Talk Spooky With Me
Do you believe in ghosts? We do.
Talk Spooky With Me is your weekly dose of eerie true stories, haunted history, and chilling mysteries from the shadowy corners of the world. Hosted by Kimberly Nikole, this immersive podcast blends atmospheric storytelling, real research, and a conversational tone that pulls you right into the darkness.
From forgotten hauntings and unsolved true crime to bizarre urban legends and listener-submitted paranormal encounters — no tale is too strange. Each episode is crafted to send a shiver down your spine and make you question what’s real… and what waits just beyond the veil.
Pull your chair closer to the fire. Turn the lights down low.
And talk spooky with me.
New episodes every week.
Submit your spooky story: talkspookywithme@gmail.com
Talk Spooky With Me
They Came From the Mist: The Haunting at Mons
The veil between worlds grows thinnest when we face our greatest trials. My father, a Vietnam Green Beret who served in psychological operations, taught me this truth when I was just six years old. Standing beside his white Corvette under the scorching Midwest sun, I asked if he believed in ghosts. His unwavering "yes" and matter-of-fact explanation that war veterans see fallen comrades walking beside them through jungle paths forever shaped my understanding of the supernatural.
Tonight, we journey to the blood-soaked battlefields of World War I to explore perhaps the most famous spectral legend to emerge from the trenches: The Angels of Mons. In August 1914, the British Expeditionary Force faced overwhelming odds against German forces in Belgium. During their desperate retreat, something extraordinary happened. Reports spread of ghostly medieval archers, radiant figures resembling Saint George, and luminous angels appearing on the battlefield, shielding retreating British soldiers from German advances.
What makes this case fascinating is how it evolved from fiction to "fact" almost overnight. Welsh author Arthur Machen published a short story called "The Bowmen" in September 1914, depicting fictional supernatural intervention at Mons. Despite Machen's repeated insistence his tale was pure fiction, the story rapidly transformed in public consciousness. Soldiers began reporting firsthand experiences that mirrored the fiction, creating a legend that would comfort a war-weary nation.
The timing was perfect for such a miracle. World War I represented humanity's first encounter with industrialized mass death. As unprecedented grief swept across Europe, spiritualism surged to fill the void traditional religion couldn't address. Famous believers like Sir Oliver Lodge and Arthur Conan Doyle lent credibility to supernatural beliefs after losing sons to the conflict. Society desperately needed to believe that something—anything—existed beyond the senseless carnage.
Whether these apparitions represented exhaustion-induced hallucinations, wishful thinking, deliberate propaganda, or genuine supernatural manifestations, they speak to humanity's persistent need to find meaning amid chaos. When you hear the wind whisper tonight, remember that in the heart of war, even hardened soldiers reached for miracles—and perhaps, for a moment, they found them.
Share your own paranormal experiences by emailing TalkSpookyWithMe@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Threads for more haunting tales from history's darkest corners.
Pull your chair closer to the fire. Turn the lights down low.
And talk spooky with me.
New episodes every week.
Submit your spooky story: talkspookywithme@gmail.com
This is Talk Spooky With Me, where host Kimberly Nicole shares the weird, the haunted and the stories that'll leave you sleeping with the lights on my dad was the kind of man you felt before you saw.
Speaker 2:Part of it was his 6'5 frame and those piercing blue eyes that could cut straight through you. But it was more than that. But it was more than that. He had this uncanny ability to command the energy of a room, like flipping a switch. His smile could light up a space and his silence could freeze it. He didn't wait to see how the world would respond to him. He made it respond. My dad could walk into a room and just belong. He adapted effortlessly, handled anything life threw his way and rarely, if ever, seemed surprised by the world. He was the calm in the storm, the man people admired and sometimes feared. I adored my father. He was my anchor, my compass, my north star. He was my world and in many ways, maybe I was his. He was a person I looked to for guidance. He was a person I looked to for guidance, the one I respected above all.
Speaker 2:Now you're probably wondering why I'm sharing all this on a paranormal podcast. You're likely thinking I'm about to tell you I've seen his ghost or that I've received some eerie omen before he passed. But I'm not here to tell that story, not today and maybe not ever on this podcast. Some things in life are just too close, too tender, to share. What I am here to tell you is how I ended up here, in this very seat, behind this mic, speaking to you about ghosts and spirits. Why do I even believe in them, why do I respect them, why do I think they're real? It's not because of a movie. It's not because of countless books I've devoured or some haunting song on a playlist. I believe in spirits because of my father and I believed in them long before he ever left this world.
