Aerial Phenomena Enquiry Network (APEN) - Uncovered?

The Following Post concerns a mysterious group (Aerial Phenomena Enquiry Network / APEN) that emerge in the UK 1974, known as APEN. The following assumes that the two primary sources of evidence, Jenny Randles and Nick Redfern's accounts of his 'Sandman' whistleblower are accurate and truthful.

APEN were active from 1974 to the early 1990s.

Contact was first made with ufologists in 1974. More specifically, with Jenny Randles.

It's important to establish some context before talking about this first contact.

Randles was involved with BUFORA and was also looking to setup a new association of northern ufology groups - known as NUFON (Northern UFO Network). NUFON initially comprised three local groups: Manchester, The Wirral and Nottingham.

According to Randles own account in Magonia, contact began with letters. She also states (two years into the APEN incident):

So far as is known, over the intervening years only groups within the NUFON system have been contacted, plus one or two individuals.

Jenny Randles received a one-hour length audio cassette tape through the post.

In other places, I've read that this tape was the first contact with Randles. It's this tape that sets APEN apart from other UFO groups.

The tape was introduced by male American voice claiming to be someone called "J.T. Anderson, Supreme Commander of APEN". It's worth remembering this name, as I'll come back to it.

The audio recording was quite bizarre and contained television and radio broadcasts of UFO reports. It also contained other voices claiming that UFOs were hostile and dangerous. Randles asserts that some of these voices were Welsh, and some sounded drunk.

Let's just recap:
- NUFON set up by Randles (and others) to unite northern ufology
- Nottingham, Manchester and the Wirral comprise NUFON
- At the same time, APEN begins contacting Randles (and others at this point?)
- APEN is lead by Supreme Commander "J.T. Anderson"- according to the first audio recording
- APEN encourage unity between ufology groups
- Randles has claimed the letters were first, elsewhere I've read the audio tape
- The audio tape featured welsh voices, drunk voices and NAZI anthem / symbology

Randles goes on to explain that many of the UK ufology groups were contacted - often initially with a letter.

The most important contact from APEN was regarding the Berwyn mountain incident. It proved to be a catalyst, although outlandish and childish, in kickstarting deeper investigation, revealing a case that was far more interesting.

One document was distributed which claimed to be a preliminary note on a contact and landing case in Wales. This contained the usual gibberish, and also requests for personnel and equipment to be despatched immediately. Nothing like your ordinary tape-recorders and cameras, however! APEN go in more for Land Rovers, infrared and ultraviolet sensors and stroboscopes. The arrogant tone of the directive is obviously designed to make the recipient believe that APEN really do possess this kind of equipment.

Please note:
- The over the top, unbelievable nature of what they requested
- The focus on Wales.

From mysteriousuniverse.org:

Jenny also noted to me: “At the time, when BUFORA were attempting a similar initiative – trying to bring in local groups, a group liaison system that they operated – they also started to get similar APEN letters, basically telling them not to contact BUFORA. And also in the late seventies, when BUFORA, through their then-chairman, Roger Stanway, attempted a direct liaison with Flying Saucer Review, exactly the same thing happened vis-à-vis Flying Saucer Review.”

What is important to note is that, despite her inference in Magonia - Randles was initially contacted by tape. Accordion to Nick Redfern in 'The Saucer Spies'. This tape introduced our star of the show 'J.T. Anderson and the Nazi war march.

It was some time later that Randles received a letter from APEN regarding the Berwyn incident. Until this point, the Berwyn incident had largely been confined to a small article in Flying Saucer Review magazine.

The case takes a disturbing twist, when Randles moves in 1976 - and finds a 'welcome' note from APEN waiting for her.

Along with Berwyn, Randles also had a small tip from APEN concerning Rendlesham Forrest. This 'tip' suggested Randles should be looking for a "Brown Bear" - code for a downed Russian Satellite.

Amongst other incidents ascribed to APEN, were break-ins of ufologists property, trying to recruit people to APEN by posting newspaper advertisements by "Jenny Randles".

