Call for memorial to 'forgotten' fatal rail crash

6 hours ago

Steve Ladner,in Upchurchand

Rebecca Kenyon,South East

News image — Nine people died after a V1 "Doodlebug" rocket destroyed a bridge in Upchurch

Historical Research Group of Sittingbourne A black and white photo shows a steam train carriage suspended by a crane over a ravine. The mangled wreckage of the railway track on the bridge lies below the carriage. Men stand in the wreckage searching for survivors. — Nine people died after a V1 "Doodlebug" rocket destroyed a bridge in Upchurch

A local historian is calling for a memorial plaque to remember nine people who lost their lives when a German rocket demolished a railway bridge in Upchurch in Kent.

Chair of the Historical Research Group of Sittingbourne, Richard Emmett told Secret Kent, the 1944 incident had been "somewhat forgotten".

Emmett said Royal Air Force pilot John Alfred Molloy had been following the V1 'Doodlebug' flying bomb in his Tempest, tried "to shoot it down", and "then approached the aircraft and managed to flip it".

Molloy's flight report indicated the bomb fell on to the railway line but the rocket instead destroyed Oak Lane railway bridge, which led to a fatal derailment.

'Carnage'

Emmett said the train driver "applies the brakes and frantically tries to stop the train but unfortunately the bridge is now demolished."

The main engine and first three carriages were carried across the gap by the momentum, but the fourth carriage crashed and derailed.

"It was carnage," Emmett said, as "the train was estimated to have between 400 and 600 people on it".

The fatalities that day included soldiers and members of the public.

The train that jumped the gap

Emmett said: "We have Ethel Beadle. She lost her husband only two weeks before and was going away for a break."

He explained one man, plate layer Arthur Naylor was killed as he worked alongside the track.

"He's actually buried in Rainham Churchyard."

Despite the chaos of the aftermath of the crash, Emmett said "the train staff worked heroically".

"We even have an instance of one of the firemen on the train running all the way to Newington to stop the up train."

According to Emmett, there was little public awareness of the disaster.

"Winston Churchill had alluded to it and there was certainly a little bit of in the newspapers, but what was happening is that they were playing the whole thing down. First off they were being described as gas explosions."

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