Air Raids:
In September 1935, the British prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, published a circular entitled Air Raid
Precautions, inviting local authorities to make plans to protect their people in event of a war. Some towns
responded by arranging the building of public air raid shelters. These shelters were built of brick with roofs of
reinforced concrete. However, some local authorities ignored the circular and in April 1937 the government
decided to create an Air Raid Wardens' Service and during the next year recruited around 200,000 volunteers.
In August 1938 Adolf Hitler began making speeches that suggested he was going to send the German Army into
Czechoslovakia. The British government now began to fear a war with Nazi Germany and Neville Chamberlain
ordered that Air Raid Precautions (ARP) volunteers to be mobilized. Cellars and basements were requisitioned
for air raid shelters and trenches were dug in the parks of large towns. The government also ordered the flying
of barrage balloons over London.
In November 1938, Chamberlain placed Sir John Anderson in charge of the ARP. He immediately commissioned
the engineer, William Patterson, to design a small and cheap shelter that could be erected in people's gardens.
Within a few months nearly one and a half million of these Anderson Shelters were distributed to people living
in areas expected to be bombed by the Luftwaffe. Made from six curved sheets bolted together at the top, with
steel plates at either end, and measuring 6ft 6in by 4ft 6in (1.95m by 1.35m) the shelter could accommodate six
people. These shelters were half buried in the ground with earth heaped on top. The entrance was protected by
a steel shield and an earthen blast wall.
Anderson shelters were given free to poor people. Men who earned more than £5 a week could buy one for £7.
Soon after the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, over 2 million families had shelters in
their garden. By the time of the Blitz this had risen to two and a quarter million.
When the Luftwaffe changed from daylight to night bombing raids, the government expected people to sleep in
their Anderson shelters. Each night the wailing of the air raid sirens announced the approach of the German
bombers and ensured that most people had time to take cover before the raid actually started.
The Anderson Shelters were dark and damp and people were reluctant to use them at night. In low-lying areas
they tended to flood and sleeping was difficult as they did not keep out the sound of the bombings. Another
problem was that the majority of people living in industrial areas did not have gardens where they could erect
their shelters.
In March 1940 the government began to build communal shelters designed to protect around fifty people living
in the same area. Made of brick and concrete they provided more protection than garden shelters. However,
within a couple of months there was a severe shortage of cement and this slowed down the building of these
shelters.
During the Blitz the deep trenches dug in parks in 1938 were lined and covered with concrete or steel. These
trenches could normally hold some fifty people. They were impossible to keep waterproof and were very
uncomfortable during air raids.
Some people left the city every night. Special trains were run from London every night to Chislehurst in Kent
where people slept in the caves in the area. Some people set up home in the caves and others established shops
to serve the growing number of people seeking safety in Chislehurst. Music concerts and church services were
also held in the caves.
Another popular place to go in London during air raids was the Tilbury Arches in Stepney. The local council took
over this collection of cellars and vaults and turned them into a large public shelter for 3,000 people. However it
is estimated that on some nights there were over 16,000 people sheltering in the Tilbury Arches.
People in London also used tube stations during the Blitz. People would buy platform tickets for a penny
halfpenny and camped on the platforms for the night. They were popular because they were dry, warm and
quiet. The government, fearing that the overcrowded platforms would hamper troop movements, attempted to
stop the public from using the tube stations as shelters. The people refused to give them up and the government
was forced to back down. In some cases underground stations were closed down and given over to the public to
use during air raids.
The tube stations were not as safe as people thought. High explosive bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe could
penetrate up to fifty feet through solid ground. On 17th September 1940, a bomb killed twenty people
sheltering in Marble Arch station. The worst incident took place at Balham in October 1940 when 600 people
were killed or injured. The following year 111 people were killed while sheltering at the Bank underground
station.
A census held in November 1940 discovered that the majority of people in London did not use specially created
shelters. The survey revealed that of those interviewed, 27 per cent used domestic shelters, 9 per cent slept in
public shelters whereas 4 per cent used underground railway stations (4 per cent). The rest of those interviewed
were either on duty at night or slept in their own homes.
In March 1941 the government began issuing Morrison Shelters. Named after the Home Secretary, Herbert
Morrison, the shelters were made of very heavy steel and could be put in the living room and used as a table.
One wire side lifted up for people to crawl underneath and get inside. Morrison shelters were fairly large and
provided sleeping space for two or three people.
This cartoon of a public shelter was published in Britain in February, 1941.
1) British government circular 'Air Raid Warnings' (1939)
When air raids are threatened, warning will be given in towns by sirens, or hooters which will be sounded in
some places by short blasts and in others by a warbling note, changing every few seconds. The warnings may be
given by the police or air-raid wardens blowing short blasts on whistles.
When you hear the warning take cover at once. Remember that most of the injuries in an air raid are caused not
by direct hits by bombs but by flying fragments of debris or by bits of shells. Stay under cover until you hear the
sirens sounding continuously for two minutes on the same note which is the signal "Raiders Passed".
(2) Winston Churchill, letter to Neville Chamberlain (1st October, 1939)
The A. R. P. (Air Raid Precautions) defences and expense are founded upon a wholly fallacious view of the
degree of danger to each part of the country which they cover. Schedules should be made of the target areas
and of the paths of flight by which they may be approached. In these areas there must be a large proportion of
whole-time employees. London is of course the chief target, and others will readily occur. In these target areas
the street-lighting should be made so that it can be controlled by the Air Wardens on the alarm signal being
given; and while shelters should be hurried on with and strengthened, night and day, the people's spirits should
be kept up by theatres and cinemas until the actual attack begins. Over a great part of the countryside, modified
lighting should be at once allowed, and places of entertainment opened. No paid A. R. P. personnel should be
allowed in these areas. All should be on a voluntary basis, the Government contenting itself with giving advice,
and leaving the rest to local effort. In these areas, which comprise at least seven-eighths of the United Kingdom,
gas-masks should be kept at home and only carried in the target areas as scheduled. There is really no reason
why orders to this effect should not be given during the coming week.
(3) Government circular, Underground stations must not be used as air raid shelters (1940)
The public are informed that in order to operate the Railways for essential movement, Underground Stations
cannot be used as air raid shelters. In any event a number of stations would have to be cleared for safety in
certain contingencies.
(4) In 1945, T. P. Peters, an Air Raid Warden in East Grinstead, wrote about his experiences during the Second
World War in his book, Reminiscences (1945).
When the Prime Minister announced the Declaration of War on Germany on Sunday morning, 3rd September,
1939, the country was well prepared with its ARP (Air Raid Precautions) Organization. We had received a good
training from Colonel Eaton, the Chief Warden.
Gas Masks were issued to the public. I remember one poor old gentleman asked me: "Well, Sir, how am I to eat
my dinner with this thing on?" We concentrated on improving our first aid skills. Every week we would have an
exercise. Mr. J. Woodrow would be the patient. Mrs. L Bennett typed us a booklet containing all names,
addresses and where people planned to shelter during air raids.
On 10 p.m. on Saturday, 26th October, 1940, Stanney in Holtye Road, was demolished. We could hear cries
coming from what was left of the house. The most extraordinary thing about this incident was the luck of the
three ladies, who were trapped and escaped with minor injuries, but a nurse from Queen Victoria Hospital, who
was having a bath at the time, was blown right out with the roof of the house and with the shattered bath. We
found her lying on her back, terribly injured, and quite nude.
