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There's no doubt that Winston Churchill had his share of secrets. When you're leading a world power during wartime, classified information come with the territory. But did one of his closely held secrets have to do with "little green men"? A new report contends that the English Bulldog may have played a part in a UFO cover-up.
It's a conspiracy theory worthy of the "X-Files," and it goes like this: Churchill, then the prime minister, apparently ordered a cover-up of an encounter between a Royal Air Force bomber and an unidentified flying object during World War II. The reason: Churchill feared that news of the incident would create public panic and a loss of faith in religion.
The Daily Telegraph explains that Churchill is reported to "have made the orders during a secret war meeting with U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower, the then commander of the Allied Forces, at an undisclosed location in America during the latter part of the conflict." He ordered that the information remain secret for a period of 50 years.So, who is claiming that Churchill ordered the cover-up? The U.K.'s National Archives, which hosts the newly released documents, works through how the news came to light.
Apparently, Churchill's order was overheard by one of his bodyguards. The man, also a member of the Royal Air Force, kept the secret to himself for years, but told his daughter at some point, and told his wife on his deathbed in 1973. The man's daughter later told her son (the bodyguard's grandson, for those of you keeping score), and he inquired about the incident with the Ministry of Defense in 1999. That inquiry made it into the files that were made public on Thursday.
According to the report, the crew of the plane did manage to take photographs of the UFO, which "hovered noiselessly" near their plane before zooming away. Alas, the photos, if they do indeed exist, were not released.
Decades later, it's still not known if the UFO was actually a UFO or something more earthbound. Initially, some theorized that the object was a missile. However, a weapons expert, who was present at the infamous meeting, was reported to have remarked that no missile could stop and hover. Such a thing was "totally beyond any imagined capabilities of the time."
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