A SHELTERED LIFE
ANDERSON AIR RAID SHELTERS FIRST APPEARED ACROSS THE UK 80 YEARS AGO.
AN ENGLISHMAN’S home was an Anderson Shelter during the Second World War. The fear of German bombing raids led the government to look at ways to protect the population and Anderson shelters were the solution.
The sunken, corrugated huts were named after Sir John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley. He was Foreign Secretary and Minister for Home Security at the time and tasked with preparing the country for air raids.
The shelter itself was designed by William Patterson and Oscar Carl Kerrison and built by John Summers and Sons of Shotton.
They were big enough for six people to fit into... at a squeeze, but were often cold and damp and did little to cut out the sounds of any bombing. Many families were reluctant to spend night after night in them. However, there is no doubt they saved lives.
The 6ft tall constructions were made of 14 curved and straight galvanised corrugated steel panels bolted together. The shelters often included a drainage sump in the floor to collect any rainwater that might leak in and the whole thing was buried 4ft into the ground with the roof covered with soil.
The first of 2.5 million Anderson air raid shelters began appearing on the landscape on February 25, 1939. The first went up in Islington in north London, but the shelters were soon springing up all over the country.
They was primarily designed to shelter people from shrapnel and flying debris and not necessarily a direct hit from a bomb. Anyone who earned less than £5 a week received a shelter free otherwise they cost £7.
Every member of the household was instructed to head to the shelter as soon as they heard the haunting air raid sirens, but the basic structures had no lighting, heating or toilet facilities.
Booker prize-winning writer A S Byatt remembered: “I acquired a hunger for fairy tales in the dark days of blackout and Blitz in the Second World War.”
The first bombs started falling on London in 1940, with the Blitz When the sirens went the whole family piled into the Anderson shelter and Peter Roderick, above and inset left, was the first baby born in an air raid shelter at the height of an air raid on London in 1940
spreading to cities like Liverpool, Birmingham, Coventry, Bristol, Manchester and Cardiff within a matter of months. It is reckoned the relentless German raids claimed around 43,000 lives and destroyed or damaged two million homes.
Wartime prime minister Winston Churchill said of the raids : “These cruel, wanton, indiscriminate bombings of London are, of course, a part of Hitler’s invasion plans. He hopes by killing large numbers of civilians, and women and children, that he will terrorize and cow the people of this mighty imperial city. Little does he know the spirit of the British nation or the tough fibre of the Londoners.”
Peter Roderick became the first baby to be born in an air raid shelter when he entered the world on September 13, 1940, at the height of a German air raid on London and was pictured in the Sunday Mirror, then known as the Sunday Pictorial, two days later. His sister Doreen was five at the time and later recalled: “There was no midwife. My dad and gran delivered him with just a little torch.”
As the bombs continued to fall, the indoor heavy steel cage-like
Morrison shelter was introduced for people who did not have gardens. They were often used as tables when not in use.
People also sought shelter in caves, tunnels and the underground railway. It is reckoned about 150,000 a night sought shelter in the 79 London Tube stations.
Actor, playwright and director Steven Berkoff once recalled: “During the Second World War, we lived in a flat on Whitechapel Road in the East End of London. At one point, during the Blitz, the air raid sirens went off every night for 30 nights and each time my parents would grab my sister and me and take us to the shelter beneath Whitechapel underground station.”
Even Buckingham Palace was hit and the Queen Mother, who visited a lot of the bombed areas with her husband King George VI, said: “I’m glad we’ve been bombed. Now I feel we can look the East End in the face.”
Many people who depended on Anderson shelters tried to make them look more appealing by decorating the outside with flower beds and plants. Some communities even held competitions for the best-looking plot.
The sunken, corrugated huts even proved useful after the war with many people opting to keep them in their gardens to house ever ything from chickens to garden tools.
However, the large amount of time spent during the war in air raid shelters did come at a price and some children had to undergo sun-lamp treatment afterwards to deal with problems caused by the lack of sunlight and fresh fruit.
Churchill announced the end of the war with the words : “Advance, Britannia! Long live the cause of freedom! God save the King!”