Churchill, Sandys and "flying saucers"

“The causes of Armageddon lay deep in European history. Hatreds which had slumbered for centuries burst from their tombs, and nations which apparently had no concern in the main quarrel hastened eagerly to join one side or the other. Our tale therefore recounts the greatest of human catastrophes since the decline and fall of ancient Rome.”

(The Rt. Hon. Winston S. Churchill; Foreword to: 'The Great War', Vol. I; George Newness Limited, London, 1933).

Welcome to my blog 'World War Armageddon'. To begin with (but, by no means solely), I wish to delve primarily into the hidden spiritual causes that propelled the world into the wholesale carnage and slaughter of what was initially termed, “The Great War”; before its even-more evil 'twin' The Second World War ventured onto the scene – to cast its long, dark lamentable shadow over the human race. And thereby, did that first great conflict of the 20th century come into the possession of its more familiar appellation – by which we tend to refer to it now: The First World War.

But before starting on that theme – I thought that I'd first start (for reasons that'll soon become apparent) with the following story:

On 28 July 1952, a minute containing the following was addressed to the Secretary of State for Air and Lord Cherwell:

“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.

[Initialled] W.S.C.”

The initials on the minute were those of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.

On 30 July 1952, two days after Churchill drafted the minute cited above, a flight of four de Haviland Vampires FB.9s – from the (then) newly reformed No. 20 Squadron – took off from RAF Oldenburg in West Germany and soared heavenward into the sunlit sky.

The flight's first duty of the day would be logged as, “BATTLE FORMATION”; the exercise in this instance being primarily for the benefit of the radar controller on the ground. On reaching the desired altitude two of the planes peeled off. Once they had put an adequate distance between themselves and the other two aircraft (who were to assume the rôle of 'bombers' in the planned exercise) it was the radar controller's task to guide them back onto the other two planes in a mock attack. The planes, in due course, then reversed their respective rôles – the two that had first played the rôle of the 'bombers' peeling off, to take their turn at being guided in for an 'attack' on the other two Vampires.

On the completion of the exercise the flight reassumed a classic finger-four formation (in this instance an echelon left; i.e. with the flight leader's wingman – the plane in the number two position – being to the flight leader's right). Having been given a “vector” back to Oldenburg the flight was in the process of performing an oblique turn; as they banked in formation to the right, the young, twenty-three-year-old Sergeant pilot in the number two position (being in a position below the other planes – and being the sole pilot looking upwards at that moment) suddenly saw a flash of silver 'light' in the sky high above them.

When he first saw the flash it was only a small dot of light in the summer sky (and looked about the size and brightness of a star) his initial thought was that it was another aircraft banking higher up and that the sun was reflecting off of its unpainted wing surfaces – at that time none of the Vampires in No. 20 Squadron was camouflaged.

In mere seconds, from being a small dot of 'light' in the sky the other occupant of the air raced nearer – rapidly increasing in size, it revealed itself to be a gleaming silver-metallic disc which raced straight downwards at a truly fantastic speed! Looking up through the plane's canopy, the flight leader's wingman was astounded by what he was seeing – and then, as the disc stopped its rapid descent and levelled out, it appeared to be hanging stationary in the sky above his aircraft (but was in fact perfectly matching the flight's speed as it raced along with them). In the long, seemingly stretched-out seconds that it kept pace with them, the pilot – looking up at it in sheer amazement from below – could clearly make out, with astonishing clarity, the disc's highly reflective and absolutely seamless metallic-looking surface. And then, just as rapidly as it had appeared, the disc raced away – heading in the opposite direction from the aircraft in the flight. As it sped off the 'disc' changed its orientation – in a parting display it manoeuvred onto its 'side' to reveal a classic 'saucer' shape – and then accelerated away and upwards at a truly fantastic rate. Seconds later – it was gone!

The man who was the flight leader's wingman on that fateful day back in 1952; and still vividly recalled, even in the last years of his life, the flying saucer's interception of their flight – was my late father.