One of these breaks ins occurred in... Nottingham.

A final note on the original take on APEN. APENs stationary was traced to Sanderson Design and Print in Reading. It was actually part of the order that Flying Saucer Review had for their magazines. Apparently, someone would come in and collect the APEN stationary, whereas the magazines were delivered.

Important Locations:
- Nottingham (a Nufon affiliate city)
- Wales
- Reading - home of the printers!

So ends Part 1.

Part 2: Nick Redfern's "Sandman"

In Nick Redfern's "In Search Of The Saucer Spies" Nick interviews the "Sandman", who had been part of UK Police Special Branch in the 1970s.

Sandman's tale adds a new take on the APEN affair.

Sandman links a spate of mysterious helicopter flights with a right wing organisation (possibly related to Irish Terrorists - but not the I.R.A). These midnight helicopter flights were assumed to be part of some illegal activity. There is more to this than I can write here on this, so check on MirageMan's thread on the helicopter incident.

Andy Roberts, in his 2010 Berwyn presentation has dismissed the helicopters as misidentified lights and unrelated to Berwyn. Make of that what you will.

Whilst having this right wing group under surveillance, it turns out that 5 of them are also prominent members of UK Ufology. They reside in:
- Nottingham (surprise!)
- Cambridge
- Birmingham
- London
- Leicester

Apparently, these 5 individuals, lead a group of 17 ultra right wing subversives and according to their telephone conversations were interested in assassination British political figures!

Here is where the story gets strange. According to Sandman, these individuals believed the helicopter scare to be genuine ufos.

How strange is that, a right wing group, using UFOs as a cover, but believing that the helicopters, Special Branch thought might be terrorists, were UFOs! The mind boggles.

Sandman relates that APEN was to be a front organisation for recruiting other like minded right wing nuts from the UFO community.

Again, that's odd, APEN was supposedly a cover to recruit - yet they used a Nazi anthem? Why not just dispense with the Ufology window dressing, it's hardly like they were doing a good job hiding the right wing nut aspect!

Here is where Sandman's story really connects with Randles. Apparently, APEN used Flying Saucer Review print order to get their stationary precisely so it would be discovered! Thus sowing seeds of discontent among the groups, fracturing them and reuniting them under APEN.

Redfern suggests that Andy Roberts has a stack of private correspondence from the 1970s, from one ufologist who had researched this in depth and concluded that ultra right wing characters in ufology were attempting to form an underground group.

So ends part 2.

Part 3: Speculations And Conclusions

In this section, I'm going to discuss my own thoughts on the matter, speculation and what it might mean for ufology.

I'll start of by saying that the authorities did both Ufology and the the UK a great service by effectively destroying APEN and it's dreams of building a right wing network.

This was done, by sending out tapes and letters from APEN that were increasingly right wing. In other words, exposing what was heard in private conversations but not broadcast to the wider Ufology community.

Let's take a look, for a moment, at what some of the view points on APEN are:

- Jenny Randles - APEN are a subversive group trying to fracture ufology
- Andy Roberts - The mystery helicopters were unconnected but APEN was an ultra right wing group
- Nick Redfern / Sandman - The APEN group were uncovered in relation to the mystery helicopter story. Using ufology of as a cover for possible terrorist action. Also, apparently APEN believed the helicopters were ufos (a strange contradiction)

According to Terry Hooper-Scarf, he uncovered a local ufologist, working against him. This ufologist ran local meetings, presumably in Bristol:

One evening I called on a certain Ufologist but he was out and so his wife suggested that I wait in the room where we held our meetings. I noticed letters on the table, just typed and dated naming me, UFO International and various other Ufologists and groups. The note paper was headed "Aerial Phenomena Enquiry Network" -APEN.
... He was exposed and even admitted he was a leading APEN member.

What this all points to, is an ultra right wing network operating in the UK, also with a genuine interest in Ufology.

It's often said that in criminal investigations, the criminal usually commits the most crimes nearest their own residence. Let's have a look where APEN operated:

- Nottingham
- Wales
- Bristol
- Reading

Nottingham was quite clearly the center of operations.

