Things that go bump in the night

[Navaleye]

I've been on a few ships that are supposed to be haunted and had one direct experience myself. Most of the RAF stations have been round a lot longer, has any one come across anything to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end? or could be described as "unusual"? :sad: :confused: :eek:

[tonkatechie]

Getting spooked staying up so late, Navaleye? Most of the camps I've been at always have a haunted HAS, but I've never seen anything. Seen some real horrors in the NAAFI mind you...:eek:

[Navaleye]

No, mine happened at 2pm, but I'm curious to see if anyone else has encountered anything similar especially in the more historic stations.

[Always_broken_in_wilts]

In my 31 years the only "thing" that scared the crap out of me was seeing "pang" in a swim suit on the beach in Akronelli, boy did her foliage need pruning:eek:

all spelling mistakes are 'df" alcohol induced

[BEagle]

Ye gods - that would scare the living daylights out of anyone :eek: !

[SpotterFC]

If it's the same 'Pang' we're talking about then I saw her in a flying marquee (like a suit only bigger) 2 weeks ago - AbiW has taken me to a scary visual place I did not need to go - I will now not be able to sleep for fear of nightmares!:eek:

[Kim Il Jong]

Vaguely remember stories of Nigger seen at Woodal Spa (or was that Scampton?) I thought that ghosts of black dogs were harbingers of death??

Can't remember where, (Brawdy I think) Air tragiccer told me a story of a young lad who had a tea and fag break outside the tower and had a nice chat with fellow SAC whom he'd not met yet, only to find out that said SAC had been killed outside the tower by a bedford van some years earlier....:ooh:

[Melchett01]

Remember being told a story, I think it was about Binbrook, by a mate who was there a good few years ago as an airman. One of the blocks was apparently haunted by the ghost of a pilot who had either killed himself or been killed in an accident (I forget which). The apparition appeared to be cut off mid-shin until someone found out that the floor level had been raised by about 6 inches some years earlier.

And Chicksands Priory has the legend of the nun that was bricked up in the wall having had it away with a monk a few hundred years ago. Supposed to re-appear on the first Thursday of the month.

[TrickyTree]

When I was on Shiney Two at Marham a few years ago we used to call HAS 51 the "haunted HAS". I've a friend who used to be on 617 who says that when they occupied the same site they were wary of it too. All I know is that when I was locking up in the early hours on keys it was the only HAS where I would leave the annex lights on.........

Anyone know any stories about this HAS?

[Blodwyn Pig]

honington had a haunted HAS as well (i think all HAS sites have a haunted HAS!), it was on the old 9 sqn site, and i think it was either built on an old gallows site, or an old saxon burial ground. used to have great fun playing tricks on new blokes if we were using it for live bombing.

14 hangar at valley was meant to be haunted as well, used to get tales of blokes being aware of someone near them,getting very cold,ask them to ' pass me the spanner' sort of thing, look round and there's no one there!

[Navaleye]

Good stuff. Does anyone have 1st hand account?

[TrickyTree]

They used to say at Laarbruch that the Siegfried Line had run through what was to become the airfield and I used to hear some stories about strange goings on down on the old 26 Sqn Regt site. I was on Happy Four then (summer 95 - autumn 98) and our site (which used to be Shiney Two's) apparently had the Line running through one of the HAS pans......now I think on, I think that was pan 51, too. I don't know....it's been 8 years now....I remember there was an old Tonka detuner there though, we used to store waste POL down by there.

The dumpies out at Ali Al Salem used to say too that the Kuwaitis wouldn't go anywhere near some of those HAS's because of things that had happened during the invasion. I know they demolished the old SHQ there.....used to drive past it every day. I'm sure a good few of us on here know all about that though.

Here's a thought! Does anybody know of an airfield which hasn't got a ghost story?

[Two's in]

Spent some time embarked on a Grey Funnel Lines flat deck where a couple of the matelots tried to put the willies up me one night - does that count?

