It was named after Sir John Anderson, the man responsible for preparing Britain to withstand German air raids. Some station managers, on their own initiatives, provided additional toilet facilities. Those with a higher income were charged 7 (460 in 2021) for their shelter. Air raid shelter. Jerry Springer was born in a London subway during the World War II: his mother had taken shelter in . If you went to public school in America in the 1960's, you may remember the mandatory air raid drills conducted in preparation for being bombed by the Soviet Union. Instead, the public began to use the underground stations in London as unofficial shelters. All underground stations remain open 24 hours a day to provide shelter. Around 1,500 buildings were destroyed and 2,500 people killed. the deadliest air raid of the war (more died that night than did in the firebombing of . While the authorities initially banned the use of the tube in fear of transport disruption, they soon relented in the face of massive public demand. K, a small shelter for a small apartment house. From 1940 to 1941 there were plans for 3,000 air-raid shelters and bunkers to be built because of the impending threat of aerial assaults. They used curved and straight panels of galvanised corrugated steel, and they performed really well in bomb tests. The German authorities claimed that hochbunkers were totally bomb-proof, but none were targeted by any of the 41 10-ton Grand Slam earthquake bombs dropped by the RAF by the end of World War II. (Stockport was not bombed until 11 October 1940.) Furthermore, it was discovered that the fatalities had occurred in a house which had suffered a direct hit, and some of the severely injured were in shelters sited incorrectly within the houses. Each pair of segments was bolted together at the apex of the arch and each segment was also bolted to its neighbour, the joints being sealed with a bituminous compound. [39], Notable surviving shelters include the Likavitos shelter, built inside the mountain of the same name, the Ministry of Finance bunker and the Piraeus bunkers in Athens, and the nuclear bunker under the Military Hospital no 414 in Thessaloniki.[40][41]. Semi-sunken shelters such as the Anderson used shallow initial excavation combined with earth banking to increase the strength and blast-resistance of the structure. A BBC report describes families sheltering in London's tube stations. The system included extensive training of civilians as well as the construction of more than 12,000 air raid shelters in Attica, equipped with German made blast doors and air filtering systems. Subscribe to Military History Matters and youll get cutting-edge analysis and the latest research from world-renowned historians delivered to your door every month click here for more information. "The sand floor was left so a person could bury turds and pee if needed," Snyder said. Partly buried in the ground, with a suitably screened entrance, this bolted shelter afforded safe protection against blast and splinters.[25][26]. Seventy-nine stations were fitted with bunks for 22,000 people, supplied with first aid facilities and equipped with chemical toilets. None of these concerns had been borne out by experience during the bombing raids of the First World War, when eighty specially adapted tube stations had been pressed into use, but in a highly controversial decision in January 1924, Anderson, then chairman of the Air Raid Precautions Committee of Imperial Defence, had ruled out the tube station shelter option in any future conflict. They were free to all families who earned less than 250 a year. But those images of shelters and shelterers represent a thread connecting civilians caught up in conflicts across time and space from First World War London to Civil War Barcelona, Second World War Tokyo and Hamburg, and on to Hanoi, Beirut, Baghdad, and Gaza. Anderson shelters, designed in 1938 and built to hold up to six people, were in common use in the UK. Examination of bombed buildings indicated that in many instances, one end wall of a house was sucked or blown out by a nearby blast, and the floor of the first storey pivoted about its other end (supported by a largely intact wall) and killed the inhabitants. The Kyiv Metro was built in the wake of World War II. Because of the large number made and their robustness, many Anderson shelters still survive. Typical Germans constructed bunker is Hochbunker. large image. From then on, this became the common size for surface and semi-sunken air-raid shelters in schools, businesses, and public areas. But there are some above ground used by the people for safeguarding the people when the air raid happened such as the railway arches or even cellar in the houses. All rights reserved. Tickets for using the London Underground to shelter from bombs in the blitz of WW2, detail from a picture in the London Transport Museum. While investigating facts about Air Raids Ww2 and Air Raids Nike, I found out little known, but curios details like:. In both world wars, the London Underground network provided much needed shelter from the horrors of air raids. However, fewer people could find shelter at night as sleeping areas for the occupants took up more of the space available a limitation applying to any other type of shelter as well. The Anderson shelter was designed in 1938 by William Paterson and Oscar Carl Kerrison in response to a request from the Home Office. 