Warriors circulating in the sky have been signalled at all epochs and in all countries.

Captain Bennett, a British Member of Parliament and Minister as well as a war correspondent for the Times in 1914-1918, investigated at this period in Crete.  He collected a great number of witness statements which confirm that the phenomenon occurs regularly in this uninhabited site of southern Crete, in just the way that we have described, usually at the end of Spring.  It is so well-known there, that few Cretans disbelieve it…

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On 17 May 1928, Bennett went to the Drosulite beach and set up a camp there with the help of four military policemen lent by the Governor of the island.  As his means were not unlimited, he was unable to remain there after 30 May…

During these two weeks he saw nothing.  But three days after he had struck camp, the Men of the Dew manifested themselves with exceptional vigour…

To affirm that all the witnesses that Bennett met are liars or suffered hallucinations, would be much more stupid than just to believe in the veracity of the phenomenon.

Several inhabitants from the neighbouring village of Thymi gave him a description very similar to that of Guthrie…

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Bennett also interviewed a pope who was living alone in a little cottage near the ruined castle.  He answered his questions with a lot of reticence, as much through fear of encouraging the superstitions as of seeing his retreat invaded by the inquisitive.  The good Father had seen the Drosulites several times and had even spoken of them to the Archbishop of Crete.  Who had gone to the beach and seen the reality of the phenomenon.  He confirmed that the “spectres” were parading in arms, and that sometimes even the form of their standards and ensigns was distinctly visible.  That they could be seen from either side of the invariable itinerary which they took, and that they effectively appeared only at the setting or the rising of the sun…

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It is possible that these apparitions are connected to a natural phenomenon.  However, some observers never see the Drosulites while others, who are watching beside them in the same conditions, see them perfectly…  The Bishop of Rethymo remained for twenty days on the Franco Kastelli beach at the same epoch as the Archbishop, and saw nothing…

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Louis Pauwels is of the opinion that only those endowed with mediumnic faculties are able to see them, in some circumstances.  If it is only a question of doubles or reflections, where are the originals?  Mirages sometimes reflect objects which are very far away, but which exist in the instant when the light, unequally refracted in the layers of unequally hot air, projects them onto the horizon.  Even supposing that such a troop is marching somewhere on the island or even off it, how can the weapons and the costumes, that all witnesses agree are from Antiquity, be explained?…

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In the XIVth Century, these ships floating in the clouds frightened the inhabitants of a Breton town for a whole morning.

On 4 June 1928, a Greek officer, very well-known at the time, General Hadjimichalis, who did not live on the island, saw the Drosulites very distinctly.  He had been told about them by a woman who had come to Crete for the harvests and who, when she saw them, at first described them as being harvesters.  Guthrie and his companions also saw them, so the phenomenon cannot be some sort of collective hallucination seen only by the Cretans…

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Around 1905, one of the Governors of Crete, Mr Psyllakis, who had seen the shades, verified that no folkloric parade or commemoration of a battle in Antiquity was taking place in May or June in any neighbouring town or village…

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The beach at Franco Kastelli is completely enclaved by the White Mountains which culminate at 2,500 metres.  Mirages have never been seen to be transported over such obstacles…

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Although this is a very singular phenomenon, it is not unique…  Far from it.  History relates many visions of ghostly troops, at all epochs.

A Conservator of the Bibliotheque nationale, Jean Pierre Seguin, indicated in an article which appeared in Le Monde, in July 1967, they he had at his disposal a good hundred publications mentioning the apparition of armed troops, but also animals, human figures and diverse frightening objects, sometimes projected in the sky.  For example, at Sarlat, on Monday 11 September 1587, two armies, equipped from head to foot, delivered a long battle above the Parish of Carsac.

In 1895, a German magazine which was much-read at the time, the Hausfreund, published the following story supported by numerous proofs and witness statements:  at the beginning of 1795, some things occurred near Ujest in Upper Silesia which were much talked about throughout the whole of Germany.

On 27 January of that year, between 3 and 4 o’clock in the afternoon, around fifty people working in the fields suddenly saw a body of infantry disposed in three ranks and preceded by two officers carrying red flags, marching towards them.  At a certain point, these troops stopped and the first line fired in the direction of the peasants, who did not however hear any noise.  Very thick smoke immediately rose from the ranks and when it disappeared, hussards on horseback had replaced the infantry.  The hussards disappeared just as suddenly as the infantry had appeared.

On 3 February, around 8 o’clock in the morning, 400 peasants this time, again saw, at the same place, the same soldiers.  A “hot-head” leaped on a horse and galloped towards them;  but when he arrived he saw no trace of them, while the spectators who had remained behind, were seeing him in the midst of ghostly soldiers wearing diverse uniforms.  On 15 February, the scene occurred again in front of thirty people.  General von Sass, immediately told of the apparition, then sent a detachment of soldiers to the place.  As soon as these soldiers arrived, the ghostly soldiers, who had disappeared, reappeared.  The officer who was commanding the detachment, spurred his horse and took off in this direction;  immediately, an officer on horseback also rode out from the ranks of the ghosts and went to meet him.  They both saluted each other.  But when the Prussian officer asked the other who he was and what he was doing there, he obtained no answer.  He then seized his pistol and was going to fire, when everything suddenly disappeared.

Perhaps the most inexplicable thing about this is that there was a contact between the living and the spectres…

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To be continued.