[Jackonicko]

Isn't Cosford's Lincoln supposed to be haunted?

Surely the best known airfield ghost was Lindholme's?

"In World War 2, Lindholme Prison was used as a RAF base for Wellington Bombers who took part in the first bombing raids on Berlin. On the first raid a bomber overshot the runway and crashed in to the bog, killing all five members of its Polish crew.

For years afterwards, the moors were haunted by a figure in flying costume that appeared at
Midnight, asking strangers directions in a foreign tongue.

The stories soon spread to the local villages of Finningley and Hatfield that the distinctive tail of the aircraft could sometimes be seen rising and sinking again when the ghost was on the prowl.


In the 1950's the base was the home to a squadron of Avro Lincoln's, the ghost still appeared.
One night a mechanic working late was so scared by an encounter with the ghost that he skipped duty and was brought up on a charge.


The ghost would continue to appear in the middle of night often standing beside the bed of the pilots. One pilot was so shocked by the apparition that he let out a scream that woke the whole dormitory.


In the 1970's the wreckage of the Wellington Bomber was finally recovered and the remains of four airmen were buried in a local cemetery. In 1975, Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Jenkins and a RAF squadron leader were returning from a training course at nearby RAF Finningley when they spotted a figure dressed in flying kit, standing near the spot where the bomber crashed.


The story drew to a close in 1987 when peat workers found the forty-six year old corpse of a Polish airman.


He was never identified and in November of that year he was laid to rest in a military cemetery. Since being laid to rest the ghost has not been seen."

OR

"RAF Lindholme officially opened under the name of Hatfield Woodhouse but on 18th August 1940 the airfield was changed to RAF Lindholme in order to avoid confusion with Hatfield in Hertfordshire. The Airfield closed in the late 1970's.

There were many fatalities on and around Lindholme during the war and a phantom airman is famous for haunting the airfield. Dressed in mud stained WW2 flying kit "Lindholme Willie" as he is known is believed to have met his end when on board a Wellington bomber that crashed into a nearby peat bog. The Aircraft was later recovered in the 1970's with the remains of the crew still onboard also on 23rd July 1987 the well preserved body of a Polish airman was recovered from a peat bog on Hatfield Moor, and many believe this to be the real "Lindholme Willie"

"Lindholme Willie" has approached many people, asking the way to the mess. He is taken as being very real until he simply disappears before the victims eyes. Other times he has been reported asking the way to the Operations Room and Station Sick quarters but before a reply can be given he disappears.

There are other stories regarding "Lindholme Willie" and RAF Lindholme, below is one that was sent to "Haunted Airfields in Britain" by Mr Frank Lee.

You can read more here http://haib.50g.com/lindholme1.htm

and here http://haib.50g.com/lindholme2.htm"

AND

"Long story short, the pilot (ghost) in question was (like you say) a Polish pilot who—with his compatriots—had a zest for killing Germans. He and his crew flew a Halifax four-engined bomber, which, one unlucky night, caught hell from German flak. The sergeant-pilot, bleeding profusely, struggled to remain conscious as he flew the heavily battered bomber back to base.

With every passing hour, the airplane grew more difficult to control, and the pilot fought off exhaustion. Flak explosions and fighter attacks had punched holes in the bomber from nose to tail and damaged the controls. Finally, with Lindholme in sight, he maneuvered the lumbering beast and ordered the crew to bail out. He remained aboard intending to land, but the bomber dropped into a steep descent, careening wildly out of control as the last man dropped away. Incredibly, the pilot wrested control and brought the bomber level, but that was all the sergeant could manage. The Halifax thundered across Lindholme Airfield, bounced, and then smashed deep into the Lindholme Bog, where a tremendous sheet of soggy bog and water sprayed high into the air. Within a minute or two the huge airplane sank into the sucking morass and then disappeared completely, leaving not a trace.

One night several weeks later, a bloodstained, badly wounded and disheveled sergeant-pilot, in complete flight gear, appeared on the field. He approached a padre assigned to Lindholme, who later clearly recalled the pilot’s strong Polish accent. “Sir, can you direct me to the sergeants’ mess?” the bloody pilot asked.