2. None of the shelters described above was capable of surviving a direct hit. [citation needed]. The bus was empty at the time, but eleven people were killed in the houses. When they were buried outside, the earth banks could be planted with vegetables and flowers, that at times could be quite an appealing sight and in this way would become the subject of competitions of the best-planted shelter among householders in the neighbourhood. The history of what was known as the Tilbury Shelter seems timely, if only as a reminder of how different that crisis was from the one we are . They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but many have been successfully used as defensive structures in such situations). But there was only little progress with the shelter because of the need to keep the people above the ground to avoid the gas attack and to keep the people under the ground to avoid the air attack. Old air-raid shelters, such as the Anderson, can still be found in back gardens, in which they are commonly used as sheds, or (on a roof covered with earth) as vegetable patches. In Stockport, six miles south of Manchester, four sets of underground air raid shelter tunnels for civilian use were dug into the red sandstone on which the town centre stands. Because of their shape, the towers became known colloquially as "cigar stubs" or "sugar beets". Railway arches and subways were also used in the UK for air raid protection at all times during World War II. Arups designs are bizarre and beautiful, resembling complex molecules, giant spirals, honeycombs, and enormous subterranean multi-storey car-parks. The scientist J B S Haldane reported that in London as many as 300,000 went into underground stations, while another 500,000 slept in cellars and basements. Landsborough Air Raid Shelter is a heritage-listed air raid shelter at Cribb Street, Landsborough, Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia.It was built in 1942. Existing edifices designed for other functions, such as underground stations (tube or subway stations), tunnels, cellars in houses or basements in larger establishments and railway arches, above ground, were suitable for safeguarding people during air raids. country, and the underground railway in London, to purpose-built structures for use at home. By the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Anderson shelters had been installed in the gardens of around 1.5 million houses in the areas most expected to be targeted by the Luftwaffe. Can they plan and build their own amazing model shelter? Harrington Square, Mornington Crescent, in the aftermath of a German bombing raid on London in the first days of the Blitz, 9th September 1940. Although most Swiss houses provide their own shelters, those that don't are required by law to post directions to the nearest shelter. On 19 September, William Mabane, parliamentary secretary to the Ministry of Home Security, urged the public not to leave their Anderson shelters for public shelters, saying it deprived others of shelter. By the armistice four years later, a distinctive category of bomber aircraft had emerged, including the Russian Ilya Murometz, the Italian Caproni, the French Breguet 14, the German Gotha and Giant, and the British Handley-Page. In March 1940, the Government started a a programme of building street communal shelters. Rather, they were designed to protect against the statistically far higher possibility of a near miss, with its risk of flying bomb fragments and collapsing debris. The largest air raid shelter in Cartagena, which could accommodate up to 5.500 people, has been a museum since 2004. The granulated synthetic protein known as Multi-Purpose Food came in a large white can and was included in the Emergency Pak Food and Water kits that consumers like Dr. Robert Parman, of Topeka . Its maiden trip was a 3.5-mile journey from Paddington to Farringdon Station. All that was necessary was to ascertain that cellars were being prepared to accommodate all the residents of a building; that all the cellar hatch and window protections were in place; that access to the cellars was safe in the event of an air raid; that once inside, the occupants were secure for any incidents other than direct hits during the air raid and that means of escape was available. The Anderson shelter was designed in 1938. Therefore, you can find that