I am going to start this piece of writing really badly with a question…how many of you try and find some verification for anything you get given when on an investigation? It probably would not surprise you to know that I do, nearly every single time, and whilst the information is rarely there, when it is, it certainly makes you go “woah” (Bill & Ted style)
On Friday 16th July, I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to do a talk on the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) at the Haunted Antiques Paranormal Research Centre, after I had finished speaking, we were able to conduct some investigations of the museum. For those of you who have not heard of the ATA (aka, Ancient and Tattered Airmen or Anything to Anywhere), they were the amazing brave souls who transported all the aircraft during World War Two. The room I was most drawn to at the centre was the War room, or the military room, whatever you want to call it, and when we began to do some investigations I was joined at the Ouija board there by Karen, Dave, Chris and Louise. The latter was taking photographs throughout, more of that in a bit, whilst the four of us were sat around the table. Quite soon, a “spirit” came through, introduced himself as Peter, and said he had been a fighter pilot in WW2, when it came to him spelling out what he had flown, it did not make sense, for some reason I asked him if he was Norwegian…yes came the answer. This confused me as at the time, I do not know why Norway popped into my head, for a pilot Polish may have been a more logically call, but Norway?
The others started asking him questions and he seemed very reluctant to answer anything that may have been deemed war related, at that point Dave said “maybe he was a POW?”….nothing in the room was connected to that as far as we were aware, then we asked him if he was related to any of us, no came the answer, was he attracted to one of us, it shot to yes.
“Please take the glass to the person who you are drawn to…” at that point, Dave took his finger off the glass and it literally catapulted towards me nearly flying off the table, well okay then I thought, the military magnet has not lost her touch! As the evening progressed, it transpired that “Peter” would only talk to me, and had been based at North Weald airfield, I must admit that I knew there was a Norwegian contingent there, but that was about the sum of my knowledge regarding that.
We asked him if he knew when he had passed, and the answer “6” and “9” came out, either 1969 or age 69 we assumed.
That was that I thought, Norwegian fighter pilot called Peter who flew from North Weald and who died on 6 9.
I had visited North Weald airfield and the museum quite a few times, I wondered if he had chosen me because of that? Although wracking my brains, I could not ever remember seeing his name in any displays there.
On the Sunday after, I started researching and even writing this, I am shaking with disbelief. The first thing I did was look for Norwegian pilots based at RAF North Weald called Peter, well obviously Peter is the anglicised version of “Per”, the only Per I could find was Per Bergsland who had changed his name to Peter Rockland to protect his family when he was taken prisoner by the Germans after bailing out during the raid at Dieppe and taken into Stalag Luft III – yes, the same prison camp that the Great Escape happened from.
Then it gets even more amazing, I mean, if you are going to speak to a former POW, speak to one who was one of the three who managed to make it back home, the film (whilst brilliant) is Hollywood and does not tell you about the two Norwegians and the one Dutchman who were the sole successful escapees (he made it back with fellow North Weald pilot Jens Muller, the Dutchman was Bram Van der Stok). Of the seventy six who made the attempt, seventy three were recaptured and fifty of those executed.
Per/Peter made it to safety, so what I hear you say? It may not have been him, but here is the clincher in my mind, Per Bergsland died in 1992…on June 9th – 6/9
Was I talking to pilot Per Bergsland? One of only three fliers to make it out of those tunnels alive? I do not know, have a look at the photos and decide for yourself.