Part 2 : You Can't Tell the People The Cover Up of Britain's Roswell ...The Early Years ...The Mysterious Steve Roberts

You Can't Tell the People 

The Cover Up of Britain's Roswell 

by Georgina Bruni 

THE EARLY YEARS 

Brenda Butler and Dot Street are two Suffolk women who have gone down in history as being the first people to take an interest in the Rendlesham Forest incident. In fact, Brenda was on the case within days of it occurring. I was familiar with their early research, which was published in Skycrash, coauthored with ufologist Jenny Randles, but little had been heard about them in recent years. This may have been of their own making, because Dot had long since left the area and although Brenda was still intrigued with the case she had made little attempt to make it known. I thought it was time I caught up with them. 

Neil Cunningham, a media friend and a keen researcher of the paranormal, had planned to join me on my trip to Woodbridge. We had arranged to meet Brenda Butler and later intended to visit the scene of the UFO landings in Rendlesham Forest. I was looking forward to meeting Brenda and was concerned because we were running one hour late due to traffic hold-ups on the motorway. When we finally arrived at the Wilford Bridge, a typical country public house in the village of Melton, Brenda was sitting outside in the shade with her friend John Hanson. It was a glorious summer’s day. 

After a late lunch, Brenda and John offered to accompany Neil and me to the landing sites. I was pleased to have Brenda along because at the time all I had to go on were a few drawings and vague instructions from the witnesses. The thought of visiting the forest gave me an eerie feeling, but it was a beautiful sight to see and reminded me of how much I missed the country. As we approached the initial landing site Brenda pointed to an area that had been cleared of trees soon after the incident, which allegedly was due to radiation contamination. There were now healthy young Corsican pines growing, but we could clearly see a prominent bare patch at the precise spot where Brenda said the initial landing had taken place. As we moved through the forest she guided us to a clearing which was another suspected landing site. This appeared to be the exact location where the second landing had occurred. We then moved to a field adjacent to the forest near Capel Green, where Larry Warren believes a landing took place. At the far end of the field were situated three houses, and although it is several miles in the distance at night one can see the Orfordness lighthouse beacon as if in a central position. 

Later that day Neil and I met up with Chris Pennington (known in the music business as Chris Penny). Chris and Brenda have shared a home together in the Suffolk village of Leiston for almost twenty years, although they have been friends for much longer. Chris was one of the first civilians to hear about the incident, but right from the beginning had kept a very low profile. In fact his name has never been publicly associated with the case. In 1980 Chris was a country and western musician who was often booked to perform on the American bases. He soon realized, however, that if it were discovered that he had any knowledge of what had occurred in Rendlesham Forest, it would result in him losing his base pass. It eventually did. 

On New Year’s Eve 1980, Chris had thrown a drinks party at his home and invited some friends from the American bases. It was at this particular gathering that news of the incident would first reach his ears. The lively party was in full swing when Steve Roberts (pseudonym) approached Chris and ushered him into the hall to talk to him privately. Roberts had something important on his mind and he seemed haunted. He shared an incredible story with Chris of how he had witnessed a strange encounter in the forest a few nights earlier, where alien entities were seen repairing their spaceship. Chris listened with interest as the airman recounted a series of events that could have come straight out of the pages of a science-fiction novel. Although Roberts’ integrity was never in question it was still a hard story for Chris to digest. But that was not the only time he would hear of the incident. That same evening, Sam Bowman, who worked as a barman at the Bentwaters officers’ club, had overheard a conversation between two officers. Apparently something had landed in the forest, causing the area to be severely scorched. Because of Brenda’s interest in the paranormal and UFOs, Chris suggested they each speak to her as soon as possible. Unfortunately, that was the last time they would hear from Bowman, who suddenly disappeared without anyone knowing what had become of him. 

After listening to Roberts’ story, Brenda telephoned Dot Street. Dot’s interest in the case stemmed from her background in UFO research. She had worked with a local group called Borderline Science Investigation and knew the procedures for contacting base officials with regards to enquiries. But when Brenda telephoned her in early January 1981 she was too busy, and it was mid-February before she was able to assist in any field research. However, she did manage to start the ball rolling by making telephone enquiries and Brenda began questioning personnel from the twin bases and putting the word out to the locals. Dot had recently joined another UFO group, the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA) and, realizing it might be a genuine case, coupled with her duty to the cause, she pressured Brenda to agree to let her inform the group of the incident. Brenda was not keen on the idea and for the time being wanted to keep it between the two of them, partly to protect her friend Steve Roberts and partly because she is a very secretive and shy individual. But after much insistence from her colleague, she reluctantly agreed to cooperate. Dot contacted Jenny Randles but apparently she was busy writing a book at the time, so Dot called Bob Easton, who was about to become an investigator coordinator for the eastern region of BUFORA, but although he made several enquiries he failed to come up with any significant evidence to prove that there had been an incident. 

As soon as she was able, Dot contacted RAF Bentwaters to arrange an appointment for herself and Brenda to visit the installation. The appointment was made for 18 February. On their arrival, a British secretary approached them insisting they talk to her boss, Squadron Leader Donald Moreland. Dot thought it strange that Moreland’s secretary should be so persistent they meet him. It turned out that Moreland was the British liaison officer for the joint installation. Although he greeted them with enthusiasm and did not deny something had occurred, he was reluctant to discuss it, claiming it was a Ministry of Defence issue. 

Soon after the Bentwaters visit, Brenda received an anonymous telephone call from an alleged witness, who agreed to talk provided his identity was kept secret. His story was basically the same as Steve Roberts’, adding that the object was thirty feet wide and that the following day there were scorch marks on the trees and indentations on the ground where the object had landed. When Brenda asked him about aliens, he denied there were any entities present, claiming that part of the story was merely an invention. On 20 February Brenda received a call from another Bentwaters source. This airman did not claim to have been present at the landing site but had heard the story from someone who had. He described an almost identical account to Roberts’, claiming that three small entities had been involved. 

