Strange Occurrences on the Western Front

[hazelclark]

Even MY active imagination can't find Lenin (or anyone else for that matter) in that picture. I am not a medium of course!

H.C.

[WilliamRev]

The human brain is desperate to interpret shapes into recognisable objects. When you were a child and looked up at the fluffy clouds you saw elephants and dogs and so forth. When you look at the sketchy daubs of an Impressionist painter your brain is all to happy to interpret these as the Gare St. Lazarre, or water-lillies, as the artist hoped.

The other day I clearly saw a dead bird on the lawn, with it's poor little head and broken wings, right up to the moment I got right up to it and found that it was a large leaf. The brain fills in the gaps and makes an interpretation.

So an inky daub easily becomes Lenin, and a shadow in Mametz Wood becomes the spooky shape of a soldier.....etc......

William

[peterhogg]

Kinda looks like Batman also...

[Guest]

I can see John Lennon.

Mike

[high wood]

You sees what you want to see. Another gin & tonic anyone?

[horrocks]

When you were a child and looked up at the fluffy clouds you saw elephants and dogs and so forth. ...

I still do..

[bill24chev]

for High Wood

I used to be a medium but i am a XXXL now

Bill

[Ghazala]

Wilfred Owen died 4th November 1918 whilst crossing the Sambre Canal

I had gone down to my cabin thinking to write some letters, Harold Owen, brother of the poet Wilfred, wrote of an experience while serving on HMS Astraea.

To my amazement I saw Wilfred sitting in my chair . . .He did not rise and I saw that he was involuntarily immobile, but his eyes which had never left mine were alive with the familiar look of trying to make me understand . . . I went into a deep oblivious sleep. When I woke up I knew with absolute certainty that Wilfred was dead.

[rocknrollnobody]

I know I'm digging up this thread from a while back, but this stuff interests me, simply in how people react to these kind of things.

I am named after a man killed in Sept 1918. We went to Gauche Wood, where he met his fate, and walk up the slope (which must have been utter hell for the young men fighting their way up it).

Wandering around the copse of trees, I felt nothing at all. There had been another vehicle parked near ours so we figured there were others in the wood at the same time. Whilst investigating a silent picket, we heard shrieking, and saw a young man and woman sprinting towards us. They ran straight past us shouting "There's something wrong with this place".

They ran down the little slope to the road where the cars were, and shot off like a whippet with a bum full of dynamite. I felt nothing but interest in that area.

My Grandmother was recording a video looking out of Sanctuary Wood and towards the Hooge lines, when she insists the shadow that moves across the screen is that of a man wearing a pack and a tin helmet. Personally, I think it's a tree moving in the wind, but she's adamant.

Either way, when you know what's happened in these places, then surely you can't help but have an emotional attachment to them.

[ianw]

.... when you know what's happened in these places, then surely you can't help but have an emotional attachment to them.

Yes, there's the rub. We go to these places loaded with knowledge of the momentous events that happened at them - but that hasn't stop me scaring myself silly in the depths of various woods, bunkers etc on the Somme and elsewhere though! Mametz particularly.

Interesting to see what the centenary throws up though!

[Khaki]

It is ingrained in the human mind to 'make order out of chaos' hence the clouds as an oft used example, then of course there are the many anecdotal stories such as, the woman in white, lonely highway et al., variations of which often go back generations. Then we are left with the best of all, the first hand examples to which no logical explanations can be found.

khaki

[keithfazzani]

Yes, there's the rub. We go to these places loaded with knowledge of the momentous events that happened at them - but that hasn't stop me scaring myself silly in the depths of various woods, bunkers etc on the Somme and elsewhere though! Mametz particularly.

Interesting to see what the centenary throws up though!

As I have said elsewhere, possibly earlier on in this thread, I cannot cope with Mametz. I have no idea why, and on the last visit I was determined to go there. I did and could only stay a few minutes before I was compelled to leave. I have no idea why, but it is certainly a genuine sense of something very unpleasant, which I suppose shouldn't surprise me.

[Khaki]

It's very interesting that Mametz tends to recur as an area where uncomfortable sensations discourage extended visits, I wonder why Mametz in particular, as opposed to any other battle area ?

khaki

[David Ridgus]

Langemark Cemetery does it for me. Went there with a party from my school in 2006. It was a blazing hot day but the moment we stepped through the gates until the minute we left we were all cold. Yes I know it is shrouded by trees but somehow that didn't account for it. It was a very lively but respectful group full of questions at every site we visited but you could have heard a pin drop throughout our time there.

Perhaps it was the black flat stones and the shadows, contrasting with the brilliant light and whiteness of Tyne Cot, or the extraordinary statues at the back of the cemetery, but I found it beyond bleak. After we left, it was a very subdued coach for some time. We also realised that between all of us there was only one picture taken. That was of me and another teacher staring out across the field at the back of the cemetery, for all the world like an addition to the statue group. I can assure you this is a picture which is only viewed now when stumbled upon by accident.

