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The ghost of RAF Chivenor

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The ghost of RAF Chivenor

Old 11th Mar 2011, 20:55
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There is the story of the ghost of a dog that haunts the Officers' Mess at Chivenor. The details are sketchy, but apparently the dog belonged to an officer during WW2. As said oficer was leaving the mess to fly on an operation, the door slammed behind him and the dog's tail was accidentaly severed. Despite treatment, the dog died from the injury.

One midnight, on the aniversary of the dog's death, the duty barman in the Mess heard a rattling behind him as he was locking up. He turned to see the ghostly shape of a dog in the corner: a ghosty voice was heard "I need the rest of me to complete my journey to the other side".

The barman was not phased, and replied: "Sorry. I'm not allowed to re-tail spirits after half past ten".

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Old 11th Mar 2011, 22:59
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An instructor on my Squadron "bought the farm" at RAF Chivenor doing a practise turn-back in Hawk back in 1992 at RAF Chivenor. Flt Lt Philip "PMAR" Martin died of his injuries 10 days later in hospital from serious burns.

Air Crash, Chivenor (Hansard, 26 October 1992)

http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/6C864...4_30sept92.pdf

A very sad day for me...PMAR was a really top bloke

LJ
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Old 12th Mar 2011, 16:04
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In the early 1970's Maurice Looker was something to do with the West London Aero Club at Booker.
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Old 12th Mar 2011, 16:31
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In the early 1970's Maurice Looker was something to do with the West London Aero Club at Booker.
Post-war founder of WLAC - at White Waltham.
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Old 14th Mar 2011, 15:16
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Many people, myself included find the subject of reported paranormal activity in/around airfields to be interesting.

As mentioned, several books have been written on this subject and the Historic Aviation section of the Key Publishing forum has been running a thread about this for 7 years !! If you find this thread be warned, it has hundreds of posts and is highly addictive!!!

Most of the activity is reported on RAF airfields both current and dis-used.

Anyone else find airfields with a historic past to be "atmospheric" is some way?
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Old 14th Mar 2011, 20:52
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Anyone else find airfields with a historic past to be "atmospheric" is some way?
I heard that Leuchars used to have Phantoms....
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Old 19th Jul 2012, 03:00
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Chivenor ghosts/Saunton

Ref my mention in another post, my mum Stella, still alive and kicking, worked at the base later WW2. Says they were fixing damaged planes etc + ?. Never mentioned ghosts, maybe was bad luck then. Will ask and post anything new.

Ref a crash ex-Chivenor. We went Croyde etc for early 50s summer hols thru the family local. One Croyde Beach day age about 5 one of the Chivenor planes hit the large hill to the rear/east of the village causing a huge smoke plume, must have been around 1952/3. Think the RAFetc emerg dashed to it along the cliff road. Maybe one of the ghost candidates.

Plus. Ref uncle W.Cdr Peter Berry (see other post). Another story from my mum/granny: PB and family were in the area '60s, not sure if family hol in Braunton, or at Chivenor posting. But a mine had washed up on Saunton beach. He was somehow dragged into dealing with it - according to their story the result was the complete blowing in of every window in the Saunton Sands Hotel - which was alot of windows. Anyone know about this?
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Old 19th Jul 2012, 08:53
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Although I generally disagree with many points of view on here, I accept that for the most part, posters are essentially intelligent individuals..........

And yet here we are having a 'serious' discussion about ghosts!
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Old 19th Jul 2012, 15:04
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Originally Posted by Leon Jabachjabicz
An instructor on my Squadron "bought the farm" at RAF Chivenor doing a practise turn-back in Hawk back in 1992 at RAF Chivenor. Flt Lt Philip "PMAR" Martin died of his injuries 10 days later in hospital from serious burns.
A sad day, the image of the brave, brave fire crew battling to to get the poor man out will stay with me for the rest of my life. Flt Lt Martin is buried on the hill up at Heanton Punchardon churchyard. Hard to believe that was 20 years ago, where the heck does time go?

