#phantom armies

On this day:

PHANTOM FOES

On July 14, 1692, a military garrison in Massachusetts was surrounded by twelve strangers, who emitted such terrifying noises that those inside the garrison were convinced agents of the devil had come to call. Ebenezer Babson and his comrades burst forth from the building, guns blazing, to defend their families. Three of the strangers were shot and fell into the marsh grass, but they then got up again, uninjured, and ran away. Others were shot, and when the troops rushed to the spot where the bodies had dropped, found that the bodies had disappeared. The attackers could run through mud without leaving tracks. One of the invaders removed a silver gun from his shoulder strap and fired on Babson. The bullet, later retrieved from a tree, was thinly pointed and unlike colonial ammunition. The "unaccountable troubles" were usually spotted in twos or threes, and they spoke an unknown language.

A few weeks earlier, Babson was returning from a day's hunting and saw two strangers emerge from his home and run into the cornfield. His family insisted no one had been there. Grabbing his musket, Babson went back outside and spotted the two men hiding behind a log. They jumped up and disappeared into a nearby swamp. Dressed in tight-fitting pants and shirts, one wearing an unusual headdress, they caused Babson to think that Indians were preparing for an invasion, and he moved his family to the garrison for safety.

After the garrison attack, sightings of the mysterious attackers dropped off. The final report came from a single man, who was waiting in ambush for the visitors when his gun misfired. They gave him a disgusted look and carried on their way.

On this day:

BATTLE TIMESLIPS

On August 4, 1951, two English women were abruptly shaken from their sleep by the sound of fierce gunfire—from nearly nine years earlier!

Dorothy Naughton and her sister-in-law, Agnes, were vacationing at the seaside village of Puys, near Dieppe, France. They were staying in a house where German troops had lived during World War II. The women experienced an audio replay of the fierce fighting that took place in the area on August 19, 1942, during the Dieppe Raid (also known as Operation Jubilee).

The first burst of battle sounds took place at 4 a.m., the actual time when Canadian and British troops had attacked the German-held post. Once awakened, the two ladies went out onto their balcony, where they heard sounds coming from the beach. For the next three hours the cries of soldiers shouting over a storm of gunshots and bad weather rose and fell, interspersed with uncanny silence. Then came the roar of dive-bombing planes, followed by explosions. The report of the sounds the two women heard matched with official military records of the previous battle.

On August 4, 1642, a pamphlet printed in London reported:

“A Signe from Heaven, or a Rearful and Terrible Noise heard in the Ayre at Aldborow in the County of Suffoke, on Thursday, the 4th day of August, at 5 of the clocke in the afternoone--wherein was heard the beating of Drums, the discharging of Muskets and great Ordnance for the space of an houre or more.”

The small publication continued by stating that the eyewitnesses, "many men of good worth," would be giving evidence before the House of Commons as well as displaying a large stone which fell from the sky during the phantom battle.