ianw Posted 12 January , 2007 Share Posted 12 January , 2007 Yes, I suppose we all have the freedom of choice to indulge in whatever nonsense we find most condusive and choose whether our ghosts are holy or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzie Posted 12 January , 2007 Share Posted 12 January , 2007 Sorry if I said something to offend. Just trying to work out why some people believe different things, including those pertaining to the battlefields. The last few posts have had nothing offensive in them, unlike earlier digs at people who believed they felt or saw something. Cheers Kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greyhound Posted 12 January , 2007 Share Posted 12 January , 2007 I find it interesting to read about other people's experiences and "strange occurrences", even if they are just coincidence. Please let's not stray into forbidden areas, or this thread may be closed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyg Posted 15 January , 2007 Share Posted 15 January , 2007 And what is even weirder is that one of great great grandma Goodman's grandsons was killed in WW1. Here is his CWGC entry: http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_detail...casualty=457583 Note that his next of kin, my great grandfather, has his mothers maiden name of Goodman as his midde name. So, what do you make of that? Sorry for not replying sooner but I have a good excuse, honest! I suppose Goodman is not an uncommon name so statistically speaking there's bound to be a connection somewhere on the forum. It is possible though that there is a connection as many immigrants from Ireland would have entered England through Merseyside. Might be an interesting exercise to investigate........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shelley Posted 16 January , 2007 Share Posted 16 January , 2007 I shall just contribute this, I was told in my early twenties that my father's grandfather had died in world war one. Fast forward to my early forties, I felt this unexplicable urge to find out about this man, the thoughts kept popping up out of the blue. I only knew his last name, I knew nothing else. No one else could help me as his widow had remarried, and her new husband really wasn't keen on the first husband being discussed. Through the internet, and some very wonderful kind souls, I not only found out his name, but his place of death, he is still missing in the mud of Ypres. I found out about his parents, siblings, grandparents and great grandparents. Still the urge to find out more was driving me on, I located a distant relative who provided me with a photograph of him, he seems so familiar. (see my avtar) When Jan from Passendaele Archives asked for names and information to be submitted I submitted my great grandfathers. Working nightshift alone at work, I logged onto the site and found that Jan had included his name on the "list". It was a very touching moment, I felt as though I had found this man, he was no longer forgotten by his family and their offspring. Complete peace......I feel I have accomplished what I had been prompted to do. No doubt others have the same experience. Shelley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeppoSapone Posted 16 January , 2007 Share Posted 16 January , 2007 Sorry for not replying sooner but I have a good excuse, honest! I suppose Goodman is not an uncommon name so statistically speaking there's bound to be a connection somewhere on the forum. It is possible though that there is a connection as many immigrants from Ireland would have entered England through Merseyside. Might be an interesting exercise to investigate........ In this case the name came from Norfolk via London. However, there is an Irish connection. He married an Irish girl called Allen and moved to Birkenhead. Joe Bull was their eldest child, and would have been half Irish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vectisitch Posted 16 January , 2007 Share Posted 16 January , 2007 ok,here goes.i don't believe in things i can't see or there is no possitive proof of,but last year i went to visit my great grandads grave at hooge crater cemetery.we had a good day and i was feeling fine until i walked into the cemetery.as soon as i went in i got a really bad headache out of nowhere.i told my sister and we went to his headstone.as soon as we left the headache went away as quickly as it came on.maybe my greatgrandad was trying to tell me something or maybe it was nothing ,i don't know but it was strange Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barrynee Posted 1 April , 2007 Share Posted 1 April , 2007 I put on a post on a different thread about this last July. At the Lochnagar ceremony on July 1st last year the crater was overflown by a number of flocks of birds (pidgeon sized) that were absolutely silent save for the beating of their wings. I didnt count them, but there were 5 or 6 separate flights of them, perhaps corresponding to the number of waves on the day? or perhaps disturbed by the maroon that is sent up to mark 0730. Weird thing was they only flew over the crater and at a height of only about 12 feet or so. It was pretty weird - I remember a couple of pals responding in kind at the time.