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This story was submitted to the People’s War Site by Suzanne Longstone and has been added to the website on behalf of Felicity Edwards (Medland) with her permission and she fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

Felicity Edwards was 17 when war broke out in 1939. She worked for the Milk Marketing Board and lived with her family in Balham, London throughout The Blitz. On the day of the Balham Bombing, Felicity remembers sitting with her mother in the kitchen, listening to the noise from the waves of planes and anti-aircraft fire when suddenly the whole house felt as though it had been lifted up. They both knew then that something really powerful had gone off close by. A bomb had fallen in the High Road and then through the roof of the northbound line of the Underground, and on to the line. The explosion punctured sewage, water and gas pipes, so these were all affected in the Balham area. The power was off in the Tube station which led to general panic and then a stampede as people fought to get up the escalator and out of the station. Ironically no-one was directly killed by the bomb, but people were trampled and killed as they tried to escape from the Station. Walking to Balham High Road the next day Felicity could see the huge crater left after the explosion with a double-decker red London bus stuck in it. Apparently the bus had driven into it by accident late at night in the blackout, got stuck and was unable to be got out again. Photographs of this sight made all the National newspapers.

Later in the War Felicity joined the ATS — the Women’s section of the Army. She was stationed at Arborfield with the ROAC as it was initially, though while she was there it was re-named, and REME was born. She trained to be a projectionist and spent her working days showing training films to groups of soldiers. Each group saw the film once, but of course Felicity had to sit through each and every run of the film. Tank maintenance — essential though it was - proved to be extremely boring when you watched it many times a day! There was also a film explaining an American system for waterproofing tanks following the tragedy of the Dieppe landings, when vital tanks broke down on the beaches because of water leaking in. Felicity had to show this day after day in the lead-up to D-Day as it was imperative that the tanks were fully functional for the invasion. Felicity knew that film word for word! On VE Day the whole camp went mad! Buttonshaw Avenue — site of the elite housing for important officers and their families — was strictly Out of Bounds for ordinary soldiers and being found there without permission was a punishable offence. However, on VE Day the whole camp — including Felicity - walked down the Avenue en masse, and un-punished!

When air raids were a daily occurrence Felicity remembers an air of instability. You were never sure of what was going to happen. Would your home, family, friends, life still be there next week, month, year? Making any kind of plans for the future was impossible. While you were living through it all, it felt as though the war would just go on and on and on, and it was difficult to imagine that it would ever end.

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