Warden Burnett remarked afterwards: "When I shone my torch on her I thought it was a statue blown over in
the garden." We covered her with a coat and she actually asked me what had happened. We got her into the
Larches Nursing Home, where Dr. Somerville and his staff did their best, but she died the next day.
(5) Leonard England, Mass Observation report on an air-raid on Southampton (4th December, 1940)
Throughout Monday there was apparently a large unofficial evacuation. Two people spontaneously compared
the lines of people leaving the town with bedding and prams full of goods to the pictures they had seen of
refugees in Holland and Poland. Some official evacuation took place on the Monday, but at the Avenue Hall rest
centre a group of fifty waited all the afternoon for a bus to take them out; the warning went when there were
still no buses, and all of them went out to shelters without waiting any longer.
On Monday evening from about 4.30 onwards a stream of people were leaving the town for the night. When
Mr. Andrews left the train at the docks, he was impressed by the seeming deadness of the town; there were no
cars, and hardly any people except those that had left the train with him. But farther out people were moving.
The buses were full, men and women were walking with their baggage. Some were going to relations in outlying
parts, some to shelters, preceded by their wives who had reserved them places, and some to sleep in the open.
'Anything so as not to spend another night in there.' Many were trying to hitch hike, calling out to every car that
passed; very few stopped. This caused considerable annoyance, especially as many coaches completely empty
went by.
Trains leaving were full of women and children; many had little baggage, as if they were coming back next day.
The next day many returned after the night, but more were intent on getting out. In some neighbourhoods
whole streets had evacuated, most people leaving a note on their doors giving their new address; one such
notice read 'Home all day, away all night'. Men as well as women were leaving; one man was going to
Northampton to his son's, regretfully, after 26 years in Southampton.
All day people were leaving the town with suitcases and baggage. All of these seemed to set out with a set
purpose and aim but all the aims were different. Here and there, for instance, there were streams of people all
with baggage. Following these streams, Mr. Andrews saw them split up, some going to bus stops, others to
trains. Both trains and buses were leaving half empty, there was no great rush. People seemed puzzled by which
stations were open, which buses were running, and were moving from one to the other.
The news that anybody could be evacuated by applying at the Central Hall seemed to be leaking out only slowly.
One woman midday was telling everybody she met, but another at the same time was telling her friends to go
out to Romsey, 'there was still room there'.
(6) British government circular Lighting Restrictions (July, 1939)
All windows, skylights, glazed doors or other openings which would show a light, will have to be screened in
wartime with dark blinds or brown paper on the glass so that no light is visible from outside. You should now
obtain any materials you may need for this purpose. Instructions will be issued about the dimming of lights on
vehicles. No street lighting is allowed.
(7) Herbert Morrison, An Autobiography (1960)
Being Home Secretary and Minister of Home Security meant that I had in effect two jobs at one and the same
time. There were two different organizations and two permanent secretaries. That was fundamentally right but
there had to be some 'fitting in'. As there was one Minister that was not very difficult.
The police, for example, were under the Home Office; they had to be used by both departments. So nominally
was the fire service but in fact it had to be treated as part of the Ministry of Home Security. One thing I did from
the outset, and that was to go out and meet the people, to see things on the ground and talk to humble civil
defence workers. I have always held the view that any head of a State department, no matter what it is, should
know the public he serves and the work outside and not spend all his time behind a desk reading papers. I
visited all the regions.
I also visited our active defences. The three Commands of the R.A.F., the Royal Observer Corps, which did such
fine work and should have got more credit, and A-A Command. It was inspiring and useful.
Despite criticism, Sir John Anderson had organized an excellent system and the machine, as such, was in general
running well. For example, the principle of Regional Commissioners was very good and the best method of
securing co-ordination with and between the local authorities and maintaining civil government should invasion
occur. Some newspapers unreasonably moaned about them because if the emergency reached a situation
where the commissioners had to take over it was alleged that in effect the United Kingdom was run by twelve
dictators if and when war occurred. In fact, the commissioners were co-operators and not dictators.
In September 1935, the British prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, published a circular entitled Air Raid
Precautions, inviting local authorities to make plans to protect their people in event of a war. Some towns
responded by arranging the building of public air raid shelters. These shelters were built of brick with roofs of
reinforced concrete. However, some local authorities ignored the circular and in April 1937 the government
decided to create an Air Raid Wardens' Service and during the next year recruited around 200,000 volunteers.
In August 1938 Adolf Hitler began making speeches that suggested he was going to send the German Army into
Czechoslovakia. The British government now began to fear a war with Nazi Germany and Neville Chamberlain
ordered that Air Raid Precautions (ARP) volunteers to be mobilized. Cellars and basements were requisitioned
for air raid shelters and trenches were dug in the parks of large towns. The government also ordered the flying
of barrage balloons over London and quickly made plans for the evacuation of children from Britain's large
cities.
In November 1938, Chamberlain placed Sir John Anderson in charge of the ARP. He immediately commissioned
the engineer, William Patterson, to design a small and cheap shelter that could be erected in people's gardens.
Within a few months nearly one and a half million of these Anderson Shelters were distributed to people living
in areas expected to be bombed by the Luftwaffe. Made from six curved sheets bolted together at the top, with
steel plates at either end, and measuring 6ft 6in by 4ft 6in (1.95m by 1.35m) the shelter could accommodate six
people. These shelters were half buried in the ground with earth heaped on top. The entrance was protected by
a steel shield and an earthen blast wall.
Anderson shelters were given free to poor people. Men who earned more than £5 a week could buy one for £7.
Soon after the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, over 2 million families had shelters in
their garden. By the time of the Blitz this had risen to two and a quarter million.
When the Luftwaffe changed from daylight to night bombing raids, the government expected people to sleep in
their Anderson shelters. Each night the wailing of the air raid sirens announced the approach of the German
bombers and ensured that most people had time to take cover before the raid actually started.
The Anderson Shelters were dark and damp and people were reluctant to use them at night. In low-lying areas
they tended to flood and sleeping was difficult as they did not keep out the sound of the bombings. Another
problem was that the majority of people living in industrial areas did not have gardens where they could erect
their shelters.
In March 1940 the government began to build communal shelters designed to protect around fifty people living
in the same area. Made of brick and concrete they provided more protection than garden shelters. However,
within a couple of months there was a severe shortage of cement and this slowed down the building of these
shelters. There were also accidents that persuaded people not to use these shelters. On one occasion all the
occupants of a purpose-built shelter in London drowned when it was "filled to the brim" by a burst water main.
The government passed legislation that attempted to control people's behaviour in air raid shelters. If someone
was found to "wilfully disturb other persons in the proper use of an air raid shelter" he could be sent to prison.
In December 1941, fifty-three-year-old George Hall was sent to prison under this legislation. In fact, he was
guilty of snoring in a shelter. He had been warned by the shelter marshal but continued to snore and was
eventually arrested by the police for the offence. When the judge sentenced him to 14 days in prison he replied
"I can't help what I do when I'm asleep".
During the Blitz the deep trenches dug in parks in 1938 were lined and covered with concrete or steel. These
trenches could normally hold some fifty people. They were impossible to keep waterproof and were very
uncomfortable during air raids.