most apartments and houses in Germany were equipped with cellars. It was occupied by a couple, their maid and the family cat, the couple were apparently local wine merchants. An Air Raid. Reinforced concrete proved an ideal material for air-raid shelters, being strong and resistant to shock with no deterioration with the passing of time. These shelters were cut into the soft sandstone bedrock beneath city squares, empty lots, or under streets. It was named after Sir John Anderson, the man responsible for preparing Britain to withstand German air raids. [45] Broadly, four main types can be identified: surface, semi-sunken, sunken, and deep. Also, the performance of the early street shelters was a serious blow to public confidence. Remarkable pictures of London Underground being used as Second World War shelters. The temperature inside Hoch bunker was very constant. GCSE Modern World History. An estimated 170,000 people sheltered in the tunnels and stations during World War II. In Ramsgate, caves and tunnels in the chalk cliffs were employed as shelters for several thousand people. By the time the Blitz began in earnest, more than 2.25 million families had Anderson shelters in their gardens. The air raid shelter was created just like a bunker. Anderson shelters were designed to accommodate up to six people. . The oldest surviving air-raid shelter in Britain is a little grey garage behind a house in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire. One of the most common semi-sunken shelters used preformed segments with a curved roof, which could be more easily buried. The result was a great variety of forms, capacities, locations, and levels of protection. Subways were actual thoroughfares also in the shape of arches, normally allowing passage underneath railway lines.[10][11]. When the Wilkinson's Lemonade factory in North Shields received a direct hit on Saturday, 3 May 1941 during a German attack on the north-east coast of England, 107 occupants lost their lives when heavy machinery fell through the ceiling of the basement in which they were sheltering.[8][9]. They were originally designed to provide shelter for up to 3,850 people. The crowd suddenly surged forward upon hearing the unfamiliar sound of a new type of anti-aircraft rocket being launched nearby. Another air raid also occurred in Afghanistan in Kunduz province on 4 September 2009. The shelters were 6 feet (1.8m) high, 4.5 feet (1.4m) wide, and 6.5 feet (2.0m) long. In this photo . Flames engulfed their homes, shelters and streets. The Nazis took over a high-end Berlin brothel commonly used by prominent Germans and foreign dignitaries, replaced all the prostitutes with spies, and continued business until a British air raid demolished the building in 1942 It was the high rise bunker that Germans used to accommodate the additional citizens and pedestrians. They performed well under pressure but were far too cold and damp in winter, often collecting rainwater on the floor. They were not particularly blast-proof, however, as many models were badly constructed, often using sub-standard mortar, and were liable to collapse. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Many also recall the attempts by parents and teachers to make shelters into a more familiar, domestic space, with amenities, decorations, and stoves for brewing tea. The shop producing spun-concrete lighting columns ceased production and turned over to concrete air-raid shelters, of which 100,000 tons were manufactured, principally for the air ministry. These were intended both as shelters from bombing or strafing and subsequently to prevent gliders from landing. Berlin Story Bunker, the Anhalter Bahnhof Bunker. By November 1937, there had only been slow progress, because of a serious lack of data on which to base any design recommendations and the Committee proposed that the Home Office should have its own department for research into structural precautions, rather than relying on research work done by the Bombing Test Committee to support the development of bomb design and strategy. However, tube stations and tunnels were still vulnerable to a direct hit and several such incidents did occur: On 14 October 1940, a bomb penetrated the road and tunnel at Balham tube station, blew up the water mains and sewage pipes, and killed 66 people. They had one or two entrances, and offered shelter from collapsing buildings and shrapnel. Continue with Recommended Cookies. If that is what they are they are covered in nature, stinging nettles, weeds etc and have been for at least forty years. The walls of the towers had a minimum thickness for reinforced concrete of 0.8m and 1.5m for ordinary concrete. The first bombs fell from an aircraft in 1911, when the Italian military bombarded Ottoman troops in Libya with hand grenades during the Italian-Turkish war of 1911-1912. Bill Brandts photographs of Londoners crowded on the