Strangers From The Skies - Brad Steiger-pages

Page 62 of 128

Page 62 of 128
Strangers From The Skies - Brad Steiger-pages

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anything. with my watch." "It was a Sunday. | neared Drayton's School. Just short of the apex of the bend, | heard a loud buzzing. It was not from, telegraph wires. I'm not dead sure from which direction it came - it was overhead so quickly that it took me by surprise. As it hovered over me, it sent shivers up my spine. "Imagine a giant tin can, filled with huge nuts and bolts, being whirled and rattled above your head. That's how it struck me. Then something struck me in reality! | looked upward to see if it was a low- flying plane. | felt a rain of sharp, stinging blows on my head and cheeks. A wind tore at my hair and hurt my eyes, it was so fierce. My head and shoulders were pressed down, hard. | tried to fight off the invisible attacker. Just before it lashed down at me, | saw no aircraft in the sky, no plane lights or "For some time | staggered about in the road, then managed to sink to my knees on a grass verge at the roadside. The ground was wet, but that didn't worry me. All | badly wanted to do was rid myself of that choking, clutching 'Thing.'" After the attack which lasted about three minutes, Eric ran for his home as fast as he could move. His mother told investigators: "He wouldn't tell us the whole story for several weeks after. Dad and | were worried stiff he was heading for a breakdown." Alan Chapman, a 26-year-old blacksmith of the town, described a UFO he picked out with a pair of binoculars. "| was watching the sky and saw something very unusual flying at high altitude from northwest to southeast," he said. "There was no sound, although a plane made plenty as it went over shortly before. What first caught my attention was a red light flashing on and off. | got a closeup with my 10x50 binoculars, which gave me good magnification. An aircraft carries lights, but surely not so many as this thing. Apart from the blinking red glow, there were other white and bright lights on either side of it. They shone constantly. | counted six. | could not make out any distinct outline. It seemed to be flying sideways, so far as | could judge. Its speed was terrific, and it did not keep a straight ahead course at all. It crossed the whole sky, vanishing before dipping below the horizon, in about three minutes. | timed it Similar sightings and other strange occurrences prompted the townspeople to call emergency meetings. On August 28th, more than 600 of the citizens turned out for a public inquiry. Many suggested explanations were considered by the people, but none made much sense to those who had been victims of the forces or witnesses to UFO sightings. Some theorized that the sightings and other strange