Some people left the city every night. Special trains were run from London every night to Chislehurst in Kent
where people slept in the caves in the area. Some people set up home in the caves and others established shops
to serve the growing number of people seeking safety in Chislehurst. Music concerts and church services were
also held in the caves.
Another popular place to go in London during air raids was the Tilbury Arches in Stepney. The local council took
over this collection of cellars and vaults and turned them into a large public shelter for 3,000 people. However it
is estimated that on some nights there were over 16,000 people sheltering in the Tilbury Arches.
People in London also used tube stations during the Blitz. People would buy platform tickets for a penny
halfpenny and camped on the platforms for the night. They were popular because they were dry, warm and
quiet. The government, fearing that the overcrowded platforms would hamper troop movements, attempted to
stop the public from using the tube stations as shelters. The people refused to give them up and the government
was forced to back down. In some cases underground stations were closed down and given over to the public to
use during air raids.
The tube stations were not as safe as people thought. High explosive bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe could
penetrate up to fifty feet through solid ground. On 17th September 1940, a bomb killed twenty people
sheltering in Marble Arch station. The worst incident took place at Balham in October 1940 when 600 people
were killed or injured. The following year 111 people were killed while sheltering at the Bank underground
station. One night 178 people suffocated at Bethnal Green station after a panic stampede.
A census held in November 1940 discovered that the majority of people in London did not use specially created
shelters. The survey revealed that of those interviewed, 27 per cent used domestic shelters, 9 per cent slept in
public shelters whereas 4 per cent used underground railway stations (4 per cent). The rest of those interviewed
were either on duty at night or slept in their own homes.
In March 1941 the government began issuing Morrison Shelters. Named after the Home Secretary, Herbert
Morrison, the shelters were made of very heavy steel and could be put in the living room and used as a table.
One wire side lifted up for people to crawl underneath and get inside. Morrison shelters were fairly large and
provided sleeping space for two or three people.
Eventually the government decided to build eight shelters, far below ground, in central London. Each one of
these shelters could house 8,000 people. Although these shelters provided excellent protection, they fulfilled no
practical purpose as they were not finished until the Blitz was over.
"Blast these air raid warnings."
This cartoon of a public shelter was published in Britain in February, 1941.
(1) Barbara Castle, Fighting All The Way (1993)
What we also lacked was an adequate shelter policy, and I had been agitating together with our left-wing group
on the Council for the deep shelters which Professor J. B. S. Haldane had been advocating. Haldane, a
communist sympathizer and eminent scientist, had studied at first hand the effects of air raids on the civilian
population during the Spanish Civil War and had reached conclusions on the best way to protect them, which he
had embodied in a book ARP published in 1938. In it he argued that high explosive, not gas, would be the main
threat. He pointed out that modern high explosives often had a delayed-action fuse and might penetrate several
floors of a building before bursting and that therefore basements could be the worst place to shelter in. He
stressed the deep psychological need of humans caught in bombardment to go underground and urged the
building of a network of deep tunnels under London to meet this need and give real protection.
The government did not want to know. In 1939 Sir John Anderson, dismissing deep shelters as impractical,
insisted that blast- and splinter-proof protection was all that was needed and promised a vast extension of the
steel shelters which took his name. These consisted of enlarged holes in the ground covered by a vault of thin
steel. They had, of course, no lighting, no heating and no lavatories. People had to survive a winter night's
bombardment in them as best they could. In fact, when the Blitz came, the people of London created their own
deep shelters: the London Underground. Night after night, just before the sirens sounded, thousands trooped
down in orderly fashion into the nearest Underground station, taking their bedding with them, flasks of hot tea,
snacks, radios, packs of cards and magazines. People soon got their regular places and set up little troglodyte
communities where they could relax. I joined them one night to see what it was like. It was not a way of life I
wanted for myself but I could see what an important safety-valve it was. Without it, London life could not have
carried on in the way it did.
(2) Evelyn Rose, who was a child during the Second World War, was interviewed about her experiences of the
Blitz in 1987.
If you were out and a bombing raid took place you would make for the nearest shelter. The tube stations were
considered to be very safe. I did not like using them myself. The stench was unbearable. The smell was so bad I
don’t know how people did not die from suffocation. So many bodies and no fresh air coming in. People would
go to the tube stations long before it got dark because they wanted to make sure that they reserved their space.
There were a lot of arguments amongst people over that.
We did not have an Anderson shelter so we used to hide under the stairs. You felt the next bang would be your
lot and it was very frightening. My grandmother was a very religious person and when she was with us during
the bombing raids she would gabble away saying her prayers. Strangely enough, when I was with her, I always
felt safe.
(3) British government circular 'Air Raid Warnings' (1939)
When air raids are threatened, warning will be given in towns by sirens, or hooters which will be sounded in
some places by short blasts and in others by a warbling note, changing every few seconds. The warnings may be
given by the police or air-raid wardens blowing short blasts on whistles.
When you hear the warning take cover at once. Remember that most of the injuries in an air raid are caused not
by direct hits by bombs but by flying fragments of debris or by bits of shells. Stay under cover until you hear the
sirens sounding continuously for two minutes on the same note which is the signal "Raiders Passed".
(4) Winston Churchill, letter to Neville Chamberlain (1st October, 1939)
The A. R. P. (Air Raid Precautions) defences and expense are founded upon a wholly fallacious view of the
degree of danger to each part of the country which they cover. Schedules should be made of the target areas
and of the paths of flight by which they may be approached. In these areas there must be a large proportion of
whole-time employees. London is of course the chief target, and others will readily occur. In these target areas
the street-lighting should be made so that it can be controlled by the Air Wardens on the alarm signal being
given; and while shelters should be hurried on with and strengthened, night and day, the people's spirits should
be kept up by theatres and cinemas until the actual attack begins. Over a great part of the countryside, modified
lighting should be at once allowed, and places of entertainment opened. No paid A. R. P. personnel should be
allowed in these areas. All should be on a voluntary basis, the Government contenting itself with giving advice,
and leaving the rest to local effort. In these areas, which comprise at least seven-eighths of the United Kingdom,
gas-masks should be kept at home and only carried in the target areas as scheduled. There is really no reason
why orders to this effect should not be given during the coming week.
(5) Constance Holt was editor of Woman's Own during the Blitz. After the war she was interviewed by Jonathan
Croall for his book Don't You Know There's A War On? (1989)
Most of the tube stations were taken over as shelters, as there weren't enough big public shelters that people
could get to. Russell Square Station was one of these. I remember on several occasions coming back from the
theatre by tube, and when I got out at Russell Square they had put bunks all along the platform, and you'd see
"women putting on their face- cream, doing up their curlers and getting right for the night. Of course you'd
politely not stare at them because they were in their bedrooms. I remember there was a little bit of snobbery
about stations. I heard one woman say, 'Oh, us and our family go to Regent's Park now, it's nicer people.' And
the children used to go for rides on the tube. At least their mothers knew where they were, and it was much
safer than the street.