For this final section - I'd like to expose what I think is a huge problem with the APEN mystery.

- Sandman tells us that UK authorities added ridiculous elements and Nazi symbology to APEN messages to expose them.

It seems fairly logical to assume that if APEN were using Ufology to cover up an ultra right wing network - they wouldn't do the daft Nazi stuff. It makes it all pointless...

It's also very clear that Jenny Randles received the bulk of APEN correspondence, including the Berwyn file.

Logically, I think we can suggest that Randles was sent both disinformation to expose APEN, and contact from APEN themselves.

The only real alternative is that Randles was APEN and created the correspondence to herself, which I consider ridiculous in the extreme.

It's hard to determine if APEN were Right Wing NUTs pretending to be ufologist. Or Ufologist who were also right wing fanatics bordering on terrorists.

If APEN were first and foremost ufologists that would explain why they were intrigued by the mystery helicopters. It does not explain how a terrorist investigation discovered them.

Perhaps APEN were, first and foremost, Nazis, perhaps believing UFOs had some sort of connection. That would explain why they were monitored, why they suspected the mystery helicopters of being UFOs.

As a monitored, right wing group, who the establishment were keen to expose, I find it hard to believe they would have had the time, opportunity or ability to conduct in depth investigations in to Berwyn.

I'd like to propose that APEN, and the Alien Body retrieval story did not come from them. It was part of a campaign to ridicule and destroy APEN, who were in fact a right wing network.

A sheet of the report be found in Jenny's book on the the Real Men In Black. Is it complete? Was there more?

Only Jenny Randles will be aware of what was in the report but I suspect it added little to what is now known about Berwyn.

Good topic OP. Here is a post that may or may not help you in your research. I claim no knowledge of APEN but it is an interesting story, so I will be interested to see where this leads.

Some info about APEN

Awesome stuff ctj83.

I normally don't mix politics with UFOs and I'll probably have to come back to this over the next few days to see what else we can dig up on this very strange connection between right wing extremists and ufology.

For a starter here's my thread on the strange helicopter sightings that fascinated the media and public in 1973-1974

Phantom Helicopters over the UK

I'll be honest and say that when I wrote that thread I did come across APEN but didn't really pay much attention to their involvement in the story. Seems there were was A LOT more to it than I thought.

What is probably tangential to the whole APEN thing but interesting nonetheless is that there were murmurs rumblings and rumours from the late 1960s into the mid 1970s from far right characters in the British Establishment that Harold Wilson felt were plotting against him to bring down his Labour Government.

See : Britain’s Watergate? : The “Military Coup” Plot to bring down the Government

Another thread I put together a few years ago with absolutely no idea about APEN. Maybe there was a connection, maybe there wasn't I don't know.

Anyway great thread mate. Hopefully some of our fellow Brits will be able to offer up some more information on this. A few of our friends across the world might know a bit about it all as well.

I have an early start ahead of me tomorrow so will pack it in for the night now...got to attend an APEN meeting in the morning ( )

I'll finish this report with what I like to call the 'mystery' script aspect of APEN. Much of ufology is full of misinformation - and I'd like to state, I think that the authorities are less responsible for it than a third group, of misanthropic 'ufologists'.

One of the key elements of APENS right wing nature was exposed in 1976 by Jenny Randles when she pointed to the following:

- The references to Supreme Commander JT Anderson
- The nazi marching band
- The large 'equipment' order made to APEN HQ in their Berwyn report.

Of course, there is another organisation that investigates Ufos in the 1970s that is very similar

- Founded in 1970, somewhere outside London
- Founded by a G Anderson
- Lead by an American, living in the UK
- Based in a Supreme Headquarters
- Lots of technical resources

This organisation has retrieved crashed UFOs - just like Berwyn. They have even flushed USOs out of the water! Just like Kellets' Berwyn.

Presenting:
UFO By Jerry Anderson (1970)
Commander Ed Straker and the Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation.

SHADO - a secret UFO defence network that fights against UFOs under the secrecy of being a film studio.




