Anderson Shelters: The Backyard Bunkers That Saved Britons From Luftwaffe Bombings

Jan 7, 2021 1 comments

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. 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. He was also responsible for providing public shelters.

Anderson commissioned engineers William Paterson and Oscar Carl Kerrison to design a small and cheap shelter that could be erected in people's gardens. 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. 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.

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A surviving Anderson Shelter in Manston, Kent. Photo: Dan Thompson/Flickr

The first Anderson shelter was erected in a garden in Islington, London, on 25 February 1939. 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. During the war a further 2.1 million were erected.

The shelters were made of six curved panels of corrugated steel bolted together at the top with steel plates. This formed the main body of the shelter. Additional straight sheets on either side acted as walls. 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. Each shelter was capable of housing four adults and two children.

Anderson shelters were distributed free to all householders who earned less than £5 a week. Those with a higher income were charged £7 for their shelter.

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A South London resident waters the vegetables planted on the roof of her Anderson shelter.

Unlike concrete-built shelters, the Anderson proved to be more resistant to the effects of blast because of the use of corrugated sheets which are very effective against compressive force, such as a nearby blast. The only real problem was that the Anderson proved to be cold and damp, which rendered them unpopular, especially during winter.

“We had an Anderson shelter in the garden,” recalled Muriel Simkin, who worked in a munitions factory in Dagenham. “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.”

Many families tried to make their shelters as comfortable as possible with bunk beds and wooden racks to keep essentials and a pump to keep water out that tended to accumulate at the bottom. Needless to say, many preferred to sleep in the house, and only ran to the shelters once the air raid sirens had sounded.

Anderson shelter

Pig iron is piled on top of an Anderson air raid shelter to test its efficiency and strength.

Another problem was that the majority of people living in industrial areas did not have gardens where they could erect their shelters. Unsurprisingly a November 1940 survey revealed that only 27 percent of Londoners used Anderson shelters, 9 percent slept in public shelters and 4 percent used underground railway stations. The rest were either on duty at night or slept in their own homes. The latter group felt that, if they were going to die, they would rather die in comfort.

Many families tried to brighten their shelters in various ways. They grew vegetables and flowers on the earth banks over the roof, leading to friendly competitions among householders in the neighbourhood for who had the best-planted shelter. One person wrote that “There is more danger of being hit by a vegetable marrow falling off the roof ... than of being hit by a bomb!”

Many shelters survived the war, a testimony of their robustness, and although they were meant to be temporary structures many households chose to keep theirs converting them into storage sheds. More than a handful of these shelters survive to this day.

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Air raid shelters under construction at a factory in Newport, Wales.

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A man figuring out how to assemble an Anderson shelter in his backyard.

Anderson shelter

Anderson shelter

A man fashions a blast door for his shelter out of a wooden table.

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Alan and Doris Suter step down into their Anderson shelter in London.

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Actors are recorded for a film about Anderson shelters.

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The MacKenzie family take shelter during an air raid.

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A decorated Anderson shelter.

Anderson shelter

A decorated Anderson shelter.

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A family inspects their Anderson shelter with a 30-foot-deep bomb crater nearby.

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Anderson shelters remain intact following a night of heavy bombing in east London.

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An Anderson shelter remains intact amid devastation in Croydon.

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Locals inspect an Anderson shelter next to a bomb crater. Despite the proximity of the blast, the two occupants of the shelter survived with minor bruises.

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An Anderson shelter remains intact amidst destruction and debris in London, after a land mine fell a few yards away. The three people that had been inside the shelter were not hurt.

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An Anderson shelter standing intact amid a scene of debris in Norwich.

References:
# www.andersonshelters.org.uk
# Dunkirk 1940
# Spartacus Educational
# Wikipedia
# Alex Q. Arbuckle, Backyard bunkers of the Blitz, Mashable

Comments

  1. Wow, people were certainly resourceful in those days. The Brits' leadership anticipated what could happen and made preemptive provisions. We should all be that way.

    ReplyDelete

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