(6) Frances Faviell worked as a nurse at a First Aid Post during the Blitz. She wrote about her experiences in the
book A Chelsea Concerto (1959)
The bomb had struck the church at an angle through a window in a most extraordinary way and had penetrated
the floor and burst among the shelterers, mostly women and small children. Here George Thorpe, whom we
knew as 'Bert', lost his life with those women and children whom he had visited to reassure them - as he always
did, although he was not the shelter warden. He knew that they were apt to become nervous and needed moral
support in the heavy raids and he used to drop in there to boost up their courage and cheer them up. He had
just dispatched Jo Oakman on duty and gone there when the bomb fell. The bomb exploded right amongst the
shelterers. A woman who was in the shelter told me about it when I visited her afterwards in St Luke's Hospital.
She was badly injured and said that the scene resembled a massacre - in fact she compared it to an engraving
she had seen of the massacre of the women and children of Cawnpore in the Indian Mutiny, with bodies, limbs,
blood, and flesh mingled with little hats, coats, and shoes and all the small necessities which people took to the
shelters with them. She said that people were literally blown to pieces and the mess was appalling. She herself
was behind a pillar or buttress which protected her somewhat; and there was a pile of bodies between her and
the explosion for it was still daylight - no one had gone to their bunks.
JO and Len Lansdell were quickly at the scene, followed by all the ARP Services. They could not get into the crypt
at first because the body of a very heavy woman barred the only entrance. The explosion had set fire to the
great heaps of coke stored there for heating the church and the smoke from it made it difficult to see. JO and
Len Lansdell immediately set to work with stirrup pumps to try to extinguish it before the whole place became a
crematorium. The body of Bert lay there face downwards. JO, who had spoken to him only a few minutes before
the bomb fell, turned him over. She said afterwards that she wished so much that she hadn't, so that she could
have remembered him as he had been when he had sent her on duty. His equipment, which was taken back to
his post, was described to me as being bright red with blood - as was everything which had been in that crypt.
The work of the ARP Services that night was magnificent - by nine o'clock in the evening the casualties were all
extricated and were laid in the grounds of the church with the Home Guard in charge, and wonderful work was
done by Dr. Castillo and Father Fali, of Tarapore. In our First Aid Post we had numbers of casualties again,
including some rare and interesting fractures which DR Graham Kerr commented on for the instruction of us
VADs. To watch her at work, deft, neat, cheerful, and competent, was a lesson in itself.
(7) Kingsley Martin was the editor of the New Statesman during the Second World War. He wrote about his
experiences in his autobiography, Editor, in 1968.
We had always slept in our beds during the earlier raids and later we were never bothered by the lethal danger
of V-2s. If one dropped near you, you would never know and so it wasn't worth bothering about, but buzzbombs, with a lateral blast, were a confounded nuisance because it was your own fault if you, or your friends
near you, were cut to bits by flying splinters of glass. If you were sensible, you led the way to a shelter. Night
after night we would both go to bed, and then be woken by a familiar noise in the sky. I preferred the nights I
spent fire-watching. The bomb would cut out and I would turn over in bed and mutter, when I heard the bang,
'Oh, that's Mrs Smith and not us', but after two or three times I would realize my folly, get up and find Dorothy,
also in two minds, sitting on her bed near a window. We would dress and go down to a shelter, which we shared
with Olga Katzin, and wait for the morning.
In the day I would work in the kneehole under my desk to avoid the danger of shattered glass from the
windows. I remember that children in one of the great hospitals had their faces so penetrated by glass splinters
that the doctors questioned whether their lives would be worth saving. Glass, unlike metal, will not respond to
magnets and there was no alternative but to cut away their faces.
(8) Government circular, Underground stations must not be used as air raid shelters (1940)
The public are informed that in order to operate the Railways for essential movement, Underground Stations
cannot be used as air raid shelters. In any event a number of stations would have to be cleared for safety in
certain contingencies.
(9) Rector of St. Nicholas Church, Chislehurst, Parish Magazine (October, 1940)
The migration to the Caves has brought to our doors a splendid chance of service, for nearly 5,000 South
Londoners are there... Helpers are wanted in the kitchen at the Rest House from 10 to 2 each day, where we
serve anything from 80 to 200 hot dinners... Helpers are wanted for the canteen, where about 1,000 cups of tea
are made each night. Call at the canteen in the Caves . . . round about 6 o'clock, taking with you two or three
rugs (for a night in a deck-chair) and being prepared to share the morning duty at 5 a.m. Gifts of old clothing for
men and women are wanted.
(10) Angus Calder, The People's War (1969)
"For the first time in many hundreds of years," Mass Observation pointed out, "civilized families conducted the
whole of their leisure and domestic lives in full view of each other. Most of these people were not merely
sheltering in the Tubes; they were living there."
Queues began to form outside the stations as early as six in the morning. Children or servicemen on leave would
be sent to establish priority for their families - 'The constant worry', writes Bernard Kops, 'was whether we
would find a space for that night. We lived only for four o'clock when they let us down.' Spivs joined in, to
reserve places on the platform for which they would charge half a crown or more when the raid 'hotted up'.
Rain, wind, and even daylight bombing did not shift the queues.
Two white lines had been painted on the platforms. Until seven thirty in the evening, shelterers must keep
within the one drawn eight feet from the edge, leaving the rest for passengers. From eight until ten thirty, they
might encroach as far as the second line four feet from the edge. Then the Tubes stopped running; the light was
dimmed; the current was cut off in the rail. People would sling hammocks over the rails, and would walk a little
way down the dark tunnel to relieve themselves. In the early days, the platforms were packed tight, and people
slept on the escalators or even on the bannisters between them. The snoring rose and fell like a loud wind.
(11) Muriel Simkin worked in a munitions factory in Dagenham during the Second World War. She was
interviewed about her experiences for the book, Voices from the Past: The Blitz (1987).
First of all we had an Anderson shelter in the garden. You were supposed to go into your Anderson shelter every
night. I used to take my knitting. I used to knit all night. I was too frightened to go to sleep. You got into the
habit of not sleeping. I've never slept properly since. It was just a bunk bed. I did not bother to get undressed. It
was cold and damp in the shelter. I was all on my own because my husband was in the army.
You would go nights and nights and nothing happened. On one occasion when my husband was on leave, I think
it was a weekend, we decided we would spend the night in bed instead of in the shelter. I heard the noise and
woke up and I could see the sky. They had dropped a basket of incendiary bombs and we had got the lot. Luckily
not one went off. Next morning the bombs were standing up in the garden as if they had grown in the night.
Rosie, my mum's sister, had to go to hospital to have a baby. Her mother-in-law looked after her three-year-old
son. There was a bombing raid and Rosie's son and mother-in-law rushed to Bethnal Green underground station.
Going down the stairs somebody fell. People panicked and Rosie's son was trampled to death.
(12) In 1945, T. P. Peters, an Air Raid Warden in East Grinstead, wrote about his experiences during the Second
World War in his book, Reminiscences (1945).
When the Prime Minister announced the Declaration of War on Germany on Sunday morning, 3rd September,
1939, the country was well prepared with its ARP (Air Raid Precautions) Organization. We had received a good
training from Colonel Eaton, the Chief Warden.
Gas Masks were issued to the public. I remember one poor old gentleman asked me: "Well, Sir, how am I to eat
my dinner with this thing on?" We concentrated on improving our first aid skills. Every week we would have an
exercise. Mr. J. Woodrow would be the patient. Mrs. L Bennett typed us a booklet containing all names,
addresses and where people planned to shelter during air raids.
