CIA-UAP-014, British activity in the Field of "Unidentified Flying Objects"
- Date of account
- 1952
- Source
- uap_archive
- Record updated
- 2026-10-10
Record summary
A December 1952 Memo on the activities the British are taking to identify UFOs. The memo references a UFO sighting at an RAF field seen by high officials and RAF pilots. A more redacted version of the memo has been available on CIA's public website.
Published source text
Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.
Source page 1
Source text · mention only. Approved fo r Release 2026 Under Section 18 42 o f the Nat ional Defense Au t hori za t i on Act fo r Fiscal Year 2 02 4 , ·-seeREr- .., security fnformatlon 18 JDecemeer 1952 MEM0RANDtJM FOB RECORD Sl:'JBJEC'?: British Activity in the field 0f "Unidentified Flying Objects" I l. On 15 December, the recem.tly arrived messenger from Britain reported the following. Re 1aa4 talked with R. V. Jones and ~I---~ 2. The British have be.4 a standjng committee created a.bout sixteen months ago on f'lyillg saucers. . Pre8'1Dlably this is now ud.er Dr. Jeaes through inheritance. The RAF are aetien peopl.e. The graup bas c~ncludea. that the observations are not eneiq aircraft and ~t none have been. over Brita.in. 3. The activity has been quiet and normal up to about tem. to twelve days ago, at wJaich time the Yorkshire incident took place. In some W' field, there was same sort of demenstratien to whieb. high official.a of the BAF in Lendon had been invited. During the show, a "perfect f~g saucer 11 -~ •seen by these officials as well .. as BAF pilots. So.Dlal:lY peaple saw it tbat ~ articles appeared in the pulic presa. Thi~ is disturbing te Jones because he rea1izes that the ·ereatisn of the e0rrection Qf pablic opinion is a part of' his responsibilities. 4. Jones reminded us ef the SWedisb. incident (pres'QD18.bly he refers ·:•, to the 013.e in 1946-)., and reminds us o'f a paper on the origin of' meteari tes -....__ ~: , . ~ .:- ~ pu.blisllted ill the French Acu.em;y of' Sciences betlfeen 176o and 1780 by Cb.la.dni. ' .~ .,....,.,, ,5. The traveler teld Jones of' 0ur interest at this time, mentioned ·,.. . · •._.the film vhich had been taken by the Naval non-commissioned officer (1'remonton incident). It is possibl.e that Jones . Will. write asking for a copy of'. the film or :further on the same subJect . . ~(!_ H. MABSHALI. ClWJWELLl Assis~t Direc;tor Distributien: / Scientific Intelligence Opns/SI - l. P&E7SI - l. W&E/SI - 1 AD/SI - 2 / /SECRET-
Source page 2
Source text · mention only\ While there is no indication that these objects represent a direct threat to the national defense, there are certain potential dangers which are related to these sightings. These are: 1. The difficulty and delay in positive 1dentification which could weaken the early warning system in alerting defense in the event of commencement of hostilities.* 2. The possibill ty of mass hysteria whieh might be ~ posely induced by an enemy at a critical time by faked reports. 3. The possibill ty that the emergency eonmnmications systems to command headquarters might be seriously overloaded at a critical time by such reports. It is believed that the problems of communications confusion and overload and the serious e:ff'ects of mass hysteria mist be dealt with outside the intelligence community, and 1t is planned to bring these matters to the attention of those agencies with whom the prime respon sibility appears to rest. With respect to ma.ss hysteria, it is believed this problem would lie with the Federal. Civil Defense .Administration and/ or the Interdepartmental. Cammittee on Internal Security. Accordingly, it is planned to bring this to the attention of the FCDA and ICIS through established channels. With respect to emergency eommm:deatiellS overload ing, it is believed that each of the individual Mil.itary Services should examine this problem. Accordingly, we intend to introduce the subject at a meeting of the Joint Communications and Electronics Cammittee. " " " -·z #-1:f±t ~~--~-·~;~c,
Investigate related details with Anomaly Graph’s account-based search, or read how matching and provenance work.