The Norfolk Red Barns Mystery |
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In 1941 David Watson was
a Pilot Officer based at RAF Watton, Norfolk, flying Blenheim light bombers. On a training flight over Norfolk, the young New Zealander spotted something strange in the rural landscape: on his return to base he invited his Flight Commander, Peter Meston, to accompany him to investigate further. Watson had noticed that in several remote areas of Norfolk piles of agricultural lime had been laid out in straight lines, each ending in an arrow-head. It seemed obvious that these apparent pointers had not been made by accident, but rather appeared to have been plotted from the air to indicate large grassy meadows that could serve as landing strips. Next to these in every case were brand-new conspicuously painted red barns with unusually wide access doors. Subsequent investigations at a number of Norfolk sites revealed that all farms possessing one of these strange barns were owned by the same property company, the directors of which were Dutchmen with known financial links to Germany. It was also claimed by other pilots that in several cases, chicken hutches at the farms were laid out in the shape of a swastika! The whole matter was kept secret for sixty years until Meston told his story on television: I carried out my own investigation and discovered that many of these barns still exist, near the villages of Sporle, Beighton, Cantley, Halvergate, Paston, Guestwick and South Repps. Sixty years later the results of an intensive MI5 investigation have still not been released! |
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A mysterious contrail! |
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I happen to
live very close to the main aerial assembly points for US aircraft in East
Anglia: during past actions such as the Gulf Wars and the F111 Libyan bombing
mission, I could watch the planes departing over the North Sea. Sometimes
I've seen some really interesting aircraft: F35s, F117s, B1bs and B2s and,
a long time ago, even an SR71. As an ex-pilot, I find the sight and sound
of these high-performance aircraft a real source of pleasure! In August 2007, I was at my PC, doing some work, when a totally unfamiliar sound made me look up: I can only describe the
noise as like a muffled machine gun! My digi-cam is always on my desk,
so I picked it up and took this photo. Any suggestions? |