He also told Brenda that the ground had glowed after the object had taken off and for a few days afterwards the site had been cordoned off to civilians and anyone approaching it was told there had been an air crash. It was a busy day for Brenda because a few hours later another call came through, and this caller had something new to offer. He told her that two days after the incident a local farmer had called the base for a second time, complaining that something flying overhead had caused a strong reaction in his cattle, and that his lights and television had suffered interference. Brenda and Dot traced the farmer to the nearby village of Eyke, where they found Victor Higgins. 

According to the researchers, Higgins had complained to Bentwaters, requesting compensation for injury to one of his cows. It turned out that a vehicle had hit the animal when it ran on to the road in fear of a low-flying craft. When Higgins first complained he was more or less sent packing, but after hearing about a UFO incident he called the base again. This time, however, he mentioned the UFO and was surprised to receive VIP attention, with the base even sending a car to collect him and take him to Bentwaters to discuss his grievances with the commanders. The researchers later discovered that Higgins had been paid a large sum of money for injury done to his cow. Soon afterwards he left the area and purchased a smallholding in the West Country. 

During their investigations Brenda and Dot tried to talk to another man, also called Vic, who lived in one of the houses adjacent to the alleged landing sites. Vic was a local milkman who took care of a small herd of cattle that grazed on the field near his home. The researchers questioned him on several occasions but he always denied any knowledge of the incident. One of my American contacts put me in touch with Masie Pettit, a civilian who had worked at Bentwaters for twenty-five years. At the time of the incident Masie lived not far from the suspected landing site, but has since moved from that location. 

She remembers there was a problem concerning cattle. ‘The man you need to talk to is Victor Cuttings, but he is not on the telephone,’ she told me. ‘He knows what happened; it was his cattle that were scared. It scared a lot of them. I saw the stampede of cattle myself.’ I wondered if this could be the same Vic who Brenda and Dot had referred to in their book Skycrash. Brenda confirmed that it was the same person, but pointed out that the man Masie was referring to was Victor Higgins. Now I really was confused! ‘It was his cattle who were stampeding, not Vic Cuttings’,’ said Brenda. ‘He [Cuttings] was not a farmer but only took care of the cattle, Dot and I interviewed him several times but he denied there were any problems.’ Cuttings would milk the cows around 3 a.m. every morning yet does not recall any unusual activity in the area. Considering his house was one of the three properties adjacent to the alleged landing sites and the cattle had grazed on the field where Larry Warren claims the incident occurred, one would assume Cuttings would have seen or heard something. 

David Boast is a local gamekeeper who lives with his wife and family in a farmhouse on the field facing the landing sites. The researchers claim that the first time they spoke to Boast, on 24 February 1981, he mentioned having seen a brightly lit object out in the field, but has since always refused to discuss it with anyone. Almost three years later, in October 1983, Brenda and Dot would take ufologist Jenny Randles to visit the family and, whilst the two women conversed with Mr Boast, Jenny chatted with one of the Boast children. 

In a radio interview the following year Jenny told listeners that the child had asked her whether she had come across anyone who had seen the little men. She also asked Jenny if she had heard about the UFO, saying, ‘It was so big, it should have hit the trees when it came down.’ Due to the time lapse, was the child referring to something she had overheard from local rumours, or did she actually witness the incident from her bedroom window during that Christmas week of 1980? 

I interviewed Mrs Boast, who assured me that the family knew nothing about any UFO incident. I asked about her daughter’s comments, but she was adamant that the child could not have seen anything either. She insisted that if anyone went close to the house, especially at night, the dogs would have been alerted, and if they continued barking her husband would have got out of bed to see what was causing the disturbance. ‘There was no disturbance that I recall. The dogs didn’t wake us,’ she stressed. I explained that some of the US military had reported passing her home during the nights in question and again asked her if she was certain there had been no unusual activity. She pointed out that several media types had contacted them and if they had known anything at all they could have made a fortune by telling their story. 

However, some people were convinced that David Boast was hiding the truth and would not discuss it because the Ministry of Defence had approached him. There were even claims that the family had been threatened or bribed by defence officials or by Boast’s employer. I decided to contact Sir Edward Greenwell, the landowner who I suspected David Boast worked for. Greenwell gave me his brother’s telephone number and suggested I speak to him because it was his property I was referring to. Major James Greenwell was not at home when I called, but his wife was willing to take my questions. 

She had heard of the incident but knew nothing about the animals being disturbed, and she really could not help me because, according to her, it had not concerned them. Even if a UFO had not landed near the Boast residence, one assumes the dogs would have been disturbed by the patrol that was chasing the lights across the field. Having followed the same route through the forest where Colonel Halt claims to have walked, my party was not even close to the Boast family home when the dogs started barking, and they did not stop until we moved away from the area. It is difficult to imagine that the residents, who were adjacent to the landing sites, neither saw nor heard anything unusual. 

However, if Major Greenwell was a military officer at the time of the incident he would have been committed to the Official Secrets Act. It is only speculation, but if the Ministry of Defence consulted Greenwell, they might have recommended that he discuss the need for silence with his tenants and employees. According to Dot Street, an American officer from RAF Bentwaters rented the property that lay between Boast’s and Cuttings’ home. 

In the early part of January 1981 investigator of the paranormal Paul Begg was told by a civilian radar operator at RAF Watton in Norfolk that an uncorrelated target was picked up on radar sometime during the last week of December 1980. It appears the target was tracked coming in from the coastal area and was lost somewhere over Rendlesham Forest. Begg’s source claimed he had not been on duty when the incident occurred but his colleague had. Begg contacted BUFORA ufologist Jenny Randles, and sometime during February she telephoned Bob Easton hoping he could follow up the lead as it was in his region. It was then that Easton brought up Dot Street’s report about the lights seen over Rendlesham Forest. 

