MoD releases Halloween 1952 incident report—but with half the pages redacted

Got this through a FOIA request yesterday (took nearly two years of back-and-forth). It's a report from 31 October 1952, filed by RAF Tangmere, regarding a 'radar anomaly' over the South Downs. The document is 14 pages, but pages 7-11 are completely blacked out. Not even a hint of what was written there.

What we can see is interesting enough: two ground observers reported visual sighting of 'unusual craft', radar operators confirmed 'target of unknown origin', duration 47 minutes, 'no conventional explanation offered'. Standard 1950s UFO report format. But then... redaction. The explanatory pages, presumably.

Why would they redact a 72-year-old Halloween radar blip? If it was misidentification, why not just say so? I've attached the scanned PDF below. Anyone else get anything similar through FOIA requests? Seems like a pattern where atmospheric events or astronomical phenomena get redacted while actual UFO explanations don't.

The redactions are standard practice - they typically black out operational details, personnel names, and any classified methodology. Not necessarily sinister. The fact that they released 10 of 14 pages is actually more transparent than most 1950s military documents. Could be anything from pilot training procedures to classified radar frequencies they didn't want publicizing.

I've obtained similar reports from 1952-1954. The redaction pattern is genuinely inconsistent. Sometimes it's a few lines, sometimes entire sections. I've wondered if it depends on who processed the request rather than what's actually sensitive. Bureaucratic chaos rather than conspiracy, possibly.

This is great work, OP. The 1952 wave is one of the most well-documented UFO periods. RAF Tangmere is particularly interesting because of its proximity to Chichester airfield and the relatively high density of reports from that area. Have you cross-referenced this with the Blue Book files from the US?

Why would they redact a 72-year-old Halloween radar blip?

Because they found something they still don't want to explain. The fact that they're releasing anything suggests they're confident the explanation won't hold up to scrutiny, so they're withholding it. Old document = less urgent, perfect cover for indefinite redaction.