A man who was 15 on Bloody Sunday but six feet tall told how he thought he would have been shot had he not been arrested by a taller paratrooper who reminded him of John Wayne.
Mr William Dillon said he and a friend had grabbed the Civil Rights banner as the march went down William Street, and carried it towards the army barrier blocking marchers from the city centre.
When rioting began, he and his friend ran in different directions and the banner tore. Each threw his half, with pole attached, over the army barrier.
When he entered waste ground from Chamberlain Street a soldier noticed him and pointed his rifle at him. Mr Dillon said he bolted "like a rabbit", convinced the soldier would shoot him. A big soldier grabbed him "by the scruff of my jacket collar". He was convinced if he had not, the soldier with the rifle would have shot him.
Mr Dillon said a lorry full of people arrived and they were shoved into it and put kneeling with their hands behind their heads. A woman "was continually cursing and slagging off the soldiers", he said. "Every time she slagged them, they kicked or hit me."
He was kicked by one soldier for almost the entire journey to the army barracks.
Mr Dillon, who had gone on the march dressed for a dance later, said he remembered "wondering whether I would be in time for the Embassy Ballroom dance . . . I was unaware of what had really happened in the Bogside that day."
No charges were brought against any of those arrested on the day.
The inquiry continues today.