On 10 p.m. on Saturday, 26th October, 1940, Stanney in Holtye Road, was demolished. We could hear cries
coming from what was left of the house. The most extraordinary thing about this incident was the luck of the
three ladies, who were trapped and escaped with minor injuries, but a nurse from Queen Victoria Hospital, who
was having a bath at the time, was blown right out with the roof of the house and with the shattered bath. We
found her lying on her back, terribly injured, and quite nude.
Warden Burnett remarked afterwards: "When I shone my torch on her I thought it was a statue blown over in
the garden." We covered her with a coat and she actually asked me what had happened. We got her into the
Larches Nursing Home, where Dr. Somerville and his staff did their best, but she died the next day.
(13) British government circular Lighting Restrictions (July, 1939)
All windows, skylights, glazed doors or other openings which would show a light, will have to be screened in
wartime with dark blinds or brown paper on the glass so that no light is visible from outside. You should now
obtain any materials you may need for this purpose. Instructions will be issued about the dimming of lights on
vehicles. No street lighting is allowed.
(14) Cynthia Gillett went to school in London during the Second World War. She wrote about her war
experiences in Jonathan Croall's book, Don't You Know There's A War On (1989)
I remember that if the siren went at home before midnight, you had to be at school at quarter to nine, but if it
went after midnight you didn't have to be there until dinner time. The school shelters were on the playing fields
in two lines, the first marked Mixed Infants, the second marked Juniors. I can remember that very vividly. It was
very dark during the lessons we had in the shelters; I can still smell the horrid smell, very musty and damp. You
sat in lines, and as soon as the siren went you lined off, 'Tallest at the back, shortest at the front, hands on head,
single lines, no talking, lead off - that sort of thing. The teacher went first into the shelter with a torch', and then
once you were in you numbered off. As it was dark, lessons consisted of tables, and spelling was a great one.
Also the teacher used to read by torchlight, she used to read stories and ask us questions about them. We also
worked with bean-bags, passing them round, feeling them and estimating the number of beans. And you
couldn't come out until the clock monitor had counted up to three hundred - that was five minutes.
(15) In Picture Post the editor Tom Hopkinson criticised the standard of public shelters in Britain (November
1940)
One small Salvation Army canteen hands out penny cups of tea (the queue may be a hundred long). One watertap serves all these thousands. And the sanitation? A handful of lavatory buckets in the dark, behind a canvas
screen. And all this while good shelters are shut to the people big business buildings, vast pyramids of steel and
concrete, deep below which is a labyrinth of rooms and passages which could shelter thousands, are locked to
the public at night, and great notices are posted outside, saying, 'This is not a Public Shelter'.
(16) Stella Hughes, interviewed in June, 2001.
All was not gloom and doom at this time especially as a young girl who perhaps was sheltered to a certain
extent, not realising the full extent of what was happening. When the air raids got extremely bad we had to go
to the air raid shelters, that's where I learned to dance and do the Jitterbug to the sounds of the bombs falling
around us. We all made a point of enjoying our lives to the full because we were all aware that each day could
be our last. It was really strange on reflection as facing the reality of death at any time no one seemed to moan
or complain too much unlike nowadays when such problems are a thing of the past for us in this society.
I had a dog, a Selium named Bob, and I walked him daily and I do recall on one particular day when there was a
bad air raid shrapnel was falling all around us. An Air Raid Warden shouted at me to take cover but they would
not let me take my dog in the shelter and I was not prepared to abandon him so I ran all the way home, we were
very lucky to get home safely.
Quite often the German Bombers would off load their deadly cargo over Chingford if they could not penetrate
the Barrage protecting London. One evening my father, mother and myself were just opening the back door to
go to the air raid shelter in the garden when there was a terrible explosion and an enormous whooshing sound!
The next thing I recall was that we were all blown back through the house to the hall and landed in a heap. We
soon learnt that the Bombers had dropped their bombs into the fields at the back of our house it was a miracle
that no damage was sustained.
(17) Joyce Storey, Joyce's War (1992)
When the sirens sounded, it was works policy to leave the factory and file quickly into the shelters. One day, a
bomb made a direct hit on one of the shelters at the Filton Aerodrome works, killing all the people inside. Later
that day, all the other employees at Filton had been sent home because of the tragedy. They had arrived home
white and shaken, none of them being able coherently to tell the story, and wondering how their friends and
workmates could ever be properly buried. The shelters at Filton were never re-opened, but were sealed over
and became a tomb.
After that, we were not so inclined to use the shelters at our works but would get right away from the place and
run into the fields instead. Some of the men would make a bee-line for the pubs if they were open, but I enjoyed
fresh air and the break from the dusty atmosphere of the machine shop. It cleared my head so that I was more
alert when I returned.
(18) Kathleen Box, diary entry (14th October, 1940)
There was a shelter just underground with about 18 inches of concrete roof. The whole thing was blown to bits.
He was superintending the digging out of the bodies. 'I don't want to be on another job like that again. There
were heads and arms and legs and feet lying about. The only way you could tell the girls from the men was
because of their hair. Their faces were all blown away. There were a lot never identified.' I say it must affect the
men who are digging them out badly. He says it doesn't affect you at the time but afterwards. 'It's not the sight
of the bodies. I tell you what it is - it's the smell. The smell of human flesh and the blood. It gets you afterwards.
Two or three days after that I felt myself heaving.' We talk over the question of shelters again. I remark on the
surface shelter with the crater just where it was and blown to bits at Victoria, which I saw from a bus. He says
that was only done a few days ago. 'And yet they go on putting them up.' I ask how far underground a shelter
ought to be to be safe. He says it depends on all sorts of things, the way it is constructed, and so on. He tells me
of an experiment that was made on a shelter somewhere. It was underground and covered over by 24 feet
square of concrete. They dropped an aerial torpedo on that to see if it would hold but it went straight through
the concrete and blew it all up. '24 feet mind, that's a lot.' I ask him what he thinks about the Haldane type of
shelter. He says he has never heard of it. I describe as well as I can from my untechnical mind what it is like, and
why it is called by that name. He says it sounds like the tubes with circular steel girders, and says that's as safe
as anything could possibly be. In fact absolutely safe. I say I will try and get a pamphlet about it for him, and tell
him about the deputation to the Home Office (which I heard of from Abe Lazarus speaking at a very well
attended and enthusiastic open air meeting at Bristol). I expect you know the story - but in case not. A
deputation of 40 people, representatives of various T.U.s, C.P. and other organisations, went to Sir John
Anderson at the Home Office. They were received by a secretary there. Their demand was for underground
shelters of the Haldane type to be built in all dangerous areas where there was no adequate protection. Whilst
they were talking an air-raid alarm went. They were told they would have to go out in the street and find a
public shelter as the shelter at the Home Office could not accommodate 40 extra people. They refused to go and
insisted on going down to the Home Office shelter. When they got down there, they found the Home Office had
a perfect Haldane shelter of the exact type that they were asking for for the people.
(19) Studs Terkel interviewed John Baker about his experiences in London during the Second World War for his
book, The Good War (1985)
There was a terrific flurry of building shelters in early 1940. There were two kinds. One, you built in the garden.