He had also heard about a US airman who had been in touch with American investigator Lucius Farish, claiming he was a witness to an encounter near Woodbridge. The information had come from Norman Oliver, editor of the BUFORA journal. Jenny had not been too impressed with the Watton incident, mostly for lack of substantial evidence and because Begg’s source seemed to be describing a chain of events that were second or third hand in some instances. However, after collating the three reports, on 21 February 1981 she wrote a brief item for Flying Saucer Review entitled ‘Military Contact Alleged at Airbase’ which was published in volume 26, number 6, 1981. 

Some time later, Jenny contacted the Watton source, whom she named David Potts (as a pseudonym), and he told her that a couple of days after the tracking, RAF Watton had received a visit from a group of American Air Force officers, supposedly from intelligence, who requested to see the radar reports. The Americans told the radar operators that a metallic UFO had crash-landed in a forest near Ipswich and the patrols who had gone out to investigate had experienced difficulty with their vehicle lights and engines cutting out, thus having to continue on foot. It seems the object had been on the ground for several hours, during which time entities were witnessed. 

In June 1984, three and a half years after Paul Begg contacted her, and after an extensive search of her files, Jenny found the original notes recorded from her first telephone conversation with David Potts. Although in the meantime she had written two articles referring to the Watton report, she claims she did not consider the information relevant at the time. It was not until the publication of Skycrash that her misplaced notes revealed that the base commander and several officers had been called out to the forest from a party on the base. Potts also revealed to Jenny that the base commander was communicating with alien entities. 

Jenny Randles has never disclosed the true identity of David Potts and I had been unable to locate Paul Begg, from whom I had hoped to learn more about the mysterious source. RAF Watton had long since closed and I realized it would be difficult to find an operator who had been on duty during that time. I was grateful, therefore, to Nick Pope when he introduced me to Nigel Kerr, a radio presenter from East Anglia. In 1980 Kerr was a radar operator stationed at RAF Watton, which was situated approximately thirty five miles north of Woodbridge. Unlike Bentwaters and Woodbridge, Watton was home to the Royal Air Force. 

It turned out that Nigel Kerr had actually been on duty that week. He recalls the incident happened sometime around the Christmas holidays, during which time there was a skeleton staff on duty. He clearly remembers the call from Bentwaters reporting that there was a ‘flashing light in the sky’, and although he had received similar reports during his tenure at Watton, he thought the Bentwaters sighting was a bit wild. On checking the radar he realized there was indeed something on their approach line, and at first he thought it was a helicopter. However, it remained stationary long enough for it to show up for three to four sweeps across their screens before it dissipated. 

He thought no more of it until he read about the incident three years later in The News of the World newspaper. Nigel Kerr’s story obviously tallies with Paul Begg’s report, but Kerr seems to know nothing about the story related to Jenny Randles. This may be due to the fact that his shift rotated – whereby he would work two day shifts, two night shifts, followed by a two-day break. It is therefore possible that when the Americans turned up Kerr was off duty. It is interesting that Kerr cannot recall the incident ever being discussed among the operators. I did not have the impression that Nigel Kerr was holding anything back, on the contrary he was very interested in the case and was as keen as me to know what had happened in Rendlesham Forest. 

After getting nowhere fast with her enquiries, Brenda decided to call the Ministry of Defence to see if she could glean any answers from them, but she was told she would need to put her request in writing, which she duly did. Four weeks later she received a reply from Mr Weedon from Defence Secretariat DS8. He informed her that the Ministry of Defence did not have a full-time department for investigating or studying UFOs, and failed to answer any questions relating to the incident. Brenda and Dot continued their enquiries but were told that most of the military witnesses had been transferred to other installations, so there were only the locals to question. But that was to prove a difficult task too, for those who were willing to talk in the first few weeks were suddenly less inclined to discuss the matter. 

In October 1981 as the newly appointed Director of Investigations for BUFORA Jenny Randles organized a meeting in London, where she met Dot Street for the first time. The Rendlesham Forest incident was on the agenda and because Jenny had not personally met Brenda she suggested that Dot get together with her colleague and document all their available evidence. For the second time Jenny collated their information with the Watton story and Lucius Farish’s mysterious witness, this time writing a more detailed report entitled ‘The Rendlesham Forest Mystery’. The paper was circulated to the forty subscribers of her ‘Northern UFO Newsletter’ and later published in Flying Saucer Review, volume 27, number 6, 1982. 

I tracked down Lucius Farish, hoping he could shed further light on the US military witness who was supposed to have contacted him in early 1981. Farish told me that the information he had passed on had been somewhat exaggerated when it was featured in Flying Saucer Review. Contrary to the story, he said he had not been approached by anyone from the USAF who claimed ‘something big’ had happened in Woodbridge about the turn of the year. Apparently, he had received the information in some correspondence. It enclosed a letter, alleged to be from an airman’s wife, describing a UFO incident on a British base in late December 1980. Sometime in February, Farish had posted a note to Norman Oliver, enclosing the portion of the letter concerning the British incident. 

The story was later published in Skycrash, only this time it had grown somewhat more. In the Flying Saucer Review article, Jenny saw fit to point out that the report could have been based on rumours, and when she later approached Norman Oliver, he could not recall the precise details. It seems her report was written based on information received from Bob Easton. One can understand why the case never really got off the ground in those early days: much of it was built up on second- or third-hand information and even the military witnesses were unwilling to be named. In fact, although his identity has never been revealed, the only person to give the case any credibility in the early days was Brenda and Chris’s friend Steve Roberts. 

