Railwaymen Face Terror of Luftwaffe Bomb Raid

Summary

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When driver Jack Shergold and fireman Tom Whittle - both employees of the Great Western Railway - reported for duty at 8.15am in the locomotive shed at Yeovil Pen Mill on the misty morning of 3 September 1942, little did they realise what lay ahead, and for one of them the consequences would be fatal.

I had the privilege to interview the late Tom Whittle in 1993 whilst compiling a manuscript for a book on the Westbury to Weymouth line. He said that "I shouldn't have been fireman on this turn".

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Extract

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Railwaymen Face Terror of Luftwaffe Bomb Raid

He had actually been booked on an earlier duty only to swap with fellow fireman Stan Eaton, who had a dental appointment that same afternoon.

After booking on, and being informed that a "red" air raid warning alert had been issued, the two men walked the short distance along the tracks to Pen Mill station, from where they were to travel as passengers on the 8.40am Yeovil to Bristol train as far as Castle Cary.

From there they would relieve another Yeov...

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