Episode 9 - British Navy Shoot down a UFO.

a reply to: ctj83

This thread delivers. Will be conducting my own investigation. If I don't report back in a few days you know what happened.

a reply to: mirageman

There are quite clearly two APENs. One that was a creation of Sandmen to destroy APEN by exposing right wing ideology. The other - what communications did they send? What was free of outlandish claims, drunk welshmen and right wing ideology?

i think the key questions are:

- Why did APEN appear days after Randles' formed NUFON?
- Her first contact was a Nazi infused tape, this destroys APEN's cover! Was this first contact, from Sandman APEN?
- Why was Randles targeted?
- Was the Berwyn files sent to Randles part of the attempt to destroy APEN, not from APEN?

The authorities found APEN because of the mystery helicopter incident. Yet, according to Sandman, APEN believed that the helicopters were ufos. Which were they? Tin foil hat ufo believers or hardened right wing psychopaths?

This. Makes. No. Sense.

I can only reconcile the tale to suggest the following:
- Would a truly right wing network have approached Randles as a potential ally? Surely, to destabilise ufology they would have focussed on Randles past history?
- Both NUFON and APEN have founding links in Nottingham.
- APEN emerges to counter NUFON and similar efforts.

The following is my own conjecture.

- Much of the Public APEN was created by the authorities to destroy an ultra right wing nutter club.
- The emergence of NUFON was seen as worrying move, possibly instigated by APEN
- APEN members were BOTH ETH believers and right wingers. In other words A UFO - NAZI - Saucer group
- The authorities saw in Randles a natural ally and APEN, an enemy.
- APEN intended to use ufologists to probe UK defences
- APEN or Sandmen's APEN introduced a lot of disinformation - such as "Brown Bears" and nuclear missiles into Berwyn and Rendlehsam.

Much of the narrative created to spoof and destroy APEN was taken straight from Gerry Anderson's UFO, just as Rendlesham was connected to Art Wallace's Star Trek: Assignment Earth time travel / nuclear weapons episode and Star Trek: The Motion Pictures Alien light probes and binary code.

I'm still to find some spare time to look into APEN in more detail.

This pdf may be of interest :

UFO Review 15

It contains an in depth interview with Nick Redfern.....

The authorities found APEN because of the mystery helicopter incident. Yet, according to Sandman, APEN believed that the helicopters were ufos. Which were they? Tin foil hat ufo believers or hardened right wing psychopaths?

According to the above document Nick says

So what you had was one arm of Special branch investigating the helicopters and another arm investigating the right wingers and you would never imagine there would be a crossover between the two.

But it was when the right wingers began speaking about these helicopter encounters that the Special Branch began to wonder if there was a connection between these two things. There actually never was and all it was, was that coincidentally , a group of these fascists had an interest in UFOs while at the same time being watched bv Special Branch, never realising that Special Branch was investigating something else that they were also looking into, namely the phantom helicopters.

So Special Branch got their heads together and realised there was a connection between these two independent strands of investigation.

So he seems to think they were both hardened right wingers and UFO believers.

Redfern goes onto explain the "The Sandman" claims Special Branch faked APEN document and also sent out the "Nazi" tape to create the impression that APEN were nutters.


Interesting link between the TV series "UFO" as well.

I'll see what else is out there over the weekend.

Considering all of this:

- Randles instrumental in NUFON
- Randles claims APEN merges days after NUFON formed
- Randles first contact from "APEN" not APEN (Nazi tape)

It seems like "APEN" emerged at the same time, or before APEN. This makes sense, if the authorities were listening in on the facist ufologists plan to create APEN.

It follows, and Redfern confirms, that "facist helicopter group" were a serious danger. Therefore, for "APEN" to be so proactive, the threat from APEN must have been serious.

What identifies "APEN" versus APEN?
- "APEN" features JT Anderson and the UFO tv show similarities

Randles received the Berwyn report, which I've now located. Whilst it does not include direct UFO references, it does look like the teletype report produced by various SHADO operatives and the SID satellite early warning system.

