![Kleine Berlin Trieste 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Kleine_Berlin_Trieste_1.jpg)
Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of
non-combatants
Non-combatant is a term of art in the law of war and international humanitarian law to refer to civilians who are not taking a direct part in hostilities; persons, such as combat medics and military chaplains, who are members of the belligeren ...
as well as
combatants
Combatant is the legal status of an individual who has the right to engage in hostilities during an armed conflict. The legal definition of "combatant" is found at article 43(2) of Additional Protocol I (AP1) to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. It ...
against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to
bunker
A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. ...
s in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but many have been used as defensive structures in such situations).
During World War II, many types of structures were used as air raid shelters, such as cellars, Hochbunkers (in Germany), basements, and underpasses. Bombing raids during World War I led the UK to build 80 specially adapted
London Underground
The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...
stations as shelters. However, during World War II, the government initially ruled out using these as shelters. After Londoners flooded into underground stations during
The Blitz
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'.
The Germa ...
, the government reversed its policy. The UK began building street communal shelters as air raid shelters in 1940. Anderson shelters, designed in 1938 and built to hold up to six people, were in common use in the UK. Indoor shelters known as Morrison shelters were introduced as well.
Air raid shelters are still in use to some extent in various nations such as Spain, Switzerland, Israel, Singapore and Taiwan.
Pre-WWII
Prior to
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, in May 1924, an
Air Raid Precautions
Air Raid Precautions (ARP) refers to a number of organisations and guidelines in the United Kingdom dedicated to the protection of civilians from the danger of air raids. Government consideration for air raid precautions increased in the 1920s an ...
Committee was set up in the United Kingdom. For years, little progress was made with shelters because of the apparently irreconcilable conflict between the need to send the public underground for shelter and the need to keep them above ground for protection against
gas attacks. In February 1936 the
Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...
appointed a technical Committee on Structural Precautions against Air Attack.
By November 1937, there had only been slow progress, because of a serious lack of data on which to base any design recommendations and the Committee proposed that the Home Office should have its own department for research into structural precautions, rather than relying on research work done by the Bombing Test Committee to support the development of bomb design and strategy. This proposal was eventually implemented in January 1939.
During the
Munich crisis
The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...
, local authorities dug trenches to provide shelter. After the crisis, the British Government decided to make these a permanent feature, with a standard design of precast concrete trench lining. Unfortunately these turned out to perform very poorly. They also decided to issue free to poorer households the
Anderson shelter
Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but many ...
, and to provide steel props to create shelters in suitable basements.
World War II
Air raid shelters were built to serve as protection against enemy
air raids. Existing
edifice
A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and funct ...
s designed for other functions, such as
underground
Underground most commonly refers to:
* Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth
Underground may also refer to:
Places
* The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston
* The Underground ...
stations (tube or
subway station
A metro station or subway station is a station for a rapid transit system, which as a whole is usually called a "metro" or "subway". A station provides a means for passengers to purchase tickets, board trains, and evacuate the system in the ...
s),
tunnel
A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...
s,
cellars in houses or
basement
A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are completely or partly below the ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, ...
s in larger establishments and railway arches, above ground, were suitable for safeguarding people during air raids. A commonly used home shelter known as the
Anderson shelter
Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but many ...
would be built in a garden and equipped with beds as a refuge from air raids.
Cellars
![Bunker04 HLFM01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Bunker04_HLFM01.JPG)
Cellars have always been much more important in Continental Europe than in the United Kingdom and especially in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
almost all houses and apartment blocks have been and still are built with cellars. Air-raid precautions during World War II in Germany could be much more readily implemented by the authorities than was possible in the UK. All that was necessary was to ascertain that cellars were being prepared to accommodate all the residents of a building; that all the cellar hatch and window protections were in place; that access to the cellars was safe in the event of an air raid; that once inside, the occupants were secure for any incidents other than direct hits during the air raid and that means of escape was available.
The inadequacies of cellars and basements became apparent in the firestorms during the
incendiary attacks on the larger German inner cities, especially
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
and
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
. When burning buildings and apartment blocks above them collapsed in the raging winds (which could reach well over 800 °C), the occupants often became trapped in these basement shelters, which had also become overcrowded after the arrival of inhabitants from other buildings rendered unsafe in earlier attacks. Some occupants perished from heat stroke or carbon monoxide poisoning.