After months of being fobbed off by the Ministry of Defence, Brenda and Dot were becoming agitated. Dot decided to telephone them again, only this time she was all set to record the conversation. She need not have bothered, because when she spoke to Peter Watkins, from DS8, he wasted no time in explaining that the Ministry of Defence had no knowledge of the incident she was referring to. 

In July 1982 Brenda heard from a farm worker that local landowner and farmer Captain Sheepshanks had called the Bentwaters base to complain about a UFO that had disturbed his livestock on 27 December. As soon as Dot heard the news she telephoned the Sheepshanks’ home and spoke to the captain’s son Andrew. According to Dot, when she asked him about a UFO sighting, he told her that it was he who had witnessed it and it had indeed disturbed their cattle, which is why they had called the base. Andrew promised to call Dot and arrange a suitable time and place to meet to discuss the incident, but he failed to do so. 

After a couple of days with no word, Brenda and Dot decided to visit the Sheepshanks’ farm unannounced. Captain Sheepshanks was not amused at the intrusion and asked the women to leave the premises immediately. Apart from being a high-profile figure in the local community, Sheepshanks was also a member of the elite Anglo/American Social Committee. I had heard about this committee. The American commanders used to entertain the English with numerous cocktail parties as part of a local public-relations peacekeeping strategy: some of the land surrounding the base belonged to Sheepshanks and, of course, it was always good to keep the locals happy. The leader of this elite little group was the late Grace Agate, a long-standing member of the Suffolk District Council and a local magistrate. 

I was familiar with Andrew Sheepshanks; we had met several times at social events. I realized I needed to talk to him but had misplaced his telephone number and was not sure of his location. Having heard that Captain Sheepshanks was a difficult man, especially when it came to discussing the incident, I was reluctant to call him. Much to my surprise, he was extremely polite; when I asked him about the UFO he was not at all offended and gave me his son’s telephone number, suggesting I talk to him directly because he was the one who was quoted as having seen it. 

Andrew remembered the incident but apologized at having to disappoint me because he had not witnessed anything himself. He recalled that a few years afterwards a Japanese film crew had turned up at the house. They wanted to know about the Sheepshanks’ cattle, because they had heard they were late dropping their calves after the incident. Andrew thought it was highly amusing because they only had bulls, and told them so. However, he was sure that the gamekeeper David Boast had seen something in the field, but had later denied it because of the constant pestering by ufologists and curiosity seekers. 

He reminded me that it was a rural area and the locals were very private people and may have been afraid of ridicule. When I asked him if he had ever seen anything strange in Rendlesham Forest, I was surprised to hear that there was a place near the Woodbridge base that he had found very spooky. The area Andrew was referring to sounded very similar to where the incident had taken place. As a youngster he would often walk his dogs through the forest, but it seems they would never go anywhere near this particular spot. 

In 1982 Jenny Randles discussed the incident with one of her BUFORA colleagues, Bristol-based investigator Ian Mrzyglod, who in turn contacted the Swindon Centre for UFO Research (SCUFORI). The group decided to visit Woodbridge and set about making arrangements with Dot to spend a weekend camping in Rendlesham Forest. Their plans to research the case were not a great success because most of the military witnesses had now been stationed elsewhere – or so they thought – and the locals were refusing to discuss the incident with anyone. The group settled on examining the landing site for radiation, but Dot claims that much to her annoyance they examined the wrong site. 

It probably would not have made much difference as it was now twenty months after the incident and it was unlikely they would have found much evidence of radiation contamination. Needless to say, SCUFORI’s report was negative, which is understandable considering the obstacles put before them and, of course, there is not much that can be achieved in a weekend. Their findings, which were published in the journal Probe Report, were sceptical in the extreme. Not only did they claim there was insufficient evidence to support the case, but their proposal, that it be filed away and forgotten as there would be little prospect of any such proof being uncovered, was very disappointing, especially to Brenda and Dot. 

The two researchers, who had spent considerable time investigating the case and were positively convinced that an unusual event had taken place, decided it was time to get back to normal living. Their domestic lives had certainly suffered in recent times, and Dot blamed the case for the breakdown of her marriage. Probably sharing in their disappointment, Jenny suggested they write a book about the case, but the women had already considered the idea and did not think there was enough evidence to support such a venture. It would be some time before things would heat up.

In February 1983 American reporters following up an article in OMNI contacted Jenny, who was told that the journal had published an interview with Colonel Ted Conrad, with comments from Squadron Leader Moreland. Jenny put the reporters in touch with Brenda and Dot, but not having read the article they made a decision to stay silent, thus the media lost interest. After several attempts at questioning the Ministry of Defence and receiving constant denials that there was such an incident, the researchers had all but given up. But later that month Jenny received confirmation from the Ministry of Defence that USAF personnel at RAF Woodbridge had seen unusual lights, but no explanation for the occurrence was forthcoming. 

Jenny suspected that the release of this information might have been prompted by Moreland’s comments going on record. A few weeks later she received a letter from Barry Greenwood, an American investigator with Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS). Greenwood had seen her name mentioned in the OMNI article and read her report in Flying Saucer Review. It turned out that his colleague Larry Fawcett had been contacted by a witness just prior to the OMNI article and was now convinced it was a genuine case. Enclosed with the letter was a witness statement by Art Wallace, the pseudonym used by Larry Warren. Jenny informed Dot about the new witness and she immediately called Larry Fawcett. 

The retired American civil police officer from Connecticut told her about the witness, explaining that the young man, who was afraid for his life, had talked about his nightmare involvement in the Bentwaters incident. Warren was claiming he had been one of a number of airmen to witness a huge UFO landing and he wanted the story to be told. For the next few months Dot communicated by telephone with Fawcett and Warren, and for the first time in ages it seemed they were progressing with the case. 

