Anzac Day 2021 | Edna Petfield, 96, was the 'eyes and ears' of a city during WWll

Edna spent most of World War ll in uniform as a member of the Australian Women's Army Service.

She was among a group of women with above-average hearing and eyesight selected for a special assignment.

The group operated searchlights and sound locators near Newcastle.

"Japanese planes were threatening our coastline, including the BHP Steelworks and our ability to make steel, so we had to be ready," she recalled.

"We were also trained to shoot with .303 rifles and Bren [light machine] guns.

"We were a small group, and there was a great camaraderie among us. We had to depend on each other to survive."

Edna and Carl Rowland, a fellow resident of Southern Cross Care Nagle Residential Aged Care, will lay wreaths during a service at the facility.

Carl was a young boy growing up in Grantham, England during the War and remembers the nightly bombing raids, which turned nearby streets into rubble.

He later joined the RAF National Service and was posted to Malaya in 1956.

Helen Emmerson, CEO of Southern Cross Care NSW & ACT, said, after the disruption of COVID-19, it was pleasing residents in the group's facilities would be able to commemorate Anzac Day with loved ones and friends "with a little more normality" this year.

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