Anyhoo, I cant recollect any memories of ghosts on Chiv though I did see a few 'monsters' meandering drunkenly up the old railtrack (and answering the call of nature in the bushes) through the IR security camera system in the MGR when on standby guard one friday night.

Last edited by Walrus75; 19th Jul 2012 at 15:04.
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Old 2nd Dec 2017, 23:09
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A group of us have done a very comprehensive report into this crash and commemorated the 75th anniversary last week the Beaufighter crash at Chivenor, Payne and Standring
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Old 3rd Dec 2017, 09:02
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I was fortunate to serve for three separate occasions at Chivenor. 67-68 DF/GA and FR course, 72-74 OC 79, and 82-85 OC Fg Wg. The stories of Hunter and Hawk drivers have become legends in their own right but I never heard of any ghostly appearances (unless it was associated with The Gribble Inn or the Thatched).
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Old 3rd Dec 2017, 10:14
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1973/74 ish, and newly minted TA capt in RCT(V), on Movement Officers Course at Prince William of Gloucester Bks (ie RAF Spitalgate that was). Tradition established (we had a former cavalry officer with us) of champagne only after 2300 hours. Someone started telling ghost stories, mostly with an aviation bias, and there were rumours of a ghost in the mess. Next morning Scottish subaltern goes to the Colonel and resigns on account, he says, of the ghost in the Mess.
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Old 3rd Dec 2017, 16:11
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If he resigned for that, he was hardly a big loss to his regiment!

Last edited by ShotOne; 3rd Dec 2017 at 17:03.
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Old 5th Dec 2017, 11:06
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Danny has a brush with the Paranormal ....

Fake Sealion (#45),
Anyone else find airfields with a historic past to be "atmospheric" is some way?
Excerpt from my Post, Page 300, #5989 on "Gaining A Pilot's Brevet":

Many old RAF Stations have resident Ghosts: some well known like the Middleton Ghost in the St.George Hotel (former Officers' Mess) at Teeside Airport, others less so. Our Ghost at Leeming was in the latter category.

The story was current when I arrived there in Summer '67, and our Ghost continued to put in appearances, at irregular intervals, all the time (but progressively less frequently) until I left at the end of '72.
Any information from the readership about subsequent sightings would be welcome on this Thread.

There was no internet or Google to refer to in those days, and we are solely dependent on oral testimony . The story, as I heard it, runs as follows: Some time after the war, there was a training accident at Leeming. The aircraft was supposed to be one of the Beaufighter family (Buckmaster, as I recall). Pilot and Nav were killed. (No other details).

One late afternoon in the early days of the JP era, the aircraft were being put away in No.1 Hangar at close of play. It was dusk, but far from dark. An airman busy about his duties passed a figure sitting nonchalently on the wing of one of the parked JPs. It was wearing the flying overalls of the time. "Have you seen Flt.Lt. So-and-so ?" asked the figure. "No, sir", answered the airman (not knowing - or much caring - who Flt.Lt. So-and-so might be). He took a step or two more, then curiousity impelled him to look back. The figure had vanished.

He looked swiftly round the hangar. The light was quite enough to see by. But he was quite alone there. He later recalled that he felt in no way alarmed, only puzzled by the strange occurrence. He decided to keep quiet about it (he wouldn't be believed, in any case, and it would only attract mockery).

But in the following weeks, at irregular intervals, other airmen had similar experiences and the story came to light. The tales had many features in common. The apparition was always in, or close around, No.1 Hangar. It only appeared about the same time of day - late afternoon to early evening. The question was always the same. He was always in flying kit. He only appeared to one man at a time, even though others might be quite close, they saw and heard nothing.

He was by no means a fightening or menacing Ghost, quite the opposite. He seemed affable, but with an anxious, distracted air, as if his thoughts were far elsewhere. Soon there was a renewed interest in the affair after a sudden variation of the pattern one winter evening. A crew bus was travelling through the wide space between 2 and 3 Hangars, again about the end of the flying day. The driver was moving about 20 mph towards 2 Hangar, when a figure appeared right in front of his bus. He braked hard, but the figure vanished under the front wheels. He felt no bump.