platforms of underground stations are echoed in Henry Moores sketches and the novels of Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene, and others. "Duck and cover" emerged as. Unlike Andersons and communal shelters, the tube was dry, warm, and apparently bomb-proof. Tunnels were used as shelters at the same time that the population undertook the building of bomb shelters under the coordination of a committee for civil defense (Catalan: Junta de defensa passiva) providing planning and technical assistance. It produced the loudest sound ever achieved by an air raid siren. The Anderson shelters reduced deaths in the UK by 90%; During WWII, the United Kingdom suffered from very intense bombing by German forces. The Victoria tunnels at Newcastle upon Tyne, for example, completed as long ago as 1842, and used for transporting coal from the collieries to the river Tyne, had been closed in 1860 and remained so until 1939. The main principle of protection was based on curved and straight galvanised corrugated steel panels. However, the air-raid shelters are built to protect the civilian population, so protection against a direct hit is of secondary value. 2. In the art and literature of the Home Front, the air-raid shelter and its inhabitants frightened, dazed, defiant feature prominently. The Air Raid Wardens Service was established in 1937 and over 44 million gas masks had been distributed by the outbreak of war in 1939. When Head of the Engineering Department at Cambridge University, Professor John Baker (later Lord Baker) presented an undergraduate lecture on the principles of design of the shelter, as an interesting introduction to his theory of plastic design of structures and it can be summarised as follows: It was impractical to produce a design for mass production that could withstand a direct hit, and so it was a matter of selecting a suitable design target that would save lives in many cases of blast damage to bombed houses. Anxiety about a potential war with China is running high, and many people are . [19] Large numbers were manufactured at John Summers & Sons ironworks at Shotton on Deeside with production peaking at 50,000 units per week. From late 1937, Barcelona functioned as the Republican capital. The Coventry Blitz. Helsbys work influenced the Labour Party, but, like Haldanes work and also reports by distinguished engineers such as Ove Arup, it was rejected by the official Hailey Report on air-raid protection. The ventilation ductwork was suspended from the ceiling. After the war, most of these shelters were either abandoned or demolished along with the apartment buildings they were built in. KidzSearch Safe Wikipedia for Kids. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.. The dimensions of the towers varied. At the start of the Blitz many Londoners decided to make use of tube stations as air raid shelters because they felt more . The communal shelters were usually intended to accommodate about fifty persons, and were divided into various sections by interior walls with openings connecting the different sections. During the Cold War, NATO used the shelter for food storage. 4. A total of 194 bombing attacks were made on Barcelona, the majority by the Italian air force from its base in Majorca. On that fateful night on 14th November 1940 the city of Coventry faced a devastating bombing raid that flattened the city, destroyed its medieval heritage, killed, maimed and horrified the entire country. Most structures in the village were damaged. By the start of 1939, more than a million of these part-sunken shelters, named after the politician responsible for ARP, had been installed in private gardens. Communal street shelters. The structure is 4m wide and 5m deep, and consists of a single room with two entrance lobbies. Second World War. However, the government was then confronted with an episode of mass disobedience. Indoor shelters known as Morrison shelters were introduced as well. The most important dangers are the blast and shrapnel. More fragments from articles, old building codes and drawings from the Brisbane City Council Archives revealed a story of a creative design response to the threat of bombing by the Japanese. The Morrison shelter was therefore designed to be able to withstand the upper floor falling, of a typical two storey-house undergoing a partial collapse. Some found them unpleasant or claustrophobic, and there were widespread doubts as to their effectiveness. The towers had a conical shape with walls that curved downward to a reinforced base. The Ministry of Interior, responsible for civil defence in Finland, maintains hard shelters, capable of accommodating 3.6 million persons, in cities and in other densely populated areas where two-thirds of the country's population live. Some of the circular towers contained helical floors that gradually curved their way upward within the circular walls. Home