References to files held by The National Archives are prefixed by TNA. Files are categorised by piece numbers; those with a DEFE or AIR piece number were created by the Ministry of Defence, Air Ministry or RAF. Other files originate with the Foreign Office (FO), Admiralty (ADM) or Cabinet Office (CAB). Some of the more recent UFO files can be downloaded directly from The National Archives UFO page, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos. Earlier files can be ordered online or consulted onsite at Kew free by anyone who is in possession of a reader’s ticket. A search on UFOs using the online catalogue (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/default.asp?j=1) will produce a list of available records, arranged in chronological order.
1 Dr J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience. London, 1972, p. 3–4
2 TNA DEFE 31/176/1
3 TNA DEFE 24/2030/1-2032/1, DEFE 24/2043/1, DEFE 24/2061/1, DEFE 24/2090/1
1 Nature, 25 May 1893
2 TNA MT 9/28
3 The Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 1/157
4 Cardiff Evening Express and Evening Mail, 19 May 1909
5 Hansard (Written Answers, Commons), 21 November 1912
6 TNA AIR 1/565 16/15/89
7 Douglas Robinson, The Zeppelin in Combat (Schiffer Publishing, 1994), p.36-37.
8 C. Cole and E. F. Cheeseman, The Air Defence of Great Britain, 1914–1918. Bodley Head, 1969
9 TNA ADM 131/119
10 TNA ADM 131/119
11 TNA WO 158/989
12 A. A. Mills, ‘Will o’the Wisp’, Chemistry in Britain, vol 16, February 1980
13 A Guide to the Parish Church of Widdecombe-in-the-Moor, 2006
14 Meteorological Magazine, vol 56, no 667, August 1921
15 TNA AIR 2/205
16 TNA AIR 2/205
17 TNA AIR 2/205
18 Meteorological Magazine, vol. 56, no 668, September 1921
19 Extract from personal communication to Andy Roberts dated 19 May 1987
20 Churchill Archives, University of Cambridge, R. V. Jones papers, DI42
21 TNA AIR 51/212
22 Fortean Times 64, August/September 1992
23 TNA AVIA 7/1070
24 Personal communication, 28 November 2001
25 NARA record group 331 – US National Archives
26 NARA record group 331 – US National Archives
27 Robertson Panel report, January 1953, CIA archive
28 Robertson Panel report, January 1953, CIA archive
29 TNA AIR 14/2076
30 TNA AIR 14/2076
31 Personal communication, 20 March 2003
1 TNA DEFE 44/119
2 TNA FO 371/56988 and FO 371/56951
3 TNA AIR 40/2843
4 Summary in TNA ADM 223/700; original report in NARA record group 331 – US National Archives
5 R. V. Jones, Most Secret War. Hamish Hamilton, 1978
6 TNA AIR 29/1370 and AIR 29/1597
7 Daily Mail, 29 April 1947
8 US National Archives, Project Blue Book records, T-1206
9 Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex, M-DA DI22
10 Hilary Evans and Dennis Stacy (editors), UFO 1947-97: Fifty Years of Flying Saucers. John Brown, 1997
11 Robert Durant, ‘Public opinion polls and UFOs’ in Hilary Evans and Dennis Stacy (editors), UFO 1947-97: Fifty Years of Flying Saucers. John Brown, 1997
12 Karl Pflock, Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will to Believe. Prometheus, 2001
13 C. Berlitz and W. L. Moore, The Roswell Incident. Grosset & Dunlap, 1980
14 Col. R. Weaver and 1st Lt. James McAndrews, The Roswell Report: Fact versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert. HQ USAF, 1995
