h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's interesting to note here that there are Englih Civil War battlefields where, even today, there are still reports of people passing by and seeing ghostly Parliamentarians and Royalists having at each other in spectral form. I believe Naseby and Marston Moor are the two most often cited in this context: the sightings were so widespread and so frequent that, in the late 1600's, there were reports of people visiting the battlefield to see not just individual skirmishes but virtually the whole battle being played out in spectral form.

Sightings included ghostly artillery pieces being set up and fired by spectral artillerymen.

Stop and think about this one: ghostly cannon. Human infantry and cavalry mounts, yes, as these are two classes of entities held to have souls, or some essence that survives death and which can be sxeen in certain conditions by certain people. But a made thing, like an artillery piece, persisting after "death"? Is this a return to the North American Indian concept of the "manitou", the idea that every made thing has a certain amount of soul-stuff in it which animates it and can persist after the death of the created thing - ie, the destruction of a gun in battle?

(This "animist" theory may also explain why my computer takes on a mind of its own, inevitably bloody)

If so, why no ghosts of later weapons of war on more modern battlefields - where are the spectral Tiger Tanks and T-34's of the Eastern Front, for instance, or the ghosts of Spitfires and ME-109's from the Battle of Britain?

Well, there's no reason for the ghosts' *clothing* to persist, either...

A lot of people have claimed to have heared the engines from spectral spitfires and lancaster bombers around airfields that these planes took off from.

Also if you speak to people who work on airfields for example duxford, earls colne and such like they have also had experiances with the ghosts of the airmen that flew in them.
I had a friend who worked at a hotel on an airfield and their security staff were always reporting spooky goings on,and none had anything to do with guests staying there.