IT’S known as Britain’s very own Roswell – a story that has left many scratching their head and searching for answers in the night sky.

In December 1980 strange lights were seen by US Air Force personnel posted to the twin bases of RAF Bentwaters and Woodbridge.

To this day they have never been explained – although it has spawned a variety of theories and attracted worldwide interest.

Tomorrow a selection of leading experts will be on hand at Woodbridge Community Hall for a 30th Anniversary Conference.

It starts at 6pm and speakers will include eye-witnesses John Burroughs and Jim Penniston, who will talk for the very first time about what they saw, former Ministry of Defence employee Nick Pope and Emmy award winning documentary maker Linda Moulton-Howe.

Also on the bill is US based investigative writer Peter Robbins, whose book, Left at East Gate, which he co-wrote with eye witness Larry Warren, is a best seller.

Mr Robbins, 64, who has been staying with friends in Knodishall, near Leiston, spent almost a decade researching the incident, pouring over military reports and collating eye witness accounts.

He said: “I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. Initially Larry had given me a challenge – prove me wrong. “My starting agenda was the truth and wherever it took me. I didn’t care if it embarrassed me or him. It became an obsession.”

He said he is convinced the sightings were something out of this world and not a number of other theories such as lights from a police car, a meteor shower, a piece from an American space capsule or a physiological operation to test how military personnel would respond when confronted with something unexplained.

“It does seem to be something genuinely unusual,” he said. “When you hear audio from that night the fear in those men’s voices, that can’t be replicated by even the most gifted actor.

“I followed strict reasoning and research and in my opinion is was intelligence from parts unknown.

“But to claim to know why they were here is the height of intellectual arrogance. How can one truly know?”

Mr Robbins said he was looking forward to speaking at the conference, which is raising money for East Anglia’s Children’s Hospice’s Treehouse Appeal.

“It is very exciting,” he said. “We are all very proud we have been asked to attend and to help raise money for this worthy cause.”

To mark the 30th anniversary the East Anglian Daily Times has teamed up with BBC Radio Suffolk to try to explain the incident in an investigation called Rendlesham Revealed.