This was called an Anderson shelter. A local builder dug a deep hole and shored up the walls with boards. Then
he'd put a piece of corrugated iron over the top and fill it in with earth. It was comfortable for four, just enough
for a family. There was no room for neighbors.
Being in the shelter was like having a little den. You'd go down there and have secret meetings and take candy
and chocolates. You'd pretend you were hiding from something. It was fun.
If there wasn't time to run outside when the air raid sounded, there was a shelter built inside the house. This
was called a Morrison shelter. It was built with beams and struts in the middle of the living room. You could get
under this thing and if the house fell down around you, it would bear all the weight. It was like getting under a
very, very strong table.
There were two kinds of sirens. The alert itself was an up-and-down howling sound. It went on for about three
minutes. At this, you were supposed to take cover. The all-clear was a long single note, without any wails. It was
like living in a boy's adventure story. We really wished something would happen. When the siren went off and
nothing happened, we were disappointed. When the all-clear was heard, we were doubly disappointed.
(20) Margaret Thatcher, The Path to Power (1995)
The town munitions factory - the British Manufacturing and Research Company - which came to the town in
1938, was an obvious target, as was the junction of the Great North Road and the Northern Railway Line - the
latter within a few hundred yards of our house. My father was frequently out in the evenings on air raid duty.
During air raids we would crawl under the table for shelter - we had no outside shelter for we had no garden until the 'all clear' sounded. On one occasion, coming back from school with my friends, carrying our gas masks,
we made a dive for the shelter of a large tree as someone called out that the aircraft overhead was German.
When the Luftwaffe approached the British coast during the Second World War local Air Raid Wardens arranged
for the sounding of sirens. People were now expected to immediately take cover before the raid actually
started. Another siren was played to announce that it was safe to leave the air raid shelters.
People doing important war work were instructed to ignore the first siren that told them that enemy aircraft
were approaching. Instead they could only go to their shelters when the second siren was sounded that
indicated that the Luftwaffe were immediately overhead
1) British government circular 'Air Raid Warnings' (1939)
When air raids are threatened, warning will be given in towns by sirens, or hooters which will be sounded in
some places by short blasts and in others by a warbling note, changing every few seconds. The warnings may be
given by the police or air-raid wardens blowing short blasts on whistles.
When you hear the warning take cover at once. Remember that most of the injuries in an air raid are caused not
by direct hits by bombs but by flying fragments of debris or by bits of shells. Stay under cover until you hear the
sirens sounding continuously for two minutes on the same note which is the signal "Raiders Passed".
(2) Muriel Simkin worked in a munitions factory in Dagenham during the Second World War. She was
interviewed about her experiences for the book, Voices from the Past: The Blitz (1987).
We had to wait until the second alarm before we were allowed to go to the shelter. The first bell was a warning
they were coming. The second was when they were overhead. They did not want any time wasted. The planes
might have gone straight past and the factory would have stopped for nothing.
Sometimes the Germans would drop their bombs before the second bell went. On one occasion a bomb hit the
factory before we were given permission to go to the shelter. The paint department went up. I saw several
people flying through the air and I just ran home. I was suffering from shock. I was suspended for six weeks
without pay.
They would have been saved if they had been allowed to go after the first alarm. It was a terrible job but we had
no option. We all had to do war work. We were risking our lives in the same way as the soldiers were.
(3) The East Grinstead Observer (11th December, 1943)
East Sussex County Council reported that approval had been given to the erection of an air raid siren close to
East Grinstead Post Office. The suggested site was far removed from traffic, which was apt to deaden the sound.
(4) Joyce Storey, Joyce's War (1992)
We blinked when the lights suddenly went up in the middle of the feature film and a message was flashed on
the screen announcing that an air-raid warning had just sounded. All those wishing to take advantage of the
shelters across the road could now do so as quickly as possible, through the exits provided. The film would
continue for those people wishing to stay behind. They were reminded that they did so at their own risk.
I pulled back the red plush seat and began putting on my coat. I knew that in the event of an air-raid, John
would have to make his way to the docks as quickly as possible. I watched the hunched figures slowly filing out
through the exits. The beam of light directed onto the screen from the powerful projector now caught and held
great waves of cigarette smoke and dust. When they had turned on the cinema lights, it seemed not just to have
severed the film sequence, but shattered a fantasy, an intrusion that made me feel irritable and angry. Through
the endless yards of celluloid, reality had intruded - reminding us that outside, a war was still going on, and we
must not forget it. Not even in the cinema could we dream, perchance to sleep.
Once outside again, we shivered in the cold night air. The beams from dozens of searchlights criss-crossed,
searching the skies. In the distance, we heard the low throb of enemy aircraft. Holding hands, we ran as fast as
our legs could carry us through the darkened street until we came to Clyde Street. John grabbed his bike from
the shed, and I had time only to call, "Take care!"
In September 1935, the British prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, published a circular entitled Air Raid
Precautions (ARP) inviting local authorities to make plans to protect their people in event of a war. Some towns
responded by arranging the building of public air raid shelters. These shelters were built of brick with roofs of
reinforced concrete. However, some local authorities ignored the circular and in April 1937 the government
decided to create an Air Raid Wardens' Service and during the next year recruited around 200,000 volunteers.
Wardens were responsible for arranged for the sounding of air raid sirens. People were now expected to
immediately take cover before the raid actually started. Another siren was played to announce that it was safe
to leave the air raid shelters.
The Air Raid Precautions (ARP) had the problem of dealing with unexploded bombs. It is estimated that one in
ten of the bombs dropped on Britain did not explode. Wardens would arrange for all premises to be evacuated
and all roads within a 600 yard radius of the unexploded bomb.
At the beginning of the war these bombs were not too difficult to deal with. The A.R.P. would inform the Bomb
Disposal Unit (BDU) and skilled men would be sent to remove the fuse of the bomb. However, in 1940 the
German manufacturers began to build in anti-handling devices. The bomb was now designed to explode if
anyone attempted to remove the fuse. Members of the BDU therefore had the more difficult task of cutting a
hole in the casting and removing the explosive contents.
The British government believed that some form of poison gas would be used on the civilian population during
the war. It was therefore decided to issue a gas masks to everyone living in Britain. By 1940 the government had
issued 38 million gas masks.
The government threatened to punish people not carrying gas masks. However, a study at the beginning of the
war suggested that only about 75 per cent of people in London were obeying this rule. By the beginning of 1940
almost no one bothered to carry their gas mask with them. The government now announced that Air Raid
Wardens would be carrying out monthly inspections of gas masks. If a person was found to have lost the gas
mask they were forced to pay for its replacement.
(1) British government circular 'Air Raid Warnings' (1939)
When air raids are threatened, warning will be given in towns by sirens, or hooters which will be sounded in
some places by short blasts and in others by a warbling note, changing every few seconds. The warnings may be
given by the police or air-raid wardens blowing short blasts on whistles.
When you hear the warning take cover at once. Remember that most of the injuries in an air raid are caused not
by direct hits by bombs but by flying fragments of debris or by bits of shells. Stay under cover until you hear the
sirens sounding continuously for two minutes on the same note which is the signal "Raiders Passed".