The big breakthrough came in July 1983 when Larry Fawcett sent Dot a copy of an official memorandum composed by the deputy base commander, Lieutenant Colonel Charles I. Halt. The document, which had been sent to the Ministry of Defence, confirmed that there had been not one but two unusual events, one involving a mechanical UFO. With the new-found document in her possession, Dot called RAF Bentwaters on 11 August to speak to its author. Having personally listened to the recorded conversation between Dot and Lieutenant Colonel Halt, I can confirm that after Dot told him she had a copy of the document there was a long silence. 

When Halt finally responded, he wanted to know what document and incident she was referring to. He asked her if she was the person who had caused trouble a year earlier – something to do with talking to the local press about nuclear weapons allegedly being on the base. Dot denied it was anything to do with her. He then fired a number of questions at the researcher, but she was not prepared to discuss anything on the telephone and suggested they meet in person. Halt was clearly concerned and explained that he did not want this to be an issue that might interfere with his job. ‘I gave that to an RAF officer to be passed to the Ministry of Defence. They assured me it would never be released,’ he told her. 

The next day Brenda and Dot met with Lieutenant Colonel Halt, and the first question he asked was did they have a tape recorder with them. Apparently, someone had tipped him off that Dot had recorded his conversation of the previous day. Having assured him they did not have a recorder, the meeting began. The researchers showed him the memorandum and he confirmed it was genuine but was anxious to know where they had acquired it. He appeared to be extremely upset that it was in the public domain but refused to discuss the matter further. Dot, still seemingly very let down about losing a proper audience with Halt, told me how ufologist and solicitor Harry Harris later admitted he had alerted the commander to the fact that she had recorded his conversation. This all seemed very odd considering the Manchester-based solicitor was supposedly acting as an advisor to the researchers. Although Harris later apologized, Dot still feels she was betrayed. In a 1999 interview she told me: 

He [Halt] flatly refused to talk to us because of the tip-off he had received from Harry Harris, spilling the beans that I had recorded his conversation. He [Halt] warned me it was illegal, but I only used a microphone taped to my telephone, there was no bug in the phone as I expect Halt thought. 

The researchers would later discover that Harris and his colleague Mike Sacks had been invited to Bentwaters to discuss the incident with Halt. Presumably, in exchange for them agreeing to sign a contract of sorts, forbidding them to talk about the incident with anyone, including ‘those women’, the men were allegedly offered privileged information. When I contacted Harris about his involvement, he insisted that he had played a very minor role in the investigation. That may be so, but in answer to all my questions, I received only negative replies, inasmuch as he claimed to know nothing and could therefore not assist me in my enquiries. According to Brenda, Harris later admitted there was no such deal with Halt. 

Colonel Halt had certainly been curious about Brenda and Dot’s interest in the incident and had agreed to the meeting in order to find out how much they knew. However, unbeknown to them, he had been told several weeks earlier that the document was to be released through the US Freedom of Information Act. But what he did not probably realize was that the memorandum would find its way back to Woodbridge, Suffolk. This must have been a terrible shock to him at the time. 

On 18 August Brenda, Dot and Jenny made an unscheduled visit to the Ministry of Defence Main Building at Whitehall. Not having arranged an appointment, it was some time before Pam Titchmarsh from DS8 turned up at the reception to meet them. When questioned about Halt’s memorandum, Titchmarsh admitted they had a copy, or something similar, and that the report had been passed to their ‘specialist staffs’ who decided it was not a security risk. Titchmarsh assured the researchers that the Ministry of Defence had not instigated the public release of the document, that it had been released by the US authorities under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act. Brenda asked about a covering letter that Squadron Leader Moreland had told her he had sent with Halt’s memorandum, and Titchmarsh admitted that there was such a letter. 

I have often wondered why nobody thought to ask for a copy of Moreland’s covering letter. There is a clue, perhaps, in Nicholas Redfern’s book A Covert Agenda, where he describes how Jenny Randles told him that the letter was simply an endorsement of Halt’s credibility. Nonetheless, even though the researchers clearly believed the letter contained nothing of any great significance, it seems somewhat strange that nobody checked this out for themselves. 

A week after their visit to the Ministry of Defence, Brenda, Dot, Chris Pennington and Harris attended the International BUFORA Congress in Buckinghamshire, which was chaired by their colleague Jenny Randles. Dot was still somewhat annoyed that BUFORA, Britain’s biggest and supposedly most credible UFO organization, had not taken the case seriously, and she aimed to put forward her complaints at the meeting. However, things would take a strange turn, because on this particular day Dot had a big surprise in store for BUFORA. Jenny had not planned to raise the question of the Rendlesham Forest incident because she had now joined Brenda and Dot in writing a book about the subject. But it was at a closed meeting in the early hours of the morning that Dot produced the best available evidence for the case, a copy of Lieutenant Colonel Halt’s official memorandum. BUFORA must have wondered what hit them when she threw the document on the table for all to see. 

On 31 August Brenda and Dot visited RAF Bentwaters again. This time they wanted to alert Squadron Leader Moreland and Lieutenant Colonel Halt that the press were on to the case. Moreland did not appear to be too perturbed because it was Halt who had signed the memorandum, not he. As far as Moreland was concerned he had only been following protocol. Whilst in his office the researchers made a suggestion that the memorandum might be a fake. Moreland beckoned to his secretary to pass him the ‘UFO’ file and, after rummaging through a fair amount of paperwork, he produced an identical copy of the document. Before leaving the installation the researchers stopped by to see Halt. They thought it only fair that he too should know that the press were sniffing around. He was very concerned and told the women that he hoped the press would not mention his name because he did not want to hurt his family. Dot pointed out that this would not be easily avoidable because, after all, the memorandum was signed by Halt himself. 