It also claims that the Aliens had APEN's 'psd' (ex directory number) and asked an ex military man at the foot of the mountains to contact APEN.

Like UFO / SHADO, they claim to have recovered a craft and bodies.

My conclusion is this - that Randles most significant contact was from "APEN" not APEN. Including Berwyn.

There is wide support for APEN, from so many source, as a right wing organisation, that it's hard to doubt. Yet it's interesting to note who was involved in unearthing many aspects of APEN:

- Jenny Randles - received information on both Berwyn and Rendlesham from "APEN" (or was RFI from APEN)
- Andy Roberts - private correspondence from 70s investigator backing up the right wing angle
- Dr David Clarke - Found the connection between helicopter investigation and APEN / Berwyn
- Nick Redfern - Introduces the "sandman" - fleshing out and substantiating the core threes

All have done excellent work at points, but three of them has also debunked various cases:

- Jenny Randles. At one point debunks RFI. Along with a lot of excellent work,iIntroduced Leukaemia cluster theory, nuclear missile and Russian satellite theory. Were these all tips from "APEN" / APEN? Also, with her Berwyn investigation, unusually focussed on radioactive circle. On the wrong mountain.
- Andy Roberts - Debunked Berwyn totally, then pulled back slightly. Places incident on wrong mountain. Misnames witnesses.
- Dr David Clarke - According to reports of claims made by Roberts, along with Andy Roberts, attempted to "expose" Max Burns by creating the Blue Hare Hoax. Genius Loki. Is this true?

Have co authored together. Also note, how two of them have focussed on what is considered the wrong mountain, Randles chose to investigate the other mountain. Roberts changed the mountain.

I'm not suggesting for a moment the these investigators were part of APEN, they clearly weren't.

My point is simply that three of the most in-depth, skeptical investigators in ufology, those who provided the information to expose the "facist saucer club" and their helicopter investigations didn't seem to consider the possibility that the Berwyn report came from "APEN not APEN"?

Or did they know, or strongly suspect but felt it unwise to expose? I'm at a loss to offer any explanation for this - but it does explain why each has taken an unusual / debunking tact with Berwyn.

I'll finish with this final thought:

- Rendlesham, revealed by whistleblower "Art Wallace" aspects of the more outlandish stories bear a strong resemblance to to Art Wallace's nuclear weapon / time travel Star Trek script. Pennistons binary, Star Trek the Motion Picture
- "APEN" / Berwyn, strong resemblance to Gerry Andersons UFO (particularly episode 9 and another undersea one). The Berwyn "report" looks like the sort of teletype reports produced for SHADO hq as seen in the UFO intro video I posted earlier.

Both are dismissible as coincidences.

Then I remembered that the original story of Alien bodies and their being transported to government labs came from Tony Dodd.

Tony Dodd also believed that the aliens could disguise themselves as human and had infiltrated all aspects of the government and military. They could be identified by a deformed finger.

That is Quinn Martin's "The Invaders".

Still not plausible? Then consider that "APEN", a strictly UK affair seems similar to UFO. The alien body story is extended and continued by Tony Dodd, who believed in an Invaders scenario.

Two UK sources, both quoting science fiction shows that had very little recognition in the US, but repeated broadcasts in the UK. The one UK incident which involves US people, references popular science fiction in the US - Star Trek.

When the Invaders reference was pointed out to Dodd, he claimed that the media was exposing the truth. Perhaps, but Star Trek (both episode and movie) was before Rendlesham and UFO was before APEN and Berwyn. Both were just a few years before.

Perhaps my APEN study should have ended there, and the media references are a step too far. Still, I can't help but keep seeing connections.

If I'm right, I suspect that the three APEN players mentioned above, recognise these false narratives.

It's actually quite difficult to find information on APEN. The national archive documents show brief mentions of APEN but nothing in detail other than what's on Wiki.

What you've written in your posts seems to sum up the total information available on the web.

I certainly don't know what to make of it all.