15 US National Archives, Project Blue Book records, T-1206
16 E. Ruppelt, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects. Doubleday, 1956
17 Daily Herald, 16 April 1950
18 Broadlands Archive, University of Southampton, BAI 172
19 Sunday Dispatch, 1 October 1950
20 TNA DEFE 41/74
21 TNA DEFE 44/119
22 TNA DEFE 19/9
23 Extract from interview with S. Hubbard, 18 April 2002
24 TNA DEFE 44/119
25 TNA DEFE 44/119
26 TNA DEFE 44/119
27 New York Times, quoted in London Times, 30 July 1952
28 TNA PREM 11/855
29 Churchill Archives, University of Cambridge, Lord Duncan Sandys’ papers, DSND 15/4
30 TNA AIR 16/1199
31 Extract from interview with Michael Swiney, 13 March 2002
32 Extract from interview with David Crofts, 26 February 2002
33 TNA AIR 29/2310
34 TNA DEFE 31/184/1
35 J. Gough, Watching the Skies. HMSO, 1993
36 RAF Radar Museum newsletter no. 35-36, April–July 2003
37 TNA AIR 16/14853
38 TNA AIR 2/18564
39 TNA AIR 20/9320
40 TNA CAB 157/27
41 Personal communication with author, 1989
1 Imperial War Museum Archive. papers of Air Marshal Sir Peter Horsley. GB62, file 24, ‘Flying Saucers’.
2 Lancashire Evening Post, 18 February 1954
3 Gerald Haines, ‘A Die-hard issue: CIA’s role in the study of UFOs, 1947–90’, Studies in Intelligence 1, 1997
4 Robertson Panel Report, January 1953, CIA Archive
5 TNA AIR 20/9994
6 TNA AIR 20/9994
7 TNA DEFE 31/118
8 University of Hull, Patrick Wall papers, DPW/82/1
9 TNA AIR 2/16918
10 TNA AIR 40/2769
11 TNA AVIA 65/33
12 B. D. Gildenberg, ‘The Cold War’s classified Skyhook Program’, Skeptical Inquirer, May 2004
13 TNA AIR 2/17902–4
14 TNA AIR 27/2775
15 J. Oberg in New Scientist, 24/31 December 1981
16 Extract from interview with Freddie Wimbledon, 25 March 2001
17 Personal communication, May 2001
18 TNA AIR 2/18871
19 Extract from interview with John Brady, 11 February 2001
20 Extract from interview with Ralph Noyes, May 1989
21 The Scientific Study of UFOs. University of Colorado, 1969
22 Personal communication from Chris Hann, RAF, 2 March 2001
23 TNA AIR 3/18871
24 TNA AIR 20/9320
25 TNA DEFE 24/1931/1
26 TNA DEFE 24/1931/1
27 TNA AIR 2/18564
28 TNA DEFE 24/1966/1
29 TNA DEFE 31/118
30 Extract from interview with David West, 29 April 2007
31 TNA DEFE 31/119; Cliff Watson quoted in ‘Invasion 1967’ by John Keeling, Fortean Times 228, 2009
32 TNA AIR 2/17983
33 TNA AIR 2/17983
34 TNA AIR 2/17983
35 Exeter Express & Echo, 24 October 1967
36 Robert Chapman, UFO – Flying Saucers over Britain? Mayflower, 1969
37 TNA AIR 20/11890
38 TNA DEFE 31/119
39 TNA DEFE 31/119
40 TNA DEFE 71/100
41 TNA AIR 20/11890
42 TNA AIR 20/11890
43 Imperial War Museum Archive, misc item 2857: MoD files concerning UFOs, 1968
44 TNA AIR 2/17983
45 TNA AIR 40/2769
1 TNA AIR 20/12061
2 TNA AIR 20/12061
3 TNA DEFE 31/119
4 TNA BJ 7/311
5 TNA AIR 2/19117
6 TNA AIR 20/12552
7 TNA AIR 20/12550
8 TNA DEFE 24/1205
9 TNA DEFE 24/1205
10 TNA AIR 2/18961
11 TNA AIR 2/18961
12 TNA DEFE 24/1207
13 TNA DEFE 24/1207
14 Roger Musson, ‘The Enigmatic Bala Earthquake of 1974’, Astronomy & Geophysics vol 47, October 2006; Andy Roberts, UFO Down – The Berwyn Mountain UFO Crash, Fortean Words 2010
15 A collection of MoD papers relating to the Berwyn incident, collated in response to a 2003 FOIA request, can be followed at TNA DEFE 24/2045/1
16 TNA AIR 2/19083
17 TNA AIR 2/18874
18 TNA DEFE 24/978
19 Personal communication, 2005
20 TNA DEFE 71/34
21 TNA DEFE 24/1535
22 TNA DEFE 24/1206
23 TNA DEFE 24/1535
24 Western Mail, 27 January 1996
25 TNA DEFE 24/1206
26 TNA DEFE 24/1210
27 TNA DEFE 24/1212
28 Daily Mirror, 2 January 1979
29 TNA FCO 55/1403 and DEFE 24/2032/1
30 TNA DEFE 31/164
31 TNA AIR 20/12966
32 Hansard (Parliamentary debates, House of Lords), 18 January 1979
33 Hansard (Parliamentary debates, House of Lords), 18 January 1979
34 TNA AIR 20/12966
1 TNA DEFE 24/1512
2 TNA DEFE 24/1512
3 Suffolk Police log released under FOIA in 2005: http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/police.htm
4 Personal communication from Ted Conrad, January 2010
5 Transcript of Halt tape from Ian Ridpath’s website: http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/halttape.htm
6 Coalition for Freedom of Information press conference, Washington DC, 12 November 2007: www.freedomofinfo.org/national_press_07/halt_statement.pdf
7 In response to a question tabled in the House of Lords by Lord Hill-Norton on 28 October 1997 MoD said it could ‘neither confirm nor deny that nuclear weapons were stored at RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge’ at the time of the UFO incident
