X Thursday, January 14, 2010A British Socorro? by Nick RedfernIt was during the early hours of 6 January 1966 inthe Cheshire, England town of Wilmslow thatextraordinary, and perhaps even other-worldlyevents were unfolding. Police Constable ColinPerks had begun his night-shift at 10,00 p.m. andhad no idea that he would shortly thereafter findhimself implicated in a face-to-face encounterwith what might very well have been visitors fromanother galaxy.In a stunning two-page report filed with hissuperior officer in the aftermath of the incident,P.C. Perks stated: "Sir, I have to report that Ihave been in the Police Force for almost fouryears. I am 28 years of age, a married man and Ireside with my wife and child in [witness'saddress]. I am in excellent health and I have noworries of any description."The officer continued: "On the night ofThursday/Friday the 6th to 7th January 1966, whichwas a cold clear night and started [sic] with afull moon which made visibility good. I commencedduty at 10pm on the 6th and due to finish duty at6am on the 7th. At 1.15am on the 7th I had myrefreshments at Wilmslow Police Station where Iresumed normal patrol at 2am on this date where Icommenced walking around the village. I was aloneon this occasion."About 4am on the 7th I was checking property atthe rear of a large block of shops which aresituated off the main A34 road (Alderley Road)Wilmslow. At 4.10am I was still checking propertyand facing the back of the shops when I heard ahigh pitched whine, for a moment I couldn't placethe noise as it was most unfamiliar to the normalsurroundings. I turned around and saw aGreenish/Grey glow in the sky about 100 yards fromme and about 35 feet up in the air. I stopped inmy tracks and was unable to believe what I couldsee. However I gathered myself together after acouple of seconds and made the followingobservations. The object was about the length of abus (30 feet) and estimated at being 20 feet wide.It was elliptic in shape and emanated a greenishgrey glow which I can only describe as an eeriegreeny colour. It appeared to be motionless ofitself, that is there was no impression ofrotation. The object was about 15 feet in height.The object had a flat bottom.(What Officer Perks saw -- his drawing)"At this time it was very bright and there was anEast wind. Although it was cold there was nofrost. No cloud formation was anywhere near groundlevel. The object remained stationary for aboutfive seconds then without any change in the whineit started moving at a very fast rate in anEast-South-East direction.It disappeared from view very quickly. When itstarted moving it did not appear to rotate butmoved off sideways with the 30 foot length to thefront and rear. It is possible the short sidegiven as 20 feet may in fact be longer as I waslooking underneath the object and may have beendeceived."About 500 yards away from where I was standingthere is an electric railway line but the noise Iheard was nothing to do with either electric ordiesel trains. About 50 yards from where I wasstanding is a transformer belonging to theElectric Company. This is a sub-station and thenoise I heard is of no comparison to the hum fromthis."There is no doubt that the object I saw was of asharp, distinctive, definite shape and of a solidsubstance. However I did not notice any vents,portholes or other places of access. The glow wascoming from the exterior of the object and thiswas the only light which was visible. I checkedwith Jodrell Bank and Manchester Airport shortlyafter the incident but they could not help or inany way account for what I had seen."After having received Police Constable ColinPerks' X-Files-like report, his Deputy ChiefConstable moved to contact the Ministry ofAviation and from there the report was forwardedto the Ministry of Defense (MoD) at Whitehall,London.Interestingly, from the publicly acknowledged 'UFOOffice' at MoD Main Building, the report was sentto a covert division of the MoD's DefenceIntelligence Staff known as DI61.Perhaps aware that this was no run-of-the-millreport, DI61 duly dispatched agents to Wilmslow tointerview P.C. Perks and to investigate the areawhere the UFO was seen. "Constable Perks wasinterviewed by DI 61e(AIR) on 1st February 1966,"reported Flight Lieutenant M.J.P.H. Mercer in aRestricted memorandum drawn up in response to theDI61 investigation. "He was questioned on a numberof points arising from the statement