Haunted Skies
preserving the Social History of UFO research; Vol 1, 1939–1959
John Hanson & Dawn Holloway. Haunted Skies Publishing,2016, 621 pages, paperback.
This “revised and expanded edition” takes a visual journey through British UFO sightings from 1901 to the end of the 1950s. It includes a sprinkling of important US cases and looks at how John and Dawn got involved, following the sighting of a huge saucershaped UFO over a suburb of Birmingham in January 1995.
Feeling that the subject was often met with derision, they decided to track down retired UFO investigators to gain accurate information from their files and from the witnesses. This research eventually became the basis for their Haunted Skies series of UFO histories. As John puts it, “Our books are not wild unsubstantiated fairy stories – but the real thing! These are unique experiences from so many people who just want to tell it how it was.”
Many of the sources are gleaned from Flying Saucer Review ( FSR), such as the first 20th century sighting in Bournbrook, near Birmingham. An anonymous witness recalled that in 1901, aged 10, he came across a strange building near his home. Two small military-looking entities emerged and when they re-entered it, it shot into the sky; 78 years afterwards, he thought he might have seen a UFO. The authors tried tracking down his family for more information, but have so far failed. They were more successful in finding a relative of Agatha Whiteland, who witnessed a flying platform carrying another set of military-looking occupants at Aldeburgh, Suffolk, during WWI.
The information about British UFO sightings before and during WWI cover the basics, as they only mention a few 1909 cases and ignore the 1912–13 airship scare completely. In my biased opinion, readers can best find these details in my book UFOs of the First World War – just saying! Haunted Skies gets fully in its stride, when it covers another FSR report about a tennis-ballsized globe of light seen by a teenaged Thomas Hills Harrison in 1919. Like most of the cases that follow, the authors have spoken to the witnesses and/or prime researchers, and include photographs of them and any other relevant images and documentation.
There is even a 1929 case, investigated by Ron West, involving an alleged abduction in Yorkshire. Merchant Navy officer William Anderson saw a ball of light that led him to a domed craft that had landed in some open farmland. He went inside the craft where he undressed and after a memory lapse found himself on an examination table. He was telepathically told that they were always around if he needed any help. The next thing he knew was waking up in his bed the next morning.
Extensive coverage is given to the story of Cathie Connelly who had a close encounter in Warwickshire in 1940, which had intriguing similarities to the Betty and Barney Hill case.
The book provides a wonderful review of sightings in WWII, many by RAF and military personnel, and then goes on to the ‘proper’ flying saucer era that began in June 1947. Here the multitude of British cases are put in the context of milestone US incidents, and again there are several close encounters with UFOs and entities.
One of the stand-out cases is that of Cynthia Appleton, who met spacemen in her living room, and attended a packed lecture in Birmingham by the (in)famous US contactee. A month later, Cynthia said she was expecting a Venusian’s baby. Even Adamski could not have come up with such a far-fetched story.
With its wealth of newspaper clippings, the tales of ancient ufologists and images of longdefunct UFO magazines, you do get a real feeling for the period when ufology was in its innocent infancy. Where did it all go wrong!