My father had learnt to fly at No. 4 Flying Training School at Heany, Southern Rhodesia during 1950-51, where he trained on Tiger Moths, Prentices and Harvards.

His journey to Southern Africa had been aboard the RMMV Stirling Castle. On the journey from Waterloo to the docks at Southampton he'd travelled with another young trainee pilot. The other man's father had also accompanied them on the train journey and bid “good-bye” to his son at Southampton. It would be the last time that he'd ever see his son alive: his son would later be killed in a flying accident in Southern Rhodesia when his plane flew into a cable.

On the completion of his flying training, my father was presented with his “wings” by the High Commissioner for Rhodesia.

In January 1952, my father returned back to Britain – attending a Jet Conversion Course at RAF Valley in Wales – where he was instructed on Meteor trainers; after completing seven training flights, he took off in a de Haviland Vampire FB.5 on his first jet “solo”.

From RAF Valley he went on to the Operational Conversion Unit at RAF Chivenor. (Where he was stationed between April and June 1952).

His first operational posting was in July 1952 with No. 20 Squadron (which had initially been reformed during June of that year at RAF Jever, West Germany). Towards the end of July – after the completion of a concrete runway capable of taking jet aircraft – the squadron transferred to Oldenburg – a former WWII Luftwaffe base.

The flying saucer that my father saw on that late July day in 1952, had also given off a radar signature and had been picked up by the radar controller on the ground (but more on this later).

Though the flight had still been in radio contact with ground control during the brief seconds in which my father had witnessed the saucer, he says that he had been too “dumbfounded” at the time to actually report sighting it. It wasn't until they had landed and were back in the hangar that my father enquired of the other three pilots: “Did you see that thing? It looked like a flying saucer?”

None of the other three pilots had seen it.

I recall enquiring at this point in my father's narrative: Why didn't any of the other pilots see it? His initial answer to this enquiry is given below (but there could very well be a lot more to it than just this; as I found out subsequently. More on this later).

My father's initial reply was: that as they banked, his plane was at the bottom of the formation – and so during the manoeuvre he was the only pilot that was looking upwards (towards where his “wingman”, the flight leader, was positioned). The flight leader himself would have been looking forwards – in the direction of their “vector” back towards Oldenburg; the pilot in the number three position (the element leader) would have been looking down towards the flight leader; and the pilot in the number four position (the element wingman) would have been looking down and towards the element leader. So to recapitulate: during that manoeuvre my father was the only pilot looking upwards and in the direction from whence the flying saucer came.

But back to 30 July 1952: The squadron's Flight Lieutenant (whom my father later found out was also the squadron's Intelligence Officer) heard about his sighting of the flying saucer. He spoke to my father about it (my father says that his sighting was taken very seriously). The Flight Lieutenant said he would write up a report about it, remarking, “These things need to be reported.” The report was duly compiled.

On 5 August 1952, my father was instructed to report to the Air Officer Commanding (AOC) at RAF Fassberg who wanted a first-hand account of the incident. So my father got in a Vampire and made the twenty-minute cross-country flight to Fassberg (being mindful of not over-shooting his destination and straying into the Soviet zone).

At Fassberg, he was instructed to go to the Officers' Mess, and report to the AOC there. In the Officers' Mess he found the AOC in the company of the Government Minister, Duncan Sandys (pronounced 'Sands') who – in his capacity as Minister of Supply – was paying the RAF station at Fassberg a visit: a demonstration in which Vampires were to drop Napalm on the airfield's target range, had been arranged for that day – so that Sandys could see for himself Napalm's full fiery potency at close-quarters.

It was at Fassberg that my father would find out that his sighting had been picked up on radar:

Having given the AOC a first-hand account of his observation of the 'flying saucer', he was asked by Duncan Sandys (whom my father thought didn't take the account seriously): “How many beers had you had the night before?”

At which point the AOC interjected: “No. They picked it up on radar – travelling at speeds far in excess of any known aircraft.”