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw Posted 1 April , 2007 Share Posted 1 April , 2007 I have also experienced the birds flying over Lochnagar - and as you say the beating of wings is a comforting sound in the silence. A few years ago we visited Thiepval at approx 5am on 1st July and found an owl roosting in the memorial. He unhurriedly flew off after a few minutes. Very difficult not to accord this creature some sort of spiritual significance and a welcome sight if only from the point of view of common or garden ornithology. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephanie Posted 20 April , 2007 Share Posted 20 April , 2007 Well not so much at the Battlefields but from the Battlefields, Ever since I brought a helmet which I bought from the battlefields my dad has been up at night because our dogs have been barking, this only happened after I brought the helmet back (I kept it in the same room as the dogs) and my dad has sworn that he has heard a voice on more than one occasion, though he thinks it was a womans voice, the helmet seems to be the only thing to 'provoke' this voice, and there is now way it could have been any other noise. Steph x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Hartley Posted 20 April , 2007 Share Posted 20 April , 2007 Steph As you might have seen from other posts, I am most sceptical about all things "spooky". It is possible that the dogs smell something on the helmet - perhaps another dog peed on it before you bought it Dunno about the voice, though. Try moving the helmet to another room and see if the dogs stop barking and/or if your dad hears the voice coming from somewhere else. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Posted 20 April , 2007 Share Posted 20 April , 2007 Steph The ethereal voice isn't shouting "shut those bloody dogs up", and coming from the direction of next door is it? Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
59165 Posted 20 April , 2007 Share Posted 20 April , 2007 My old helmets made more than a couple of dogs bark in its time but,thats another story 1st ptn Brodie rimless(god,this gets worse) Neighbour's cat weed on it & I left it ouside in the barn for a week. several other cats decided to do the same biz. Any mutt within 15 yds of it goes bonkers but,I cant wash the liner because I'd lose the Brodie stamp inside Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auchonvillerssomme Posted 21 April , 2007 Share Posted 21 April , 2007 My old helmets made more than a couple of dogs bark in its time but,thats another story They were faking it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiegeGunner Posted 21 April , 2007 Share Posted 21 April , 2007 My old helmets made more than a couple of dogs bark in its time but,thats another story Proceed directly to Skindles — which welcomes new members of your calibre ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephanie Posted 22 April , 2007 Share Posted 22 April , 2007 haha well maybe but then again i dont think other animals peeing on a helmet would make a voice appear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auchonvillerssomme Posted 22 April , 2007 Share Posted 22 April , 2007 haha well maybe but then again i dont think other animals peeing on a helmet would make a voice appear depends who was wearing the helmet? I have two items that make my skin crawl when I touch them, although neither are WW1. one is an old ethnic knife/machete which is now banished to the loft. the other is this. a SIPO steel extending cosh liberated by grandad, I feel depressed whenever i think of its history. Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
equusv Posted 6 May , 2007 Share Posted 6 May , 2007 A group of us were staying at Avril William's Guesthouse in Auchonvillers and after our evening meal we decided to walk to Newfoundland Memorial Park. It was a cold winters night and as we left the village the only light visible was those shining on the Moose standing on the memorial. It was deadly quiet even the wind was completey still. Our shadows from the arc lights surrounding the memorial were casting long shadows all over the shell holed landscape. We only spoke in whispers. It was a creepy spooky atmosphere. The hairs on our backs was standing and our skin was tingling. Then suddenly a loud howl made us all jump and one of our party suddenly disappeared........followed by the loudest rasping, tearing noise you had ever heard. It was Mavis, she had slipped in the mud down into one of the trenches and FARTED!!!!! And if Mavis reads this I am done for! I hope all the forum readers and Chris Baker for making it all possible a Happy Christmas and a peaceful new year Terry Very funny but Terry, I must inform you that 'the moose' is a caribou, a