8 Personal communication from Ted Conrad, January 2010.
9 TNA DEFE 24/1948/1
10 Personal communication, 2010
11 A pdf copy of the ‘Rendlesham file’, DEFE 24/1948/1 was released to the public on the MoD’s FOI website in 2005 and withdrawn two years later. It was re-released again, in redacted format, by The National Archives in 2009
12 Personal communication from Simon Weeden, 2005
13 TNA DEFE 24/1948/1
14 TNA DEFE 24/1512/1
15 TNA DEFE 24/1970/1
16 The Guardian, 5 January 1985
17 TNA DEFE 24/2019/1
18 Copies of the airmen’s statements were sent by James Easton to the MoD in 1998 and placed in the file TNA DEFE 24/2011/1
19 A transcript of a 1997 interview with Sgt Penniston by journalist A. J. S. Rayl can be found in TNA DEFE 24/1995/1. Sketches showing a triangular-shaped UFO are attached to the papers
20 Extract from personal communication with Derek Coumbe, June 2005
21 For more discussion of the radiation readings, see: http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/rendlesham4.htm
22 Affidavit signed by Charles Halt in 2010, copy on http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/Haltaffidavit1.jpg
23 See http://drdavidclarke.co.uk/secret-files/secret-files-4/
24 TNA DEFE 24/1924/1
25 New Scientist, 8 August 1963
26 TNA AIR 2/17318
27 The Mowing Devil: or, Strange News out of Hartfordshire (1678) – the original pamphlet can be found at The British Library
28 Pat Delgado and Colin Andrews, Circular Evidence. Bloomsbury, 1989
29 TNA DEFE 24/1517
30 TNA DEFE 24/1925/1
31 TNA DEFE 24/1931/1
32 TNA DEFE 24/1955/1
33 Lord Zuckerman, ‘Creations of the Dark’, New York Review of Books 38/19, 1991
34 TNA DEFE 24/1956/1
35 John Fuller, The Interrupted Journey. Dial Press, 1966
36 TNA AIR 2/18117
37 TNA AIR 20/11894
38 TNA AIR 20/11894
39 TNA DEFE 24/1928/1
40 TNA DEFE 24/1954/1
41 TNA DEFE 24/1938/1
42 TNA DEFE 24/1943/1
43 TNA DEFE 24/1943/1; for a full account see Jenny Randles, Abduction, Headline 1998, p. 90–91
44 TNA DEFE 24/1929/1
45 TNA DEFE 24/1979/1
1 Personal communication from David Hastings, April 2009
2 Daily Express, 8 February 1999
3 BBC News Online, 23 July 1999: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/392451.stm
4 Martin Shough, ‘The BOAC Labrador sighting of 29 June 1954’: http://www.caelestia.be/BOAC.html
5 TNA DEFE 71/33
6 TNA DEFE 24/1953/1
7 TNA DEFE 24/1953/1
8 TNA DEFE 24/1956/1
9 Extract from CAA Airmiss report 2/95, copy in DEFE 24/2042/1
10 Extract from CAA Airmiss report 2/95, copy in DEFE 24/2042/1
11 TNA DEFE 24/2034/1
12 TNA DEFE 24/1960/1 and DEFE 24/1970/1
13 NA DEFE 31/180/1
14 TNA DEFE 24/2041/
15 TNA DEFE 24/1967/1
16 TNA DEFE 24/2086/1
17 The Scotsman, 18 February 1992
18 TNA DEFE 24/1958/1
19 TNA DEFE 24/1958/1; extract from personal communication, March 1997; Jane’s Defence Weekly, 12 December 1992
20 TNA DEFE 24/1958/1
21 Extract from personal communication, March 1997
22 TNA DEFE 24/2080/1
23 TNA DEFE 24/2080/1
24 TNA DEFE 24/1958/1
25 TNA DEFE 31/176/1
26 UAPs in the UK Air Defence Region, volume 3: http://tinyurl.com/kqll2
27 UAPs in the UK Air Defence Region, executive summary: http://tinyurl/kqll2
28 TNA DEFE 24/2090/1
1 TNA DEFE 24/2047/1
2 TNA DEFE 24/2041/1
3 TNA DEFE 24/1983/1
4 TNA DEFE 31/176/1
5 TNA DEFE 24/1977/1
6 Personal communication from Ian Ridpath, 2006
7 TNA DEFE 24/1984/1
8 Personal communication, 2010
9 TNA DEFE 24/2032/1
10 Eastern Evening News (Norwich), 12 October 1996
11 TNA DEFE 24/1961/1
12 TNA DEFE 24/1976/1
13 TNA DEFE 24/1988/1