Which, my father says, stymied Sandys from making any more doubting remarks. (Also, that was the first that my father knew about the flying saucer being 'observed' by the radar control on the ground; it would appear, that in response to the report submitted by No. 20 Squadron's Intelligence Officer, that some form of enquiry had been carried out behind-the-scenes to corroborate the veracity of my father's sighting – it's quite probable that if Sandys hadn't openly voiced his scepticism at that moment, that my father might never have learnt about the radar confirmation of his visual sighting. Who knows?)

So, by a strange coincidence (?) two days after Churchill had written his Prime Minister's personal minute concerning, “flying saucers”, my father had a 'close encounter' with one in the skies high above Germany – which would lead to him, six days later (5 August 1952), having to recount the incidence before a small group at RAF Fassberg. Prominent amongst those present was Sandys, who at the time not only held the government post of Minister of Supply (for the Armed Forces) within Churchill's Cabinet; but also happened to be Churchill's son-in-law, through his marriage in 1935 to Diana Churchill...

On 9 August 1952, the Prime Minister received the following reply from the Air Ministry in response to his personal minute of 28 July:

“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 mind...”

Lord Cherwell wrote to the Prime Minister on 14 August 1952, and concurred with the above: “I have seen the Secretary of State's minute to you on flying saucers and agree entirely with his conclusions”.

The Churchill Archives at Churchill College, Cambridge University, contains amongst its many papers, “The Papers of Lord Duncan-Sandys”. A catalogue of the various papers archived, and a brief descriptions of their subject matter is available online on the Janus website.

Amongst Sandys' papers are listed the following two items (detailed amongst his, “Important correspondence”) which are pertinent to the subject matter at hand – Churchill/DSND 15; (section 4):

“Includes... note from Sandys to the Chief Scientist on 'flying saucers', August 1952, and letter to Sandys from Anthony Montague-Browne (Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill), enclosing an article from the 'Air Ministry Secret Intelligence Summary' of March 1955, March 1955”.

I haven't been able to find a single mention of the contents of Sandys' note to the Chief Scientist (nor any reference to it) in any of the numerous books that I've read on the subject of UFOs; neither have I been able to locate any information, or reference to it (except for that on the Janus website) in any of the many on-line searches that I've carried out: So I think that Sandys' note could very well have been missed – and has gone unnoticed for all these years.

In March [2009], I e-mailed a well-respected UFO author and researcher [Timothy Good] the details of my father's “hitherto undocumented” sighting and his subsequent meeting on 5 August 1952, with the Air Officer Commanding at RAF Fassberg – at which Sandys was present.

The aforementioned author/researcher was “delighted” with this new information. (I also included with my e-mail photo scans of the relevant pages of my father's RAF logbook – which I'll refer to later. The bulk of the text of this post is culled from the e-mail that I sent him – with some slight revisions; and also the addition of some historical, and other information – from various sources).

The letter from Anthony Montague-Browne to Sandys (and Sandys' reply) are available in a PDF file (DEFE 24/1925/1 - UFO reports), that for a small fee of £3.50, is downloadable from the National Archives. [At the time of first writing this I didn't realise that Churchill's minute (and the reply from the Air Ministry) as well as the letter to Sandys and his reply are also available from the National Archives' website as a free (much smaller) two-part download PREM 11-85]. (Montague-Browne's letter to Sandys; and Sandys' reply can be found on pages 34 and 35 respectively [of DEFE 24/1925/1 (and in the 2nd part of the 'PREM 11-85' download)]). Montague-Browne's typed letter, dated: March 14, 1955 reads thus:

“I remember your talking about flying saucers when we were at Chequers some time ago. I enclose an article from the 'Air Ministry Secret Intelligence Summary' [written in by hand: 'Volume 10 No. 3.'] which may be of interest to you though I doubt whether there is anything in it which you do not know already.”

Sandys' reply, dated 22nd March, 1955 (typed on official paper headed with the Royal Arms, around which appears the title of the Office he then held: Minister of Housing and Local Government; followed by the address: WHITEHALL, LONDON, S.W.1) is as follows:

“Thank you for your letter of March 14th. / I am indeed much interested in the article from the 'Air Ministry Secret Intelligence Summary' about flying saucers, and am most grateful to you for thinking of sending it to me.”