My daughter was on the trip and we've discussed it many times. She has said that only Auschwitz has made a greater impact on her. She has also speculated that when you realise how many bodies are there in such a comparatively small space, the thought occurs (whether true or not) that it is probably just a big pit of corpses.

We've dodged it since but I'm determined to go again on our next visit

David

[Ghazala]

Here dead we lie because we did not choose

To live and shame the land from which we sprung.

Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose;

But young men think it is, and we were young.

A. E. Houseman

[Guest]

At last. The truth about WW1 Angels, and the like. Click

Mike

[mills-bomb]

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. I attended my first and only trip to date last year and we visited this site for a tea break.During the break Avril took a party of us into the cellar to show where the casulaty first aid had been done so close to the line with many remanants such as odd bits of shrapnel excavated and she commented that it had previously been used as a jail in 1915 with at least one of the'tenants' executed for cowardice. I asked her if anything odd had happened and she said that the previous week she had went downstairs early and was sure she had seen a young man in a greatcoat appear at the door before going away outside but nobody was outside when she checked. She claimed not to be the type easily spooked (and came across very much that way) and clearly believed some soul had returned before departing again from that cellar. The possibility of jesting with visitors must surely be recognised but it certainly made me think.

Avril is definitely not to the type to spook easily.

But she certainly scares the hell out of me!

[Guest]

I have taken a great interest in this topic and was up at midnight reading these stories.

Having visited the Somme only once and cramming in as much as possible I am afraid I have no strange stories to report. Unless you count my short time in Trones Wood where my parents and sister were getting soaked and so I only had a short time to venture a few hundred meters into Trones itself. But no odd feelings. I visited the place where my great granddad was originally killed and buried and felt very little.

The only odd feeling I got was upon entering Bois Marc near Biaches upon entering the wood there was a small hut which had been built which i presumed a homeless person was living there and so i didn't want to get caught in a situation with a french homeless person but upon looking it was empty I do happen to think there was some WW1 debris around).

My feeling all the time was to explore as much as possible it was a shame that I didn't get to go inside Mametz wood as it was raining (And at the time I was not sure if it was exactly Mametz).

I have never had these occurrences in my life (even though I wish I had). I remember being told Ghost Stories as a child by my friends and often wondering why these Ghosts would not visit me.

Just a thought but having read these stories particularaly about Mametz. If in the future I visited Mametz I would probably have a very different psychological mindset than if I had not read these stories. But I am excited to visit Mametz.

[ianw]

It was interesting that Mametz was featured heavily in the recent Peter Barton TV programme which was widely praised on this Forum. For me , the Mametz section was the highlight of the show and made me reach for the source material again. In poetic terms the spirit of the wood featured strongly. Based on comments on here, the spirit may still be in residence!

[hazelclark]

Some people are more susceptible than others. Just because we don't understand why strange things happen, and perhaps have never experienced anything out of the ordinary, doesn't mean they are not possible. As someone has suggested, maybe the Centenary will produce some interesting occurrences.

Hazel

[David Ridgus]

Some people are more susceptible than others. Just because we don't understand why strange things happen, and perhaps have never experienced anything out of the ordinary, doesn't mean they are not possible. As someone has suggested, maybe the Centenary will produce some interesting occurrences.

Hazel

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy"

[Jockbhoy67]

Interesting that Mametz Wood gets another mention above .

That is strange ianw...the only place i have ever felt uncomfortable while visiting the Western Front has been Mametz Wood, There was no real feeling of anything spooky, just a feeling that i was intruding somewhere i shouldnt be. Never had that feeling anywhere else on the Somme or in Belgium

[WilliamRev]

I do not normally count myself to be among the fanciful folk, who like to discern ghosts all over the Somme and Ypres (there was a spate of posts like that a couple of years ago). I am generally unconcerned when walking alone around deserted spots on the Western Front where I know many men died or were wounded. But the area around Flatiron Copse Cemetery, with Mametz Wood behind it, even on the sunny days I visited, came the closest to having an "atmosphere" that I have come across. Strangely, once inside Flatiron Copse Cemetery itself, all feels peaceful (and in fact it is my favourite Western Front Cemetery).

William

[ianw]

. Strangely, once inside Flatiron Copse Cemetery itself, all feels peaceful (and in fact it is my favourite Western Front Cemetery).

William

Yes, i share your fondness for Flatiron. Cpl Dwyer VC is there who made a truly ghastly record - he has the worst voice ever - we played the recording there once and got the impression that it went down well. Ridiculous I know.

[Guest]

This is fascinating. Wish we could keep this bumped anyone got any stories of strange occurrences? Especially interested in the things concerning High Wood and Mametz. Hope I can venture in these places one day.