The US Air Force shot UFOs flying over Britain, a new book claims. Ex-cop-turned-author Gary Heseltine said they opened fire during the famous British Roswell incident in the December 1980.
He has written a new book titled 'Non-Human, The Rendlesham Forest Incidents: 42 years of Denial'.
In it, he said the American personnel blasted at UFOs buzzing over RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk during the famous incident.
Gary, 63, of Featherstone, West Yorkshire, used techniques learned during his 24-year police detective career as an advanced interviewer while compiling the book.
He spoke to numerous military witnesses involved in the world-famous case.
The scary encounters happened outside the twin NATO airbases at the height of the Cold War over three to four nights.
Strange lights were seen by security patrols and one female supervisor is said to have fired her M16 weapon at a strange ball of light.
Lt Bonnie Tamplin was driving along a public road between the bases to investigate reports of a UFO seen near the East Gate of RAF Woodbridge.
Suddenly an orange/reddish ball came in front of her jeep. As she tried to get away, the jeep ran off the road and rolled onto its side.
As the UFO came closer, she opened fire in terror and radioed for help.
Later she was flown off base back to the USA as she was so shaken up.
She has never spoken out but a supervisor on shift later revealed the terrifying incident to former Airman First Class Michael Stacy Smith who was a direct witness to part of the event.
He has now come forward to pass the information on to former detective Gary, who probed the London 7/7 bombings as a specialist interviewer of first responding BTP officers to three of the four bomb scenes.
Mr Smith said he was working at an entry control point at RAF Bentwaters when Lt Tamplin came by and said she was going to Woodbridge.
He heard her distressed voice over the radio a few minutes later and he saw several vehicles leave Central Security Control in a hurry.
He was ordered to go to Butley Gate at the back of Bentwaters. He saw Master Sergeant Bobby Ball return with Lt Tamplin in his vehicle.
He said: "I saw that she was crying, her clothes looked dirty, and she was not wearing her beret.
"I remember asking someone what had happened to Lt Tamplin but I didn't get a response. Then a while later the vehicle, the jeep she'd been in, was driven back to the base via the Butley Gate.
"After shift I was called into an office and was told what had happened to her by a supervisor who asked me to promise him that I would never reveal his name.
"I was told that an orange/reddish ball came in front of her jeep as she was driving.
"This occurred as she was about to enter the end of the runway near to the forest and before you get to the cleared area.
"Apparently in trying to get away from the object, the jeep ran off the road and rolled onto its side.
"She was able to crawl out of it but the reddish/orange object was still close to her location, so she had opened fire on it.
"Afterwards the jeep was pushed upright, and it was found to be drivable. It was then driven back to the base via the Butley Gate where I still was."
Mr Smith said when her weapon was being checked into the armoury it was found a number of rounds were missing.
The supervisor confirmed to him she had fired her weapon. It was cleaned and missing rounds were replaced before it was put back in the armoury.
Gary, who clocked up 24 years in the British Transport Police and six years in the RAF police, has spent 16 years researching the Rendlesham case.
He says in the book: "This account, if true, is truly jaw dropping in several respects.
"First, and not least, that this entire episode has been covered up by the USAF for 42 years.
"It is inconceivable that senior officers at RAF Bentwaters and Woodbridge did not become aware of the incident and therefore, in some capacity, must have been involved in covering up the event."
Mr Heseltine edits the UFO Truth magazine and is Vice President of the International Coalition for Extra-terrestrial Research.
He said: "The book's conclusions indicate that there were at least 17 different UFO related events over a three to four-day consecutive period in late December 1980 and none of them can be explained in terrestrial terms."
"What really happened to Lt Tamplin is just one part of the raft of new information the book contains.
Many UFO researchers are now saying that the book is destined to become the definitive book on the case."
The book is out on Amazon for £17.99.