The padre, shaken by the ghastly sight of a man covered with blood, managed to point toward the sergeants’ mess. As a chill ran up his spine, he also started to question the man about his wounds and to offer assistance; but before the words left his lips, the sergeant-pilot had already ambled away and disappeared into thin air.

The padre gawked in disbelief. This was impossible. The sergeant-pilot had appeared out of nowhere and then moments later—dematerialized. It was too fantastic. The sensation of a trapdoor suddenly opened in the poor man's belly. Even worse, no one else had seen the phantom pilot, even though several individuals had stood feet away. The padre requested an immediate transfer the following morning.

Several more individuals, including a group captain, encountered the ghostly individual months afterward and got rattled to the bone. For the next forty years, the ghost appeared on dark nights, always asking the same question, always withdrawing toward the mess—and lapsing into nothingness.

It wasn’t until local officials decided to reclaim Lindholme Bog for its valuable peat deposits that anybody remembered the vanished Halifax. During excavation, workmen discovered the long-buried wreckage of the bomber. And to their astonishment, the skeleton of the long-deceased Polish sergeant sat in the cockpit, still clothed in the tattered remains of the flight gear he wore the night he died, hands gripping the flight controls.

The Royal Air Force ordered a funeral with full military honors. Former crews who could be found came to Lindholme for the ceremonies. At long last, the heroic pilot found peace.

The bloodied, wounded man who walked Lindholme Airfield at night, whom dozens of officers and men swore they encountered, was never seen again."

AND

"A friend and collegue of mine in the ATC was in the 70s a flight staff cadet at the gliding school at RAF Lindholm (now a prison).He and some other cadets returned to the VGS crewroom unofficially one night going to stay over until the next day.They heard a noise from the hangar attached to the crewroom and went into the adjoining hall to check incase it was the duty officer.They opened the door to the hangar and it was so dark they could not see the Ventures sitting only feet away,they then saw a grey figure moving along the far wall of the hangar,they watched it as it crossed across the hangar doors and lost sight of it as it got close to the wall on their side.The figure then appeared through the wall beside them and he can still describe it,it was a male in WW2 uniform with Pilot Officer rank and Polish pilots wings ,the figure seeemed to know they were there and turned towards them and as it did he could see that the figures face appeared to be badly mangled on one side.The staff cadets then Made a swift retreat into the crewroom and out the window they had got in by.
My friend later found out that the path taken by the figure through the wall had been a corridor and the figure was known as "LIndholm Willie" he was thought to have been a Polish pilot whose aircraft had crashed into Lindholm Bog during WW2 and whose body and aircraft had never been recovered apparently the wreck of the aircraft occasionaly surfaced in the bog and when it did "Willie" appeared.In the 80s the remains of a Polish airman were recovered from the bog and buried with full military honours "Willie was never seen again."

The Lindholme aircraft was also said to have been a Wellington.....

[Jackonicko]

"RAF Cosford Ghost
Standing in the hanger of RAF Cosford is the only true Lincoln RF398 long range heavy bomber built in 1945. she is the last of the piston- engined bombers used by the RAF and frequently visited by the ghost of a young man.
Many staff have experienced strange goings on near and in the aircraft. The first incident occurred when, in 1980, someone was locking the hanger for the night. Looking back he saw someone move in the old aircraft and so switched back on the lights. Having searched all the corners of the aircraft he turned to switch off the lights when a "cloudy thing" appeared.

Later that week a mechanic was working alone on the Lincoln. He felt around in the dark for a spanner which had just fallen, when it was thrust into his hand.

Many people have taken a great interest in the ghost; spiritualists claim the phantom sings to them, others that he is a wartime airman taking up residence in the peacetime aircraft. Could it be the ghost of Master Pilot Hiller who loved the aircraft saying on his last flight that he would "haunt his baby". Hiller was killed near Cosford in an air crash.

