10th February 1941

Terrible train smash at Brentwood at about half past 10 this morning. A Southend train crashed into the back of a Norwich express in the cutting at Brook Street, killing 6 and injuring 20, one of whom is a young woman from Canterbury Road [in Colchester].

Beautiful day, quite warm and sunny, like spring. It is now light in the evening until about 6.45pm. Quiet day and quiet evening, until a quarter to 9, when there was an alarm. The moon was brilliant, and I saw strange flares in the sky in the direction of W. Bergholt or Wormingford. They appeared in pairs, and hung about motionless for some minutes, then gently drifted away on the wind. After a time, when so many had come in the same place, it dawned on me that they must be Verey lights being fired up, not flares being dropped from an apparently motionless plane. All clear about midnight.

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