Top 10 UFO Documents at The National Archives (UK)

Extract from Winston Churchill’s 1952 request to the British Air Ministry on ‘flying saucers’ (TNA: PREM 11/855)

The spring of 2018 marks the 20th anniversary of my first visit to The National Archives in Kew, southwest London – the guardian of some of the UK’s most iconic national documents.

It also marks ten years since I began my stint as consultant/curator for the release of the Ministry of Defence UFO files, part of a project involving The National Archives and Sheffield Hallam University. On 8 March I returned to Kew to present a public lecture on completion of my research into the extensive British Government UFO document archive. During the presentation I listed my personal ‘Top 10’: what I believe

By David Clarke drdavidclarke.co.uk 3-15-18

are the most significant and important historical documents in the collection at Kew. These were:

1). Prime Minister Winston Churchill‘s memo to the Air Ministry, 1952: ‘What’s all this stuff about flying saucers? What is the truth?’ (PREM 11/855). His request followed a spate of sightings over Washington DC that were widely reported in the UK and international media.

2). ‘Unidentified Flying Objects’: report produced by MoD’s Flying Saucer Working Party in 1951, used to brief Churchill (DEFE 44/119)

3). ‘Unidentified Objects at West Freugh’, the Air (Tech) Intelligence report on UFOs tracked by three ground radar stations in Scotland during April 1957 (AIR 20/9320)

4). ‘Unexplained Lights’ in Rendlesham Forest, near RAF Woodbridge, Lt Col Charles Halt’s report to MoD, dated 13 January 1981 (DEFE 24/152)

5). RAF Troodos operations record book, October 1983, reporting UFO sighted by USAF RC-135 spyplane over the Mediterranean (AIR 29/4933)

6). MoD DI55 UFO Policy – ‘Causes of UFO Reports’ 1967 (DEFE 24/119)

7). MoD DI55 UFO Policy – Extra Terrestrial Objects – UAP briefing papers 1995 (DEFE 24/3153)

8). MOD DI55 ‘Release of UFO reports to members of the public’ (DEFE 24/3152)

9). MoD DI55 UFO Policy – briefing on UAPs to Head of Defence Intelligence 1995 (DEFE 24/3153)

10). ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defence Region’ (the Condign report), 2000 (DEFE 24/3127/1). This 3 volume report ended the MoD Defence Intelligence interest in UFOs that began half a century earlier with the Flying Saucer Working Party report that was used to brief Winston Churchill.

A collection of the original versions of these documents were placed on temporary display for the event. This gave visitors a unique opportunity to examine some of the most famous – and lesser known – records from the files of the so-called ‘UFO desk’. These included the original version of Lt Col Halt’s memo reporting sightings by USAF airmen in the Rendlesham Forest, filed alongside other more run-of-the-mill reports received in January 1981 by DS8 at Whitehall.

The event was organised as part of the National Archives’ spring lecture programme and the public engagement evidence will be used as part of my submission to the REF 2021 research exercise on behalf of Sheffield Hallam University.

The UFO files project was funded by the MoD and resulted in the release of more than 60,000 pages of reports, correspondence and policy issues to the public under the Open Government/Freedom of Information Act.

In all, 210 files were scanned and are available as PDF downloads from the National Archives UFO page.

The project website received more than 3.7 million visitors from 160 countries and mass media coverage brought news of the release to an estimated global audience of 25 million people.

Three books were published as part of the public engagement aspects of the research. These include:

The UFO Files (Bloomsbury/TNA 2012)

Britain’s X-traordinary Files (Bloomsbury/TNA 2014)

and UFO Drawings from The National Archives (Four Corners 2017).

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Winston Churchill and E.T.



It was 1939, and the storm of history’s greatest conflict was gathering on the European continent. The situation for Britain was ominous. But even in those terrible,

By Seth Shostak SETI 2-28-17

turbulent times, Winston Churchill took the opportunity to speculate on the possibility of intelligent beings elsewhere in the cosmos, and commit his ideas to paper. (He was a prodigious scribe, averaging several thousand words a day over the course of his life.) His largely unknown essay on this subject has been recently reviewed by astrophysicist Mario Livio, and reported in the February 16 issue of the journal Nature.