More recently the secretary to the museum society was busy preparing a notice board about the Lincoln when she heard her name being called. Thinking it was one of the museum staff calling her for a cup of tea she look toward the Lincoln, then toward the door but saw no one. To this day she will not enter the hangar alone.

He may have a wicked sense of humour but he also has a good side. Once an electrician was working fifteen feet above the ground when he suddenly fell. He remembers thinking "this is it" because he had already injured his spine in a similar fall from another aeroplane. But instead of hitting the concrete floor with expected force he floated to a stop "as if", he said, "some invisible force had prevented his fall from being fatal". Very few have seen the ghost, and those who have say he is seen in the gun-turret at the rear, or in the navigators seat in the cockpit. Who ever he is he provides well for the people who work on his beloved aircraft for whenever anything is needed, including old parts for the engine they always appear, often close to the person who needs it."

[Samuel]

Ive seen comment, although I now can't recall where, of the St George pub/hotel at Darlington which was formerly the Officers' Mess at Middleton-St George, apparently having a ghost of a pilot who died when he crashed into it one day.:eek: He even has a name!

Report on accident to Gloster Meteor Mk. 1V. Serial no. VW297. No. 205 Advanced Flying School. 24th November 1951.

Pilot: Flying Officer Raymond Thomas Norman, aged 33.
F/O Norman took off from RAF Middleton St. George. At approximately 14.45 hrs. he informed Air Traffic Control that he was about to carry out an asymmetric approach, landing and overshoot. This was acknowledged by the Air Traffic Controller and a successful approach and landing was made. After touchdown the aircraft rolled for some distance before the pilot opened up the live engine to attempt a go-around. The aircraft pulled to starboard and became airborne for a few yards before crashing into the ground floor of the west wing of the Officers' Mess. The pilot was killed. F/O Norman was inexperienced on type.


http://hometown.aol.com/barneyconcannon/articles.htm

[Samuel]

Read this :uhoh: to the tune of ghostly music.

I used to hitch-hike up the old A1 from near the Ram Jam Inn at Stretton, and I arrived at that point by application of a little local knowledge, [not mine, a local's!]. If you walked past the Officer' Mess at Cottesmore, [and thereby avoiding the main gate!], there were various styles and footpaths which brought you to the village of Greetham, which was then about two miles to the A1 and Stretton. The path actually went through the churchyard, which is fine on a late summer's day. Lovely places old cemeteries.

Having been dropped off at something like 0400 very dark on the return to an 0800 shift, I then had the prospect of the four mile walk by road to Cottesmore...or take the short-cut through the Greetham cemetery. Being a big, brave, airman, and utterly fire-proof, I chose the short-cut, but believe me, ancient cemeteries, at night, have not one, but dozens of ghosts. They're everywhere! I ran from that cemetery back the two miles to Cottesmore at record speed, cleared three styles without touching!

[zedder]

"Here's a thought! Does anybody know of an airfield which hasn't got a ghost story?"
Hadn't heard of any Ghost Story up here at ISK until recently, but apparently the Ghost of Morale is now making regular appearances.
I suspect it will be out regularly when the troops do some practice camping on Northside towards the end of March!
Had to laugh when OC Pansy's Own Sqn said it wasn't practice bleeding during his tannoy to the Stn the other day', although I suppose it does mean that someone here has a finger on the pulse and knows what the troops are thinking!!
"Warfighter first, Specialist second":yuk:

[philrigger]

...where a couple of the matelots tried to put the willies up me one night....

I bet that hurt !!!!!!!!!!

'We knew how to whinge but we kept it to the NAAFI bar'.

[teeteringhead]

Not aviation necessarily but certainly airfield related...

A few years ago at Aldergrove I was in the Station Theatre (ex Astra, ex Rugby Club etc etc) doing some scenery painting in the cramped area backstage. Thought I was in that area by myself - it was pretty cramped - when I felt someone touch my shoulders (I was crouched down) as if to get past.

