Stories of War Deaths

- Station Master Jeffries, Mr. Star, Alfred: 1943

- Lily, the Ostend POWs, Eisenmar Hospital: 1945

In the Stories of Sodor special series Stories of War, a total of 110 humans and non-faceless vehicles are known to have been killed, although the true count is likely higher.

## Deaths:

### The Highbridge Bombing

In the summer of 1940, an air raid struck Highbridge, near Bristol, while James, Alice, and Gordon were in the area. Gordon was caught out during the bombing due to taking one of Alice's trains. While the Luftwaffe closed in, Gordon spotted a tunnel and decided to take cover.

Before they could reach the tunnel, however, the four rearmost coaches broke away and were stranded at a nearby station. Gordon, panicking, wanted to return for them, but before he could, a bomb dropped directly on their location, killing all 84 souls on board. In total, the Highbridge bombing claimed over a hundred lives, the majority of whom died when the train was struck.

In the aftermath, Gordon suffered severe guilt over his inability to save his lost passengers.

### Colin and Crew

The night the Sodor Blitz began in 1941, Diesel realized Toby had left a train of gunpowder vans outside in a siding, due to a lack of space. Fearing that a bomb strike would cause the train to explode and cause even more devastation, Diesel initially remarked that Thomas should move it, but instead Colin volunteered. Unfortunately, while he was still moving the vans, Luftwaffe bombers spotted the tank engine and struck. The gunpowder in the vans exploded, instantly killing both Colin and his footplate crew.

However, Colin's quick actions prevented the loss of further lives, leaving the death toll at two humans and one engine.

### Station Master Jeffries

In 1943, with half of Sodor's engines deployed overseas, the shortage of motive power brought Winston to the island as a relief engine. While Toby, Winston, and Eric were discussing a troop train at Elsbridge, Station Master Jeffries emerged from his station building to demand that they return to work. Toby, irate at the interruption by the already-disliked station master, engaged, and an argument ensued. Just as Jeffries was beginning to make threats, he suffered what was believed to be a fatal heart attack.

While Toby was initially horrified that he might have contributed to the man's death, it was later determined via autopsy that Robert Carrigan, the yardmaster, had poisoned Jeffries. The investigation discovered that he and another man, Angus Sullivan, were affiliated with the British Union Party, a fascist political group later found to be supported by the German SS. Regardless, this discovery prevented any further acts of sabotage, limiting the deaths to one man.

### Mr. Star, Alfred, and Crew

In connection with the Unionist plot of 1943, Angus Sullivan planned to conduct a bombing at Knapford harbor by planting a time bomb on a goods van. A workman at the harbor noticed that the van's page on the train manifest was missing, and in so doing discovered the bomb, with only two minutes remaining on the timer. Alfred, visiting at the time to help with the island's workload, attempted to rush the train out of the harbor to get it to safety.

Unfortunately, at the same time he was leaving the harbor, James was entering. Worse still, the LNER's manager of operations on Sodor, Mr. Star, had been riding along in the brake van of James' train en route to a meeting with the manager of the Mid Sodor Railway. The bomb exploded just as the trains were passing, killing Alfred, his footplate crew, the guard on James' train, and Mr. Star. James and his crew were far enough away from the blast to survive, leaving the death toll at four humans and one engine.

### Lily and Crew

In March 1945, on deployment in Germany, Lily, Henry, and Peter were participating in cleanup after a battle in Heldenbergen. One of the men uncovered an unexploded bomb close to the tracks, causing a scramble to clear the area. While Peter and Lily were initially able to get clear, Henry's safety valve burst, immobilizing him. Acting on instinct, Lily instead moved between him and the bomb just before it detonated, killing herself and her two crewmen, but saving Henry and his.

### The Drowning of Prisoners of War at Ostend

After the liberation of the concentration camp at Bulbrick, the 110th was rotated away from the front lines to Ostend, Belgium. Shortly after their arrival, a coach of captured German prisoners of war was accidentally included in a goods consist arriving on one of Peter's trains. Adam, who had been the first to discover the site of the horrific experiments conducted at the camp, sought revenge. He volunteered to shunt Peter's train, using the excuse to uncouple the coach full of prisoners and carry it to a nearby pier, pushing it into the sea. All who were inside the coach drowned.

While it is unknown exactly how many people died during this incident, it was later revealed that one Andrea Zolenka, a Czech conscript, was one of the victims. While certainly a war crime under the Geneva Convention, Adam was never prosecuted. British intelligence gathered during the war and later shared with the United Nations indicated that the men Adam killed were violent criminals, and any attempt to bring charges would inevitably cause public backlash. As such, while the incident was never truly secret on Sodor, the legal ramifications were effectively brushed under the rug.

### The Shelling of Eisenmar Hospital

Also in March of 1945, a few days after Lily's death, Peter brought a goods train to a nearby American regiment. While there, he received word that a company of US Marines were preparing an assault on the nearby town of Eisenmar, and needed artillery support. Peter manned a nearby railgun, but the lieutenant in charge ordered him to hold fire, as the Wehrmacht had garrisoned the town's hospital. Despite this order, Peter opened fire on the hospital, causing the building to collapse. Nineteen noncombatants were killed, including doctors, nurses, and patients who had been too badly injured to evacuate the hospital before the attack.

Peter was later indicted on charges of violating the Geneva Convention, destroying vital civilian infrastructure, and the intentional targeting and mass murder of civilian noncombatants. While he initially pled not guilty on the grounds that the hospital was a military target, a later outburst on the witness stand revealed that he had also acted out of a genuine hatred for the German people fueled by his experiences in the war. He later amended his plea to guilty, and was sentenced to 15 years' confinement in Railgate Prison, the longest sentence ever levied against a non-faceless vehicle.