The shelter was six feet high and was designed to be buried four feet into the ground, with the remaining two feet being covered with the excess soil excavated during the installation. Additional straight sheets on either side acted as walls. This formed the main body of the shelter. The shelters were made of six curved panels of corrugated steel bolted together at the top with steel plates. During the war a further 2.1 million were erected. By the time the war broke out in September, around 1.5 million shelters were in place in areas expected to be bombed by the Luftwaffe. The first Anderson shelter was erected in a garden in Islington, London, on 25 February 1939. This design which came to be known as the “Anderson shelter” was one of the reasons why casualties during Germany’s bombing of Britain was so low in comparison to casualties in German cities.Ī surviving Anderson Shelter in Manston, Kent. Paterson and Kerrison came up with an intuitive design, made of prefabricated corrugated sheet metal that could be assembled quickly in a garden and partially buried to protect against bomb blast. He was also responsible for providing public shelters.Īnderson commissioned engineers William Paterson and Oscar Carl Kerrison to design a small and cheap shelter that could be erected in people's gardens. As the Lord Privy Seal, Anderson’s responsibility was to organize civil defense such as air raid wardens, rescue squads, fire services, and the Women’s Voluntary Service. “To alleviate the health problems associated with working underground for prolonged periods of time, staff were made to strip to their underwear, put on a pair of protective goggles and stand in front of portable sun lamps like this one.In 1938, before the Second World War had even begun, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain placed Sir John Anderson in charge of air raid preparations. “It charts in great detail the devastating advance of the German forces in Russia in 1941 – 1942 and their gradual retreat in the years that followed.” © IWM SITE CWR 654 Churchill’s cigar. Staff were issued with passes like this one, which they were expected to show without fail to the guards as they passed.” © IWM Documents.2995 Large map from the Map Room Annexe. “Gaining access to the War Rooms meant running past a strict set of security checks. © IWM MH 27688 Entrance pass belonging to Wing Commander J S Heagerty. © IWM MH 000520 Churchill’s War Rooms bedroom. The double doors at center led to the annex of 10 Downing Street, where Churchill and family lived from December 1940. “The stark cautionary message on this telephone reveals the importance of secrecy above all else.” © IWM SITE CWR 617 On the left is the internal door that led down into the War Rooms. During the Blitz, many of them remained underground day and night, working here and sleeping between shifts in the sub-basement.” © IWM MH 531 The telephone from General Ismay’s room. The switchboard operators and typists “were all civilian women. Secrets of Churchill’s War Rooms draws from personal accounts of staff, archival photographs and images of the restored rooms to provide a behind the scenes look at this once-secret space. These inner workings are the subject of a new book by Jonathan Asbury, Secrets of Churchill’s War Rooms. The book provides fascinating details of life in this top-secret, subterranean space, such as the portable sun lamp used by staff who spent long hours underground the specially designed gas masks that would allow switchboard operators to continue working even in the event of an attack and the top-secret Transatlantic Telephone Room, which was given a toilet-stall style lock so staff presumed it was just Churchill’s own private lavatory.Īfter the war, the Churchill War Rooms were left abandoned until 1984, when they were re-opened to the public by the Imperial War Museum. It was, in Churchill’s words, “the room from which I’ll direct the war.” Churchill’s desk in his underground bedroom, where he made four of his wartime speeches. With tables laid out in a horseshoe configuration, this is where the heads of Army, Navy and Air Force would meet with Churchill. The site contained numerous important functions including the Map Room, for charting the course of the war, a broadcasting room and, most crucially, the Cabinet Room. Now known as Churchill’s War Rooms, the complex was situated beneath Whitehall and, for the next five years, would serve as the center of wartime operations. Winston Churchill broadcast these words from a secret underground command center in central London on September 11, 1940, just after Germany began bombing the city.
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