The deadly destruction dealt by bombs that fell from the sky on town

ON August 3, 1962, at 1.08pm, a lone Luftwaffe Dornie Do 217 took advantage of an overcast Bank Holiday Monday and dropped a stick of four bombs on Middlesbrough.

They achieved a direct hit on the railway station, shattering the steel and glass roof, leaving a 13m gash.

A bomb landing on the track followed by a large steel roof girder destroying three of the nine carriages of a stationary train.

The Newcastle train’s departure was not imminent and the few people who had boarded were spared, along with the passengers sitting in the waiting room. A busy southbound train had just departed and the alighting passengers had vacated the platform. A stray buffer was flung out of the station, landing on a neighbouring house. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

The train driver and his fireman were injured and taken to hospital. The driver was discharged back home to Gateshead, but 18-year-old Derek Corfield later died from his injuries.

The refreshment room was destroyed and two female assistants were taken to hospital.

Unfortunately, their colleague and promising singer, 17-year-old

Charles Raymond Taylor’s body, was recovered.

Charles’s story is particularly tragic as his two sisters and brother, two nieces and a nephew, had died during an air raid on Newport.

The destruction of the Guard’s waiting room and public lavatory took the lives of the 53-year-old guard, James Fred Binks and attendant John William Bowe, aged 63. Four civilians also died, Merchant Navy seaman Timothy Carroll, who was 35, and George

William Barrett, aged 46, sustained fatal injuries.

Soloman Peter Niman, a 34-year-old, and 74-year-old William Henry Thornelowe were caught up in damage outside the station when No.3 Station Street and Station Street Chambers were hit.

Emergency workers from LNER were on the scene within five minutes, redirecting freight traffic and setting up a replacement bus service while ambulance workers attended the injured.

ARP wardens and LNER staff united in rescue attempts, clearing the rubble from the track and starting repairs. Vital freight services were resumed within 24 hours, with passenger trains calling at the station a day later.

Ten years ago, a memorial plaque was unveiled by the families of those being commemorated.

The initial newspaper reports didn’t record a further casualty; the Bink’s family explained that James’ dog, Scamp, who faithfully waited each day for the Guard to finish his shift had to be put down, unable to accept that his friend wouldn’t be coming home.