Anderson Shelters and Air Raids

The Luftwaffe Eagle

Beginning September 1940, for 57 consecutive nights, London was bombed by the Luftwaffe (Germany’s branch of air warfare).  This long term bombing effort coined the nickname “The Blitz” (from the German word for lightning).

Rewind to the year 1935, in Britain.  Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin invites local authorities to create Air Raid Precautions (ARP) throughout Britain to create safety measures for its residents, in the case of a war breaking out.  While some local volunteers created bomb shelters, many didn’t, leading to the creation of the Air Raid Wardens’ Service  in 1937.  200,000 volunteers were recruited, and in 1938, when Hitler began making threats to invade Czechoslovakia, Britain began to prepare for the worst.

ARP volunteers mobilized, converting cellars and basements into air raid shelters, and digging trenches in large towns.  By this time, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin was replaced by Neville Chamberlain, who placed a gentleman by the name of Sir John Anderson in charge of the ARP.  Anderson’s first move was to commission the creation of a small and cheap shelter, that would fit inside the gardens of their citizens.  Engineer William Patterson accepted the challenge, and successfully designed the “Anderson Shelter.”

An Anderson Shelter.

Within only months after it’s commission, over a million and a half Anderson Shelters had been distributed in areas that were thought to be under the biggest threat of attack by the Luftwaffe.  These small shelters were designed to accommodate six people, were half buried underground, and covered with the surrounding earth.

By the time of the Blitz, over two million households had Anderson Shelters.  It was expected that families would sleep in these Anderson Shelters, and that at any given point of time, an air raid siren would warn families in advance of attack, giving them time to get to their shelters.

However, these shelters were prone to flooding, were very dark and musty, and didn’t keep out the sounds of bombs dropping throughout the night.  This led to the great majority of people not using their Anderson Shelters.  Instead, they would locate and stay in a local shelter, leave the city, sleep in underground rail-stations, or just sleep inside their houses.

In the next blog post we’ll learn about the governments response to the low utilization rate of these Anderson Shelters, and some other ways the English escaped the threats brought by The Blitz.