(2) Winston Churchill, letter to Neville Chamberlain (1st October, 1939)
The A. R. P. (Air Raid Precautions) defences and expense are founded upon a wholly fallacious view of the
degree of danger to each part of the country which they cover. Schedules should be made of the target areas
and of the paths of flight by which they may be approached. In these areas there must be a large proportion of
whole-time employees. London is of course the chief target, and others will readily occur. In these target areas
the street-lighting should be made so that it can be controlled by the Air Wardens on the alarm signal being
given; and while shelters should be hurried on with and strengthened, night and day, the people's spirits should
be kept up by theatres and cinemas until the actual attack begins. Over a great part of the countryside, modified
lighting should be at once allowed, and places of entertainment opened. No paid A. R. P. personnel should be
allowed in these areas. All should be on a voluntary basis, the Government contenting itself with giving advice,
and leaving the rest to local effort. In these areas, which comprise at least seven-eighths of the United Kingdom,
gas-masks should be kept at home and only carried in the target areas as scheduled. There is really no reason
why orders to this effect should not be given during the coming week.
(3) In 1945, T. P. Peters, an Air Raid Warden in East Grinstead, wrote about his experiences during the Second
World War in his book, Reminiscences (1945).
When the Prime Minister announced the Declaration of War on Germany on Sunday morning, 3rd September,
1939, the country was well prepared with its ARP (Air Raid Precautions) Organization. We had received a good
training from Colonel Eaton, the Chief Warden.
Gas Masks were issued to the public. I remember one poor old gentleman asked me: "Well, Sir, how am I to eat
my dinner with this thing on?" We concentrated on improving our first aid skills. Every week we would have an
exercise. Mr. J. Woodrow would be the patient. Mrs. L Bennett typed us a booklet containing all names,
addresses and where people planned to shelter during air raids.
On 10 p.m. on Saturday, 26th October, 1940, Stanney in Holtye Road, was demolished. We could hear cries
coming from what was left of the house. The most extraordinary thing about this incident was the luck of the
three ladies, who were trapped and escaped with minor injuries, but a nurse from Queen Victoria Hospital, who
was having a bath at the time, was blown right out with the roof of the house and with the shattered bath. We
found her lying on her back, terribly injured, and quite nude.
Warden Burnett remarked afterwards: "When I shone my torch on her I thought it was a statue blown over in
the garden." We covered her with a coat and she actually asked me what had happened. We got her into the
Larches Nursing Home, where Dr. Somerville and his staff did their best, but she died the next day.
(4) Air Raid Wardens were also involved in helping the victims of German air attacks. On 16th July 1943 the East
Grinstead Observer reported on the bombing of East Grinstead.
Late on Friday afternoon a small number of enemy aircraft crossed the Southeast Coast. Bombs were dropped at
different places. Two enemy bombers were brought down - one near Caterham and one near Sittingbourne and both exploded, the crews being killed. A county town in the Southeast area was attacked, and a cinema was
hit, causing a large number of casualties, including many children.
Suddenly the roar of a plane approaching the town from the north was heard. It swooped down out of the lowlying clouds and it was then that shoppers and other people realised that the twin-engined bomber was a
German. It roared over the town, circled twice and then dropped several bombs. One made a direct hit on a
cinema, another on an ironmonger's shop higher up the road, another on a builder's and ladies' outfitters and
one fell near a factory.
In the cinema was an audience of 184 - the majority being children - who were trapped when the bomb fell.
Following the
news came a cowboy film, during which the usual notice of an air raid being in progress was displayed, so that
anybody who wished to leave might do so. Few people left, but among them was one schoolboy.
Suddenly there was a terrific crash, and to use the words of one survivor, the whole building seemed to collapse
like a pack of cards, trapping most of the audience.
Molly Stiller, daughter of an officer in the Home Guard, was the only member of the cinema staff to be killed.
She worked in the cinema as an usherette. Mr. Herbert Brackpool was busy in his bakehouse making jam tarts.
Suddenly the roof split open and through the opening fell the bodies of four women. All four were dead. Mr.
Brackpool, knowing that his son was at the cinema rushed to join the rescue workers. Presently one of Mr.
Brackpool's colleagues came across the boy's dead body.
A little further up the road from the cinema, a large ironmonger's shop received a direct hit and a fire spread
rapidly. The company secretary had a miraculous escape. He was near the top of the building which was four
stories high when he suddenly felt himself falling. He went through two floors before coming to a rest. He was
able to cling to a ledge - behind him another room was blazing - until rescued by ladders.
The fire spread rapidly to the adjoining premises on the south-side, a cycle shop and the jeweller's, which, like
the ironmonger's was gutted by nightfall. Further destruction was wrought in another street where some old
buildings stood. A small millinery shop received a direct hit and collapsed killing the manageress. A builder's
premises next door was burnt to the ground and a ladies' gown shop was wrecked. A number of members of
staff were killed or injured.
Another bomb dropped to the rear of a stationer's shop - one of the oldest buildings in the town. The proprietor
and his wife have since died from their injuries.
The work of all branches of the Civil Defence was magnificent. Shortly after the bombs fell the N.F.S. were on
the scene pumping water on the burning buildings. They managed to save a public house and a warehouse from
total demolition and by nightfall they had the fires under control. Rescue squads, assisted by soldiers, members
of the Home Guard, Special Police, and many ordinary citizens went straight to their task and worked grimly
throughout the night. Mr. Frederick Whales, a railwayman who is also an air raid warden, unearthed the body of
his niece, Molly Stiller.
E.G. Outsell, a sergeant of the special police, reported for duty despite the fact that he suffered injury by a
machine-gun bullet. He was outside his shop when the plane machine-gunned the town and received a graze
across his stomach from a bullet. After treatment he went on duty. Special Constable Golding was in a train that
was machine-gunned and on his arrival home he found that his daughter had gone to the cinema for the first
time for many months. Despite his great anxiety he reported for duty and later was relieved to hear that his
daughter, except for cuts and bruises, was safe. Special Constable Prodger was on duty throughout the night
knowing, too, that his daughter was in the cinema. She was among the killed.
Eric Parsons escaped from this ordeal because of his interest in rabbits. "I go to the cinema every Friday
evening" he said. "This was the first Friday I have missed for months. Instead of spending my money on the
pictures I saved it in order to enter my two rabbits in our school rabbit show."
In November 1938, Chamberlain placed Sir John Anderson in charge of Air Raid Precautions (ARP). He
immediately commissioned the engineer, William Patterson, to design a small and cheap shelter that could be
erected in people's gardens. Within a few months nearly one and a half million of what became known as
Anderson shelters were distributed to people living in areas expected to be bombed by the Luftwaffe.
Made from six curved sheets bolted together at the top, with steel plates at either end, and measuring 6ft 6in by
4ft 6in (1.95m by 1.35m) the shelter could accommodate six people. These shelters were half buried in the
ground with earth heaped on top. The entrance was protected by a steel shield and an earthen blast wall.
Anderson shelters were given free to poor people. Men who earned more than £5 a week could buy one for £7.
Soon after the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, over 2 million families had shelters in
their garden. By the time of the Blitz this had risen to two and a quarter million.
When the Luftwaffe changed from daylight to night bombing raids, the government expected people to sleep in
their Anderson shelters. Each night the wailing of the air raid sirens announced the approach of the German
bombers and ensured that most people had time to take cover before the raid actually started.