Dr David Clarke, in an article entitled, 'MoD's UFO Study - “The Condign Report”', (which can be read in full on the uk-ufo.org website), supplies the following information on the aforementioned, “Air Ministry Secret Intelligence Summary”:

“[This] analysis of 80 reports [of UFOs] received up to 1954 formed the basis for an article published in the Air Ministry Secret Intelligence Summary (AMSIS) Vol 10/3 in March 1955. AMSIS was classified 'Secret – UK Eyes Only.' However, the full report containing a detailed analysis – which ran to 10,000 words – has not been found in the defence archives and MoD claims it has not survived to the present day. Its security classification is unknown.”

Nick Pope, who used to run the British Government's UFO project at the Ministry of Defence, supplies the following follow-up information to events subsequent to Churchill's minute:

“The Flying Saucer Working Party had been dissolved in 1951 amidst a frenzy of scepticism that had clearly been fuelled by the Americans. The response that Churchill received to his 1952 enquiry showed that the sceptics still had the upper hand... But this was soon to change. During the period 1952 to 1957 there were a series of UFO sightings involving the military, which forced... [a] rethink and then... [a reversal of] policy. These included sightings during Operation Mainbrace in September 1952 (including those at RAF Topcliffe), the West Malling incident on 3 November 1953, Flight Lieutenant Salandin's near-collision with a UFO on 14 October 1954, the Lakenheath/Bentwaters radar/visual sightings on 13 and 14 August 1956 and the RAF West Freugh incident on 4 April 1957.

“High-profile sightings such as these, together with the increasing number of reports from the general public, pushed the sceptics... onto the defensive. The Flying Saucer Working Party's recommendation that UFO sightings should not be investigated was overturned and by the mid-Fifties two Air Ministry Divisions were actively involved in investigating UFO sightings. The divisions concerned were S6, a civilian secretariat division on the air staff, and DDI(Tech), a technical intelligence division. Their brief was to research and investigate the UFO phenomenon looking for evidence of any threat to the UK.” (From an article on his website entitled, 'UFOs – An Official History').

Also, in an incident on 21 October 1952, Flight Lieutenant Michael Swiney, a staff instructor at the RAF's Central Flying School at Little Rissington, Gloucestershire, and his student instructor Royal Navy Lieutenant, David Crofts, of the Fleet Air Arm, encountered three elliptical, “lens shaped” flying saucers during a high-level cross-country flight in a Meteor VII trainer jet.

The three UFOs they sighted were also tracked by multiple radar control stations on the ground - and a pair of Meteor jet fighters on 24-hour Quick Reaction Alert duty, at RAF Tangmere, West Sussex, were vectored towards the unidentified radar targets in an attempt to intercept them – but were unsuccessful in making contact. The unidentified blips are reported to have disappeared off the radar scope at speed estimated as 1,000 mph.

At one point during their encounter with the three UFOs, Lieutenant Crofts suggested that they should go after them:

“Oh Lord no” replied Swiney, “don't you remember something that happened on the West Coast of America where a couple of pilots went after one of these things and they all got vaporised and they have never been seen since.”

Which was most likely good advice: The UFO researcher, Timothy Good in his book, 'Need To Know: UFOs, the Military and Intelligence' (2006), includes a small photostat from the executive summary of an over-460-page Scientific & Technical Memorandum by the UK Defence Intelligence Analysis Staff, entitled: 'Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defence Region' (Crown Copyright, 2000). Originally classified: “Secret/UK Eyes Only/UK Restricted”, it was mostly declassified in May 2006. In the transcript from it below, UFOs are designated as UAPs:

“The flight safety aspects of the findings should be made available to the appropriate RAF Air Defence and other military and civil authorities which operate aircraft, particularly those operating fast and at low altitude.

In so advising:

It should be stressed that, despite the recent increase in UAP events, the probability of encountering a UAP remains very low.

No attempt should be made to out-manoeuvre a UAP during interception.”