14 TNA DEFE 24/1986/1
15 TNA DEFE 24/1986/1
16 TNA DEFE 24/1958/1
17 TNA DEFE 24/2081/1
18 Extract from an interview with Kate Russell, 28 June 2007
19 TNA DEFE 24/2081
20 J. F. Baure et. al., ‘Unusual atmospheric phenomena observed near Channel Islands, UK, 23 April 2007.’ Journal of Scientific Exploration, vol 22, no 3, August 2008
21 TNA DEFE 24/2028/1
22 TNA DEFE 24/1997/1 and DEFE 24/2023/1
23 MoD DIS response to FOIA request from the author, 3 May 2007
24 RAF Air Command response to FOIA request from the author dated 15 January 2010, available via MoD Publication Scheme at: http://tinyurl.com/yg6ovcb
25 The Sun, 25 June 2008
26 MoD response to FOIA request, 2008
27 TNA DEFE 24/2082/1
28 RAF Air Command response to FOIA request from the author, 25 February 2010
29 RAF Air Command response to FOIA request from the author, 25 February 2010
30 Civil Aviation Authority response to FOIA request from the author, 7 November 2011. This response revealed that CAA had logged a further six ‘mandatory occurrence reports’ involving UFOs reported by aircrew since the Channel Islands incident in April 2007. Two of these have led to separate air proximity inquiries by the UK Airprox Board (UKAB)
31 The Guardian, 30 November 1960
32 http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/declass/ufo/index.shtml
33 BBC News Online, 21 November 2003; Washington Post, 28 April 2005
34 The Guardian, 29 March 2010
35 Peter Hennessy, The Secret State. Penguin, 2002
36 TNA AVIA 55/2055
1 TNA DEFE 24/2013/1
1 Personal communication from Brian Hughes, 2010
2 Churchill Archives, University of Cambridge, Lord Duncan Sandys’ papers, DSND 15/4
1 University of Bristol, Professor Cecil Powell papers, Powell/B/B.116 and Powell/E/P
2 Captain Eric Brown, Wings on My Sleeve. Barker, 1961
3 Personal communication from Captain Eric Brown, 2011
1 Martyn Johnson, What’s Tha Up To? Wharncliffe, 2010; interview with Martyn Johnson, 2011
2 TNA AIR 20/11898
1 TNA DEFE 24/2026/1
1 TNA 24/2060/1
2 TNA AIR 2/16918
3 TNA DEFE 31/184/1
4 TNA DEFE 31/179/1 and DEFE 31/180/1
1 Hugh Dowding to Paul Inglesby, 5 November 1960; author’s collection
2 Daily Telegraph, 26 January 1965
3 Philip Taylor, ‘The Mystic and the Spy: two early British UFO writers’. Magonia 61, November 1997
4 Lou Cannon, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime. Public Affairs, 2000
5 The Observer, 23 March 2003
6 TNA DEFE 24/1995/1
7 Mary Wakeley to Eric Morris, 12 November 2001; author’s collection
8 Broadlands Archive, University of Southampton, MB 1/Z2
9 R. V. Jones, ‘The Natural Philosophy of Flying Saucers’. Physics Bulletin 19, July 1968
10 TNA AIR 2/19086
11 Churchill Archives, R. V. Jones papers, RVJO D129
12 Alien Worlds 3, June 2008
1 R. V. Jones, ‘The Natural Philosophy of Flying Saucers’, Physics Bulletin 19 July 1968
2 Hansard (Parliamentary debates, House of Lords), 18 January 1979
3 BBC News Online, 8 November 2011, quoting White House statement at: https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/response/searching-et-no-evidence-yet
4 The Times, 27 January 2009
5 TNA DEFE 31/118
6 Ben Bova and Byron Preiss (editors), First Contact: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Headline, 1990
7 MoD press release, December 2009
8 Ben Bova and Byron Preiss (editors), First Contact: The search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Headline, 1990
9 Personal communication, June 2005
10 The Guardian, 27 June 2011
11 The Times, 21 October 2008
