topic was speculation about 'black projects' and stealth technology at the twin-airbases.

I wrote:

"Again, it's unlikely. Surely the presence of any stealth aircraft at the bases would have come out before now.

On t'other hand, there is that 1983 newspaper report I mentioned:

"TERRIFIED villagers near the scene of Britain's first official UFO landing have been buzzed by a new mystery craft.

The bizarre flying triangle hovered almost silently above the tiny hamlet of Hollesley in Suffolk for 20 minutes.

[...]

Captain Kathreen McCullom, at the airbase, said: 'Nothing was seen on radar. I cannot say more than that'."
(End)

It would be interesting to see any other original newspaper reports.
 
I thought we could use some context:

Rendlesham-UFO-Google-Earth.jpg


The exact location of the East Gate


East-Gate-1968-OS-starred.jpg


The east Gate again, this time from a 1968 OS map

Rendlesham-UFO-1880-East-Gate.jpg


Approximate location of east Gate from 1880 OS map (red dot upper left)

Rendlesham-UFO-context-OS.jpg


The locus in context from a 1:50,000 OS map

Rendlesham-UFO-Orford-lighthouse-starred.jpg


Exact locations of the East Gate and the Orford Ness lighthouse arrowed; RAF Bentwaters circled


maximus otter
 
Image 3 does not look celestial/astronomical to me as the density of the 'stars' seems much too, er, 'dense'. IMO it appears to look more like someone has dropped some yellow powder onto a black surface and photographed it.
It looks like an astronomical photo to me- but one taken with a telescope and a long exposure. Anyone with the right equipment to take such a photo would not want to ruin it by including a polaroid camera as the image capture system.
Images 4, 5 & 7 are 'time lapse' photographs clearly taken over hours, which would not have been achievable with a polaroid unless someone fouled the shutter mechanism to keep it open for a long period of time, and it was very stable on a tripod mount. Also the contrast and colouration is quite poor.
Once again, anyone taking a timelapse photo of the night sky would not want to use a polaroid camera as the capture device. Images 3, 4, 5 and 7 are probably snaps of much better photos, taken by polaroid camera for no sensible reason.
 
The retired policeman's (Richard's) account of his 26 December sighting / encounter includes one bit that I find very interesting. Richard is quite clear that his sighting occurred at 0155 on the 26th. This is roughly an hour before the earliest alleged notice of lights in the forest by USAF personnel - the trigger for the famous events of the next couple of days and nights.

Richard also specifies that he was roughly a quarter mile outside the town of Woodbridge when the sighting occurred. This would place him on the opposite side of the airbases from the lights later seen in an eastward direction.

Richard makes no mention of interaction with USAF investigators looking into the incident. Furthermore, at face value his account seems to indicate he never reported his sighting at the time. Nonetheless, he reports having received tacit threats and cautions against discussing or reporting any such events.

Finally, the accounts at the time mention local police being called to the scene(s) (e.g., the landing site) whereupon they generally dismissed everything as mundane or unworthy of further scrutiny.

What if Richard's earlier sighting was the real main event - apparently missed by the USAF folks? What if the classic / canonical events involving the USAF folks wandering into the forest were follow-on events chasing the tail of something the British police (and / or higher UK authorities) already knew about and were quietly suppressing? What if everyone's been looking at Rendlesham in a backwards fashion - concentrating on USAF activities which were unknowingly responses to something local authorities already knew about and were cautioned against publicizing?
That's exactly what I have been trying to suggest, albeit with less eloquence!
 
Perhaps an interesting aside, re a local 1983 'flying triangle' report.

Long forgotten and I've just come across it again. It's from a 1999 discussion on my old, 'UFO Research List (UFORL) and the topic was speculation about 'black projects' and stealth technology at the twin-airbases.

I wrote:

"Again, it's unlikely. Surely the presence of any stealth aircraft at the bases would have come out before now.

On t'other hand, there is that 1983 newspaper report I mentioned:

"TERRIFIED villagers near the scene of Britain's first official UFO landing have been buzzed by a new mystery craft.

The bizarre flying triangle hovered almost silently above the tiny hamlet of Hollesley in Suffolk for 20 minutes.

[...]

Captain Kathreen McCullom, at the airbase, said: 'Nothing was seen on radar. I cannot say more than that'."
(End)

It would be interesting to see any other original newspaper reports.
Again, the triangular object. If the triangles weren't actually based at Rendlesham -- hard to see how that would be possible if Halt was not in the loop (of those with a need to know about it), because he would surely have seen some signs of it during his time there -- then I wonder what other official site in that area might be home to such a project? As I have argued elsewhere all the hype about Area 51 etc. is absurd because if you were testing field propulsion devices you wouldn't need runways thousands of feet long and the best place to base such research would be in heavily wooded areas (I actually wrote this 10 years ago and it never occurred to me to connect it with Rendlesham!)
 
I thought we could use some context:
Thanks for this.

Coincidentally, still trolling through my case archives and only earlier today came across a batch of related photographs.

This is a picture I took when visiting the location in 1998.

It's the taken from the commencement of the path, across the road from east gate sentry point, as it was then.

Obviously, in December 1980, before the utterly devestating, "extratropical cyclone" (according to Wikipedia) on the 15/16 October, 1987, there would have been tall trees.

It's maybe the better for this, as it clearly shows the approximate distance in perspective (at least I hope so!).

eg_road.jpg


Just a mention... One of the puzzling aspects from our first night is a description, from Burroughs' statement, of how events unfolded (with my emphasis):

On the night of 25-26 Dec at around 0300 while on patrol down at east gate myself and my partner saw lights coming from the woods due east of the gate. The lights were red and blue the red one above the blue one and they were flashing on and off.