The researchers were almost through writing Skycrash and were feeling uneasy about the sudden media interest for fear it would interfere with their proposed publication. But it seemed that the story was going to be published with or without their contribution and Harry Harris advised them it was better to assist the newspaper, if only to make sure it was told as accurately as possible. A few months later, on 2 October 1983, The News of the World featured a front-page story of the incident. 

I was quite surprised to discover that Brenda and Dot had kept all their early notes. When I visited Dot at her home in Hampshire I saw for myself the work she had put into the case in those early days. It would be much later that Brenda would share some of her files with me. Dot had recorded almost every telephone conversation, including those of military personnel and the Ministry of Defence. I was fortunate to listen to some of the recordings, staying up until the early hours and stopping in between to share a Chinese takeaway with Dot and her partner Howard. Before my arrival, she had warned me that I would need a week to hear them all: she was right, but I listened to what I had time for. I would have the opportunity to listen to more recordings when she visited my home in London a few months later. 

Dot’s reason for recording the telephone conversations was simply because she was not a very speedy writer and she wanted to make sure she had the facts right, rather than to try to recall them through memory. In 1998 an anonymous person had offered her two hundred pounds for the tapes, but she flatly refused. ‘I was insulted,’ she told me. ‘Not only did it cost me more than nine hundred pounds in phone calls, mostly to the United States, but they are part of my personal research material. And besides, it wouldn’t be fair on the people who were recorded, so they are not for sale.’ I was grateful to be allowed to listen to the tapes and publish some quotes because I understand there are very few people who have had the privilege. Fortunately, Chris Pennington had recently visited her home and labelled them so it was easier to determine the content of each cassette. 

There are some highly amusing episodes among the collection and Dot certainly has a sense of humour, which may have contributed to why she was able to gather as much information as she did. One of the most humorous recordings is her half-hour conversation with a Ministry of Defence employee from DS8. When she had no luck with him she insisted on speaking to his boss. ‘My boss is not interested in UFOs,’ he exclaimed. To which Dot replied, ‘Why not, this is the UFO department isn’t it?’ Even the man from the ministry could not help but find that amusing. 

THE MYSTERIOUS STEVE ROBERTS 

Steve Roberts plays an important role in this story because he was the first military contact to leak information that would eventually attract worldwide attention. Very little was known about this mysterious player, except that he was an ambitious security policeman based at RAF Bentwaters. Brenda Butler and her boyfriend Chris Pennington had met Roberts a few years earlier at a local public house. Chris was performing and Brenda had gone along to the venue to support him. It was on this particular evening that Steve Roberts had struck up a conversation with her, and it turned out that he was also a keen fan of country and western music. From that chance meeting all three had remained good friends ever since. 

It was 2 January 1981 when Roberts told Brenda what had taken place in Rendlesham Forest. Less than forty-eight hours earlier he had mentioned it briefly to Chris, who suggested he talk directly to his girlfriend because of her interest in UFOs. Roberts said an incident had taken place on 27 December, when shards of light had lit up an area where aliens were busy repairing their crashed spacecraft. There were other witnesses too, including the base commander, who had actually communicated with the beings. Roberts claimed to have driven to the landing site in a jeep with three other witnesses. He went on to say that the incident had lasted three hours, during which time the craft had hit a tree. He also told Brenda that photographs had been taken of the UFO. 

Brenda was not sure what to make of the astonishing story but, like Chris, she trusted her friend. After all, it involved the United States Air Force and she knew Roberts well enough to know that he would not joke about something so serious. Having recounted the amazing incident to Brenda, for the sake of his career, he asked her to keep his name out of it, suggesting she try to contact other witnesses. Meanwhile Brenda telephoned researcher Dot Street and the two women discussed how they should carry out the investigation. Dot had befriended Roberts when she met him at one of Chris’s parties in 1979, so he was no stranger to her either. When I questioned whether she thought he was genuine, she replied, ‘We had a question mark next to him because he was a bit of a ladies’ man. My first thought was that he was an attention seeker.’ 

Steve Roberts has become something of an enigma in this case, and this is probably because for the last twenty years Brenda, Chris and Dot have gone to great pains to protect his real identity. The only other known civilians to learn the secret were Harry Harris and their co-author Jenny Randles. Dot had always regretted confiding in Harris, the UFO researcher and solicitor who had been introduced to the women as an advisor. No sooner had she told him Roberts’ real name than he contacted the witness seeking confirmation of his involvement. This made Roberts feel uneasy and it was some time before he would trust the women with more information. Brenda was also disappointed that Dot had written to Jenny in 1984, offering Roberts’ real name, but was glad that she had not found him. 

It was during this period that the researchers were beginning to have doubts about Roberts, and this may have prompted him to draw Brenda directions to the alleged landing site. Later she would ask him to draw a picture of the UFO and, as if trying to gain her faith and prove that he had access to important files, Roberts produced a photocopy of an official letter on the reverse of the drawing. Although the letter was in no way connected with the incident, it was an eye-opener for the researchers and, coupled with the drawing of a typical saucer-shaped UFO, it renewed their faith in their friend. The letter was written by Colonel Charles H. Senn, Chief of the Community Relations Division of the Office of Information in Washington DC. It was addressed to Lieutenant General Duward L. Crow, a retired USAF officer who was then working with NASA. 

The brief content of the letter refers to an enclosed fact sheet and standard response to UFO public enquiries. In closing, Colonel Senn states: ‘I sincerely hope you are successful in preventing a reopening of UFO investigations.’ The letter, dated 1 September 1977, proves interesting because it was during this period that Jimmy Carter was attempting to relaunch an enquiry into the subject of UFOs. Carter himself had been a witness to a UFO sighting and had promised the American people that if he were elected for president he would ask NASA to assist in opening the UFO files, but he never did keep his word. Brenda and Dot believe the Senn/Crow letter had something to do with it. 

