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When I was a young boy I remember going down the Underground at Balham station on the Northern Line during the worst of the German airraids. I well remember the sound of the first train in the morning which woke us up from the bunk beds we were sharing. I remember the stuffy atmosphere but the sense of togetherness among the people. I was evacuated to the country eventually and while I was away the disaster took place. The Germans dropped a landmine on the main road outside the cinema and this broke the main water main. The water and mud flooded into the station and many people were drowned. The station was closed for a long time while the bodies were removed. I remember seeing the muddy tidemark on the walls of the platform showing how high the water had come. My father who was driving London buses during the war told me that it was a numnber 88 which had been goingalong the main road in the dark and gone into the crater. There are photos of this. He also said that they tried without success to pull the bus out but the side of the crater kept giving way and eventually the bus had to be broken up. The news of this disaster was kept secret because of the danger of wartime propoganda affecting the war effort. On reflection, I regard myself as fortunate not to have been sleeping on the station during that raid. I recall that one man escaped by swimming and walking down to the next station at Tooting Bec.

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