As I was balancing a jam jar full of paint in one hand and a brush in the other, I squeezed forward to let them pass without looking round ......

...... and then when I put paint and brush down to see who it was - there was nobody there...

Turned out other people had felt "strange presences", but I don't recall anyone saying they had seen anything.....

[Roland Pulfrew]

There is an excellent series of books available that were done on the back of the "Action Stations" series. When the authors were doing their research they came across numerous ghost stories so decided to do a series of books called "Ghost Stations". I had the set and lent them to a 'mate' once, haven't seen them since, so they seem to have been subject a rather spooky disappearance!!!

[PerArdua]

" but apparently the Ghost of Morale is now making regular appearances.
:
Not here, it has been exorcised by the Air Ships/Government:E
PA

[Strictly Jungly]

Chicksands spectre is still alive and well and was experienced many times whilst I was stationed there. Cold sensation and definite standing of the hairs on neck!!!!

[ZH875]

Jacko,

The ghost of the RAF Cosford museum's Avro Lincoln B2 RF398 is nothing more than an elaborate hoax.

The whole story was told on London Weekend Television's 'Strange But True Encounters' with Michael Aspel.

Basically around 1977/78, there was a new museum (Manchester Air & Space Museum) opening which wanted an Avro aircraft, as Avro were based around the Manchester area), and the then Curator of the RAF Museum at Hendon, Dr John Tanner, decided that the Lincoln from Cosford should be relocated. As a member of the team that was 'looking after' the Lincoln, and knowing what an attraction she was, it was felt that one of the handfull of Shackleton aircraft (both AEW2 and MR3) at Cosford would be a better 'gift' leaving RF398 at Cosford.

Most of the 'ghostly' goings on at Cosford are easily explained, and the stories that you quote are pure fabrication. I can remember spending many moments hiding in the engine bay of the TSR 2, waiting for the hangar to be opened and the lights turned on, just to give the museum secretary the heebie jeebies.

Ivan Spencely, the great ghost writer was not amused, as he found that all his reported goings on were faked. But why did LWT offer me the princely sum of £40 to 'confirm' the goings on?. Maybe it was because the star item of their show was now reduced to the last 10 minutes.

The reason the team came clean after some 17 years of maintaining the hoax, was that it got out of hand. The senior member of the 'Lincoln Crew' had many letters from people who had lost loved ones in aircraft crashes, who wondered if the 'Phantom Whistler' or other sightings could have been their relative, JS believed that he could not give these people this false sense.

The aim of the hoax was succesful, as RF398 is still at Cosford, but as a member of the 'Lincoln Crew' I hereby lay the ghost of RF398 to rest.

"RF398 - The Spirit Lives On"

[El Mirador]

well I am the wife of El Mirador and non military...just a wife and some years back I worked at the Saddleclub of R.A.F Northolt. The Saddleclub is actually on the station. Anyway I was there from dawn until very late at night every night doing various horsey things.
I remember the horses would be a monumental pain and spook pretty violently past the green gates when I would lead them back to their fields along the A40 side. They would gallop away from a certain area around that field and huddle in the corner. I put this down to shelter availability and other animal instinct type things etc. Anyway I was about to turn them out one night wind whistling and howling (very atmospheric) but when you're knackered and cold and wet and female ghosts are the LAST thing you give a hoot (great pun intended!) about. I was fighting the neddies and I saw a rather strange figure walking across said paddock. I told the police as thought somebody had cut through external fence. Now there is nowhere to go except the way I had come unless there was a hole in said fence. I turned out ponies still watching figure that moved slightly (looked oddly dressed but too dark and far for me to see properly) turned to shut gate...gone. Police found no sign, no hole no footprints (all total mud along that fence from horses galloping along there away from gate. I told hubby who was told the old stables where haunted by some airmen...Now think it all fairly good fun so would love to know if anybody else had experienced anything here. A pretty strong non beliver here but up for anything!Horses sure hated that gate though!