L.H. DAVIES looks to the old airfields of Lincolnshire to discover the haunting presence of ghostly airmen
Lincolnshire’s widely regarded as the most haunted British county, understandably so given the thousands of paranormal occurrences reported each year. Many of these are of sightings from old pubs and stately homes, however, the majority come from the many WW2 airfields.
Due to its expanse of agricultural land, Lincolnshire was chosen to home numerous air bases during the Second World War, hence its nickname, ‘Bomber County,’ as the majority of aircraft stationed in Lincolnshire were bombers such as the Lancaster and Halifax.
Needless to say there were great losses at all the airfields and if you see some of them today, they are indeed abandoned, desolate places, full of forgotten memories.
One of these airfields is RAF Waltham. During the war Waltham was home to the Wellington bombers, before they moved out and were replaced by the Lancaster bombers of 100 Squadron.
Throughout the war the bombers of Waltham flew thousands of sorties taking many losses.
Eventually at the end of the war the base closed down to flying and not long after was abandoned by the RAF leaving it to decay. These days hangars are used for storage and what remains of the overgrown airfield itself is often used by driving schools for off road lessons.
Ghostly Airmen from the Skies
The main storage holder’s Nickerson Grains who use the largest hangar situated on the other side of the A16, that runs past the old airfield. It was an employee of this firm who had a frightening experience with a ghostly airman.
It was a night shift. Dark and lonely, he was repairing sacks for storage when the headless figure of an airman appeared before him, in 1940s flying gear.
The employee, ran, screaming out of the hangar, his hair on end as if electrocuted. On recovering from shock in hospital the man’s hair turned white and fell out. He never returned to work.
Other reports from Waltham come from dog walkers, taking their animals for walks on the old airfield they have often seen ghostly figures and heard the distinctive roar of Merlin engines.
Another Lincolnshire story is ‘The Metheringham Lass’, as she became known.
During WW2, Metheringham Airfield was home to Lancaster bombers, however this story relates to a young WAAF who had taken a ride home, pillion on her fiancé’s motorcycle. Unfortunately, the bike skidded from the road, injuring her fiancé and killing her outright. The girl was Catherine Bystock, who was 19. Many people since that day have been flagged down on the main road past Metheringham and locals often refuse to use the road after 21.30 as that is when she is often seen (the time of the accident).
However, whilst this seems to be a harmless enough experience, some who have met with her found a much darker side to their experience. An overwhelming smell of decomposition and a severe irrational cold fear overcome them. One man even reported seeing when he got close enough to the girl, her eye sockets were empty!
There are of course stories outside of Lincolnshire where similarly unusual things occurred. For example at RAF Hereford in Herefordshire. During the war it was a war hospital and the medical centre remained open long after 1945. There are accounts of a ghostly German airman who walked the corridors at night. Staff nicknamed him ‘Fritz’, and he was said to carry his head under his arm. He was believed to be the ghostly memory of a young German airman whose plane crashed during the war. He later died of severe head injuries.
One particular night in 1972 was particularly bad, as recalled by then SAC Vowden who worked there. She recalled sitting in the staff lounge and hearing the storeroom door repeatedly opening and closing, despite her being the only member of staff on duty.
She checked on several occasions to find no one there. The young trainees lying in their beds complained of the radiators clanging and windows opening of their own accord. SAC Vowden’s boyfriend, a Junior Technician was also present that night and though not easily unnerved, certainly found himself uncomfortable that night.
It appears then, that throughout the UK our old airfields are places of activity perhaps not of this world.
Have you ever seen ghostly airmen or a ghost plane? Tell us in the comment below!
I was stationed at RAF Hereford as an apprentice in 1965, and experienced an incident of “Fritz” in the old sick quarters. There were several of us apprentices sharing an open ward in the sick quarters and one night something happened to make us all go to the windows of the ward to see a hunched figure wearing what looked like an old flying helmet leave through a door of an adjoining corridor, cross the grass to a road that had a moped parked. There was an eerie feeling of something strange happening but, we had assumed this was a member of staff going to his parked moped. However, he passed by the moped and entered a brick building on the other side of the road.
The eerie feeling persisted and during conversations with staff the next day we discovered that there was no longer a door that we had seen the figure leave the medical centre from – it had been boarded up many years before when the corridor was made into a series of offices. The staff confirmed that the figure had been seen before and was thought to be that of a WW2 German pilot who had died in the sick quarters. The brick building we saw the figure enter was the old morgue. We were later told that a priest had been asked to exorcise the area (but do not know if this happened). I was most interested to read that “Fritz” (not a name given during my experience)was still active in the 1970’s.