THE BRECON UFO INCDENT

September 1, 1996
Source: Matthew Williams
By Matthew Williams

I recently had a phone conversation with Graham Birdsall of UFO magazine. Graham informed me of a UFO sighting case, of which he had become aware that had taken place in the South Wales area. After giving me the details I proceeded to contact the people involved to see what, if anything, had been seen. I was given an interesting account of an unusual UFO seen by multiple witnesses near a military base in Brecon.

The three witness I met all live in Seven Sisters, which I is a small ex- mining town in the Vale of Neath. Kerry Jones, who is in his twenties, explained to me that on the night in question they had been taking a pleasure drive around the hillsides in a two vehicle convoy. Upon arrival at a hill South of the town of Sennybridge they stopped on small passing spot with a good view and got out of the car. Somebody had brought along a video camera and was in the process of filming the witnesses present when a large ball of glowing light was seen to rise into the sky above the military range. The object was large enough and bright enough to be easily viewed by everyone.

SOME FORM OF UFO

On the videotape various people can be heard remarking that the object they are seeing must be some form of UFO. As the object remains hanging in the air many comments are made about the nature of the object and that it is would be to large for a flare or any other type of illuminated device.

The video camera, which at this point is not trained on the object, eventually finds it's way into the position of the UFO. As the image becomes more steady we can see it is a large light hovering some 3 - 4 hundred feet above the ground and is almost at the same level as the witnesses due to their being on a hillside. The hills and sky can be seen even though we are in very low light conditions. This is due to the video-camera being fairly modern. After only a second or so the video camera "zooms" in for a closer look but unfortunately loses the shape of the image due to the autofocus going completely out of control - something the manufacturers obviously forgot to develop properly. The only image that is now present is that of the iris shadow and a blob of light. This is familiar to UFO researchers as the "BATMAN" symbol. Even though the image never regains any greater clarity we can still hear the comments of the witnesses who testify to an incredible sighting.

We hear excited remarks on the videotape from all present that there are large laser type bolts of light going towards the object in the sky. These bolts are shooting in streaks and come from the ground on either side of the object and disappear into it, making a disconnected triangular shape in the sky. The object then goes out and then reappears at a greater height and the same laser bolts shoot towards it, the virtual triangle shape getting taller. No sooner have the laser bolts been "absorbed" as they do the strange thing and reverse their direction and shoot back down to the ground. One witness discounts the idea of this object being any sort of flare or the laser like bolts being tracer fire because he knows what flares and tracer firing looks like.

There are a few more instances of the main object disappearing, gaining height then re-appearing, showing a "laser" absorption and emission before the object switches off from view and stays gone. Now all that remains are a few bewildered people on a lonely mountainside who have just seen something strange. The camera is then switched off but the story doesn't stop there. The party of two car loads of people, obviously excited by the sighting, all decide to drive to the military ranges for a closer look at the area that the object was hovering above, and to see if the UFO could be found again. They drive down into the valley and towards the military range - this takes approximately 10 minutes.

SENNYBRIDGE ARMY BARRACKS

The military ranges which are involved in this report are under the control of the Sennybridge Army Barracks and are referred to as the "Training Area". There are very well maintained roads which pass through the ranges which can be driven on by the public. The odd thing about access to these roads is that they provide almost the only decent access to many of the local villages near to the ranges, but as they are owned by the MOD these roads can be closed off when the ranges are active. The roads that the locals then have to use are very bad quality and are hard to fit cars down, let alone the common farm vehicle! In other words many people rely on these military roads for general access to these villages.

The odd thing is that access to the ranges must be by vehicle only and although being allowed to drive through, you may not stop your or get out of your vehicle to walk on the roads - no access by foot is allowed. The explanation for this, as was given to me by the Sennybridge Range control office, was that there could be unexploded ammunition still left on the ranges. This hardly seems likely, as if this were the case then soldiers who practice at the range would also be at danger from the unspent weaponry too! Hardly a credible reason to deny any access to this vast area of land when the site is not active. In most other military sites I have been to you are allowed to walk on ranges when they are not active.

SECRET WEAPONS TESTS

The probable reason the military chose these ranges is because of their topography. The ranges are so rugged and steep on each side that it is almost like a keep wall around the perimeter which allow the military to operate various types of manoeuvres without being able to be spotted from the local towns and villages. The site is not only high itself, it is similar to a form of plateau. The natural perimeter of valleys, which have the entrance hills, are so steep that no sight can be made on to the top of the plateau. There is only one exception to this rule and this was the viewpoint of the mountain that our witnesses were parked on. This hill is awkward to get to and is so far away and remote that the military could operate new and secret weapons tests at this site with a high probability of not being seen. It could be a calculated risk.