Given Churchill’s broad interests and catholic knowledge, it’s not surprising that he thought about the idea of life in space, although one might argue that his timing was influenced by the famed radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds broadcast the year before. But the remarkable thing is not that Churchill wrote about the possibilities for extraterrestrial biology, but that he thought about the subject in a way very similar to contemporary researchers.

[...]

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Aliens Almost Certainly Existed Concluded Churchill



"Defence ministry archives releas­ed in 2010 suggest Churchill was worried about UFOs, and covered up a wartime sighting for fear of causing mass panic."

While the Nazis mustered forces in the days before World War II, Winston Churchill’s focus was far further afield than Germany. A newly emerged essay shows Britain’s wartime leader concluded, after

John Ross The Austrailian 2-16-17

sifting through the cosmic evidence, that aliens almost certainly existed.

The typewritten article, drafted in early 1939 and possibly intende­d for the News of the World newspaper, has resurfaced in a Missouri museu­m. Analys­ts are astound­ed at its scientific sophistication.

[...]

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UFOs and Churchill's Horse in Official Papers

By Alan O'Keeffe
www.herald.ie
11-21-14

     Flying Saucer reports and Winston Churchill's hopes of bringing his horse to Ireland to run in the Derby are in a newly published volume of documents on Irish foreign policy.

The latest volume covers the work of Irish diplomats in the 1948-51 period when the first Inter-Party government was formed under Taoiseach John A Costello and the Irish Free State left the Commonwealth to become a republic.

Intense interest in reported UFO sightings in the skies over the US in 1950 prompted the Irish embassy in Washington to send a report to Dublin.

An embassy staffer, while saying he was making no commitment as to whether he believed such flying saucer reports, asked that his report "be sent to G2, Irish military intelligence". . . .

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Even Winston Churchill Was Misinformed Of The Facts

By Paul Dean ufos-documenting-the-evidence.blogspot.com 8-10-14

     I am often asked questions along the lines of “How do you know your being misinformed?” or “Are you sure you’re being lied to?” The answers are simple. I can prove it through the study of declassified documents and other official material sourced directly from those attempting the ruse. All serious UFO researchers are faced with the same questions, and often the responses are gleefully accompanied by the whipping out of formally classified government documents which have been begrudgingly released from as far back as the 1950’s right through to this very day. And we are spoilt for choice. It could be a copy of the infamous United States Air Force (USAF) “Bolender Memo”; or any of the newer Joint US-Canadian Communications Instructions Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings (CIRVIS) for “Unidentified Flying Objects” Regulations; or a copy of any the British Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) DI55 documents that mention UFO’s. Whatever the example(s), any number of hundreds upon hundreds of once-classified documents, even entire files numbering in the dozens of pages, and usually only released decades after creation, plus other material, prove that the nonsense contained within certain agencies’ official media releases and public statements is absolute misinformation, disinformation, and lies. In my last post I eluded to the fact that Sir Winston Churchill may have been misinformed about the UFO issue; and that if the Prime Minister of Britain is misinformed, or outright lied to, what hope do civilian researchers have?

On the 28th of July, 1952, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill became concerned enough about the growing number of credible UFO reports that he wrote a Prime Ministers Personal Minute (found in the file “PREM 11/855 Defence Research” at the old Public Records Office, London) to both the Secretary of State for Air, and to Lord Cherwell (Frederick Lindemann, Churchill’s Scientific Advisor). It famously reads:

“What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to? What can it mean? What is the truth? Let me have a report at your convenience.”

On the 9th of August, 1952, the Air Ministry wrote back:

1. “The various reports about unidentified flying objects, described by the Press as ‘flying saucers’, were the subject of a full Intelligence study in 1951. The conclusions reached (based upon William of Occam's Razor) were that all the incidents reported could be explained by one or other of the following causes:

(a) Known astronomical or meteorological phenomena

(b) Mistaken identification of conventional aircraft, balloons, birds, etc.

(c) Optical illusions and psychological delusions

(d) Deliberate hoaxes.

