I've only had one vivid experience that 'could' be attributed to being a ghost. Still can't be sure as it was my late father in law who I saw. The only other experience occurred in Normandy. I freely admit that my prior knowledge of the events at the Abbaye D'Ardenne could very well be the reason why I felt uneasy throughout my time in that garden. Nothing I could put my finger on other than it gave me the creeps and I felt very uncomfortable. That type of sensation had not happened to me before or since.
I am slightly reluctant to post this, as I don't want to be branded a nutter.. lol I will start by saying, I DO NOT believe in ghosts/ afterlife/ blah blah.. so the following must have rational explanations, however to this day I cannot find one... Visiting the Former RAF Wombleton near Helmsley in North Yorkshire one evening ( I used to drive a bus up there ) I was on route to Helmsley, but had 20 mins break so stopped in my favourite hidey hole, at the entrance to the former airfield and lit a fag. I set off for my usual wander around ( visited many times ) and as it was a pleasantly warm, sunny evening decided to sit for a while on the hay bales, and enjoy my cig ( yes I know... I was careful ) anyway I suddenly heard what I knew to be the sound of multiple Merlins, with one struggling. I jumped up and looked around, expecting to see something coming over, very low ( it wasn't uncommon to see the BBMF in the area ) but nothing was in sight. From my vantage point I could see clearly for a long distance however there was nothing in the sky. The Merlins sounded to get nearer and definitely sounded in trouble but suddenly faded away, as if being masked by a shifting wind, if you know what I mean. Anyway, the sound went and that was that.. and to this day I have no explanation of what it was, I would like to think it was local farm machinery however I am very familiar with the sound of a Merlin, and can most definitely say that is what I heard.. Many years before that I had another weird experience driving a bus in Bradford, this one isn't war related but just as unexplained as the Wombleton one.. I was driving a service bus, a double decker on the last trip of the night towards Bradford centre, when I left the terminus I had a group of lads on but they got off half a dozen stops later and a middle aged woman got on. A few minutes after that there was a commotion upstairs, the sound of raised voices and a scuffle, I looked in the periscope ( so the driver can see the top deck ) and there was nothing up there, I had turned the upstairs lights out thinking it was empty. I stopped the bus, turned the lights on and went up to check, there was no-one up there.. it was empty. I went back to the cab and asked the remaining passenger if she had heard it too, and she said she had and it had scared her, thinking it was trouble.. so it wasn't just me. Again, I have no idea what caused it, it was rather unnerving at the time..
Got three wartime related ghost stories, though none of them were experienced personally. First off, at RAF Ridgewell, after the war the headquarters site was used as a plastics factory. It would run 24 hours a day so therefore required people working night shifts. Two guys in particular would often take the nightshift and would regularly (may have been exaggerated over time - was definitely more than once) see two airmen dressed in flight gear walking into the headquarters building (now offices for the factory) through the front door and out of the other end, through the door that has since been bricked up. Nobody believed them of course until one night after the shifts changed an the same two airmen were seen by other people. There have been houses on the site for the last 10 years or so, but I have no idea if the airmen still come to visit. The second, also at Ridgewell, involves the hospital site which currently houses the 381st BG museum. In years gone by one of the nissen huts was used by a local man as a workshop. He would often stay late at night working. Fairly often he would open up in the mornings to find his tools had moved from the place he was sure he'd left them. He would write this off as the effects of the drink or two he'd had the night before - until one day he's lost one of his spanners he'd only used the previous day. He hunted for this spanner, and finally found it sitting on top of the window sill, covered in a thick layer of dust. He lifted the spanner, to find it's perfect outline remained in the dust - as if it had been sitting there for decades. He was so freaked out by this, he moved his gear out and never went back. Having spent some time there myself, I have never felt anything but a warm presense in the building, despite the fact it's almost always freezing cold. Maybe just a ghost that likes a bit of mischief. Nothing in the museum has moved around though. The third one took place at RAF Sudbury, home to the 486th Bomb Group USAAF. A friend of mine used to regularly walk his dog on the airfield - most of the perimiter track and runways remain, though the runways are no more than single track width these days. One particular day he was walking the dog at about 6/7am, in the kind of fog where you can only see a few meters infront of you. Suddenly he heard a low rumbling noise that was only getting loader before sounding like a roar of engines. The dog started going berzerk(they say dogs have a 6th sense for this kind of thing) and all of a sudden a B-24 Liberator emerged from the fog lower than treetop height, visible for no more than a few seconds before dissapearing back into the fog. He was quite shaken up by it but eventually dismissed the episode as a figment of his imagination. He bumped into the postman who was reading his paper in the car park, and he's heard seen nothing. He also realised that B-17s flew from Sudbury, therefore he must have just dreamt the whole thing -- That was until he told me the story and I informed him that the 486th were originally equipped with Liberators, and did indeed fly them from Sudbury.... I should point out that although I don't believe in ghosts per se, I do think there are some phenomenon that occur that cannot yet be explained by science. Who's to say that it's not possible for some kind of image projection cannot somehow be captured by nature and 'replayed' under certain conditions. Just because we don't yet have scientific proof, doesn't mean such things don't exist (and this goes for just about anything - even the fairies that live at the bottom of the garden).
i have had a few. RAF Ingham and RAF East kirkby, both in bomber county (lincolnshire) both were footsteps. the 1st was at ingham, a cold october night around 10pm. just me and my girlfriend at the time and there was no one around but us. never been so scared!! the 2nd was at east kirkby. it was a special events day so lots of people were around. heard someone coming down corridor towards me and stood waiting but no one appeared, very strange
was the book called ghost stations? or Arghhh? both by same author - bruce barrymore halpenny? this is to oldman
Isn't there a tale of this kind about a B-24 which slammed against a hillside village (round '43?), killing a lot of civilians? Can't remember the name of the place right now, though.
