Ghost Flights

Posted:
By: Mark Brotherton
On: 11/23/2001

Ghost flights
On a darken night like so many in East Anglia
A windmill suddenly turns to face the aerial ghosts
To wave home hordes of bombers
The ancient cathedral bells give ghostly-unheard chime
The locks creak and groan among the waters seeping from fields
Ghost squadrons appear in they’re hundreds, unseen
The memorials beckon, sparkles and gleams
The towers still standing wide open
Those torn down, a shadow, a token
They line up, flares bring forth the needy
The soundless jesters all go unheeded
By us in this age for we can not see
The bombers letting down, some still out at sea
An era gone, for of those returning home
Madingley awakes

If only in time
If only in the tortured mind
Only in history, these flights happen almost daily
Unseen by us, unforgotten by them
The continuous mission, a constant unheard drone
If only in spirit, again the Eighth tries to make it back home
-- Mark Brotherton

Re: Ghost Flights

Posted:
By: Jake Shepherd
On: 12/06/2001

I liked your piece very much. I often dream of the experiences I had as a Pilot in the 613th Sqdn. I remember vividly several takeoffs I made using the crosswind runway....at the end of the runway there was a fence and the land then dipped down very sharply to a small farmhouse and windmill in the valley. I enjoyed keeping the plane low and flying down over that windmill before climbing out....didn't do this on a mission though of course. Thanks for the memory.