A Quick Cigarette Saved Me
Fred Parry said his father in law was one of the last people to speak to the ill fated sappers just minutes before the explosion.
Mr Parry from Harrington Road, South Norwood, said: "I was in the Royal Engineers at the time and stationed in Shrewsbury, but my home was in Newark Road, South Croydon, with my wife's family.
"My father in law Harry Gibbs was an ARP warden and was one of the last people to speak to the boys.
"They had the bomb ready for lifting and decided to have a cuppa first and there they met dad.
"They went back to the bomb, as the lorry driver was in his cab (Morris Commercial Winch Wagon) he started the engine to lift the bomb and it exploded,
"The lorry was shunted and the driver was injured, but his mates had gone.
"In 1931 was posted to the Officer Cadets Training Unit and in my hut was a man who told me what happened. I had mentioned South Croydon in a conversation and he asked if I knew Bynes Road.
"He was the driver of the lorry and suffered a badly mangled right leg." The Bynes Road incident also sparked recollections of Fred's own lucky escape from a delayed action (DA) unexploded bomb in 1940.
He added: "My own DA bomb) experience was similar. It was a Sunday morning at 11am in August 1940. On Saturday an air raid was on over Napier Barracks at Shorncliffe near Folkestone and a DA landed near our hut.
"We went to the store to collect the equipment needed to lift the bomb, which was on a hand cart.
"Our corporal told us to have a break before starting. So we broke off for a smoke but before we had finished our cigarette, the bomb had gone off, leaving a large hole in an oak tree, split down the middle, like the driver in South Croydon, I was spared."
The incident is also remembered by Croydon resident Hazel Ballan, who may not have been born had her father been working on that day. She said: "It was with great interest that my mother read the article about the bomb disposal squad who were killed defusing a bomb in the grounds of Purley Oaks school.
"She is sure that it was the BDS 725, stationed in Kingston who were involved.
"My father, Godfrey Coppin (1920-1997), was a member of this squad and had been asked by one of the other men if he would swap his shift with him on this day.
"The story was often told to us, as children, with great relief for us to have been born, and sadness, for the man's family."