Dr David Clarke, in an in-depth article on, “The Little Rissington Incident” (which can be found on his website – and which I highly recommend to anyone who's interested), writes:

“Although the official records relating to the Little Rissington incident are 'missing presumed destroyed' Michael Swiney can still point to his own documentary evidence. In what is probably a unique [record] in the history of RAF flying logbooks, there exists an entry, in Swiney's handwriting, dated 21 October 1952, that reads:

“(SAUCERS!) 3 'Flying Saucers' sighted at height. Confirmed by G.C.I. [Ground Controlled Interception]”.

As well as a photographic copy of Michael Swiney's logbook, the website article also includes a copy of Royal Navy pilot, David Crofts' logbook, which shows a small pictorial sketch of that day's strange encounter: three ellipses – to represent the 'saucers'; and then a question mark. [What were they?]

Michael Swiney's final words concerning his sighting of the UFOs (as given in the interview recounted in Dr David Clarke's article), are these:

“I am completely open-minded. I don't think there are little green men who are going to suddenly land and get out of peculiar-looking craft. But what I do know is that both David Crofts and I saw something, the like of which we had never seen before, and I have never seen since. I cannot explain it. But all I do know is that I did see, as did he, something which was most unusual.”

My father's RAF logbook, which covers the dates mentioned (the first of two logbooks that he had during his RAF service), also contains a hand-written annotation – which in this case was written many years after the event. It reads:

“OBSERVED 'FLYING SAUCER' / REPORT TO A.O.C. AND DUNCAN SANDS AT FASSBURG FOLLOWING OBSERVATION [sic Sandys/Fassberg]. RADAR CONTROLLER HAD OBSERVED 'FLYING SAUCER' AT SPEEDS FAR IN EXCESS OF ANY KNOWN AIRCRAFT!”

In a space below this my father has affixed a pictorial record that dates back to 1952 – which recalls his sighting of the 'flying saucer' – and which could, indeed be unique:

After the incident a member of the ground crew approached No. 20 Squadron's CO and asked if they could paint a picture of a flying saucer on the fuselage of the Vampire that my father usually flew – (Registration No.) WR139. (This wasn't the actual Vampire that he'd been flying when he'd seen the 'saucer' – the actual pane that he'd been flying on the first “Duty” of the day, during which he saw it, is recorded in his logbook as being, No. [WR]183).

The CO duly gave the ground crew his permission for the nose art – on the proviso that it was kept to a reasonable size, and wasn't too big.

My father's nickname in the RAF was 'Sam'; after the nose art was completed a photograph was taken of him standing beside WR139. On the fuselage below the aircraft's windshield, forwards of where he's standing, is a large letter 'E' (“E - for Easy”, to use the RAF's phonetic alphabet of the day); above and just ahead of it, is the completed nose art – with its base down, and tilted forwards at a slight angle appears: a tea saucer sporting two little wings – one on either side of the rim (and painted in the style of those usually depicted on Hermes' helmet); and written in inverted commas underneath:“SAUCER SAM”.

My father's logbook records that the last time he flew WR139, was on 5 June 1953. He says that she still displayed the “SAUCER SAM” nose art up to that time.

Last summer [summer of 2008], whilst undertaking some research, I typed “vampire” and “wr139” into our computer's search engine – and found a picture of Vampire WR139 on the 'RAF Jever Steam Laundry' website. (The website also includes a mention of Duncan Sandys' visit to the squadrons, in its “Operations Record Book [for] August 1952”).

The photograph (taken circa April 1954, when she was in the service of No. 93 Squadron) shows WR139 in the Squadron Hangar – which is jam-packed with a mixture of Vampire FB.5s and 9s – and what is thought to be the squadron's first F-86 Sabre – can be seen at the back of the hangar.

The majority of the Vampires in the photograph are camouflaged – but WR139 is one of the few that is left uncamouflaged – and still sports her original bare metal factory finish. It looks as though she's been re-designated, “D - for Dog”; but unfortunately I was unable to ascertain whether or not she still bore the nose art, as the photograph shows her with her starboard side facing the camera – rather than the port side – on which the nose art had been painted.