Speaker 2:Picture me, picture six-year-old me Wild blonde hair, a personality as messy as a tornado and a heart full of fear. I was terrified of the dark and a heart full of fear. I was terrified of the dark shadows and anything unknown. It was one of those scorching summer afternoons in the Midwest, the kind where the sun hits the pavement so hard it feels like the world is shimmering. I stood outside with my dad helping him wax his white Corvette. The radio-blaring classic 60s rock, rolling Stones, maybe a little Hendrix, definitely some John S Joplin, my dad's favorite. I was in my element.
Speaker 2:I don't remember exactly what prompted me to ask. It might have been just the fear of the dark I didn't sleep well the night before or maybe just the curiosity that comes from loving mystery. But I turned to my dad and I asked do you believe in ghosts? But I turned to my dad and I asked do you believe in ghosts? Here's the thing about my dad. He was a Vietnam veteran, a Green Beret. He served in the 7th PSYOPs battalion, which is psychological operations. He was a man of honor, a man whose word carried weight, especially with me.
Speaker 2:When my dad spoke, you just listened. He paused mid-wax, looked at me and, without hesitation, said yes, I hadn't expected that. I stood there stunned, trying to process his answer. But curiosity got the better of me and I asked the next obvious have you ever seen one again? Without flinching, he said yes. He told me that when you've been to war, when you're deep in the jungle, you see the ghosts of your fallen brothers, even after their bodies are gone. Their spirits stay you, walking beside you through the thick of it. That moment shifted something inside me. That was the day I stopped wondering if ghosts were real. That was the day I knew. I asked my dad if he was afraid when he saw the spirits around him and he said no. At times like that, in the middle of the war, the spirit, the ghost, they were the only ones you could trust.
Speaker 2:I'm not here today to tell you my father's story. That's a sacred space I'm keeping close to my heart. It's not my job to tell that story. I'm here to tell you why I believe. And tonight I want to share with you the stories of other soldiers, men and women, who, like my father, have walked alongside the unseen. So, without further ado, talk spooky with me.
Speaker 2:Tonight we're traveling back to the bloody, bloody, chaotic fields of World War I. But we're not just here for the history. We're here for the whispers, the legends, the legends and the things soldiers swore they saw when death marched at their heels. This is the story of the Angels of Mons, a strange and stirring legend that emerged from the very first clash between British and German forces in 1914. It's a story where fact and folklore collide, where soldiers on the brink of defeat claim to see heavenly protectors swoop in to save them. So pour yourself something strong, settle in the dark and let's head to Belgium, to the bloody banks of Mons, condé Canal.
Speaker 2:It's August 23rd 1914. The British Expeditionary Force, about 70,000 men, give or take faces off against a German army more than twice its size. Near the industrial town of Mons, belgium, the landscape is a patchwork of canals, slag heaps from old mines and little villages, not exactly a battlefield out of a painting. And yet, as the sun rises, the British dig in, determined to hold the line. Against them, 160,000 Germans with hundreds of heavy guns. It's David and Goliath on an industrial scale. But here's the part I find incredible. The British riflemen are so well trained, so fast and precise with their shots that German soldiers later swore they were facing machine guns. They weren't. It was just thousands of men firing 15 rounds a minute with deadly precision.
Speaker 2:By nightfall. The British have fought heroically. But the order comes to withdraw. But the order comes to withdraw. To avoid being completely encircled, they slip away under the cover of night, beginning what will become the brutal and exhausting Great Retreat. Hundreds of miles, little food, no rest, constant pressure from the Germans behind them.
Speaker 2:Here's where things turn, strange, not long after the battle, stories began to circulate At first it was just a whisper in London newspapers, a flicker in soldiers' letters. Home Men on the retreat speak of something they saw at Mons, something impossible minds, something impossible. Some say they saw a line of ghostly archers appear between the British and the Germans Volley after volley of arrows into enemy lines Shot from their bows. From their bows. Others claimed to see a shining figure on horseback barring the German advance, an image many took to be St George, himself patron saint of England. And then there were those who spoke of angels, luminous, glowing beings hovering over the battlefield, shielding the retreating soldiers from harm, and the British public aided up.
Speaker 2:On September 29, 1914, the London Evening News published a short story by Arthur Macken called the Bowman. Macken, a master of eerie and uncanny, crafted a fictional account of British soldiers calling on St George for aid and receiving it in the ghostly form of archers smiting the enemy. Macken never intended this as news. It was patriotic fiction. But the public didn't care. Almost overnight his story was retold as fact.