front command, ,2010. After the crisis, the British Government decided to make these a permanent feature, with a standard design of precast concrete trench lining. Hochbunkers usually consisted of large concrete blocks above ground with walls between 1 m and 1.5 m thick and with huge lintels above doorways and openings. Panic set in. Nevertheless, the London Underground system during the war was considered one of the safest means of protecting relatively many people in a high-density area of the capital. He also described other shelters in the city, including an experimental model using two concrete roofs separated by an air space to absorb blast. Private homes rarely have them, but houses over 1,200m2 (13,000sqft) are obliged to build them. Dive even deeper into these air raid shelters with these 10 fun facts about Anderson Shelters. Through 1938, the numbers using the shelters fell. The large medieval labyrinth of tunnels beneath Dover Castle had been built originally as part of the defensive system of the approaches to England, extended over the centuries and further excavated and reinforced during World Wars I and II, until it was capable of accommodating large parts of the secret defence systems protecting the British Isles. It grew in popularity very quickly. Three Anderson shelters standing intact amid a scene of debris in Norwich, A Morrison shelter containing a dummy, after the house it was in had been destroyed as a test, Air-raid shelter built during the Spanish Civil War in Valencia, Children outside air raid shelter in Gresford, 1939, Finnish civilians enter a bomb shelter in Helsinki during the Winter War, 1939, Blast protection valves installed in a bomb shelter, A communal air raid shelter located in a public garden in Holon, Israel, Entrance to a public bomb shelter in Sderot, Israel, An example of a bomb shelter at a playground in Israel, Japanese colonial period air raid shelter in Taiwan. Some air-raid shelters were constructed in residential building schemes in anticipation of the Second World War. emergency exit stairway. At the end of the war in Europe, households who had received an Anderson shelter were expected to remove their shelters and local authorities began the task of reclaiming the corrugated iron. Therefore, it can be used as laboratories too. On 21 September, it abruptly changed policy, removing its objections to the use of tube stations. An air raid is an attack in which bombs are dropped from aircraft on to a ground or sea target. It was also in Barcelona that the first purpose-built deep bomb-proof shelters were constructed for use by the civilian population. They were sited on waste land, in parks and in the middle of wide public roads. It was in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 that the spectre of bombing in Europe grew from a fear into a real threat. In more modern, post-war times, these shelters are often used as storage, with the footprint of the reinforced basement divided up into individual storage units according to the number of apartments in the house. Later, authorities supplied materials to households to construct communal street shelters and Morrison and Anderson shelters. Many residents hid in their shelters each night in case of a raid. Air raid. Warrior Race: A History of the British at War (2003) p. 623. They had the advantage of being built upward, which was much cheaper than downward excavation. This page was last edited on 8 February 2023, at 12:12. They often had a constant interior temperature of 7 to 10C, which made them perfectly suitable for laboratories, both during and after the war. The attempted demolition caused no more than a crack in one of the walls of the tower, after which efforts were abandoned. [44] During the invasion, on February 24, regular service on the metro was suspended. The Spanish Armada: Englands deliverance in 1588 | The PastCast. Few shelters could survive a direct bomb-hit. The ramps twisted repeatedly, until a depth of about 55 feet below the ground was reached. The arches were covered usually with wooden or brick screen- or curtain walls, thus giving a considerable amount of protection against air raids provided, of course, that railway lines were not the prime target of the attack at the particular time and so being more likely to suffer from direct hits. At some point, it was turned into a garage, and as such it survives as a strikingly modern-looking remnant of the first strategic bombing campaign in history. Countries which have kept air-raid shelters intact and in ready condition include Switzerland, Spain and Finland. Altogether it had 359 parts and had three tools supplied with the pack. civilian population against an air raid. There is evidence that some of the structure was prefabricated and some cast on site. One of the famous air raid shelters is the Anderson shelter. 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