91Èȱ¬

August 1940 was a lovely summer, with lots of sunshine. I was 19 years of age and in a group of young women training to be ‘Land Girls’ at Seale Hayne Agricultural College, Newton Abbot, Devon. It helped that I had a relation in Plymouth, although they suffered from the bombing later on.

On 20th August after lunch a small group of us, including three male students (awaiting call-up) went up to a top field to gather up the newly cut corn into stooks. There was much laughter, although it was hot and tiring work. Suddenly in the quietness of the late afternoon we spotted a very low flying aircraft and we all stopped to watch, and realised it was German. Our pleasant afternoon turned to horror as we watched it drop a stick of bombs on the town of Newton Abbot. It was the reality of war right there in the countryside.

We heard there had been two trains in the station, but I did not know until last week on 91Èȱ¬ SW News that 14 had died and over 50 injured.

When I travelled from the station early in September 1940, to work on a Cotswold Farm the station did show signs of a battering.

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