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 buzz-bombs, 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.
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. 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 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. There was also much argument about the advantages and defects of indoor versus outdoor shelters. 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. Celebrate and learn about special days every day of the year! On 25 February , the first Anderson shelter was ereted in Britain in a garden in Islington, London.
Anderson shelters were half buried in the ground with earth heaped on top to protect people from bomb blasts during World War Two. They were made from six corrugated iron sheets bolted together at the top, with steel plates at either end, and measured 6ft 6in by 4ft 6in 1. Thank you. Hi Lynn, Thanks for visiting Primary Facts. John Anderson was born in Scotland on 8th July , in Eskbank part of Dalkeith in Midlothian , and he studied mathematics and geology at the University of Edinburgh.
Hope this helps! Thanks James for your info. I have made notes from your e-mail and will investigate further now. Thanks again Lynn. Your email address will not be published. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. This helped me a lot with my homework!
Keep up the good work! This is a lot of help for our ww2 project, we are making our own anderson shelter! Thank You! This helped me with my Anderson Shelter project a lot! From Fahad, Age Very helpful for my homework its very useful and I recommend it. I love this website so much it helps with a lot of my homework! Thanks it really helps with my homework 10 fact about World War 2 shelters.
The for creating and taking time to do so very good site basically did my homework for me. Glad you like it, Sam! The shelter, made from heavy steel, could also be used as a table.
People sheltered underneath it during a raid. Herbert Morrison. The Morrison shelter was approximately 6 feet 6 inches 2m long, 4 feet 1. What other places were used as air raid shelters? By the autumn of the government realised that air-raid shelters on the surface did not offer very good protection from high explosive bombs.
Deeper shelters were used. On September 21, the London Underground started to be used as an air raid shelter. On the busiest night in , , people slept on platforms. Many bought sandwiches, thermos flasks, pillows and blankets. Diagram of an Anderson shelter.
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