Hochbunker
![Wuensdorf Winkelturm](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Wuensdorf_Winkelturm.jpg)
''Hochbunker(s)'', "high-rise"
bunker
A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. ...
s or
blockhouse
A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...
s, were a peculiarly German type of construction, designed to relieve the pressure German authorities were facing to accommodate additional numbers of the population in high-density housing areas, as well as pedestrians on the streets during air raids. In contrast to other shelters, these buildings were considered completely bomb-proof. They also had the advantage of being built upward, which was much cheaper than downward excavation. There were no equivalents of ''hochbunkers'' in the cities of the Allied countries. ''Hochbunkers'' usually consisted of large concrete blocks above ground with walls between 1 m and 1.5 m thick and with huge lintels above doorways and openings. They often had a constant interior temperature of 7 to 10 °C, which made them perfectly suitable for laboratories, both during and after the war. They were used to protect people, administrative centres, important archives and works of art.
Their structures took many forms: usually consisting of square blocks or of low, long rectangular or triangular shapes; straight towers of a square plan rising to great heights, or round tower-like edifices, even pyramidal constructions. Some of the circular towers contained helical floors that gradually curved their way upward within the circular walls. Many of these structures may still be seen. They have been converted into offices, storage space; some have even been adapted for hotels, hospitals and schools, as well as many other peacetime purposes. In
Schöneberg
Schöneberg () is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Tempelh ...
, a block of flats was built over the Pallasstrasse air-raid shelter after World War II. During the Cold War, NATO used the shelter for food storage.
The cost of demolishing these edifices after the war would have been enormous, as the attempts at breaking up one of the six so-called
Flak tower
Flak towers (german: link=no, Flaktürme) were large, above-ground, anti-aircraft gun blockhouse towers constructed by Nazi Germany. There were 8 flak tower complexes in the cities of Berlin (three), Hamburg (two), and Vienna (three) from 1940 on ...
s of Vienna proved. The attempted demolition caused no more than a crack in one of the walls of the tower, after which efforts were abandoned. Only the
Zoo Tower
The Zoo flak tower (German: ''Flakturm Tiergarten'', ''Tiergarten Flak Tower'' or commonly referred to as the "Zoo Tower") was a fortified flak tower that existed in Berlin from 1941 to 1947. It was one of several flak towers that protected Berl ...
in Berlin was successfully demolished.
One particular variant of the ''hochbunker'' was the Winkeltürme, named after its designer, Leo Winkel of
Duisburg
Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in Nor ...
. Winkel patented his design in 1934, and from 1936 onward, Germany built 98 Winkeltürmer of five different types. The towers had a conical shape with walls that curved downward to a reinforced base. The dimensions of the towers varied. Diameters ranged between 8.4 and 10 meters and the height between 20 and 25 meters. The walls of the towers had a minimum thickness for reinforced concrete of 0.8m and 1.5m for ordinary concrete. The towers were able to shelter between 164 and 500 people, depending on the type. The intent with the Winkeltürme and the other ''hochbunkers'' was to protect workers in rail yards and industrial areas. Because of their shape, the towers became known colloquially as "cigar stubs" or "sugar beets".
The theory behind the Winkeltürme was that the curved walls would deflect any bomb hitting the tower, directing it down towards the base. The towers had a small footprint, which was probably a greater protection. A US bomb did hit one tower in Bremen in October 1944; the bomb exploded through the roof, killing five people inside.
United Kingdom
Cellars
Cellars in the UK, were mainly included only in larger houses, and in houses built up to the period of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, after which detached and semi-detached properties were constructed without cellars, usually to avoid the higher building costs entailed. Since house building had increased vastly between the wars, the lack of cellars in more recent housing became a major problem in the
Air Raid Precautions
Air Raid Precautions (ARP) refers to a number of organisations and guidelines in the United Kingdom dedicated to the protection of civilians from the danger of air raids. Government consideration for air raid precautions increased in the 1920s an ...
(ARP) programmes in the UK during World War II.
