Hello Reddit. I want to apologise in advance, as I am an old fart who is bad with computers and my English is not that great. I used both Google Translate and some help of my grandson to write this text. From 1978-1987, I was the observer of the Nightcaller Unit, a secret unit of the fire department of the small village of Vijvergem, Belgium. Even though it was very scary and dangerous, it was probably the most fascinating job I have ever had in my life. And I want to share some stories about this job with you. I will first give you a little bit of a backstory.
I grew up in Vijvergem, a little village near the city of Ypres, Belgium. Just like any other small village in Belgium, Vijvergem had brick houses, a church, some stores and a pub. As a kid, I loved growing up there. In the summer, my friends and I would play in the grain fields, steal corn cobs, dig in the earth for war relics or ride our bicycles to Ypres for ice cream. During the winter, the ponds would freeze over and turn into ice patches on which we ice skated. Vijvergem also has a fascinating history. It was founded in 1919 by Alfred Vandenvijver, a Belgian farmer who decided to build his new farm on top of a former WWI trench system after his old farm got bombed by the Germans. The fields surrounding his new farm turned out to be very fertile, which allowed the farm to bloom and grow into the lovely farming village that I know today. Vijvergem however has a dark tradition. It’s the reason why you can’t find it on any map. We call our tradition ‘Nachtroep’, roughly translated to English as ‘Nightcall’.
Way back in the summer of 1919, when Alfred Vandenvijver first started building his new farm, he began to notice strange things happening around the farm. For example, every couple of days, he would find scorch marks in his grain fields. Sometimes, his cows would go missing, only to be found later that day in a tree or on the roof of one of his buildings. In very rare cases, he found his animals back dead. Apart from those strange occurrences, everything seemed normal in Vijvergem, until 6 June 1925. That is the day of the first attack.
Around midnight, people started reporting strange noises, like growling, hissing and a faint whistling. Some people also noted feeling warm wind and smelling a burning smell. Suddenly, about two hours after the first reports, a human-like creature rose out of the murky water from one of the ponds. This creature, nicknamed ‘Groote Fritz’ (or ‘Big Fritz’ when roughly translated to English) by us, was first sighted that same night by Marie Vanacker and Jef Vandeschelde, a young couple who were abruptly disturbed during a naughty session. Jef, trying to defend Marie, unfortunately became the first of many victims that night. In total, Big Fritz took the lives of 13 people and laid 4 houses in ashes.
The description of Big Fritz given by Marie is still the most detailed we have to this day. She described him as a human-like creature, about 2 metres in height. His skin is as black as coal and has a ‘molten’ texture. His face, if he even has a face, is hidden by a WWI German gas mask. The filter of the gas mask is smudged with blood and dripping a murky type of slime. He wears a ring-shaped device on his back, which constantly releases a hissing noise. Later reports and observations confirmed this device is a Wechselapparat (or Wex), a WWI German flamethrower.
Big Fritz would appear around once a week at night in an irregular pattern and often from a different pond. There are 12 ponds in total in Vijvergem, so it was very hard to predict from which pond Big Fritz would appear. Most of the time, Big Fritz would walk around aimlessly and do nothing. But, when he noticed a light, he would go towards it and look at it for hours. If there were people around, he would become angry and use the Wex to burn them to death. After 3-4 hours of walking around, he would go back to the pond he came from.
After the third attack on 17 June 1925, Alfred Vandenvijver found the ‘Nachtroepers’ (or ‘Nightcaller Unit’ when roughly translated to English), a group of three firefighters whose job was to control both the creature and his destruction. The Unit consisted of three members: the observer, the warden and the extinguisher. The observer sat high in a watchtower. His job was to map out the path Big Fritz took every time he showed up. He also tallied how many houses he burned down. The warden went around and made sure everyone in the village was inside by 1 o’clock sharp. He also made sure all doors and windows of each house were locked and all lights were out, as any source of light attracted Big Fritz. After that, he drove around the village in a car and made sure all doors and windows were kept closed and all lights were kept out throughout the entire night. The extinguisher had probably the most dangerous job of the three. He first had to switch on a bright light in a field far away from the village. Next, he had to follow Big Fritz from a distance and try to extinguish any fires he started. Extinguishers got the highest pay, but often quit the job after only a couple of years, because they were either too traumatised, too wounded or dead.
I myself was the observer of the Nightcaller Unit for 9 long years. I started in 1978, right after the big attack of the 12th of July. It was probably one of the worst attacks I have ever seen in my life. Somehow, Big Fritz managed to burn down the watch tower, which not only killed the observer, but also allowed the fire to spread towards the village. In total, 7 houses burned down and 11 people were killed, including all members of the Nightcaller Unit. The next day, three new Nightcallers were chosen. Me, being 18 years old and dumb, volunteered to become the observer.
My hands are getting tired from typing, but I would love to tell you some of my stories. I will try to type out a couple of them by next weekend. Thank you for reading and understanding.