I printed off some copies of the picture, and a few days later – whilst paying my father a visit – I presented him with one. He was very impressed with it – and (inevitably!) we got talking about his sighting of the flying saucer. Which I recall:

He sat in his armchair – on the wall to his side were pictures of various civilian airliners that he'd flown, in the livery of the now long defunct British Eagle. Another picture, a photo, showed him about to climb into the cockpit of an F-86 Sabre, to take part in the Cold War exercise, 'Operation Carte Blanche'.

Lifting up his arm at full stretch above his head, he described how the flying saucer came down: curling up his thumb and index finger (so as to make as small an aperture as possible) he rapidly moved his arm down – opening out his fingers at the same time to indicate the circumference of the 'disc' rapidly growing in size. In no time at all his thumb and index finger no longer touched – then they were both splayed out at full stretch and only now represented part of the disc's circumference. Looking up to where his hand now rested stationary, my father said that he was truly amazed by just how rapidly the 'disc' came down... being taken back in his mind's eye to that moment, he said that he could recall it as vividly then, all those years later, as on the day it happened... He compared the disc's highly-reflective surface to that of the shiny side of tin foil – but without a single crease or crinkle on it – he said that he was amazed by just how absolutely seamless it was... He then quickly moved his hand (now flat and side on) away from him to represent the disc's change of direction and orientation – which finally revealed to him its saucer shape – as it accelerated away!

I had asked my father previous to that day, if he could estimate the flying saucer's size – but in the past he'd been reticent to do so, saying that it was too hard to judge. I asked him again on this occasion... and after a brief hesitation, he gave his answer:

“A hundred feet across – about the wingspan of a Lancaster.”

I was utterly dumfounded! Its size – if my father's estimate was accurate – far surpassed anything I ever imagined. (To give some comparison: the Vampire's wingspan was 38 ft. The actual wingspan of a Lancaster bomber being: 102 ft).

Then, immediately following on from his estimate as to the saucer's size, my father said something that – having done some research over the past few years – literally left me speechless for a few moments and stumbling to find my words: my father said – concerning the aspect that none of the other three pilots had seen the flying saucer:

“I sometimes wonder if it had some means of stopping the others from seeing it and only allowed me to see it.”

(Though I didn't go into details) once I regained a modicum of speech, I reassured my father that the very thing that he was speaking of – HAD indeed been noted by some of those who have investigated the UFO phenomenon.

Below (for the benefit of the readers here) I give a couple of instances:

A small group of scientists who seriously investigated the UFO phenomena many years ago, came to the conclusion that there was also a psychical component to the phenomena: Re (amongst others works), 'The Invisible College: What a Group of Scientists Has Discovered About UFO Influences on the Human Race', by Jacques Vallee, and published by E P Dutton & Co., Inc., New York, 1975; and also later published under the title: 'UFOs: The Psychic Solution'. In which the author writes:

“UFOs... are constructed both as physical craft (a fact which has long appeared to me undeniable) and as psychic devices, whose exact properties remain to be defined.”

This psychical component to the phenomena has not only been noted by those within the scientific community; but has also been noted by former military personnel who have held high rank within the British Armed Forces. In one instance, in the Memorandum to a non-official UFO group's 1997 report, which was signed by one of its founding members – no less a figure than a former Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral of the Fleet, the Lord Hill-Norton – the following observation was included:

“[Though] 'UFOs' actually appear in a physical, material sense... there is certainly a degree of psychical involvement in almost every case...”

In the same report (which became known – after its prime instigator, as: 'The UFO Concern Report on the Hill-Norton UFO Initiative') the following is also noted:

“Your Memorandum is first-rate … but although the religious and psychic implications are evident, at this early stage it might be better to soft-pedal that issue” (Note in the Report from Timothy Good, dated: 31/7/96).

