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On June 29th 2005, Dame Vera Lynn attended the reunion of the 93rd Searchlight Battalion — the only women-only battalion in the history of the British Army - at the Royal School of Artillery, Larkhill, Wiltshire, where this interview was recorded.

"I experienced some of the activities of the 93rd Battalion first hand, as they were stationed in the park at the end of the road where I lived, and they made themselves heard and seen often!

The searchlight was at the bottom of my garden, although most of the time I spent in the theatres at night when I couldn't get home because of the raids. I lived in Barking and had to travel through the East End nearly every day into London for the theatres and studios and I would get stuck in the Blitz but, like the girls here, I survived.

Although I would drive myself home from the West End to Barking through the East End and past the Docks, after a show, I couldn't venture out while the raids were on, unless, of course I got caught halfway.

Night after night I just stayed in the theatre all night while the bombs were falling outside.

I was in a show at the Holborn Empire during the Battle of Britain and, owing to a "time bomb" outside the stage door, the show was transferred to the London Palladium.
After the move, the Holborn Empire got a direct hit. Had the show stayed there I could have been inside - with a raid on and not being able to drive home. We would stay to finish the show and then everybody either left early or went down to the shelters — that's how we managed.

I think the effort of these girls (the 93rd Searchlight Battalion) during the War was just wonderful. What would we have done without them… I just don't know! Absolutely fantastic!

But I am disappointed that the role of women during the War hasn't been properly recognised at all really. I wrote a book fifteen years ago, "Unsung Heroines" — about the women and the jobs they did, both here and on the Continent, and now, finally, there is going to be a monument in London!

But I do wish they had brought my book out again this year as I wrote it fifteen years ago because I was so annoyed that women hadn't been recognised.

And women played such a great part in private life too helping to win the war.
They took on all the jobs the men did before the war. They found they could do things they had never thought about before.

I think that was the start of Women's Liberation!"

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