New findings have been unearthed about a Second World War tragedy that claimed eight people's lives.

Amateur historian Richard Emmett has discovered previously unknown details of an incredible series of events that led to the crash in Upchurch.

A flying bomb demolished a railway bridge moments before an approaching train crashed into the gap on the afternoon of August 16, 1944.

Canadian pilot John Alfred Malloy had been in a desperate race against time to stop a V1 bomb from reaching London.

He had followed the 400mph-threat from Dover to Upchurch.

His attempts to shoot it down had been unsuccessful so he tried to put it off its course by flipping the missile with his wing.

He succeeded - but jubilation soon turned to horror at what happened next.

Instead of landing harmlessly in a field, the flying bomb veered off and exploded underneath a railway bridge in Oak Lane.

And in an ill-fated turn of events, a train was speeding along the tracks on its way from London just as the bomb landed.

Mr Emmett, of the Historical Research Society of Sittingbourne, has been studying the incident for the last three years - and is now able to possibly shed some new light.

For instance, Flt Lt Malloy was attached to the Royal Air Force's 274 Squadron from his native country as part of Operation Diver - the code name for the response to the German flying bomb campaign.

The unit had been moved to West Malling to shoot down the long-range missiles, known to the allies as doodlebugs, before they reached London.

Tragically, when the bomb landed it killed a railway worker who was sheltering underneath the bridge at the time.

The train driver, Charles Barnett, who miraculously survived the crash, later wrote in a report: "Shortly after passing Rainham Station, my hat was blown from my head.

"Looking out I saw a cloud of smoke in front of me."

Unfortunately, the brakes could not stop the engine in time and the two front carriages fell on their side.

A total of seven passengers out of the 400 onboard were killed.

Some 200 were injured, including 18 who were seriously hurt.

Eustace Missenden, the general manager of Southern Region's railways at the time, noted in his report: "His [Malloy's] attempt to save life had been unsuccessful.

"But who can say how many more lives might have been lost if the doodlebug had carried on to the Medway towns or London."

Rainham resident Mr Emmett said: "It was incredibly unlucky. It was just one of those things. His mission was to stop any of the V1s reaching London.

"The bit I find interesting is how everyone responded to this one tragic incident. People in the fields working helped and there was quite a community response."

The 58-year-old plans to share his findings in a presentation at the Methodist Church in School Lane, Newington, on Thursday night.

In it he hopes to put to bed several local legends, such as one that Malloy returned to Upchurch immediately after the explosion.

Mr Emmett says he was, in fact, back in the air three hours later and actually downed another V1.

He was later killed in action in January 1945.

Through conversations with a surviving member of the 274 Squadron, Mr Emmett was able to discover the unit had recently changed their planes to Hawker Tempest V fighters, not the Spitfire Mark IX as commonly thought.

Amazingly, the bridge was rebuilt just three days later.