Rendlesham Forest 1980: one memo, a radiation query and "no defence significance"

In December 1980 USAF security patrolmen reported a glowing object in Rendlesham Forest outside RAF Woodbridge, and Deputy Base Commander Lt Col Charles Halt set down their account, and lights he saw himself, in a memo of 13 January 1981. The Ministry of Defence queried the radiation readings, then concluded the sightings were of no defence significance.

52.0889° N · 1.4492° E · Rendlesham Forest, near RAF Woodbridge, Suffolk · 27–29 Dec 1980

Source: UK · The National Archives

The deputy base commander's memo

The Ministry of Defence file on Rendlesham opens with a single typed page on the letterhead of the USAF's 81st Combat Support Group, dated 13 January 1981, headed "Unexplained Lights" and addressed to RAF/CC. It is signed by Lt Col Charles I. Halt, Deputy Base Commander ^[1].

Halt wrote that early in the morning of 27 December 1980, at about 3 a.m., two USAF security police patrolmen saw unusual lights outside the back gate at RAF Woodbridge. Thinking an aircraft might have crashed or been forced down, they asked permission to investigate, and the on-duty flight chief let three patrolmen go out on foot. They reported a glowing object in the forest, about two to three metres across the base and two metres high, with a pulsing red light on top and blue lights underneath; it was "hovering or on legs". As they approached, it maneuvered through the trees and disappeared, animals on a nearby farm went into a frenzy, and the object was briefly seen again about an hour later near the back gate ^[1].

The memo did not go straight to the Ministry. On 15 January 1981 Squadron Leader D. H. Moreland, the RAF Commander at Bentwaters, sent a copy to MOD (DS8a), describing it as a report on "mysterious sightings in the Rendlesham forest near RAF Woodbridge" and forwarding it for information and such action as was considered necessary ^[2].

The object was described as being metalic in appearance and triangular in shape

— Lt Col Charles I. Halt, memo "Unexplained Lights", 13 January 1981 [1]

Depressions, radiation and lights in the sky

According to the memo, three depressions 1½ inches deep and 7 inches in diameter were found the next day where the object had been seen on the ground. The following night, which Halt dates 29 December, the area was checked for radiation: beta/gamma readings of 0.1 milliroentgens were recorded, peaking in the three depressions and near the centre of the triangle they formed, with moderate readings of .05 to .07 on the side of a nearby tree facing them ^[1].

Later that night, Halt wrote, a red sun-like light was seen through the trees. It moved about, pulsed, appeared to throw off glowing particles and then broke into five separate white objects and disappeared. Three star-like objects then appeared low in the sky, two to the north and one to the south, moving in sharp angular movements and showing red, green and blue lights. The object to the south stayed visible for two or three hours and "beamed down a stream of light from time to time." Halt stated that numerous individuals, including himself, witnessed these later events ^[1].

The dates are themselves a problem. In November 1983 a correspondent told the Ministry that Suffolk Constabulary had confirmed officers were called to the scene at 4.11 a.m. on 26 December 1980, that all they could see was the lighthouse, and that they returned at 10.30 that morning to examine the reported landing marks; he concluded that the date of 27 December in Halt's memo was wrong ^[7]. The Ministry's own later statement kept Halt's dates of 27 and 29 December ^[9].

Questions inside the Ministry, 1981

The report was not simply filed. In late January 1981 an Ops(GE) staff officer passed the memo to DI55, the Defence Intelligence branch concerned, explaining that DS8 had asked whether any other department would have an interest, and asking in particular whether the radioactivity readings were unusual or within the normal background range ^[3].

The reply came from DI52 on 23 February 1981. It said that, like DI55, it knew of no serious explanation for the phenomena. It noted that background radioactivity varies considerably, assumed the 0.1 milliroentgen reading was per hour, and judged it significantly higher than an average background of about 0.015, adding that the way the US report was written suggested the reading was greater than the Americans had expected ^[4].

A March 1983 minute from DS8 recalls that Ops(GE) had suggested asking the USAF for tape recordings in February 1981, but says the Ministry's files did not appear to show the outcome of those investigations ^[5]. Popular accounts often say the site showed radiation ten times above background on the morning after the landing, but the memo dates the radiation check to the following night and the Ministry's only assessment in the file compares 0.1 with a background of about 0.015, less than seven times higher ^[1][4].

seems significantly higher than the average background of about 0.015 mr.

— DI52 minute to DI55, 23 February 1981 [4]

1983: the story breaks

The case reached the public through a News of the World article of 2 October 1983. A background note prepared for three parliamentary questions that followed records that Halt's report had been examined by the Air Staff and DS8, that there was no question of any contact with "alien beings", and that no unidentified object had been seen on any radar recordings, as the newspaper alleged. It added that a BBC investigation had suggested the pulsating light of the Orfordness lighthouse, some six to seven miles away, as a possible explanation, and stated that the Ministry made no attempt to identify the likely explanation for individual reports ^[6].

Once the memo was public, the Ministry handed it out. In a letter of 6 June 1984 it told an enquirer that it had received Halt's report and satisfied itself that it contained nothing of defence interest, and enclosed a copy of the report ^[8].

It was concluded that there was nothing of defence interest in the alleged sighting.

— MoD background note on parliamentary questions, October 1983 [6]

The file's release and the Ministry's last word

A note on the Ministry's file records that a copy was sent to a requester under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information on 11 May 2001, with five documents withheld; two were released in September 2001, and the last three were released in July 2002 after the Parliamentary Ombudsman recommended it ^[10]. The National Archives opened a redacted digital copy, DEFE 24/1948/1, on 17 August 2009 ^[1].

A later unclassified statement in the file sums up the Ministry's position. It says Halt's report was examined by the staff responsible for the air defence of the United Kingdom, that no evidence was found of any threat, that no further investigations were carried out, and that nothing had altered the view that the lights were of no defence significance. It adds that no unidentified object was seen on radar. It mentions the theory that the lights were the beam of the Orford Ness lighthouse seen through the trees, and suggestions that fireball activity might explain some of them ^[9]. The file does not identify what the airmen saw.

In the absence of any hard evidence, the MOD remains open-minded about these sightings.

— MoD statement "UFO Sighting at Rendlesham Forest" (DEFE 24/1948) [9]

Last fact-checked: 2026-10-03. Every claim cites its source.