The B-17 That Landed Itself
On a chilly November day in 1944, an anti-aircraft crew stationed in Belgium spotted something unusual. A large plane was heading toward them, its silhouette unmistakable—it was an American B-17, the legendary “Flying Fortress.” The sight was immediately strange: the landing gear was down, and the aircraft was descending fast. There were no scheduled landings, leading the RAF unit to conclude that this must be an emergency. They were right, but the reason behind the landing was something they could never have anticipated.
As the plane touched down, it appeared largely intact, though the landing itself was anything but smooth. It bounced and swayed, at one point coming perilously close to clipping a wing before grinding to a halt in an open field. From the start, the men on the ground sensed something was off. They waited for the crew to emerge and explain the unusual landing, but after twenty tense minutes, no one exited the plane. Growing restless, they cautiously approached the B-17, its engines still growling loudly. When they finally opened the hatch, they were met with an eerie, deafening silence inside.
The plane was empty—completely devoid of crew. Yet, signs of recent human presence were everywhere. Half-eaten candy bars lay abandoned, and a navigator’s codebook with the day’s operational colors was still on board. Most perplexing of all were the neatly packed parachutes, untouched and ready for use—enough for an entire crew. It seemed as if the men had vanished into thin air, leaving the plane to land itself.
The bizarre scene quickly sparked rumors of ghost stories and supernatural explanations, spreading across military circles like wildfire. However, the real story, while no less extraordinary, was far more grounded in reality. The B-17 had suffered a critical malfunction, likely due to enemy fire, which left it barely able to stay in the air. Knowing the plane wouldn’t make it back, the crew jettisoned everything they could to lighten the load before bailing out.
Incredibly, after the crew’s departure, the engines appeared to stabilize just enough to keep the aircraft airborne. The unmanned B-17 continued its descent toward Brussels, flying on its own. Without all its engines functioning properly, however, it couldn’t stay aloft for long. In a remarkable feat of mechanics and luck, the aircraft managed to perform a rough but effective landing, witnessed by the astonished RAF crew.
Now I don’t know how true this story is, especially since Switzerland was neutral, but it is an interesting tale nonetheless
“The Missing Children”
This story comes from Reddit user Igloo444, who recounts a chilling experience shared by their grandfather. During the winter of 1943, he was stationed with the British Army in a remote village nestled in the Swiss Alps. The village quickly became snowed in, cutting off all communication lines. The roads were blocked, and the entire battalion found themselves stranded in the Alps for the rest of the winter.
The villagers predominantly spoke German, while the soldiers only knew English. One evening, while the soldiers were at a local bar, a man began shouting, “Where… take you… the children?” His words were unclear, and the soldiers were confused.
They managed to find a translator and escorted the man back to their base, where he explained that since the soldiers’ arrival, a number of small objects had gone missing. A tarp. Some wood. A halberd (a type of axe). And then… the children began to disappear.
At first, the soldiers thought it might just be a bizarre or tragic incident. After all, the village was isolated in the mountains, surrounded by snow and wild animals. But then three children vanished. That was something they couldn’t ignore.
According to Redditor /u/Igloo444:
The Captain assured the villagers that he would look into the matter further. He organized nightly patrols, sending some of his men out to search the streets for whoever—or whatever—was behind the strange disappearances.
That very night, Private Reginald disappeared from the barracks.
The loss of children was one thing, but a grown man? It seemed improbable that an animal, even a wolf, could have taken down a healthy soldier. Rumors quickly spread throughout the battalion that some sort of monstrous creature was lurking in the mountains, emerging at night to feast on the village’s inhabitants.
Despite the growing fear, the patrols continued. One night, the grandfather and a few other soldiers spotted a figure standing outside the window of a darkened house, peering inside. They shouted for the figure to stop, but it turned and fled. The soldiers pursued, chasing the mysterious figure through the snow. The figure eventually disappeared into a hidden cave, where it began attacking them. In the ensuing firefight, the soldiers returned fire.
When the gunfire finally ceased, they cautiously approached the cave. Inside, they found Reginald’s lifeless body, surrounded by seven half-eaten children.
The L-8 Blimp Mystery
In 1942, an L-8 blimp took off from Treasure Island in the Bay Area on a routine submarine-spotting mission, crewed by two men. Hours later, it returned to land—but something was terribly wrong. As the blimp came in to land, it crashed into a house in Daly City.
Despite the crash, everything aboard the blimp was in perfect order. No emergency gear had been used, and all equipment was accounted for. Yet, the crew was nowhere to be found. They had simply vanished. Their disappearance remains one of the most puzzling aviation mysteries.
The L-8’s mission had started off as a standard patrol. An hour and a half into the flight, the pilot radioed in to report they were investigating a possible oil slick spotted in the water. That was the last communication heard from the blimp. Later that day, it was spotted drifting aimlessly along the coast, its midsection starting to sag. The L-8’s flight ended when it crashed into a house in Daly City.
Rescue teams sent to the crash site discovered something even more bizarre: the doors to the blimp’s cabin were open, but the crew was gone. No signs of struggle, no use of emergency equipment—everything was just as it should have been. Yet, the men were never found, and their disappearance remains an unsolved mystery.
The Diplomat Hotel
The Diplomat Hotel in Baguio City, Philippines, has a dark and eerie history. Originally built as a monastery in the early 1900s, it was taken over during World War II by Japanese soldiers, who brutally beheaded all the clergy and nuns. After the war, the building was repurposed as a sanatorium before eventually being converted into a hotel.
Over the years, guests at the hotel reported unsettling experiences. Many claimed to see shadowy figures, and some spoke of a mysterious woman in white wandering the halls. Others heard inexplicable sounds in the dead of night—screams, loud bangs, and eerie noises that seemed to come from nowhere.
Today, the once-grand hotel stands abandoned, its desolate halls now a prime destination for ghost hunters drawn to its haunted reputation.
Sources
https://journalnews.com.ph/the-creepiest-ghost-stories-and-legends-from-wwii/#gsc.tab=0
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/creepy-stories-from-wwii.html
https://www.armytimes.com/off-duty/2021/05/14/6-haunting-military-ghost-stories/
History of Sorts 
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