he made onthe 8th January.""What sort of noise did the UFO make?" "What wasits speed when it began to move?" "What was itsaltitude?" asked the DI61 agents. Impressed byPerks' conviction, DI61 headed off for the site ofthe UFO encounter.On arriving at the location where PC Perks hadseen the UFO, the DI61 team noted that on themorning following the incident "some glass likesubstance" was found on the ground below where theUFO had been seen. Whilst DI61 felt that there wasnot enough firm evidence in hand to make adefinite connection, it is worth noting that theirinvestigation was extremely meticulous.Having interviewed the P.C. at length, scrutinizedhis report and visited the area of the sighting,DI61 stated in their final analysis of the casethat while "...it is not possible to arrive at anyconcrete conclusion, there is no reason to doubtthe fact that this constable saw somethingcompletely foreign to his previous experience."With that surprisingly frank - albeit verycarefully worded - statement, I wholeheartedlyconcur.Two weeks after these remarkable events occurred,P.C. Perks was granted permission to relate thedetails of his encounter to the Media; however,until the official files were declassified, therewas never any inkling that Perks had been visitedby the authorities. Had he, perhaps, been advisedby his superiors or the MoD to omit this part ofthe story when speaking with the Press?It was largely thanks to the publicity affordedthe Perks affair that a number of people contactedthe MoD offering corroboration for the officer'saccount. "I do not want any publicity at all!"wrote one such person to the MoD. It was twelvemonths prior to P.C. Perks' encounter, sheexplained, when an unusual - looking object loomedinto view at her hometown of St. Helens,Lancashire."It was towards the end of March 1965 [at] 4.00pmon a fine, windy day," she began. 'I was in thegarden when I heard a very high whining sound.Realizing it didn't sound like an ordinary plane(which pass over very often) I looked up."On doing so, she received the shock of her life.Moving across the sky at high speed was an objecttotally unlike anything that she had ever seenbefore. Egg-shaped and very much like the UFO seenby P.C. Perks, the craft traversed the Lancashireskies with ease."Then to my amazement," she continued, "andwithout slowing down, it stopped dead in itstracks and stayed completely still for about 3minutes. Then instead of keeping its straightjourney it moved up into the sky until it justdisappeared. The object did not rotate in any wayand it did not zig-zag up, but it was just asthough it was being pulled up by a piece ofstring."I know this story sounds fantastic," conceded thewitness to the Ministry of Defense, "but I am notgiven to seeing things that are not there, and Ifirmly believe this object to be from anotherworld."She closed her letter: "Please, please let me knowif anybody else reported seeing anything like it,or if I was seeing things, because it justcouldn't have been mistaken for a plane, however'supersonic.'"Like P.C. Perks' encounter, this particular onewas filed 'unexplained.'And still further testimony in support of theconstable's report flooded into Whitehall. In aone-page report (forwarded to DI65, a DefenseIntelligence Staff department associated withDI61), the witnesses - a Mr. D. Winstone and hisgirlfriend - reported that at 10.50 p.m. on thenight of 4 February 1966, they viewed in thevicinity of London [Author's Note: now Heathrow]Airport an "egg shaped" object that was "brightgreen in color". In this particular case, thecouple's account was reported to the MoD beforeaspects of P.C. Perks' encounter were made public- effectively ruling out a hoax.There was also the husband and wife who contactedthe MoD to report that they, too, had an accountto relate - this time involving a UFO that gaveoff a practically-identical "whine" to thatdescribed by P.C. Perks. In this case, however,the couple's experience had occurred inSwitzerland!In other words, whatever the true nature of theUFO seen by Constable Perks, it seems it was mostactive in early 1966. But, precisely who, orindeed what, was flying the curious device is amatter that remains unfortunately unresolved morethan forty years later...References:National Archive file: AIR 2/17983.Evening News, 2 March 1966.Daily Sketch, March 1966. Sun, 3 March 1966.Daily Mirror, 3 March 1966.Daily Sketch, 17 May 1966.