Because I've never seen anything like that coming from the woods before we decided to drive down and see what it was. We went down east gate road and took a right at the stop sign and drove down about 10 to 20 yards to where there is a road that goes into the forest

At the road I could see a white light shining onto the trees and could still see the red and blue lights. We decided we better go call it in so we went back up towards east gate. I was watching the lights and the white light started coming down the road that led into the forest. We got to the gate and called it in.

The whole time I could see the lights and the white light was almost at the edge of the road and the blue and red lights were still out in the woods".
(End)
 
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Again, the triangular object.
Always interesting reading your take on this and 'triangular UFOs" are my favourite subject within our eclectic genre.

I have been re-reading archive discussions on the, 'UFO Research List' re a conceivable Bentwaters/Stealth connection and thought you might find this of interest - from April 1999.

I have to be careful quoting someone else, rather than material I had posted, as it was a closed mailing list, for subscribers only. However, I'm sure Tim will be fine with this:

"...claimed to have seen the F-117A
'landing at the base' from 1984 which ties in with the research of both Bill Rose (who lives/lived nearby) and Nick Cook (Jane's).

The F-117A interdictor was responsible for UFO sightings in the late 1980s but I doubt that any supposed 'triangular UFOs' seen in/over/near the woods over Christmas 1980 were this particular bird.

Having said that, and in light of my recent discoveries, it never ceases to amaze me how little credence Ufologists give to the very strong possibility that secret military aircraft, possibly unmanned and possibly using an advanced propulsion system, could have been tested at that time.

Throughout the 1970s all kinds of triangular a/c were under development and in Britain alone we had experimented with prototype waveriders in the 1960s (see 'Air Pictorial' for this month) although this was a high-speed platform.

(Documents received via FOIA indicate a great deal of interest in so-called 'electrogravitics systems' in the early 1950s and the extent to which these were funded.

The studies relating to some of these projects curiously came upon the flying disc as the perfect planform upon which to base further
study.)

No surprises there and what becomes apparent above all else in terms of classified aircraft research is the number and extent of similar projects...... all of which are still hidden from view...

No doubt this will debate will rage on for years...".

Tim Matthews.
(End)
 
Tim Matthews said:
Throughout the 1970s all kinds of triangular a/c were under development and in Britain alone we had experimented with prototype waveriders in the 1960s (see 'Air Pictorial' for this month) although this was a high-speed platform.
(Documents received via FOIA indicate a great deal of interest in so-called 'electrogravitics systems' in the early 1950s and the extent to which these were funded.
The studies relating to some of these projects curiously came upon the flying disc as the perfect planform upon which to base further
study.)
Interesting stuff, but it seems that the state of electrogravitic research in the 1950s was just as speculative as it is today. Tim Matthews may have thought that disclosure of electrogravitics was imminent back in 1999, but here we are in 2021, and it is still as imaginary as it ever was.
 
Furthermore, at face value his account seems to indicate he never reported his sighting at the time. Nonetheless, he reports having received tacit threats and cautions against discussing or reporting any such events.
"...the author wishes to remain anonymous".

That always, of course, sets off the potential hoaxer alarm

"That wasn't the end of it, I also received menacing and threatening telephone calls, even death threats a few weeks after my encounter and a couple of months later my home was subjected to an attempted arson attack...".

How did they know the photograph existed and why not simply force him to hand it over...

"...visited at home by 3 men claiming to be military intelligence, he said he was simply TOLD in no uncertain terms that if anyone mentions the word UFO then simply tell them that they probably saw the lighthouse...".

Good grief...

"...one of their team was captured, killed, bagged and tagged by the military and shipped out to a secret location for analysis...".

Wright-Patterson AFB? :cool:

The image:

Screenshot_20210429-023221~2.jpg


It looks like the bottom of an illuminated green stemmed-glass, however there are many similar images online (use a reverse search), such as:

images.jpg
 
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This sketch is also in the MoD files and I note a conceivable comparison:

LEVETT2~2.jpg


Screenshot_20210429-085228~2.jpg


The solicitor named in the above document is Harry Harris, a fellow ufologist.

Halt's provided him with a copy of his tape recording, which Harris subsequently released to the media and that's why we are all here today.

This is the story of our witness, Gordon Levett, as briefly told in the, 'Strange But True?' book, which accompanied the TV series:

"At Sudbourne, on the coast near the Sizewell nuclear power station, Gordon Levett was locking up his guard dog for the night when a giant fluorescent white mushroom appeared from the north, hovered briefly overhead and vanished, heading down into Rendlesham forest.
(End)


This is the account of Gerry Harris, from the same publication:

"Gerry Harris ran a garage to which many of the airmen took their cars. He recalls coming home from a night out with his wife when he saw some odd balls of light moving in peculiar fashion around the forest.

He watched them for half an hour as they darted up and down, and quickly realised that they were not aircraft - with which, as they lived next door to the airbase, he and his wife were very familiar.

(...)

Gerry had driven along the logging track into the forest after he saw the lights. There was a lot of military activity despite the late hour, and some localpolice out there too.

The military police were even armed. After reminding them that this was a public footpath, he was made to turn back"
(End)

I'm not sure if, elsewhere, either account was dated and will check this.

[Edited to include further information]
 
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I wonder if the three 'legs' on this sketch are a rationalisation of the 'evidence' observed at the supposed landing site. If the 'object' was moving through the forest it was more likely to have been on wheels or even caterpillar tracks.
 
Also. There are plenty of filters and apps out there to give the look of a polaroid picture, even with the grading and framing so I can’t really say that it’s definitely a genuine polaroid. Especially as it seems to show a hair or thread at the bottom under the green disc.
 
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