There were three very good reasons not to have been in Newton Abbot 70 years ago today.

They were the two German bombers and a fighter plane that appeared suddenly above the Teign estuary during the fine evening of Tuesday, August 20, 1940.

Their brief visit to the skies above the town left devastation and 14 people dead.

Another 75 were injured, 15 seriously so.

The attack came unexpectedly at 6.45pm with no sirens to warn of the incoming danger. Unchallenged, the pilots strafed the area with machine gun fire and dropped ten quarter-ton bombs from just 200ft.

Their main target was the railway station which then boasted extensive engineering sheds and sidings. Among the dead were four employees of the Great Western Railway.

FULL STORY IN OUR ONLINE EDITION