Why would right-wing activists target UFO groups? It just doesn't make sense. Are people interested in UFOs more likely to be fascists? Or Nazis? There's something not quite right about it all.

Jacques Valle gives a small mention in his book "Revelations, Alien Contact and Human Deception"

APEN who were eager to find an intermediary "to get some secret information out." Sound familiar?

Manuscripts were sent anonymously to various researchers, with a request that they be forwarded to various magazines for possible publication. The British UFO researchers, who are either smarter or simply more cynical than their American counterparts, smelled a rat and declined to cooperate.

This failure to co-opt the researchers into the hoax did not stop APEN......


.....A game is being played. But the cards are printed with invisible ink; the table is set at the centre of a maze of mirrors; and the players we are expecting may never have existed; they may be dead, or..... have never existed.

Source : Revelations, Alien Contact and Human Deception

Perhaps the facts aren't quite as they seem?

a reply to: ctj83

You've covered everything that I've read before on this topic and more.
There's a few points I've considered but none make any sense.
The merging of groups was my initial line of thought.
The petty jealousies involved with being in charge of any group cannot be underestimated and someone who feels snubbed will go to great lengths to keep their little power trip. Im very aware that all this happened not long after the SCUFORI silliness, which, you will recall, also involved mysterious messages and odd tapes delivered to the researchers, but...
I really can't see anyone going THAT far as to organise the whole APEN thing.

I think, though, that MM is right and there were two APENs. One being watched and one doing the watching, hence the Berwyn info. I can easily imagine a far right group that's as dopey as this lot seemed being on a watchlist somewhere. Not a very underground group by the sound of things.

We know that the intelligence agencies have an interest in "underground groups" because they like to study the spread of new ideas or information that's outside the mainstream. Its fun for them to plant little seeds to watch. I suspect it might also be fun to get two completely separate "subversive" groups and give them a contact point. Maybe give each of them a little seed and see what sort of weird hybrid mutant triffid that grows.
They've always been keen on cult building and disinformation so this could have been a half hearted attempt at leading two bunches of apparent "crazies" on a merry little circular dance (Purely for research purposes, honest!).

I also noted the pop culture references (except the Star Trek ones) and I always found it highly amusing that Anderson's UFO sprung to mind.

You will recall that UFO was made with live actors but Anderson was very much more famous for people who were operated and controlled by someone else pulling the strings!
Cheers.

In Jenny's book, "The Truth Behind Men In Black", she reveals that she first had contact from APEN in spring 1974 (i.e. the tape is sent to her). She then received several letters from APEN between Dec 1974 and Apr 1975, and states that "APEN continued to send material to UFOlogists--including a startling report on a UFO landing case from January 1974 in north Wales."

Jenny highlights: "Much as I want to dismiss this as pure fantasy, there was a problem—the case certainly was read."

I've done a little bit of digging myself and I think I've uncovered the Flying Saucer Review (FSR) article. It may have been from supplement 18, dated February 1974 - see 'A Welsh Mountain Explosion" (page 6, Eileen Buckle).

Flying Saucer Review - Supplement 18

If that's so, then the FSR article potentially pre-dates the APEN report, and may have provided the basis for its content. I haven’t yet read either the article or the report, but I wonder if the APEN report elaborated on anything concrete over and above the FSR article?

The link to the same publishing company is quite something too. Almost picture someone within the FSR offices having fun, using the FSR article, and printing using the same source.

I will say that the breaks-ins are actually the curious thing for me: this sounds like it may have been the Special Branch activity. I can’t see that one or two people playing a prank would go to that level . . .

Eileen Buckle appears to have co-authored "THE SCORITON MYSTERY - DID ADAMSKI RETURN?" (published by Neville Spearman, 1967) with Norman Oliver.

References to J. T. Anderson are not turning up much at all . . .

. . . I should qualify that when I say "having fun"/playing pranks, I have to stress that it would have been no fun for the individuals on the receiving end. The content of the tape (and I don't doubt in those letters) is indeed deeply disturbing.

a reply to: Defragmentor

That''s VERY interesting Defragmenter,. It's an odd 'US' centric ufology reference.