The “religious” implication noted in 'The UFO Concern Report', were reported in The Times of London, in an article by Ruth Gledhill, its Religious Correspondent – under the headline:

“DEFENCE CHIEF WARNS OF 'SATANIC UFOs'”

The article began by stating the following:

“A former head of the Armed Forces has helped to form a pressure group to warn of the satanic nature of many unidentified flying objects. Admiral of the Fleet Lord Hill-Norton, Chief of Defence Staff, 1971-73, is involved with UFO Concern out of worry that some UFO encounters are 'definitely antithetical to orthodox Christian belief'...”

Before moving on to quote from another former Chief of the Defence Staff, I'd like to first quote the following; it's from a mid-nineteenth century work by the Anglican theologian George Stanley Faber (the Dedication inside reads: “To the Most Reverend John Bird Sumner, D.D., Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of all England.”); it's a most remarkable book – but as both time and space prohibit – I'll only quote these small, but relevant, portions:

“[H]owever rare and attenuated [the]... Matter [that these Spirits are formed of] may be [they are]... capable of Visibility, whenever its actual appearance may suit [their]... purposes... [T]his subtle Material Vehicle may, to human eyes, be invisible: even as, for a season, smoke is visible; and then rapidly vanishes into thin air. The necessity of some Material Vehicle, by means of which... [these] Spirits might become visible, was fully understood and felt by the speculative Psychologists....

“[T]hese [Spirits] may appear, in a well defined, though intangible, form. They may severally fade into a variety of fantastic and indefinite shapes. And they may become altogether invisible....

“We have the same reference to the flashing rapidity of Angelic Motion, when we are told, that 'He maketh his Angels Spirits, and his Ministers A FLAME OF FIRE'. They are Spirits, indeed: but, then, like ourselves, they are Spirits embodied in Material Vehicles, which, as occasion serves, may either be condensed into tangible solidity or rarefied into conditions that resembles lightning in marvellous rapidity of locomotion. Tertullian, very rightly, I think, ascribes the same wonderful rapidity of locomotion, both to Angels and to Demons.”

And also:

“[T]he 'Principalities and Powers'... stand immediately associated with Malignant Angels. The whole is confirmed by the remarkable expression, which occurs at the close of the passage. Our Translators somewhat vaguely render the Original: 'against Spiritual Wickedness in High Places' [Ephesians 6:12]. Its proper rendering is: 'against Spiritual Wickedness in the Higher Region of the Heaven'; not, of course, those Heavens which are the regions of holiness and happiness, but, simply and exclusively, the relatively higher region of the Atmospheric Heavens.”

(Taken from: 'The Many Mansions in the House of the Father: Scripturally Discussed, and Practically Considered', by G S Faber; published by Royston & Brown, 1854).

The former Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Louis Mountbatten of Burma, writing to the Editor of the Sunday Dispatch, wrote:

“We should think of the possibility of these flying saucers being not a form of aeroplane from another planet, but being the actual inhabitants of that planet. I know this sounds ridiculous and I am relying on you as a very old and loyal friend not to make any capital out of the fact that I have put forward such a far fetching explanation.”

The late J Allen Hynek, UFO researcher and scientist, in an Interview for Omni magazine pondered over the following:

“There's another feature about the UFO phenomenon that escapes most people. I like to call it the Cheshire Cat effect. In 'Alice in Wonderland', the Cheshire Cat manifested itself, communicated with Alice, and then disappeared. The UFO does very much the same thing. In essence, UFOs appear spontaneously within a limited area, remain visible for a short time, and then disappear without a trace. This peculiar behaviour reminds us of the duality of light, which acts either as a wave or a particle. Perhaps UFOs also have two aspects. They might even be an interface between our reality and a parallel reality, the door to another dimension. I'm [only] just suggesting this, not saying it's so.”

I'll have to leave it at that for now. Except to say the following:

My father never did do any research into the UFO/flying saucers phenomenon. Nor might I add, did he ever have any interest – whatsoever – into the supernatural; or even in science fiction.

Concerning the flying saucer that he saw, all those years back: It was, to him, just something that he saw once – and he told it as it was...

As he once remarked:

“People think you're mad if you say you've seen a flying saucer – I've only ever seen one once; I've never seen one since.”