2. The Americans, who carried out a similar investigation in 1948/9, reached a similar conclusion.

3. Nothing has happened since 1951 to make the Air Staff change their opinion, and, to judge from recent Press statements, the same is true in America.”

A copy of this report was sent to Lord Cherwell, who wrote to the Prime Minister on the 14th of August, 1952 stating:

“I have seen the Secretary of State’s Minutes to you on flying saucers and I agree entirely with his conclusions”

The Prime Minister was misinformed. Firstly, the Air Staff were, in fact, unable to explain all the incidences. Secondly, the American’s had not whatsoever “reached a similar conclusion.”

In a letter (a copy of which UFO researcher Timothy Good has in his possession) from Group Captain Harold Collins, who was the Deputy Director of Intelligence at the Air Ministry, to Ralph Noyes, who was the Head of Defence Secretariat 8 (DS8) an air intelligence Directorate in the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the results of early Air Ministry findings at that time was:

“….we prepared a paper which divided the more recent reports into four classifications:

(1) Some 35% that could be immediately discounted.

(2) Some 25% for which we were able to find a definite or probably explanation.

(3) Some 30% where there was no corroboration of there was doubts about the report and for which we could find no explanation.

(4) Some 10% where the reporter was well qualified, ie Farnborough test pilot, etc, where there was corroboration and where the report itself carried conviction; but where we could find no explanation.

These figures are rather at odds with what Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill was handed, of that there is no doubt.

More importantly, as for the American’s “reaching a similar conclusion”, nothing could be further from the truth. An Air Intelligence Report, classified TOP SECRET until 1985, titled “Analysis of Flying Object Incidents in the United States [Air Intelligence Report 100-203-79]”, which was written by the United States Air Force’s (USAF) Director Intelligence and the United States Navy’s (USN) Office of Naval Intelligence, concluded in 1948:

“The frequency of reported sightings, the similarity in many of the characteristics attributed to the observed objects and the quality of observers considered as a whole, support the contention that some type of flying object has been observed … The origin of the devices is not ascertainable.”

On Sep 23rd, 1947 Lt. Gen. Nathan Twining, Head of the USAF’s huge Air Material Command (AMC), wrote (after receiving alarming UFO reports from down the line) the infamous “Twining Memo” to Gen. George Schulgen, Commanding General of the USAF. The 3 page memorandum, classified SECRET, states:

“The phenomenon reported is something real and not visionary or fictitious.”

Furthermore, at the time of Churchill’s enquiry, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) memorandum, written by H. Marshall Chadwell, the Assistant Director of the CIA’s Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI) confirms that:

“Since 1947, Air Technical Intelligence Center has received approximately 1500 official reports of sightings … During 1952 alone, official reports totalled 250. Of the 1500 reports, Air Force carries 20 percent as unexplained and of those received from January through July 1952 it carries 28 percent unexplained.”

With this official, formally documentation, it becomes impossible to conclude that the Prime Minister was being properly informed of the true situation. For starters, the Air Ministry’s own statistical information is at odds with what Churchill was told in the Aug 9th reply. As for the statement “The Americans, who carried out a similar investigation in 1948/9, reached a similar conclusion” - even the most boneheaded sceptic has to concede that the hitherto classified documents I have included here tell a vastly different story. The question remains, did the Air Ministry deliberately misinform the Prime Minister? Or was the information he was given merely administrative bungling? Probably the latter. However, as I will elaborate on in future posts, this is only one documented occasion where political figures, military top brass, Congressmen, Lords, etc have been given suspect material. So one does wonder. As for the American’s in this case.. Did Britain’s Air Ministry receive dishonest information from whoever they enquired with in Washington DC on Churchill’s behalf? Or did the Air Ministry receive correct, alarming conclusions, and subsequently misinform the Prime Minister for reasons only they know? Whatever the answers, sceptics and debunkers take note: Do not try and tell patient researchers that the official response to the UFO matter is black-and-white. And, as I have said before, if leaders like Sir Prime Minister Winston Churchill was given the run-around as far back as 1952, civilian researchers nowadays have a rather large task on their hands indeed.

