
© Rob Waugh/Angels, Field of Mons
An 'Angel' which many British soldiers credited with saving their lives in one of the first, brutal battles of World War I may not have been sent from heaven after all - but from the stars.
UFO authors suspect that the famous "Angel of Mons" - described as either St George, St Michael, angels, or crowds of angelic warriors, may in fact have been extraterrestrial.
Many soldiers credited the strange apparitions with saving their lives - and it became a staple of parish magazines. The battle had been one of the first in which the British faced the Germans - and despite retreating, only 1,600 lives were lost.
Decades later, the story is still "swathed in controversy" according to Nigel Watson, author of the Haynes Manual for UFO Investigations, with some attributing the 'Angel' to a short story from the
Evening Standard, others to British intelligence.
Kevin Goodman, a UFO expert and author of books of mysterious encounters in the UK, says"The UFO enigma was unknown during the First World War conflict; the troops would relate to an event such as this in the only way they could, by thinking that they had a sign from God."
Cas Lake, the radio presenter of the Unexplained Show says that both answers might be true, in a way - what the culture of 1914 would have described as 'angels', we would describe as extraterrestrials.
Comment: In the article 'The invisible hand of the Cosmic Trickster: High strangeness and the paranormal nature of the UFO phenomenon' we find the following bit of information: And, indeed, the case in point fits the pattern. Interestingly enough, Northampton appears to be quite a popular place for various strange and unexplained phenomena, including being plagued by "mysterious" explosions and bangs, that are a signature of a meteorite/cometary fragment overhead explosion. Here is a list of some other "out of the ordinary" cases that happened in the area:
UK Housewife: I saw UFO out of bedroom window
Tornadoes cause damage in Britain
England: White lights seen amongst planes flying across the sky
England: Two witnesses see a 'ball of orange fire' traveling at speed change course twice, then went behind a cloud
England: Witness sees a white pulsating light disappear and reappear and later a laser beam from the sky
England: Wootton, Northampton - Ball of Fire Spotted
England: Brixworth, Northampton - Six Orange Orbs
England: Northampton - Intensely Brilliant Silver Light in the Sky
England: Witness sees orange lights, bigger than a plane, speeding across the sky
More Mystery lights spotted in UK skies
Yet another European river turns 'blood' red overnight, this time in Northampton, UK
Not funny: Creepy clown lingers on streets of Northampton in middle of the night