Exercise Mainbrace: The military operation that changed UFO history forever

In 1952, just seven years after Victory in Europe Day, NATO forces, comprised of the twelve founding members along with Greece and Turkey, which joined that year, reported observing a series of mysterious flying objects during peacetime military exercises.

These UFO sightings were becoming increasingly common in the United States, with newspaper headlines featuring stories from individuals who claimed to have spotted an alien vessel flying above their backyards.

What was Exercise Mainbrace?

Exercise Mainbrace was the name given to the first set of peacetime military preparations to take place by NATO members since the founding of the organization. The exercises included over 80,000 men and 200 ships, and lasted from September 14 to September 25. More than four sightings were recorded by the US non-profit research organization into UFO sightings, the National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), during Exercise Membrance, with news stories from the time detailing that many of the witnesses assumed the objects to be weather balloons.

A triangular flying object was spotted just as the exercises were set to begin

On one occasion, an object that a Danish crew described later to investigators as triangular was spotted flying overhead at incredible speed. This first sighting occurred on September 13, just as the men involved were getting into position to begin the 12 days of military exercises.

Reports later published by NICAP from the time also indicate that “the object emitted a bluish glow.” According to Live Science, the sighting was made from the Danish destroyer ship, Willemoes, one of 200 ships that formed part of the military exercises. The Lieutenant of the Willemoes estimated that the object was flying around 900 miles per hour.

British forces spot a UFO following the same trajectory as a fighter jet

Another sighting came on September 19 after a British fighter pilot had carried out their planned operation over the North Sea and was on the return to the Topcliffe airfield, in Yorkshire. Whether it was an optical illusion caused by the sun’s reflections, soldiers in the group reported seeing a silver flying object above the Meteor jet piloted by one of their own. Though the flying heights were different, the trajectories matched up.

The report detailing the event said it occurred around 11:00 A.M, and that as the jet was set to make its landing, the object was “swaying back and forth like a pendulum."

“Lieutenant John W. Kilburn and other observers on the ground said that when the Meteor began circling, the UFO stopped,” wrote Richard Hall, a self-proclaimed Ufologist, and researchers for NICAP when the sightings took place. Witnesses described the object as “disk-shapped,” a more traditional form for UFO sightings than the triangular object reported by the Danish crew. The crew could not track the object, with Hall writing that after mirroring the pilot’s movements, “the disk suddenly took off westward at high speed, changed course, and disappeared to the southeast."

Images reportedly taken of a UFO spotted by US forces were never released to the public

The next day, a sighting was reported by US military members onboard the USS Franklin D. Rosevelet aircraft carrier. These members captured an image of the UFO, they say, which was described as “silvery” and “spherical.” However, these photos were not made public, writes Hall, while adding that those who did see them described them as “excellent” and that "judging by the size of the object in each successive photo, one could see that it was moving rapidly.” The crew and other military leaders ruled out the possibility of the object being a weather balloon.

At least three more sightings would be made during the remainder of Exercise Mainbrace. In the years that followed, what was seen was attributed to the hype of UFO sightings that had just begun to take off.

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