Phantoms of the Great War
by At last, in that grey winter of 1918, the guns in France and Flanders fell silent and an eerie stillness dwelt on the battlefields where the dead lay unburied in sodden trenches…
James Wentworth Day was a writer who, in the fifties, achieved some fame through television with his racist ideas and his statements about homosexuals (who should be hanged). But he published some true ghost stories too, and in some of them he turned back to the battlefields of northern France and Flanders…
Image by The Library of Virginia via Flickr
The Ghostly Cavalry
Together with a Corporal Barr he went picking up post and rations. They started back to the camp at about three-thirty. It was far from dark. On his right, Wentworth Day saw a fantastic wood of larch and birch, with thin trees, torn and twisted into grotesque shapes by shell blast: “It was a Hans Andersen wood of Arthur Rackham trees through whose sun-reddened trunks we could see cloud-masses lit with a Cuyp-like glow.”
Suddenly, as they splashed through the sunset pools of that deserted road, German cavalry swept out of that “spectral wood”. A dozen or more German Uhlans “in those queer high-topped hats which they had worn in the dead days of 1914″ charged and up the slope to meet them, Wentworth Day saw some French dragoons in their brass cuirasses, sabres upswung, plumes dancing from their helmets. They also charged to meet the Germans with their slender lances… but then the vision passed and there was no clash of mounted men, only the empty land and a thin wood of silver in the setting sun.
“Did you see anything?” Wentworth Day glanced at Corporal Barr, who looked white and uneasy.
“Aye… something mighty queer,” the Corporal said.
They reached camp, oddly shy of talking too much. The next day, at Neuve Eglise, “that skeleton of a village on the spine of the Ravelsberg”, Wentworth Day asked a peasant about the wood.
“Ah! M’sieu, that wood is a very sad wood, you know! It is on the frontier… a wood of dead men! In the wars of Napoleon, in the war of 1870, in this Great War… the cavalry of France and Germany have always met each other by that wood…”
And the man showed Wentworth Day the graves of the cavalry of all these wars in the tiny churchyard…
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Post CommentCutestPrincess
On March 13, 2009 at 5:23 am
This is a really interesting article with brilliant pictures!
You must have worked really hard on this!
Glynis Smy
On March 13, 2009 at 8:24 am
I ditto cutestprincess! Good work.
lindalulu
On March 13, 2009 at 10:03 am
Wonderful article Patrick!
Lost in Arizona
On March 13, 2009 at 10:22 am
I absolutely love your work. I love the way you write your articles to keep the reader engaged. This one was particularly haunting. But I can imagine with all those untimely deaths due to war, those poor souls have nowhere to go but to relive their past. Quite sad.
Alvin Lim
On March 13, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Very interesting article. I seriously doubt I dare to walk in such places :T
Bren Parks
On March 14, 2009 at 1:36 am
wow, that was great!
C Jordan
On March 16, 2009 at 9:25 am
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Well written Patrick
Debra.
On March 23, 2009 at 7:15 pm
I was so caught up in the story i was disappointed that the end came. Patrick, you have stolen my attention again! Very intriguing piece from beginning to end!
R J Evans
On July 5, 2009 at 3:29 am
Cool article. I like Debra was really enjoying this – give us more please!
Blogged at Webhemera
MMV Abad
On November 11, 2009 at 9:07 am
Interesting post. Thanks, Patrick.
Mr Ghaz
On November 12, 2009 at 1:54 am
..nice spooky story..i really enjoyed it! well done my friend
) 
hollynoel001
On November 15, 2009 at 4:34 pm
enjoyed this a lot!!