I've acquired the Berwyn APEN report. It mentions Adamski style aliens and Adamski style saucer.

It claims that Aliens contacted a Mr R, a retired military person living in a farmhouse at the foot of the hills.

According to the report, they asked him to call APEN and gave him APEN's ex directory number. I kid you not.

The report claims that APEN recovered the saucer and alien bodies. Adamski style aliens and Adamski style ufo.

It could never have been taken seriously, and was sent to Jenny Randles. As such, I consider it from "APEN" not APEN.

APEN is supposed to be ultra wing. Accordingly "APEN" would act the same. More importantly, Adamski made numerous references to communism, from the aliens being communist to their prediction that Russia would dominate the world.

A common source for FSR and APEN whistleblowers?

Add to that, the use of FSR printing paper for APEN notices and an unusual idea opens up:

- That "APEN" took FSRs Berwyn plus other stories, added in UFO and fed to Jenny Randle as the expanded Berwyn myths?
- That "APEN" leaked far more to FSR than we realise?
- That "APEN" had a very strong connection with FSR
- That APEN never existed and there was only ever "APEN"
- Or that APEN was not a right wing organisation.

I'm beginning to wonder where so much of the Berwyn story really has come from, and why "APEN" has a far bigger foot print than APEN. They must have been incredibly dangerous to have required such a response!

The Adamski link is curious . . .

I must admit I'm almost of the mind, "That APEN never existed and there was only ever 'APEN'"

That's admittedly ignoring a bit of the data and whistle blower testimony, and based on a premise that APEN were one or more individuals within ufology who either:

a) became disenchanted with the subject, and had a lot of contacts and just wanted to cause a lot of trouble
b) had another axe to grind for whatever reason
c) had some MoD / counter-intelligence driven motive. This may explain Special Branch contacts (or such) who could cause break-ins.

They throw in the right-wing stuff to make it really threatening and/or 'far out'. Create and send that tape to Jenny, and cause ruptions any which way. Given prior knowledge of the Berwyn case, concoct a fictitious document and cause further trouble. Worth noting that Terry Hooper-Scarf also reckons the two "Men In Black" who threatened him on his doorstep "were two UFO group morons", and that:

"These were twisted and malicious little people -today with the internet we call them 'trolls' and 'flamers'."

(sources: Terry's blog post and there's this one too.)

I also noticed that the FSR issue reveals:

- Rather curiously, the text "Published September 1974" appears on the contents page despite the front page proclaiming "February 1974". That date would actually have been around the time of the letters. However, publication dates are a thing of mystery to me in the magazine world (indeed as with many other things!). Was the supplement included with the Sep '74 issue of FSR and written/released standalone in February?

- There's an editorial piece entitled "Au Revoir", which offers with regret, "that we suspend publication of this supplementary magazine, and this final (for the time being) issue is good proof of what will be missed ... brought about by lukewarm support, and the shocking rise of costs and postage ... inflation wins the day"

- That Eileen Buckle was Assistant Editor and is credited with the magazine artwork, so she had some major duties to undertake here

By no means am I intending to imply anything with regards to Eileen Buckle or any other member of the FSR staff. Anyone could have frankly picked up the issue and found either the story, or the publisher at the foot of the document.

a reply to: ctj83

As we discussed in the Berwyn thread the core of that mystery is the sighting of a huge orange glow on the side of Cader Berwyn.



For people who have not followed that thread Scott Felton has been carrying out continuing investigations into the Berwyn incident and much of that can be found here : fierycelt.tripod.com...

The hoaxes seem to be continuing right into the 21st century with the Berwyn story. A very suspect MCA [UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency] letter was the only 'new' evidence presented in the now out of print (and removed from kindle/ebook) - "The Berwyn Mountains Incident: Revealed".

So was there really a far right-wing group called APEN? Could Nick Redfern's Sandman have fed him false information?