close relative of the reindeer. Bonfire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hillgorilla Posted 8 May , 2007 Share Posted 8 May , 2007 I remember visiting Tyne Cot a number of years ago, and it was raining. I did not feel or see anything supernatural, but what I remember is the smell. There was the smell that you get from firing a rifle - that ammunition smell. It was a strange experience. I don't know whether it was the impregnated ground releasing its evidence of the past with the damp or just my strange olfactory sense - but it certainly brought it home to me of the reality of what war is like - smelly, muddy, cold and knackered. Hillgorilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markacable Posted 11 May , 2007 Share Posted 11 May , 2007 I don't know whether this qualifies as spooky or not. A few years ago a couple of friends and I were cycling around the Somme, one day we cycled from Albert to Thiepval, this was the first time we had visited the memorial. As you turn the corner on the gravel path we were amazed at the size of it, so Paul waited at the corner whilst Keith and I walked up the the left hand side of the steps at the front in order to give the monument some scale for a photograph. Photo taken we waited for Paul to walk up to us when Keith remarked at the inscription on the panel directly above my head. Gave me the goose bumps... Even more so when I checked the CWGC. He is the only M Cable listed, and his name was Mark..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 11 May , 2007 Share Posted 11 May , 2007 That would have spooked me! Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary Anne Posted 14 May , 2007 Share Posted 14 May , 2007 Folks Just returned from the Western Front where I spent 5 days following in my father's footsteps, thanks to his diaries and the battalion history, and had a couple of strange things happen: 1) On a cool, misty morning, while visiting the cemetery at Regina Trench (all that's left in the middle of well-kept farmers' fields), because that had been my Dad's first engagement in September 1916, we (three of us) heard bagpipes playing, apparently nearby..didn't go searching for them, but assumed they were being played by someone at the nearby British Cemetery. After returning home, I discovered that another Canadian who had also been there to visit the grave of a cousin of his grandmother, heard the pipes. Same week, but on a different day - hard to believe the piper was there on several different days? We are both of Scottish backgrounds... 2) While looking for the Quatre Vents Cemetery, to visit a gravesite for a 98-year-old friend in Canada, we missed the turnoff and proceeded into the village of Estrée Cauchy. The church steeple looked very familiar, so we stopped and looked around at surrounding buildings. Turned out the farm across the road had been used as a billet by my Dad's battalion in 1917, when he had taken a photograph of it, although the negative I possess has no dates, no names, nothing to identify where it is. The owner (contacted by phone) kindly showed us the courtyard inside the buildings, and the scratched soldiers' names on the walls, with the year *1917*....what odds of finding that steeple, those buildings, even if they were still standing 90 years later!? See the before and after photos... http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?folder_id=1861053 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demgbr Posted 15 May , 2007 Share Posted 15 May , 2007 All very intrigueing. I hope to find time tomorrow to add my contribution to this topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw Posted 15 May , 2007 Share Posted 15 May , 2007 Mary Anne - Thanks for making those photos available for us. Yes these sort of delightful coincidences seem to happen a lot on the Western Front - although many will say that you are open attuned and concentrating when you are out there. Who knows. I just enjoy them and smile. What a great experience for you. I similarly went to see a private chateau where my Grandfather had been billeted at Esquelbeq and very luckily found it open on the day I visited as part of an open garden day. To see the fittings on the stable wall installed by our cavalry was a real thrill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAT58 Posted 29 May , 2007 Share Posted 29 May , 2007 Only ever felt a strange sensation of being watched on the 3 occasions of visiting the Fort at Pompelle. The visits have all been before 8:00 am in the morning after spending the night in Rheims in transit back to Calais On two occasions friends who accompanied also felt the strange sensation of being watched. Admittedly we clambered over the top of the fort and visited the trenches at the back of the Fort which are out of bounds to visitors. Strange how I keep being drawn back to the place to the annoyance of the Mrs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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