The Black Cat of War

In 1941 a fighter plane crashed in a field in the English countryside. The pilots died, but a mysterious black cat lingered.

It’s 1941 and the second world war is a fact and the European sky is littered by blinking lights in the sky. Although not by stars, but by war planes. Impossible to see if it is an enemy or friend inside the cockpit, the people around start learning to recognize the airplanes by sound.

The Crash

File:Aircraft of the Royal Air Force 1939-1945- Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter. CM5105.jpg — **The airplane:** It was a British Beaufighter that crashed into a field and burned. This is where the cat is supposed to emerge from.

On the eve of 23rd of October in 1941, a plane was soaring in the sky over the green land of Poynton Green in Shropshire, England. It was coming back after a night sortie and heading back to base. But something went wrong. The night that was dark is now lit up as the plane is heading straight to the ground.

The plane is a British Beaufighter, belonging to the 68 Squadron of the Royal Air Force (RAF), and was heading to High Ercall where the RAF had an airfield. For an unknown reason the plane crashed in the field and the flames started to take over the aircraft.

A local farmer came to the site to help, but it was too late and the flames engulfed the plane along with the people inside. It was the Czechoslovak pilot Josef Kloboučník and sergeant Josef Klváčel, the radio operator that crashed with the plane and died. They were the first Czech members of the squadron, but would never see the end of the war they fought in.

The Black Cat

But the farmer didn’t leave empty handed however as a black cat emerged from the burning plane. He kept the cat as a pet for many years until it died as well. According to some sources he gave it to an old woman that lived nearby. And that it supposedly disappeared after she died. But it still wasn’t completely gone.

Every ten years a black cat is seen at the crash site. And in 2021 it is supposed to make its comeback.