I contacted the USAF and managed to retrieve an impressive biography on Lieutenant General Duward Lowery Crow. I learnt that in 1952 he was stationed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, where he served in the headquarters of Air Materiel Command as chief of the plans and programs division. 1952 was a prominent year for UFO sightings, some UFO enthusiasts link Wright Patterson AFB with the UFO cover-up, suggesting the installation is responsible for retrieving and housing crashed alien space ships and their occupants. In October 1973 Crow was appointed assistant vice chief of staff for the USAF, taking on an additional duty as senior air force member, Military Staff Committee at the United Nations. 

He separated from the Air Force less than a year later, in August 1974, and although there are no records of his appointments following his retirement, it is not uncommon for retired generals to act as consultants to government and military departments. It is therefore very probable that Crow was involved with NASA and that the document is genuine. However, I did wonder what the letter was doing at Bentwaters. Was it sent with the fact sheet and standard response to UFO public enquiries in order to help personnel deal with the Rendlesham Forest incident? 

During my investigation I discovered Steve Roberts’ true identity and asked Brenda and Chris if they would care to comment. Although Chris gave me full marks for the detective work, both he and Brenda were concerned that I would go public with his name. The main worry was because Roberts had removed official documents from the Bentwaters installation and passed them to the researchers. I must point out that Steve Roberts’ real name has never been published in any literature concerning the case, and none of the aforementioned individuals were responsible for revealing it to me. 

I came across the information during a conversation with a retired USAF officer. At the time I was not aware that the person we were discussing was in fact Steve Roberts. The officer gave me no hint or suggestion, probably because he did not know either. A couple of weeks later I received a confidential letter from a separate source, which listed several names including Roberts’ real name. It was the first time I had seen it in print and although it did not link him to the mysterious Steve Roberts, it was a clue, albeit a well-hidden one, but it was just enough of a lead to go on. Nevertheless, it took me almost a year to track down the elusive Mr Roberts, and I concluded that this was probably because Brenda had alerted him that I was on his trail. Roberts is still in the security business, employed by a government contractor whose role it is to secure classified projects. 

Although in January 1981 he told Brenda he had witnessed a landed craft with alien beings, he returned to England in 1987 to inform her that the story had been a hoax perpetrated by the USAF. As Brenda listened attentively, he went on to explain that he and several others had been ordered by their superiors to go out and spread the UFO stories among ufologists. He further explained that something did happen, and one day he would tell her the truth, but it was nothing of any importance and she should waste no more time on the case. Brenda was devastated; after all, he was the only witness she had truly trusted. For seven years she had relied on his word and, when all else seemed hopeless, his testimony alone had inspired both her and Dot to continue their investigations. 

During an interview with Roberts, I asked him if he had been a witness to the UFO incident at Woodbridge. He replied, ‘Yes, I was.’ It was interesting to learn that he was now claiming he had not witnessed a landing, but had seen the object at close range in the sky. I admit I had my suspicions about his alleged involvement in the actual incident and shared my thoughts with Chris Pennington on a number of occasions. Roberts was now insisting there were no aliens present but was adamant that there was a UFO. He refused to discuss his 1987 statement to Brenda concerning the alleged hoax; instead, he suggested I pay special attention to Colonel Halt’s record of events because it was ‘pretty accurate’. I asked him several questions and although he was polite in his responses he was also very cautious. 

G. BRUNI: What incident were you involved in?

S. ROBERTS: I didn’t say I was involved. 

G. BRUNI: OK, but you say you saw the UFO. How many witnesses were there? 

S. ROBERTS: There were only five or six witnesses out there with Halt. 

G. BRUNI: I understand there were more personnel further back from the landing site. Were you one of the five or six men with Halt’s patrol? 

S. ROBERTS: No, I was not one of the five. There were only a few men at the scene. It makes me laugh when I see these TV programmes and hear all these people saying they were involved and talking about all the unusual air traffic coming in immediately afterwards. There was none of that. Bobby Ball’s account was pretty accurate; he was there with Halt. 

G. BRUNI: But if there were only five people involved, and you were not one of the five, but were a witness, then there were more than five. Who else was with you? 

S. ROBERTS: I don’t remember who else was there. It was a long time ago and I wasn’t paying attention to names. 

G. BRUNI: I understand Bob Ball was out there for at least three nights. Was Lieutenant Bruce Englund involved too? 

S. ROBERTS: Bruce? Sure, he was out there. Bobby Ball was blinded about it; he was really caught up in it. 

G. BRUNI: But you say there were no entities, no aliens involved. Did you see a landed craft? 

S. ROBERTS: There were no aliens. I did not see a landed craft. 

G. BRUNI: According to the drawing you did for Brenda Butler, the craft was a saucer shape, and if you only saw it in the sky, why was the drawing of a landed craft? [In 1981 Roberts gave Brenda a drawing of a disc-shaped spacecraft with landing legs, which he claimed he had witnessed.] 

S. ROBERTS: I am making no comment on that, it was the same as the one described in Halt’s record. 

G. BRUNI: But Halt’s record describes the object as being triangular in shape, and your drawing was of a definite saucer shape. 

S. ROBERTS: No comment. 

G. BRUNI: Was Adrian Bustinza with Halt’s patrol? 

S. ROBERTS: Busty? I would say that Busty was pretty reliable. [Note how he does recall names.] 

G. BRUNI: Apparently you returned to England in 1987 and turned up at Brenda and Chris’s on a motorbike. Were you with Charles Halt on this trip? [This is when he told Brenda the UFO story was a hoax and advised her not to attend a UFO lecture where Colonel Halt was booked to discuss the incident. He explained that Halt was not going to appear due to him attending a meeting at RAF Greenham Common. In fact Halt did cancel the engagement at the last minute.] 