Alternatives had to be found speedily once it became clear that Germany was contemplating air raids as a means of demoralising the population and disrupting supply lines in the UK. Initial recommendations were that householders should shelter under the stairs. Later, authorities supplied materials to households to construct communal street shelters and
Morrison Morrison may refer to:
People
* Morrison (surname), people with the Scottish surname Morrison
* Morrison Heady (1829–1915), American poet
* Morrison Mann MacBride (1877–1938), Canadian merchant
Places in the United States
* Morrison, Colorad ...
and
Anderson shelters.
Basements
Basement
A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are completely or partly below the ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, ...
s also became available for the use of air raid shelters. Basements under factory premises, schools, hospitals, department stores and other businesses were utilised. However, these ''ad hoc'' shelters could bring additional dangers, as heavy machinery and materials or water storage facilities above the shelter, and insufficient support structures threatened to cause the collapse of basements.
When the
Wilkinson's Lemonade factory in
North Shields
North Shields () is a town in the Borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. It is north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne and borders nearby Wallsend and Tynemouth.
Since 1974, it has been in the North Tyneside borough of Tyne and Wea ...
received a direct hit on Saturday, 3 May 1941 during a German attack on the north-east coast of England, 107 occupants lost their lives when heavy machinery fell through the ceiling of the basement in which they were sheltering.
Railway arches and subways (underpasses)
Railway arches and
subways were also used in the UK for air raid protection at all times during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
Railway arches were deep, curved structures of brick or concrete, set into the vertical sidewalls of railway lines, which had been intended originally for commercial depots, etc. The arches were covered usually with wooden or brick
screen
Screen or Screens may refer to:
Arts
* Screen printing (also called ''silkscreening''), a method of printing
* Big screen, a nickname associated with the motion picture industry
* Split screen (filmmaking), a film composition paradigm in which mul ...
- or
curtain walls, thus giving a considerable amount of protection against air raids – provided, of course, that railway lines were not the prime target of the attack at the particular time and so being more likely to suffer from direct hits. Each arch could accommodate anything from around 60 to 150 people. However, fewer people could find shelter at night as sleeping areas for the occupants took up more of the space available – a limitation applying to any other type of shelter as well. Subways were actual
thoroughfares
A thoroughfare is a primary passage or way as a transit route through regularly trafficked areas, whether by road on dry land or, by
extension, via watercraft or aircraft. On land, a thoroughfare may refer to anything from a multi-lane highway ...
also in the shape of arches, normally allowing
passage
Passage, The Passage or Le Passage may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Films
* ''Passage'' (2008 film), a documentary about Arctic explorers
* ''Passage'' (2009 film), a short movie about three sisters
* ''The Passage'' (1979 film), starring ...
underneath railway lines.
London Underground tube stations
Prior to the beginning of the war, shelter policy had been determined by
Sir John Anderson
John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley, (8 July 1882 – 4 January 1958) was a Scottish civil servant and politician who is best known for his service in the War Cabinet during the Second World War, for which he was nicknamed the "Home Front Pr ...
, then Lord Privy Seal and, on the declaration of war, Home Secretary and Minister of Home Security. Anderson announced the policy to Parliament on 20 April 1939, based on a report from a committee chaired by Lord Hailey. This reaffirmed a policy of dispersal and eschewed the use of deep shelters, including the use of tube stations and underground tunnels as public shelters. Reasons given were the spread of disease due to the lack of toilet facilities at many stations, the inherent danger of people falling onto the lines, and that people sheltering in the stations and tunnels might be tempted to stay in them day and night because they would feel safer there than outside the stations.
None of these concerns had been borne out by experience during the bombing raids of the First World War, when eighty specially adapted tube stations had been pressed into use, but in a highly controversial decision in January 1924, Anderson, then chairman of the Air Raid Precautions Committee of Imperial Defence, had ruled out the tube station shelter option in any future conflict.
Following the intensive bombing of London on 7 September 1940 and the overnight raids of 7/8 September, there was considerable pressure to change the policy but, even following a review on 17 September, the government stood firm. On 19 September,
William Mabane
William Mabane, 1st Baron Mabane (12 January 1895 – 16 November 1969), known as Sir William Mabane between 1954 and 1962, was a British businessman and Liberal/National Liberal politician.