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By Nick Pope
www.nickpope.net
8-8-2010

     The Ministry of Defence has released another batch of UFO files, as part of an ongoing three-year collaboration between the MoD and the National Archives. This latest release runs to over 5000 pages of documentation and includes sighting reports, correspondence from the public and papers discussing how to respond to questions about UFOs that were raised in Parliament.

The files cover the period 1995 to 2003, but it's a historical allegation about UFOs that has aroused most public interest. One of the files contains a letter from a scientist, whose grandfather served as one of Winston Churchill's bodyguards. He claimed that during the Second World War, Prime Minister Winston Churchill conspired with US general (later to become President) Dwight D. Eisenhower, to suppress the truth about a spectacular UFO sighting witnessed by the crew of an RAF aircraft returning from a mission. The UFO had, apparently, been capable of extraordinary speeds and manoeuvres and yet showed no hostile intent. It clearly wasn't some new German secret weapon. Churchill, apparently, feared the details would cause public panic and shatter people's religious faith. He ordered that the details should be classified.

Sceptics point out that the Churchill story is hearsay and sadly, most MoD UFO files dating prior to the Sixties were shredded many years ago, so we may never learn the truth. But there are some intriguing clues. We know from a previously-released document that Churchill was intrigued and concerned about UFOs. In a 1952 letter to the Secretary of State for Air, Churchill wrote "What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to? What can it mean? What is the truth?". Another document from this latest batch of files relates to a Joint Intelligence Committee meeting in 1957, where the subject of UFOs was discussed, with particular reference to some objects tracked on military radar. The events were unexplained and a report was delivered by the RAF's Head of Intelligence. So while we can't verify the story that Churchill ordered a UFO cover-up, we know that he and senior figures in the military and the intelligence community were actively discussing the mystery.

Churchill wasn't the only senior Establishment figure to be interested in UFOs. Many of the great figures of Churchill's generation were fascinated by the subject. The MoD's UFO project dates back to a study group (the marvellously named Flying Saucer Working Party) set up in 1951 by the great radar scientist Sir Henry Tizard. R V Jones, Director of Intelligence, wrote a book called Most Secret War, which devoted a chapter to UFOs. Earl Mountbatten of Burma believed UFOs were extraterrestrial, as did Lord Dowding, the wartime boss of Fighter Command. Air Marshal Sir Peter Horsley, former Deputy Commander-in-Chief at HQ Strike Command, undertook a low-key study into UFOs while working as a Royal equerry.

More recently, former Chief of the Defence Staff Lord Hill-Norton was a passionate believer in UFOs. MPs such as Martin Redmond and Norman Baker - now a minister in the new Coalition government - have raised the subject in Parliament. And rumours persist that Prince Philip is interested in the subject and once subscribed - secretly - to a UFO magazine called Flying Saucer Review.

This latest file release is the sixth in an ongoing process of disclosure. Each time UFO files are released, there's massive media and public interest. When the first batch of UFO files was released in May 2008, two million people had accessed the material on the National Archives website within a couple of weeks. When the French government released their UFO files in 2007, the dedicated website they'd created crashed as a result of so many people trying to read the documents. Other countries such as Canada, Brazil, Italy, Spain and New Zealand are releasing their UFO files too. All these countries studied the phenomenon not because they necessarily believed in extraterrestrial visitation - though the possibility could not be ruled out - but because anything unknown flying in your airspace is potentially of defence interest.

Public interest in this subject is huge. Indeed, the main reason why the MoD decided to release these files was that the Department received more Freedom of Information Act requests about UFOs than on any other subject. Why should this be? Why the enduring fascination? I think it's because the UFO mystery relates to one of the biggest questions we can ask - are we alone in the Universe?

While public interest in UFOs is high and while MoD statistics show that UFO sightings have risen dramatically in recent years, the MoD axed their UFO project at the end of 2009, as part of a wider programme of cuts. So while the truth may indeed be out there, we're now slightly less likely to find it. Unless, as with the allegation about Churchill, MoD has decided that people can't handle the truth.

More . . .

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