As the party of two cars arrived at the steep hill road top they noticed that the ranges were active by seeing the red flags flying and red lights on poles posted at the side of the road. At this point on the road you are not on MOD land, nor are you committing any sort of crime of trespass, but as our witnesses cars slowed down and proceeded to turn around to leave they noticed that a vehicle was speeding towards them and the witnesses feared being intercepted. The main thought on the minds of the people driving the cars was "Oh my god, we have stumbled on to something top secret and they will want to question or arrest us - and we have got a videocamera, they will think we are spying!". Both cars decided to drive away from the site but this did not stop the swift advance of the military vehicle which had now started a blue flashing light on it's roof. Our intrepid bunch decided that they were not going to wait around to find out what this vehicle wanted so they sped off. The witnesses in the car with the vdeo-camera were so frightened at the chase which followed that they all seriously considered throwing the video-camera out of the moving car!

PHOTO RIGHT (missing in post. ed note): Simulation photo showing how UFO would have looked in the Brecon landscape.

The road back down the hill towards the main road is approximately 2 miles long and both cars were doing in excess of 60 MPH in order to keep away from the vehicle which had now been identified as a camouflaged Landrover. The Landrover was not giving up and thrust forward even faster and so the chase reached dangerous speeds but luck and skill allowed both cars to get to the main road and turn towards home. For a minute the drivers thought they thought that they were clear from the chase but they were wrong for the Landrover was now gaining on the cars again, now on the main road! The chase attained even more speed than previous and continued for another 6 miles. Luckily Landrovers being the bulky vehicles that they are and being designed for slow work meant that soon the two cars had gained enough distance and had lost the pursuer. The witnesses I spoke to say the whole chase was for approx. 8 miles.

AGGRESSIVE ACTION

After arriving home the events were discussed and all people involved agreed that the advances of the army vehicles meant that they had indeed stumbled across some sort of highly sensitive activity. Never before had any of the people present seen such aggressive action from the military including the initiation of a chase which was dangerous by anybody's standards. It is common for people to encounter security if you have wandered onto the ranges by accident whilst active or not, but never to be chased or to have such a rapid response. Some of the witnesses had been on the facility and driven around sections that are not for public admittance and they had just been asked to politely leave by the military. People were always near the sites in the day or night because of it's giving access to the local villages. Whatever they stumbled upon this night this night was very different to other nights activity because of the security response.

My investigations with the Sennybridge centre revealed that the ranges are used by all of the UK's military forces and sometimes used by the Special Air Service and other secret elite forces for secret training. The sites is patrolled by Landrovers with such blue lights on their roofs but the military personnel inside these vehicles are not military police and do not have any special powers of arrest and certainly would not be authorised to chase people. Their purpose is to prevent people from entering the site, and if troublesome people will not leave the site then to call the military police for assistance. I was told that the function of the area was as an infantry range primarily but with other types of activities taking place at other times. I was not allowed to know if missiles and other types of advanced weaponry were tested on the ranges, but enigmatically I was told that certain types of spent armaments would be searched for and cleared from the site before any training could take place - these coul be bombs, shells, grenades and "other" weaponry.

UNDERGROUND SECRET FACILITIES

Although the range spokesperson was helpful enough with my enquiries and even my questions about any underground secret facilities in the area - landing strips etc. (all of which he denied), he did not give away any such details about what the object that was spotted could have been. He explained that nothing like this had ever been reported before to his knowledge and he showed an interest to hear my results of investigations out of his own personal interest. The underground facilities were talked about but denied, even though I had some background information on there being facilities in the Brecon area. This is where the story takes and unusual turn. I remembered back to another case I had done some investigations into, that of a forest near Newtown, Powys. Hafren Forest was home to some unusual structures which seemed to have no describable purpose and the locals had been seeing intense military activity in the area along with strange lights flying around.