He stopped and jumped out to see whom he'd run over, but there was nobody there. Plenty of people had been passing by off work, and some had been attracted by the scream of brakes. But none of them had seen the stranger, either before or after the supposed "impact". The driver got back and drove on, bewildered.

Of course, from time to time, "ghost-busting" groups of two or three set out, pot-valiant, from the Messes and NAAFI after dinner to confront this "ghost". But when they walked away from the bright lights, through the gloomy technical sections of the camp, to the now deserted, unlit black hangars standing like huge, menacing cathedrals in the darkness, their courage failed. There had been loose talk about drawing the hangar side door keys to have a scout round inside, but now that didn't seem a good idea at all. They turned tail and walked back.

And that's about it.

Danny42C.
 
Old 5th Dec 2017, 11:46
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If he resigned for that, he was hardly a big loss to his regiment!
No, for refusing to serve spirits....... hat, coat......
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Old 5th Dec 2017, 15:38
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The old RAF Scampton Officers' Mess bar corridor was reputed to contain an unpleasant, "presence" of some sort. When I was stationed there (1988-89) I was told by the Mess manager that staff didn't like going to the cellar alone because some had been pushed or poked by something unseen.

A member of the Red Arrows, on Station Duty Officer duties and locking up last thing at night, was very much unsettled when he encountered a figure in WW2 flying clothing, standing by the fireplace in the Ante room.

What was even more surprising was that the station actually managed to pin down a member of the Reds to be the SDO.....!
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Old 6th Dec 2017, 10:32
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Maybe he was temporarily unfit flying......
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Old 10th Jul 2018, 08:43
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Originally Posted by Halton Brat
I have a book (on loan to a friend at the moment), which records the story of a Heinkel 111 crew who were shot down & perished on Anglesey during the War of the Austrian House Painter. This erudite tome suggests that a chap in WW2 Luftwaffe uniform wandered up to a German Tonka crew at an Open Day airshow at Valley in the late 80's, and had a bizarre conversation with the Deutsche crew, in somewhat dated German language. He was stunned & disbelieving by the performance data of the Tornado & disputed their Staffel details. The Luftwaffe crew were disturbed enough to report the incident, & were shown photographs of the deceased He111 crew. They positively identified one of them as the chap they had encountered.

The book also recounts reported ghostly sightings by guards on the Menai Bridges, subsequent to the He111 shootdown, of apparitions attempting to cross to the mainland, but being unable to do so.

Must desist now; hairs on the back of my neck are up: I have spirits in the house. Fortunately, they are imprisoned in a bottle of Auchentoshan Single Malt. I now intend to open it & offer single combat...........
I just wondered if anyone recognised the book being discussed here as it sounds like something i would like to read. If you have any information such as the title of the book and/or the author i would be grateful if you could let me know
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Old 10th Jul 2018, 15:26
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Originally Posted by sharpend
Actually, when I was on the staff at Chivenor in the early 80s, those who lived in the old wood huts at the Officer's mess did report a ghost. They all heard a person 'clanking' down the corridor. Apparantly, it was the dying body of a chopped Hunter pilot who hanged himself by the chain the in the bogs. It broke under his weight and he crawled down the corridor to get help, but died on the way. True story.
Geeze, it just goes to show how hard it can hit some if pride, honour and ambition are at stake! Wonder if the chop was permanent or if the poor chap was otherwise on his way to another OCU for a more staid type? Vulcans?

FB
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Old 14th Jul 2018, 14:46
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As a young moglet flying Chippies from Linton, I once spotted a formation of 3 Tiger Moths over the Vale of Pickering. Thinking it would be a good wheeze, I came up behind them. As I closed from their deep 6, I realised that they weren't Tigers - but an SE5a with two Sopwith Pups!!

I snuck away and flew back very carefully. Waiting for the sky to turn a funny colour and the compass to start spinning!
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