TEN years ago I wrote an obituary about an Orpington GP who was greatly loved and respected by his patients and friends.

His name was Joe Mansi and he died in a nursing home at Bickley, aged 96.

I met Joe for the first time many years after his retirement when he told me he was the doctor who attended to the victims of the Luftwaffe bombs, which devastated RAF Biggin Hill after the horrific raid of August 30, 1940.

An explosive had fallen directly into a trench shelter where 40 airmen and civilians were taking cover from low-flying Junkers.

The bomb erupted with a detonation that echoed for miles around and left an enormous crater and scores of mangled bodies in its wake.

In another trench, steel-helmeted WAAFs were packed together when an explosion blew out the entrance, the concrete walls caved in and the girls were buried under stone and earth.

The entombed WAAFs were brought out one by one, the rescuers tearing frantically at the earth with their hands.

Dr Mansi was one of three doctors called to the scene of the first bomb.

He found an opening but it was plain the majority of occupants had been killed.

Those who were living and within reach were given a dose of morphia, several having injections in the face as this was the only part of them above earth.

Six living men were taken out and Dr Mansi had to amputate the wrist of one to free him.

When his gruesome night’s work was finally at an end, Dr Mansi returned home to write his medical report on the most tragic night in Biggin Hill’s history.

Later it was reported he and Dr JC Colbeck of Downe and Dr Grant of Orpington had “performed miracles” in the most macabre conditions imaginable.