Gateshead, Tyne and Wear 1940

“Other children were petrified and in shock. They were trying to get over the railway, but there was barbed wire and they were getting cut and were screaming”.

Society saw an influx of alien tales in the 1980s, often attributed to the rise in films about aliens (Close Encounters, E.T, Aliens, etc), which forces people to take those stories with a pinch of salt. But what about stories of aliens predating the 1980s aliens-in-cinema boom? Say about 40 years prior…

We’re in Gateshead on a spring day in 1940, Robert Hall (five-years-old at this point) was out playing with his friends on the backstreets of a terraced housing estate. Soldiers littered the streets, and Robert observed a group marching nearby - a pretty normal occurrence for this era. But something else caught Robert’s eye, something even at five-years-old he could tell was not normal. This not-normal ‘thing’ whizzed through the sky just behind the marching soldiers, and none of Robert’s friends had noticed.

Robert and one of his friends decided they’d had enough air for the day and trudged back home in time for dinner. This journey home would change the trajectory of Robert’s life forever. They travelled behind the houses, with the rear of the red-bricked buildings flanking their either side. The air around them began to ‘shimmy’, as if in a heatwave, but Robert realised they were walking directly through the distortion as if it was a tangible thing… And then they spotted it.

“A big egg-shaped thing surrounded by bright light!”

This egg-shaped vehicle hovered in front of the boys. Weirded out already, it only got stranger as they noticed around 20 odd looking creatures. Between two and four feet tall, Robert recalled later that one of them looked strikingly like Big Foot while another had long flowing hair and a coat that partially covered a skeletal body and bat wings. Another one of these creatures appeared human-like, with long blonde hair… which would go on to fit the description of many reported alien sightings in America during the 1950s, ten years after Robert’s sighting.

An artist’s impression of what Robert described seeing that day, by Richard D. Hall.

Robert recalled seeing other children that had gathered to get a glimpse of the object and creatures, stating that they, too, were in a complete state of shock. Some were attempting to climb over barbed wire just to get away from the creatures, slicing and cutting themselves in the process. Robert explained later in life that these creatures could speak perfect English, and addressed them directly asking if they were permitted to ‘examine’ them. Robert told the creatures that the country was in the midst of a war with Germany, but despite their protests, the creatures took Robert and his friend aboard their vehicle.

Robert, still confused in his later years, insists that somehow the creatures managed to take a blood sample from the back of his neck. During this procedure, the creatures warned him that if he moved he’d be instantly killed and so five-year-old Robert stayed as still as he could. After a few more prods and pokes, of which Robert cannot remember, they were freed from the vehicle and the two boys ran home.

As any child would do, desperate to be believed, Robert told his parents and the soldiers passing by his house of what happened… and was met with cynicism. The soldiers humoured the small boy, and as they turned the corner to go look at this back alleyway, they spotted the vehicle rising up into the air. Robert recalls one of the soldiers shooting his gun up at the ship, but none of the bullets seemed to hit it. The soldiers mused that 20 creatures could not possibly fit into a ship that is only 12 to 14 feet wide.

The following day, as if Robert needed anymore excitement, two men dressed in black suits approached Robert, and warned him that if he spoke of yesterday’s incident to anybody… he would disappear… A pretty cruel thing to say to a five-year-old, whoever these men were. Days passed and Robert was back to being a boy, he decided to play-out again in the back alleys near his home. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a grey creature appeared and snatched Robert from the street. Fortunately for the boy, whether this was an alien or just a weirdo wanting to snatch a boy, Robert’s uncle was walking nearby and managed to intervene. Using a coal shovel as a weapon, his uncle swung at the creature, landing a hit straight on its head.

Robert ran to find a policeman, and upon recollection Robert claims it was a Sergeant Brookes that helped them that day. Brookes called in the dead, grey creature and not too soon after the army approached to take the body away. Robert, as most UFO reporters do, faced no end of ridicule from friends and the press upon telling his story.

The story was picked up by Richard Hall (no relation, apparently), a veteran UFO researcher. Trying to find credibility in Robert’s story, Richard did claim that several of the shop and street names Robert used in his story were all accurate at the time of the encounter and a Sergeant Brookes did work for the police force in the 1940s. It feels almost impossible for us to wrap our head around something that we’ve never personally had experience with… that, mixed with the fact that Robert was only five-years-old when this occurred would cause a lot of folk to take this story with a pinch of salt.

Details of Robert’s story have never wavered since retelling it throughout his adulthood, and as with the Todmorden UFO story, I never want to think that someone is lying about their experiences and given the ridicule that those with an alien story face, it would seem like a strange thing to invite into your life if you were, in fact, not telling the truth.