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It was sometime during August 1940 and I was on my way to my aunties house who lived in Hadleigh, Essex. I had left Blackhorse Road station when the train stopped on a metal bridge. I cannot remember how far we were from Barking Station but all I remember was the fact that our carriage was sitting on the bridge over a river.

It was then that I heard a doodlebug coming. Normally when you hear the engine it is flying quite high but to my horror it seemed to be flying straight at our carriage. I thought this is it. My biggest fear was that we would fall in the river and we wouldn’t get out of the carriage.

Then all of a sudden it veered up and went behind us out of sight. After quite a while the train finally went into Barking. I think I changed trains there. Anyway, while on the station a train driver was talking to some of the people who had got off the train and was telling them that the doodlebug had fallen in Hoe Street, Walthamstow killing a lot of people.

I remember at the time thinking I’m glad it missed us. But then I wasn’t thinking of the people that it had killed and their families. But that’s war — it hits some while others escape.

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