S. ROBERTS: No, I was not with Halt. I was on a motorcycle tour. 

G. BRUNI: But both you and Halt arrived from Belgium at the same time. Were you stationed in Belgium? 

S. ROBERTS: Yes, I came over from Belgium, but I was living in Germany at the time. 

G. BRUNI: Were you ever with the AFOSI, or did you have anything to do with them? 

S. ROBERTS: No, I wasn’t with the OSI, I had something to do with them but, no, I wasn’t working with them. There were openings at the time but I never wanted to join them. 

G. BRUNI: Were you debriefed by the OSI after the events? 

S. ROBERTS: Yes, they questioned me. 

G. BRUNI: Did they interrogate you? Were you taken to any underground facilities or do you know of others who were? 

S. ROBERTS: No, they did not interrogate me, and I don’t know of any others who were interrogated or taken anywhere. 

Steve Roberts’ answers only added to the confusion; after all, it is not just a case of him changing minor details, over the years he has created several completely different stories. In his initial conversations with Brenda and Chris, he not only described how a craft of some sort had crash-landed near the Woodbridge base, but how little aliens were attempting to repair it. Then after Skycrash was published he told Brenda that there were no aliens involved. In fact, when he arrived at Brenda’s door in 1987, he assured her that the whole incident had been nothing more than a hoax. Then in 1999 he admitted to me that apart from the encounters with aliens, the UFO story was true. What can we make of this? 

According to Brenda and Chris, Steve Roberts was very secretive about his job. All that they knew was that he worked in an office on day shifts. Chris had thought he was a member of the AFOSI, but in fact Roberts was assigned to the Security Police Investigations, a special unit within the Security Police Squadron equipped to deal with local crimes and incidents. Because Roberts worked with the SPI, he would most certainly have liaised with the AFOSI because the SPI were known to report to the agency. He might also have been privy to certain documents, and this is probably how he was able to remove them from the base and obtain details of the incident. Of course, he could have easily been used to pass on disinformation. 

Chris had remarked that Roberts was always very careful. ‘He would never put himself in an awkward position, and he never accepted a drink or food at my home but always brought his own,’ recalled Chris. It is possible that Roberts was encouraged to communicate information to Brenda and Dot with the purpose of tracking down any whistle-blowers. For instance, Sam Bowman mysteriously disappeared after discussing the incident with Brenda and Chris, and Roberts had encouraged Brenda to contact other personnel who were involved. Was this a ploy to keep tabs on the witnesses on behalf of the SPI and the AFOSI, or was Roberts just a ladies’ man trying to impress the young researchers? 

Based on my interview with Roberts and conversations with Brenda, Chris and Dot, I considered that Roberts might not have been a witness to the actual landing after all. I thought that he could easily have seen the UFO hovering over the base or been one of the many witnesses to have seen the lights in the forest, or even picked up information in the office of the SPI. But then Brenda was to offer some vital undisclosed information, which only fuelled the mystery. 

Apparently, Roberts had disappeared for three weeks after the incident and on his return he told her that he had been sent away on a special course. But then he later told her that he had been taken to an underground facility where he was shown films of balloons and air ships and interrogated. ‘He was under the impression that they were trying to brainwash him into believing it was nothing unusual,’ said Brenda. However, his original rough sketch of a typical saucer-shaped UFO with aliens descending in a beam of light was covertly offered to Brenda after his debriefing and ‘special course’. Could the fact that he photocopied documents and smuggled them out account for his desire to assist the researchers – or could he have had alternative motives? 

It is also curious that Roberts’ arrival in England coincided with Halt’s, and both were travelling from Belgium. Even more curious is the ‘hoax story’ that Roberts related to Brenda. This makes me think that he was instructed to carry this message, either by Halt or his own superiors. There is also the possibility, of course, that he was concerned that his identity would be discovered if the investigation continued. If he was not part of a disinformation plan, he may have had concerns about the documents he had removed from the base. It is just too coincidental that Colonel Halt and Steve Roberts arrived in England at the same time, especially as Roberts was based in Germany yet had travelled from Belgium to England. 

The fact that he told Brenda that Halt was not going to turn up for the conference is also very suspicious. This must surely prove that at least Roberts was aware of Halt’s movements, yet Halt has never mentioned Roberts’ real name in public. On one of the occasions that I interviewed Charles Halt, I gave him a list of names, including Roberts’ real name, and asked him if he knew whether any of them were involved. He told me Roberts worked in an office on the day shift (A Flight) and was definitely not involved but had picked up the story from another witness. He named Jim Penniston. According to Brenda, Roberts had confirmed that he travelled with Halt from Belgium, and that is one part of his story that she is convinced is factual. 

If Steve Roberts’ original testimony is genuine, it would imply that he was on duty that night, but the day shift only worked night duty during alerts or exercises. However, one witness does claim that he was with members of the day shift (A Flight) who were called out on a night-time exercise. Although the A Flights were known to participate in these exercises on a regular basis, we must remember it was Christmas week and, according to all senior officers, no exercises should have been carried out during that period. In fact, some of the witnesses who were called out on an exercise may have been part of a Red Alert and not aware of it. If Steve Roberts was out in the forest that night he could have witnessed the incident, especially as there were at least thirty military personnel present on the night of the second landing. 

What strikes me as very strange is the mention in the 1984 book Skycrash where the authors claim that Roberts told them that Gordon Williams was communicating with aliens. In all the press interviews prior to the publication of their book there appears to be no reference to Roberts (or their mysterious witnesses) ever having mentioned the wing commander’s name. So did Roberts later agree that Williams was involved and, if so, for what purpose? Steve Roberts’ story is so inconsistent that if he decided to stand up and tell the truth today, would anyone really believe him? 

According to a former British Intelligence source, the best way to discredit the truth is to create several different stories. This then becomes so confusing that the real facts lie buried among the fiction. Is this what Steve Roberts was involved with? If so, which part of his story is fact and which part is fiction?

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