Background and education
The son of Joseph Greenwood ...
, parliamentary secretary to the Ministry of Home Security, urged the public not to leave their
Anderson shelters for public shelters, saying it deprived others of shelter. "We're going to improve the amenities in existing shelters", he promised. "We're setting about providing better lighting and better accommodation for sleeping and better sanitary arrangements." The Ministries of Home Security and Transport jointly issued an "urgent appeal", telling the public "to refrain from using Tube stations as air-raid shelters except in the case of urgent necessity".
However, the government was then confronted with an episode of mass disobedience. Over the night of 19/20 September, thousands of Londoners were taking matters in their own hands. They had flocked to the Tubes for shelter. At some stations, they began to arrive as early as 4pm, with bedding and bags of food to sustain them for the night. By the time the evening rush hour was in progress, they had already staked their "pitches" on the platforms. Police did not intervene. Some station managers, on their own initiatives, provided additional toilet facilities. Transport Minister
John Reith, and the chairman of London Transport,
Lord Ashfield, inspected
Holborn tube station
Holborn ( ) is a London Underground station in Holborn, Central London, located at the junction of High Holborn and Kingsway. It is served by the Central and Piccadilly lines. On the Central line the station is between Tottenham Court Road ...
to see conditions for themselves.
The government then realised that it could not contain this popular revolt. On 21 September, it abruptly changed policy, removing its objections to the use of tube stations. In what it called part of its "deep shelter extension policy", it decided to close the short section of
Piccadilly line from Holborn to
Aldwych
Aldwych (pronounced ) is a street and the name of the List of areas of London, area immediately surrounding it in central London, England, within the City of Westminster. The street starts Points of the compass, east-northeast of Charing Cros ...
, and convert different sections for specific wartime use, including a public air raid shelter at Aldwych. Floodgates were installed at various points to protect the network should bombs breach the tunnels under the Thames, or large water mains in the vicinity of stations. Seventy-nine stations were fitted with bunks for 22,000 people, supplied with first aid facilities and equipped with chemical toilets. 124 canteens opened in all parts of the tube system. Shelter marshals were appointed, whose function it was to keep order, give first aid and assist in case of the flooding of the tunnels.
![Blitz West End Air Shelter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Blitz_West_End_Air_Shelter.jpg)
Businesses (for example
Plessey Ltd) were allowed to use the Underground stations and unopened tunnels; government offices were installed in others, and the anti-aircraft centre for London used a station as its headquarters. However, tube stations and tunnels were still vulnerable to a direct hit and several such incidents did occur:
On 14 October 1940, a bomb penetrated the road and tunnel at
Balham tube station
Balham is an interchange station formed of a range of underground entrances for the London Underground ('tube') and a shared entrance with its National Rail station component. The station is in central Balham in the London Borough of Wandsworth ...
, blew up the water mains and sewage pipes, and killed 66 people.
At
Bank station
Bank and Monument are interlinked London Underground and Docklands Light Railway, Docklands Light Railway (DLR) stations that form a public transport complex spanning the length of King William Street, London, King William Street in the City of ...
, a direct hit caused a crater of 120 ft by 100 ft on 11 January 1941; the road above the station collapsed and killed 56 occupants.
However, the highest death toll was caused during an accident at the unfinished
Bethnal Green tube station
Bethnal Green is a London Underground station in Bethnal Green, London, served by the Central line (London Underground), Central line. It lies between Liverpool Street station, Liverpool Street and Mile End tube station, Mile End stations, is i ...
on 8 March 1943, when 1,500 people entered the station. The crowd suddenly surged forward upon hearing the unfamiliar sound of a new type of anti-aircraft rocket being launched nearby. Someone stumbled on the stairs, and the crowd pushing on, were falling on top of one another, and 173 people were crushed to death in the disaster.
Nevertheless, the London Underground system during the war was considered one of the safest means of protecting relatively many people in a high-density area of the capital. An estimated 170,000 people sheltered in the tunnels and stations during World War II. Although not a great number in comparison to the total number of the inhabitants of the capital, it almost certainly saved many lives of the people who probably would have had to find alternative, less secure means of protection.