SUBMARINE COMMUNICATIONS

My early initial investigations had turned up no leads, with things like newspapers etc. I took a ride up to Newtown and spoke to many locals who all thought there was something secret taking place with the military but could not state what. All the locals knew was there was a submarine communications site up there and from time to time the military would prevent access to the area. The prevention usually came in a stern warning to leave the area right away - or else! I was able to find our from Forestry Commission workers that British Aersospace and Marconi had used the area at one time and the strange wooden structures had been erected by these and the army. Contact with British Aerospace (BAe) came up with the fact that they had at one time tested Rapier missiles at the site. This had finished a long time ago. My source at Marconi admitted that the Sub. Communications devices had one been located there but were no longer operational. There must be many areas around the United Kingdom that are home to tests for secret weapons systems. Were Sennybridge/Brecon one of these along with Hafren Forest? Were the lights seen by our witnesses part of some advanced weapons system being tested. The strange streaks of light being seen to be absorbed and then released by the object suggest a new or unorthodox weapons or defence system as I have never heard of anything described which is similar. The other possibility is that what was viewed as something extraordinary, perhaps some form of paranormal happening or maybe a UFO.

Finally I would like to make you aware of the underground facilities which exist at Brecon. I became aware of the rumours of underground facilities at the ranges and in Brecon itself by the witnesses. Before this I had never heard of any such facilities. I did some research with CND and they told me that Emergency Bunkers known as RSG's (Regional Seats of Government) existed all over the UK. One of the biggest in South Wales is at Brackla in Bridgend, and can be seen from the outside by anyone who is interested. It is located near the old site of an Armaments Factory in Brackla and is in the side of a hill. A new housing estate exists on top of the facility and it's aerials are visible near this housing estate. This facility was described to me by a South Wales emergency planning officer, who I cannot name for his job security, as "immense". It has a rail system inside which goes back to the days when it was used as part of the armaments factory storage facility during the second world war. The facility was upgraded to be able to withstand nuclear attack and has air breathing equipment for filtration of radiation from outside air to make it safe for those inside. There is food and clean water supply inside as well as diesel power generators. Communication with larger military bunkers was kept via secure teletype terminals.

The interesting thing was that the idea of a Regional Seat of Government position such as this one at Brackla was to facilitate emergency measures to be undertaken to regain control of the population who have survived a disaster such as Nuclear attack and put them to work re-establishing society, food supplies and restore law & order. The first stages of enforcement would be carried out by police, but as it was envisioned that the police would quickly be wiped out along with communications to them, that army and military forces would need to be used to regain control of the few survivors. This is why the RSG's always had military communication links, and the military were supposed to take their orders from the RSG's "controllers". Controllers were usually Civil Servants who were selected by their high ranking positions to take office in RSG's after an emergency.

I was told by my sources that the RSG in Brackla was primarily connected to Brecon military barracks and the Sennybridge centre. In an emergency it would be these military personnel that would respond to the commands of the RSG Controller. Now in the CND information I have it clearly states that there is a military bunker 30 miles North of Cardiff and very probably in the Brecon area. The pieces fit together well from both sides.

Now as we all know military establishments are prime targets for Nuclear warheads from foreign military powers. Would any military establishment that plays such a vital role in the RSG system have it's soldiers and essential staff and equipment located above ground where it could be easily disposed of? No I don't think so. It is lunacy to think that the would not have special bunkers at these establishments.

SECRET POSITION

Finally just by chance I attended a meeting of a new age group at somebody's house a few months go and the subject of the Brecon site came up. Without my prompting about bunkers I was told by a person who wishes to be known as "T" that a few years she was courting an army officer who was stationed at Brecon. The relationship was getting quite serious and he had proposed to marry T. This officer explained his secret position at the facility and showed T. a pager which he carried and explained that if this pager went off he was to drop whatever he was doing and to make his way as fast as possible to the Brecon bunker. As he wanted to marry T. he explained that she would be allowed to come with him to the bunker once they were married but with one sad note - she would not be able to bring any of her children with her, and this had nothing to do with the fact that the children were not his - these were the rules! She was obviously unhappy to hear of this and said she would not leave her children to go to the bunker. He said that the offer would remain open none the less if they were married. She took this information seriously and although the relationship eventually ended because of other reasons she always remembers this ominous offer. She remembers her partner saying that the site was very large and capable of housing thousands of people deep within the mountains.

So on the subject of there being a bunker in Brecon, for these reasons I am convinced! The only thing left to find out now is where the entrance is and just how big it really is... What I would now like to work out is the connection between the bunker and this UFO sighting, if any. People who read UFO Magazine will have seen a recent article by Richard Sauder PhD on the subject of Underground Bunkers and the connections with UFO's. I suggest reading this article as there is a lot of truth in the connections made.

[Thanks to M Fry, Welsh federation of Ufologists and D Moncur for information of the Hafren forest case information from which my investigation was based.]

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