Speaker 2:Newspapers reported eyewitness accounts. Parishes reprinted the tale in sermons. Even soldiers returning home gave interviews about the angels they'd seen at Mons. In one famous account, two junior officers described a line of angels appearing between them and the enemy, causing the German horses to rear and flee in panic. Another officer, known to be non-religious, was so moved by what he claimed to have witnessed that he became deeply devout afterwards words.
Speaker 2:But here's the kicker. Arthur Macon himself tried to stop it. He went public saying folks, I made it up and still the legend kept growing. Of course, not everyone saw angels in the smoke Infantryman. Frank Richards in his memoir Angels in the Smoke Infantrymen. Frank Richards in his memoir Old Soldiers Never Die, remembered the retreat not as miraculous but as hellish. The men were dead on their feet, marching for days on end, surviving on little more than biscuits and adrenaline. Richards bluntly wrote if any angels were seen on the retirement, they were seen that night. There was nothing there. Other soldiers reported hallucinations Massive men walking alongside them, glowing lights in the distance, strange figures on the road.
Speaker 2:It's easy to see how sheer exhaustion, hunger, trauma and the very surreal horror of war could brew visions that felt very, very real. So what do we make of the Angels of Mons today? The Great War is a watershed in so many ways. People entered the war on horseback and they came out in airplanes. It was the first modern war, the first total war, the first mechanized war, the first total war, the first mechanized war, the first industrial war. And yet it was a war that was still tied to the past again in so many ways, and one of these ways was how people felt towards the world and what was beyond. What was beyond? Especially in the first phases of the war, people still clung to the old ways where the real world and the supernatural world mixed every single day. It was also a world where spiritualism was regaining strength as a way to cope with the terrible manifestation of death and destruction.
Speaker 2:Historians largely agree that no credible military record supports the idea of angels on the battlefield. The strongest evidence points to Macken's story kicking off a wave of wishful thinking, or what you might call a national coping mechanism. But hold on, let's not dismiss it too quickly. Legends like this don't just come from nowhere. Under unimaginable pressure, we reach for meaning. We look for hope, for protection, for signs that we're not alone in the dark. The legend of the Angels of Mons began with one Welsh writer's ghost story, but the context that made it go viral was far bigger A war-weary Britain desperate for meaning amid mass death by late 1914, spiritualism seances mediums and the promise of afterlife.
Speaker 2:Contact had shifted from fringe curiosity to near mainstream solace. Indeed, spiritualism surged during World War I as the whole nation mourned, the world mourned. The majority of families had experienced a loss. The grieving process initiated the growing belief in spiritualism. Initiated the growing belief in spiritualism. People longed so deeply to hear from lost loved ones that some turned away from traditional religion. Some people believed in spirits and ghosts more than they believed in God, more than they believed in God due to a need for comfort after suffering so much loss. Against this backdrop of grief and faith, famous believers stepped into the spotlight. Sir Oliver Lodge, a respected physicist, famously published Raymond or Life and Death in 1916, reported at seance communications with Doyle, who lost a son and other relatives in World War I, declared spiritualism his final crusade, calling it a vital message he needed to share with the world touched by loss. The Society for Psychical Research found itself flooded with letters from both soldiers and civilians desperate to confirm life beyond the grave Seances. Spirit photography and messages through mediums became common evening entertainments in drawing rooms and YMCA huts alike. As an encyclopedia of World War I religion notes, numerous individuals published volumes of materials and held seances, and spiritualistic societies carried the discussion into the public sphere. Even a prominent figure like Doyle lent the movement credibility.
Speaker 2:Historians say World War I was the culmination of spiritualism in Europe, encompassing everyone from ardent Christian believers to secular seekers. All this left Britain ripe for believing strange reports. When Macken's fictional Bowman tale appeared in print, people, primed by despair, took it literally Huddled by gaslight. Readers wanted it to be true. By spring 1915, newspapers and pamphlets not all from official sources spun Arthur Macken's Bowman into true angels of Mons. A flurry of pamphlets, parish magazines and sermons quickly picked up the theme, blending Mackens Bowman with Christian imagery, st George, flaming swords and the like. Flaming swords and the like. Soldiers at the front even began to whisper that what Macon described had happened to them. One British officer, on September 5, 1914, wrote Vision spreading of how the angel of the Lord, on a white horse and clad all in white with flaming sword, faced the advancing Germans at Mons and forbade their progress. This was exactly the image British propagandists hoped people would share. Heaven itself was sent to protect our troops. Itself was sent to protect our troops.
