Private W/246571 Vera Barbara Martin ATS was born on the 6th of February 1925, the daughter of Horace E Martin and Anne nee Robertson. Vera was known as “Babe” amongst her family.

The 1939 Register finds Vera with her family at 1, Bowon Road, Badgers Mount, Sevenoaks. Horace, born 29th of June 1896 was a hand paper maker. Anne, born the 25th of June 1896 was domestic duties. Children recorded are Gwenda born 17th of March 1922, an upholsteress; Alex born 15th of April, 1923 a student (in) London, Vera an apprentice in upholstering and Glyn born  9th of January 1929, at school.

Vera had joined the ATS at the age of seventeen and had become a plotter. Her sister, Gwen, had joined the service in 1942, also in the same job and Vera was posted to be with her at the same searchlight station. After a long tour of duty, the sisters were given leave together. On the 16th of August, 1944 they boarded the London (dep. 15.53), to Ramsgate express train. At 16.47, in the parish of Upchurch, Kent, a group of fruit pickers in a damson orchard, heard the sound of an approaching flying bomb, and then saw it heading in the general direction of Rainham. They then saw a fighter attack it. This was a Tempest of 274 Squadron from RAF West Malling, flown by F/Lt J/11008 John Alfred Malloy (later DFC), RCAF.  

He was seen to fly alongside the bomb and “tip it up” by placing a wing of his fighter under that of the flying bomb, causing it to crash. To their horror, the damaged “doodlebug” was coming straight at them, but at the last moment turned slightly, narrowly missing them and struck the railway bridge (number 181) over Oak Lane instead, where it blew up, killing a railwayman who was beneath it. The train upon which Gwen and Vera were travelling, was approaching the bridge at 60mph, and many of the six hundred passengers on board clearly saw the doodlebug approaching ever closer as it came down and exploded only yards in front of the train. There was nothing the driver could do to avoid the impending disaster.

The locomotive and tender cleared the bridge before rolling onto its side, slightly injuring the driver and fireman. The first two carriages crashed onto the road below and were “crushed”.  The East Kent Gazette’ of August 1944 reported that the engine was turned upside down and the front two carriages were crushed. The third coach mounted the wreckage in front and the fourth coach was left hanging over the gap where the bridge had previously stood.

Passengers jumped from the carriages to help the trapped and injured. Seven passengers were killed in the front two carriages and the body of the dead railway worker who had been killed in the rocket explosion lay on the ground nearby. Eight people were killed; thirty three seriously injured and twenty eight slightly injured. The toll might well have been higher as the Margate bound express would usually pass the London bound express but on this day, the latter was running late and was still at Newington station, about a mile away when the crash occurred.

The locomotive driver, Charles Barnett, assisted rescue work until he himself was taken to hospital for his own injuries and his fireman, who was reported to have been “dazed and bleeding”, walked to Newington station to protect the scene from any approaching train and to raise the alarm. Both were later commended for their actions.

Private Vera Martin was amongst the dead whilst her sister survived. The Sevenoaks Chronicle for the 25th of August, 1944 provides a lengthy report upon the life and death of Vera under the column heading “Two Sisters - one killed in train smash”. The report relates to Vera and her sister Gwen and begins by describing the siblings as “inseparable”, and their parental home was 1, Bowers Road, Shoreham. The sisters had been travelling together when the train crashed. Gwen escaped with shock and bruises whilst Vera was killed outright when the train “hit an obstruction on the rails and crashed where the track crosses a bridge over a sunken road. The train was travelling at 60 miles per hour”. Both had been employed in the curtain department of Young and Sons of Sevenoaks, where her employers said that she had a “most loveable disposition”. After a long tour of duty, the sisters were on their way to a rest camp when the crash occurred. Gwen could not remember the crash but came around a few minutes later to find steam blowing in her face and that he legs were trapped. As soon as she was released, Gwen set about helping a Queen Alexandra's nurse tend to the injured.

The Chronicle notes that the funeral was well attended, although her brother was unable to attend as he was serving in Normandy. Vera was buried in Shoreham Churchyard, Kent on the 25th beneath a private, non-CWGC headstone.  Those who died were: Ethel Emily Beadle (Mrs) of Croydon, aged 51, originally reported in the press as “unidentified”. AB J45268 Charles W Cummins, aged 44, R.N Barracks, Chatham and of Canning Town - buried Plumstead. AB C/J 67510 Albert E Eley, aged 42, HMS Queen of Kent and of Faversham where he is buried in the cemetery. Pte. 6300499 Geoffrey Herbert Gallop, aged 20, Queens Royal Regt, of Faversham, where he is buried in the cemetery. Pte. W/246571 V.B Martin, ATS, of Shoreham, aged 19. Buried Shoreham Churchyard Arthur Edward Naylor, of Rainham - railwayman, aged 61, found dead under the bridge. Ivy Maud Smith (Mrs) of Swalecliffe, aged 37. Frank Albert Snazell, aged 56, of Beckenham. Note: Blanche Daniels, aged 57, of High Wycombe had been seriously wounded in an air raid the same day and died in St Bartholomews Hospital, Rochester - the same hospital that the casualties were taken; she is sometimes mistakenly noted as being killed in the train crash.  

At the time, press restrictions, did not allow the true reason for the crash to be revealed and reasons given were simply that the train had “come off the rails coming out of a bend” or that it “hit an obstruction”. By September, more detail on the true cause was allowed and one aspect was seized upon concerned the locomotive ending up on the “other side” of the bridge which the Daily Mirror reported upon, with photographs under the heading “The Train that Jumped the Gap”. The locomotive, King Arthur Class, 30806 “Sir Galleron” was not seriously damaged and following repair was returned to service.

Flt/Lt J/11008 John Alfred Malloy DFC, RCAF, continued to fly with 274 Squadron until he was killed in action on the 13th of January 1945 whilst engaged on an armed recce sortie to the Paderborn area in Tempest EJ639. The aircraft crashed near Nienborg, ten miles north of Munster, whilst attacking motor transport. He was initially buried with five other Commonwealth casualties in Nienborg Local Cemetery until all were exhumed and reburied in the Reichswald Forest British Cemetery (now known as the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery) on the 19th of March 1947.