Anderson shelters were dark and damp and people were reluctant to use them at night. In low-lying areas they
tended to flood and sleeping was difficult as they did not keep out the sound of the bombings. Another problem
was that the majority of people living in industrial areas did not have gardens where they could erect their
shelters.
A census held in November 1940 discovered that the majority of people in London did not use specially created
shelters. The survey revealed that of those interviewed, 27 per cent used Anderson shelters, 9 per cent slept in
public shelters whereas 4 per cent used underground railway stations (4 per cent). The rest of those interviewed
were either on duty at night or slept in their own homes.
In March 1941 the government began issuing Morrison Shelters. Named after the Home Secretary, Herbert
Morrison, the shelters were made of very heavy steel and could be put in the living room and used as a table.
One wire side lifted up for people to crawl underneath and get inside. Morrison shelters were fairly large and
provided sleeping space for two or three people.
Woman: "Is it all right now, Henry?"
Man: "Yes, not even scratched."
Sidney Strube, Daily Express (November, 1940)
(1) Muriel Simkin worked in a munitions factory in Dagenham during the Second World War. She was
interviewed about her experiences for the book, Voices from the Past: The Blitz (1987).
First of all we had an Anderson shelter in the garden. You were supposed to go into your Anderson shelter every
night. I used to take my knitting. I used to knit all night. I was too frightened to go to sleep. You got into the
habit of not sleeping. I've never slept properly since. It was just a bunk bed. I did not bother to get undressed. It
was cold and damp in the shelter. I was all on my own because my husband was in the army.
You would go nights and nights and nothing happened. On one occasion when my husband was on leave, I think
it was a weekend, we decided we would spend the night in bed instead of in the shelter. I heard the noise and
woke up and I could see the sky. They had dropped a basket of incendiary bombs and we had got the lot. Luckily
not one went off. Next morning the bombs were standing up in the garden as if they had grown in the night.
Rosie, my mum's sister, had to go to hospital to have a baby. Her mother-in-law looked after her three-year-old
son. There was a bombing raid and Rosie's son and mother-in-law rushed to Bethnal Green underground station.
Going down the stairs somebody fell. People panicked and Rosie's son was trampled to death.
(2) Evelyn Rose, who was a child during the Second World War, was interviewed about her experiences of the
Blitz in 1987.
If you were out and a bombing raid took place you would make for the nearest shelter. The tube stations were
considered to be very safe. I did not like using them myself. The stench was unbearable. The smell was so bad I
don’t know how people did not die from suffocation. So many bodies and no fresh air coming in. People would
go to the tube stations long before it got dark because they wanted to make sure that they reserved their space.
There were a lot of arguments amongst people over that.
We did not have an Anderson shelter so we used to hide under the stairs. You felt the next bang would be your
lot and it was very frightening. My grandmother was a very religious person and when she was with us during
the bombing raids she would gabble away saying her prayers. Strangely enough, when I was with her, I always
felt safe.
(3) British government circular 'Air Raid Warnings' (1939)
When air raids are threatened, warning will be given in towns by sirens, or hooters which will be sounded in
some places by short blasts and in others by a warbling note, changing every few seconds. The warnings may be
given by the police or air-raid wardens blowing short blasts on whistles.
When you hear the warning take cover at once. Remember that most of the injuries in an air raid are caused not
by direct hits by bombs but by flying fragments of debris or by bits of shells. Stay under cover until you hear the
sirens sounding continuously for two minutes on the same note which is the signal "Raiders Passed".
(4) Kingsley Martin was the editor of the New Statesman during the Second World War. He wrote about his
experiences in his autobiography, Editor, in 1968.
We had always slept in our beds during the earlier raids and later we were never bothered by the lethal danger
of V-2s. If one dropped near you, you would never know and so it wasn't worth bothering about, but buzzbombs, with a lateral blast, were a confounded nuisance because it was your own fault if you, or your friends
near you, were cut to bits by flying splinters of glass. If you were sensible, you led the way to a shelter. Night
after night we would both go to bed, and then be woken by a familiar noise in the sky. I preferred the nights I
spent fire-watching. The bomb would cut out and I would turn over in bed and mutter, when I heard the bang,
'Oh, that's Mrs Smith and not us', but after two or three times I would realize my folly, get up and find Dorothy,
also in two minds, sitting on her bed near a window. We would dress and go down to a shelter, which we shared
with Olga Katzin, and wait for the morning.
In the day I would work in the kneehole under my desk to avoid the danger of shattered glass from the
windows. I remember that children in one of the great hospitals had their faces so penetrated by glass splinters
that the doctors questioned whether their lives would be worth saving. Glass, unlike metal, will not respond to
magnets and there was no alternative but to cut away their faces.
(5) Barbara Castle, Fighting All The Way (1993)
What we also lacked was an adequate shelter policy, and I had been agitating together with our left-wing group
on the Council for the deep shelters which Professor J. B. S. Haldane had been advocating. Haldane, a
communist sympathizer and eminent scientist, had studied at first hand the effects of air raids on the civilian
population during the Spanish Civil War and had reached conclusions on the best way to protect them, which he
had embodied in a book ARP published in 1938. In it he argued that high explosive, not gas, would be the main
threat. He pointed out that modern high explosives often had a delayed-action fuse and might penetrate several
floors of a building before bursting and that therefore basements could be the worst place to shelter in. He
stressed the deep psychological need of humans caught in bombardment to go underground and urged the
building of a network of deep tunnels under London to meet this need and give real protection.
The government did not want to know. In 1939 Sir John Anderson, dismissing deep shelters as impractical,
insisted that blast and splinter-proof protection was all that was needed and promised a vast extension of the
steel shelters which took his name. These consisted of enlarged holes in the ground covered by a vault of thin
steel. They had, of course, no lighting, no heating and no lavatories. People had to survive a winter night's
bombardment in them as best they could. In fact, when the Blitz came, the people of London created their own
deep shelters: the London Underground. Night after night, just before the sirens sounded, thousands trooped
down in orderly fashion into the nearest Underground station, taking their bedding with them, flasks of hot tea,
snacks, radios, packs of cards and magazines. People soon got their regular places and set up little troglodyte
communities where they could relax. I joined them one night to see what it was
like. It was not a way of life I wanted for myself but I could see what an important safety-valve it was. Without
it, London life could not have carried on in the way it did.
(6) Herbert Morrison, An Autobiography (1960)
There was also much argument about the advantages and defects of indoor versus outdoor shelters. The
outdoor Anderson shelter was very good and provided almost complete safety except from a direct hit.
However, the fact that it would have to be sunk into the ground meant that in many urban areas it could not be
put up because of the lack of any garden and in other districts the shelter was liable to flood during the winter
months.
The wide desire for an indoor shelter which provided some degree of comfort and also assisted people to get a
night's rest in warmth and dryness did not take into account the fact that there was some fire risk involved. I
decided that the risk was worth taking. Experience proved me justified. Next the experts began to argue about
the best design.
The experts - engineers and scientists - would have argued for weeks. However, I told them that I intended to
lock them up in a room until they agreed, promising to arrange to send food into them. I reported to Churchill
that I had taken this attitude and he was delighted, saying that he would back me to the limit. The experts had
their designs agreed upon and completed within twenty-four hours. So was born what became known as the
Morrison table shelter.