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This tory was submitted to the People’s War site by Bramley History Society and has been added to the website on behalf of Rosemary Caie with her permission and she fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

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My father worked for the Prudential in London but when the war came, the family was evacuated to various places round the country. In l943 we were living in Torquay.

On Sunday afternoon, 30th May, as it was a hot afternoon, we had all gone to Meadfoot beach — the only one not closed to the public. Three planes flew out, it seemed from behind Thatcher Rock. Everybody waved and cheered, the pilots were quite visible as they flew so low. But they had black crosses under the wings so everybody ran to the wall at the top of the beach, parents covering their children, the beach was packed. One family didn’t move though — they just stayed sitting in their deckchairs. Nobody was hurt there, but the planes went on and machine gunned and some people were killed in other places.

The worst incident was the bombing of a church in Torquay, which was full of children as it was Rogation Sunday. 21 were killed, together with 3 Sunday school teachers. I recently went back to Torquay and found a long report of this in the Torquay Times, dated 4th June l943. I also met an elderly couple who had also been on the beach and remembered it well.

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