Page 36 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

16 Ghosts and Phantoms

gators checked it against detailed accounts of
the event in the war office. The times record-
ed by the women were, in most cases, identi-
cal to the minute of the raid that had taken
place nine years before.
Another area which seems to be drenched
with the powerful emotions of fighting and
dying men is that of the small island of Cor-
regidor, where in the early days of World War
II (1939–45), a handful of American and Fil-
ipino troops tried desperately to halt the
Japanese advance against the city of Manila
and the whole Philippine Islands, valiantly
fighting almost beyond human endurance.
According to several witnesses, their ghosts
have gone on fighting.
Today, the only living inhabitants of the
island are a small detachment of Filipino
marines, a few firewood cutters, and a caretak-
er and his family. And then there are the non-
living inhabitants.
Terrified wood cutters have returned to the
base to tell of bleeding and wounded men who
stumble about in the jungle. Always, they
describe the men as grim-faced and carrying
rifles at the ready. Marines on jungle maneuvers
have reported coming face to face with silently
stalking phantom scouts of that desperate last-
stand conflict of more than 60 years ago. Many
have claimed to have seen a beautiful red-head-
ed woman moving silently among rows of ghost-
ly wounded, ministering to their injuries. Most
often seen is the ghost of a nurse in a Red Cross
Phantom attacker. On August 4, 1951, two young English- uniform. Soldiers on night duty who have spot-
(FORTEAN PICTURE LIBRARY) women vacationing in Dieppe, France, were ted the phantom have reported that, shortly
awakened just before dawn by the violent after she fades into the jungle moonlight, they
sounds of guns and shell fire, dive bombing find themselves surrounded by rows and rows of
planes, shouts, and the scraping of landing groaning and dying men in attitudes of extreme
craft hitting the beach. Cautiously peering out suffering. According to the caretaker and his
of their windows, the two young women saw family, the sounds that come with evening are
only the peaceful pre-dawn city. They knew, the most disconcerting part of living on an
however, that just nine years previously, near- island full of phantoms. Every night the air is
ly 1,000 young Canadians had lost their lives filled with horrible moans of pain and the
in the ill-fated Dieppe raid. sounds of invisible soldiers rallying to defend

themselves against phantom invaders.
Demonstrating an unusual presence of
mind, the young Englishwomen kept a record Veterans of the Korean conflict returned
of the frightening sounds of war, noting the with tales of a phantom town that came to life
exact times of the ebb and flow of the invisi- on cold, still nights. By day, Kumsong, Korea,
ble battle. They presented their report to the was nothing but piles of battered rubble. The
Society for Psychical Research, whose investi- population had long since given up residence

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