I could see Special Branch wanting to keep an eye on "Ufologists" as the lunatic fringe could hang around military installations, constantly looking to reveal "state secrets". Infiltrating them would make sense to Special Branch as much as it would to the KGB at the time. But I can't see why British security services would break into someone's house and send out dodgy Nazi themed cassettes in an attempt to make a group that didn't exist look ridiculous.

The other thing is that there really isn't a lot of information to go on concerning APEN. But the narratives to Berwyn (and Rendlesham) appear to have (probably false) information added on a slow drip feed almost right up to the present day.

So maybe APEN and the stories surrounding it are hoaxes as well? But if so; who created the hoax? And, more importantly, why?

a reply to: mirageman

My wild guess as to why the hoax was created is that whoever did it knew that the researchers, by their very nature, would spend a lot of time and effort looking into APEN and not UFO reports.
No offence gentlemen, but even now, you yourselves seem to have devoted considerable time and a great deal of effort looking into this.

I never payed that much attention to the Berwyn case to begin with. It seemed a weak case to me, apart from my initial interest, the stories as related didn't seem convincing enough.
I'm also suspicious of new evidence coming to light many years after the original reports. But if the APEN story was thrown in by intelligence for the purpose of leading researchers away from Berwyn, it suggests that there was more to the case and something was needed as a distraction.
That's a big "if" though.

It could also mean that the bluff was thrown in to double bluff them. If they followed my thinking and took it to mean that Berwyn WAS important, they would then go on to waste time on a non-event. Either way its a confusing little quandary to throw at people with enquiring minds to stall or mislead another investigation.

Possibly even a test to see how capable the contemporary UFO researchers were. We know there's some dodgy people in the field but Jenny Randles is a trusted and competent researcher. Whoever set it up must've known she would be unable to resist looking into it, no matter how reluctant she was to get involved at the start.

All the above information you've acquired is very impressive but I'm still scratching my head.
Cheers.

a reply to: Tulpa

My wild guess as to why the hoax was created is that whoever did it knew that the researchers, by their very nature, would spend a lot of time and effort looking into APEN and not UFO reports. No offence gentlemen, but even now, you yourselves seem to have devoted considerable time and a great deal of effort looking into this.

No offence taken. I've probably wasted more time on the actual Berwyn case and eliminating much of the false information surrounding it. I actually ignored the APEN element originally as it seemed to go nowhere and made no sense. So I don't think I'm any clearer despite ctj83s impressive post in pulling the information together.

I've said this before somewhere on here. Sometimes we are exposed to a couple of pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. But we have no picture on the lid to see what we are working towards and are not even sure if the pieces we have are from the same jigsaw puzzle.

We may think we are forming a picture but are totally off course because we have no idea what goes on at levels way above our heads. Imagine it's 1979 and you'd found out that the CIA were rumoured to be involved in producing a sci-fi film called "Argo". Could anyone, with that information alone, link it to the Iranian Hostage crisis? And at a much lower level we may be dealing with a hoax perpetrated by one or two people.

a reply to: Tulpa

Well considered post Tulpa, and a good point to make, why spend the time on it? To cut to the chase, because I stumbled on something a few years ago, that has been bugging me for a long time. I decided to watch MirageMen, and I saw little connection.

My primary reason for investing this, is largely the vein of science fiction based disinformation that runs through UK ufology. Star Trek with Rendlesham, The Invaders with Tony Dodd, UFO with Berwyn. I've noticed a few more, but I'm not quite ready to show my hand there.

I believe that Jenny Randles was the primary target and reason for APEN. I think she was contacted by "APEN" not APEN. I therefore think its likely that Berwyn was given exposure by "APEN".

I find it shocking that whilst the existence of "APEN" (separate from APEN) has been so widely known for so long, no one seems to investigated the logical consequences of that.

My secondary reason, which I suspect Mirage has been aware of my thoughts on for a bit, is that I believe that there is a persistent source of disinformation running through UK ufology, since the 1970s. I don't believe that "they" have gone away - just got new members. Nor do I believe they are official, establishment or the authorities.

My third reason is that the disinformation continues with Berwyn, as Mirage has pointed out.