Speaker 2:By 1915, the Angel of Mons had become more than a ghost story. They were a morale booster. Early war losses at Mons had shocked Britain. So a legend of divine aid was politically useful. Propaganda efforts, even if informal, seized on the tale. One example the Spiritualist magazine began reprinting numerous accounts of God-sent figures appearing on the Western Front to help the Allies. Clergy all over Britain cited angels as proof that divine providence was on the Allies' side. By April 1915, such rumors had raised the people's morale and convinced the British public that their cause was just reassuring war-weary families that the tremendous sacrifice was not in vain.
Speaker 2:Newspapers around the world ran splashy headlines and illustrations. One Christmas edition of the Illustrated London News famously showed spectral long bowmen sweeping German line. Showed spectral long bowmen sweeping German line. Almost overnight Macken's phantoms became an official-looking national myth. The cumulative effect was palpable. Newspapers described retreating British troops marveling that a miracle had saved them, while at home families clung to the story as a comforting symbol. By sharing the legend, institutions from pulpits to parliament validated belief in a happy ending. The official Society for Psychical Research eventually declared that no genuine evidence for the angels existed. But by then the legend had done its work. In times of peril, legends are made and the angels of Mons kept the hearts warm back home while the British were waging a horrific war.
Speaker 2:The war ended, but the Angels of Mons did not fade away. In the decades since, the story has recurred as both nostalgia and occult curiosity. Mid-century Britain largely treated it as a quirky footnote, a writer's urban legend. But the Angel of Man's story revived from time to time, especially in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Ghost enthusiasts and New Age authors have published fanciful retellings treating Macken's Bowman as if they really existed. Skeptical encyclopedias note that today the legend is still believed due to its uncritical periodic revival by journalists and internet storytellers. In fact, one study observes a sudden revival in interest started in the 1980s, with uncritical books and articles appearing, often in the US, as well as mentions in novels and films. For example, the 1997 movie fairy tale, a True Story about Coddingley fairies, also nods to the Mons-era angels as part of its World War I backdrop. The British Mackin Society still fields articles and discussions about the legend as believers and skeptics spar over alleged sightings.
Speaker 2:Modern hoaxes and myths show the story's staying power. In March 2001, the Guardian reported that film star Marlon Brando and director Tony Kaye had paid for supposed World War I footage of angelic apparitions shot by a British soldier named William Doidge. The pair planned a movie based on Doidge's life, saying it would be the closest we have on film to proof of an angel. This bizarre tale, complete with claims of ghosts at Mons and even a 1944 sighting at Winchester Mansion, drew worldwide attention before being exposed as a hoax by 2002. Still, it shows that nearly a century later, people will generate new angels of Mons stories whenever the mood strikes.
Speaker 2:Historians use Mons as a case study. It illustrates how spiritualism and media can shape a collective narrative in wartime. Today you'll find the legend in books on World War I folklore and displayed in museums. Mons Memorial Museum ran an exhibition explicitly on Les Anges des Mons, examining it as a piece of propaganda and neo-Gothic belief. Throughout its afterlife, the angels of Mons remain a touchstone. Believers cite it as proof that God is with us, while skeptics point to it as a classic case of wartime rumor.
Speaker 2:The story endures as a reminder that in humanity's darkest hours, we may invent miracles to kindle hope. The Angel of Mons may never be more than a ghost story, but they have certainly became immortalized as part of war folklore. Whether it was a line of archers from half-remembered prayer or a glowing saint imagined in the chaos, the Angel of Mons became more than just a story. They became a symbol of endurance, of hope and of a desperate need to believe in something greater. So tonight, when you hear the wind whispering outside or the hush of an empty street, remember the men of Mons.
Speaker 2:Remember that in the heart of war, when the world was tearing itself apart, even hardened soldiers reached for a miracle. Maybe, just maybe, for a moment, they found one. Thank you for joining me on this journey into history and legend. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, leave a review and share it with your fellow spooky-minded friends. You can find more tales of haunted history at Talk Spooky With Me on Instagram, tiktok and Threads, and don't forget to send in your paranormal encounters or just say hello to me at Talk Spooky With Me at gmailcom. Until next time, keep one eye on the shadows.
