Further frightening encounters have been discovered by an investigator carrying out research into paranormal happenings at an RAF base. John Hanson has been looking into reports of hauntings at RAF Alconbury and the surrounding area made by former USAF security staff working there, especially in the 1970s.Reports of children's voices, possibly linked to a Victorian train crash, hav.come in since Mr Hanson's story was highlighted in the News.Mr Hanson said, in addition to the reports of ghostly voices, he had been told how searchlights had gone out inexplicably and it was found a switch in a secure building had been turned off.He said he visited the area with local paranormal investigator Emma Vachos seeking information about the train crash at Abbots Ripton in 1876 in which 14 people, including at least six children, had died."Whether the ghostly children's voices heard by a number of airmen at the base in the 1970s can be connected with this accident is, of course, impossible to say, although we should take some solace in the fact that the voices sounded like happy children playing, rather than the opposite," he said.

Mr Hanson said they had also been told of strange sightings of monk-like figures in the Monks Wood area near the base and a former security policeman at Alconbury who had worked at the high security nuclear bomb store recounted how colleagues had heard the children's voices and seen a "hairy creature" which lived in woods adjacent to the airfield.Mr Hanson, from Alvechurch, Worcestershire, said he had been sceptical when he first became interested in paranormal happenings, but felt there must be something to the sightings because of the weight of the evidence.

View: Full Article | Source: Cambridge News

Many of the WWI/WWII airbases of Britian are reputed to be haunted. RAF Lakenheath has "Lakenheath Charlie" supposedly a pilot killed after mistaking Lakenheath as a "real" base and attempting a landing (Lakenheath was a decoy base during WWII, with no real runway and only plywood decoy aircraft). He is often seen attempting to warn off pilots with a red lantern. RAF Mildenhall has the "infamous" Mum's Woods where a witch was buried (pinned down with yew stakes) and is now the site of many strange happenings - needless to say even the big strong military types do not venture there alone at night. RAF Chicksands has the "Brown Lady". The NCO Club there was a nunnery in the middle ages and a Nun who betrayed her chasity vows was walled up somewhere in the building. She appears occassionally and strange sounds and incidents occur often. RAF Feltwell (I lived there) has several ghosts, one of which inhabited (??) my barracks. We called him "Herbie" and he was a poltergeist, constantly plagueing us with his tricks. Another is the "Phantom Bomber" that makes approaches on the old (and now non-existent) runway during extremely foggy nights. I have heard this one (you never see it, because it is in the fog). Legend is that it is a Lancaster Bomber that crashed in fog while returning (badly shot up) from a mission over Germany. A third ghost is just a set of glowing red eyes that show up in one of the older buildings that is now used as the American High School for that area. I have never heard what the story was behind that one, but did see it one night while riding with a Security Policeman, we did not investigate! Those are the ones that I know of, but RAF troops swear that many other bases have ghosts, both from the distant pass to WWII and later. - CD

Can you tell more about the incidents with herbie?

Well, Herbie had a taste for the "suds". If you got busy, put your beer (we as NCOs were allowed alcohol in our rooms) down to free your hands, turned your back for more than a minute or so, you might find your can or bottle gone when you turned back. The empty container would show up in some unsual place in a day or two (sock drawer, back of the clothes locker, et). He would reset clocks. One young Sergeant showed up two hours early for work, even though I had watched him set his clock (wind up not electric) the night before. A check showed that the clock was exactly two hours ahead of time. He loved to slam doors, even when the door was wedged open or had a thick carpet under it that made normal closing difficult. He would come into your room at night and sit on your stomach (several of us had it happen) or throw things across the room. According to a retired RAF Senior Sergeant that I met, Herbie was the ghost of an RAF Sergeant who hung himself in room 110 in the late 1950's. Strangely, the "drug dogs" could not be forced to enter room 110 and the maids (yes we had maids) couldn't keep the bed made. While I was there, the occupant of that room was a roaring alcoholic and totally blotto most of the time. He never observed anything! - CD

That must have been creepy! What did you think when (if) he sat on you? When was the first time you encountered it at all?

Did your alcoholic roommate EVER say anything about a ghost?

My dad was USAF and stationed at Lakenheth then Mildenhall 77-79.
I remember as a child hearing about a witch, but we were told (from other kids) that she came from some stone house right off the base. There was a playground (sort of in a corner) that we could sneak through the fence and walk through a set of woods to get to the house. Of course this was the late 70's and I was very young. Maybe this is not a version of the Mum's Woods Witch, but I thought I'd share.

Roe

not quite.

In 1940 the Air Ministry indeed selected Lakenheath as an alternative satellite for RAF Mildenhall and was first used as a decoy airfield.

However this was soon changed to construction of Hard runways with the main runway, 05-23, being 2,000 yards, and subsidiaries, 12-30 at 1,300 yards and 17-35 at ultimately 1500 yards. Hardstands for 36 aircraft were built along with two T-2s and a B-1 hangar. One T-2 was on the technical site and the other hangars to the east across the A1065 Mildenhall-Brandon road were reached by taxiways.

In 1941 Lakenheath Airfield was initially used by RAF flying units on detachment with the station soon functioning, not as a decoy but as a satellite for RAF Mildenhall.
by April 1942 No 149 Sqn equipped with Stirling bombers arrived from RAF Mildenhall to become the permanent Sqn. And in 1943 No. 199 Squadron was established as a second Stirling squadron at Lakenheath - Commencing operations on 31 July.

1944 saw 149 Sqn depart for RAF Methwold & 199 Sqn transferred to No. 100 Group for bomber support operations and moved to RAF North Creake

at which point Lakenheath was upgrading to a Very Heavy Bomber airfield for Usaaf use

The two squadrons had lost 116 Stirling Bombers & crews in combat while flying from Lakenheath.


cheers


Chris