to gage. 1st part, i imagine things still happen there. 2nd part don't blame him, id do the same 3rd part this is a very regularly occuring theme in your type of experiences, i recommend reading ghost station series 1 - 7. happy reading
Nothing ww2 related but have seen/felt some odd things. My flat is haunted. I have over the years had a variety of visitors and one very strange experience of I think a dopple ganger. It was the middle of the night (isn't it always) and my self and my partner were asleep. I woke up to what sounded like someone being sick and I sat up in bed. Sat on the pile of books at the end of the bed was my partner. I sat up in bed and asked him if he was ok. He looked at me, smiled & nodded. Nothing strange in that you might think, except I turned round and looked in the bed and there he was lying fast asleep!!!! Very strange. I once worked for a pub which used to be an old coaching inn and went down into the cellar to get some ice. Had a very strong impression of a man dressed in a black cloak and hat!! Didn't stay long enough to find out any more details and wouldn't go down there the rest of the shift lol
Isn't there a tale of this kind about a B-24 which slammed against a hillside village (round '43?), killing a lot of civilians? Can't remember the name of the place right now, though. Freckleton Disaster Main Page
Looking up this thread from the beginning I saw quite a few ghosts, people disappeared in a now distant past
Also had a strange experience in Wales, in fact I had a couple. First one we were riding our motorbikes along the coast road near Cader idris and Snowdon. It was a beautiful evening and the sun was setting showing a 'pathway' on the sea. For a few seconds I somehow felt time shift and almost stand still. It felt almost like I could drive off the edge of the road onto the 'pathway' towards the setting sun. Luckily came out of the revery and carried on riding. Another time we took a mountain road from Bleanau to Cwm Penmachno. It was night & there were just 2 of us. Really didn't want to be at the back, but as I didn't know the route I had to be. Definitely felt something following us, kept expecting glowing red eyes to show in my mirrors, felt like my back was on fire. It wasn't until we'd got down the other side and crossed over a stream that the feeling stopped. Never ever want to repeat that
to warlord, did you read warlord and victor annuals? No, mate, sadly... Stuff of this kind is almost impossible to find down in these latitudes. Was thinking more of the 06/06/44, even though now that I think about it, a nick from SEAC would have been more fitting. Guess I'll change it one day to Jaywick or something like that
Freckleton Disaster Main Page Clive, Freckleton was just down the road from where I used to live and the land is pretty flat with the Ribble estuary, no hills as such. That day it was down to very bad weather conditions and lightning strike. My late American Uncle, Ross Hubley, was in charge of the training school for the Norden Bomb sight, based at Warton where the Plane was flown from for test. Base Air Depot No 2 (BAD2) He worked for Honeywell and was an expert on early electro/mechanical computers used in the bombsight mechanism. He was one of the first Americans on site and was there at the time of the disaster. Regards Tom
dogmatix welcome to the forum The book as far as my memory serves me was a volume of Ghost Stations, which one I do not know
to gage. 1st part, i imagine things still happen there. 2nd part don't blame him, id do the same 3rd part this is a very regularly occuring theme in your type of experiences, i recommend reading ghost station series 1 - 7. happy reading The first few Ghost Station books are good but the stories get weaker the higher the number.
Not heard any ghostly stories about the airfield at Hornchurch (or what is left of it). The Officers Mess still exists (now a healthcare centre) and no supernatural rumours I have heard of, but the Pub across the road - the Good Intent - apparently had some ghost pilot events. Not heard anything recently so can't say if they still carry on.
I've never seen a ghost, but some years ago I was home alone up in my room building a plastic model ship while the rest of the family went in town, and around teatime i heard them come back, but when i went down to greet them there was nobody there. Yet i'd clearly heard their voices in the street, and heard the gate unlatch, and heard their key going into the front door lock, then heard their footsteps and voices in the hall. Later i read in a book that the phenomena is called 'False Arrival' and is not uncommon. More recently there was a factual TV prog about ghosts and it included a False Arrival, the manager of a small engineering firm was working late on his own one night doing the accounts in the old control tower on a disused airfield (can't remember which one) where his firm was renting some hangars, when he heard footsteps plodding up the stone stairs and stop outside his door. After a short silence he impatiently called out "Well come on in then!", but nobody did. He went and opened the door but there was nobody there. One theory says that if we're doing something that requires a lot of mental concentration (such as me building that fiddly ship, and the manager doing the accounts) our minds can play tricks, giving rise to False Arrival experiences. Others say our tired minds can't protect themselves against demons which can get into our heads and mess our minds about. Some students kill themselves after heavy studying because of tired minds. Maybe that's why the Sabbath is supposed to be a day of rest, to allow our tired brains to recharge.
I read an interesting account concerning aircraft in a UFO book, some hikers were standing on cliffs overlooking the English Channel a few years ago, watching a circle of lights very high in the clear blue sky like a diamond bracelet slowy rotating and catching glints of the sun, no aircraft were visible, just the twinkling lights. An elderly local resident came up and asked them what they were looking at, so they pointed out the circle to him. His face went white and he stammered- "I've seen them before, many years ago." "Where? When?" they asked him, and he replied-"In 1940 during the Battle of Britain I saw Messerschmitt 110 defensive circles with the sun glinting off their perspex canopies" (In dogfights it was the case that pilots of the Me110 often resorted to flying in a defensive circle which, it was thought, would give their rear gunners the best chance of keeping off British fighters)