Artists and photographers such as
Henry Moore
Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi- abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced ...
and
Bill Brandt
Bill Brandt (born Hermann Wilhelm Brandt; 2 May 1904 – 20 December 1983)Paul DelanyBill Brandt: A Life was a British photographer and photojournalist. Born in Germany, Brandt moved to England, where he became known for his images of British ...
were employed as war artists to document life in London's shelters during the Second World War.
Other tunnels
Many other types of tunnels were adapted for shelters to protect the civil population, and the military and administrative establishment in the UK during the war. Some had been built many years before, some had been part of an ancient defence system, and some had belonged to commercial enterprises, such as coal mining.
The
Victoria tunnels at
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...
, for example, completed as long ago as 1842, and used for transporting coal from the collieries to the river Tyne, had been closed in 1860 and remained so until 1939. 12 m deep in places, the tunnels, stretching in parts beneath the city of Newcastle, were converted to air raid shelters with a capacity for 9,000 people. Furthermore, tunnels linked to
landing stages built on the
River Irwell
The River Irwell ( ) is a tributary of the River Mersey in north west England. It rises at Irwell Springs on Deerplay Moor, approximately north of Bacup and flows southwards for to meet the Mersey near Irlam. The Irwell marks the boundary be ...
in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
at the end of the nineteenth century were also used as air-raid shelters.
The large medieval labyrinth of tunnels beneath
Dover Castle
Dover Castle is a medieval castle in Dover, Kent, England and is Grade I listed. It was founded in the 11th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history. Some sources say it is the ...
had been built originally as part of the defensive system of the approaches to England, extended over the centuries and further excavated and reinforced during World Wars I and II, until it was capable of accommodating large parts of the secret defence systems protecting the British Isles. On 26 May 1940, it became the headquarters under
Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay of "
Operation Dynamo
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...
", from which the rescue and evacuation of up to 338,000 troops from France was directed.
In
Stockport
Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here.
Most of the town is within ...
, six miles south of Manchester, four sets of underground air raid shelter tunnels for civilian use were dug into the red sandstone on which the town centre stands. Preparation started in September 1938 and the first set of shelters was opened on 28 October 1939. (Stockport was not bombed until 11 October 1940.) The smallest of the tunnel shelters could accommodate 2,000 people and the largest 3,850 (subsequently expanded to take up to 6,500 people.) The largest of the
Stockport Air Raid Shelters are open to the public as part of the town's museum service.
In southeast London, residents made use of the
Chislehurst Caves
Chislehurst Caves are a series of intersecting man-made tunnels and caverns covering some 22 miles (35.4 km) in Chislehurst in southeast London, England. From the mid-13th to early 19th centuries the 'caves' were created from the mining of ...
beneath
Chislehurst
Chislehurst () is a suburban district of south-east London, England, in the London Borough of Bromley. It lies east of Bromley, south-west of Sidcup and north-west of Orpington, south-east of Charing Cross. Before the creation of Greater L ...
, a network of caves which have existed since the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
for the mining of
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk ...
and
flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...
.
Street communal shelter
In the United Kingdom, it was being recognised early that public shelters in open spaces, especially near streets, were urgently needed for pedestrians, drivers and passengers in passing vehicles, etc. The programme of building street communal shelters commenced in March 1940, the government supplying the materials, and being the moving force behind the scheme, and private builders executing the work under the supervision of surveyors. These shelters consisted of 14-inch brick walls and reinforced concrete roofs, similarly to, but much larger than, the private shelters in backyards and gardens being introduced slightly later. The communal shelters were usually intended to accommodate about fifty persons, and were divided into various sections by interior walls with openings connecting the different sections. Sections were normally furnished with six bunks.
The construction work then went on rapidly, until the resources of concrete and bricks began to be depleted due to the excessive demand placed on them so suddenly. Also, the performance of the early street shelters was a serious blow to public confidence. Their walls were shaken down either by earth shock or blast, and the concrete roofs then fell onto the helpless occupants, and this was there for all to see. At around the same time rumours of accidents started to circulate, such as on one occasion people being drowned due to a burst main filling up the shelter with water. Although much improved designs were being introduced whose performance had been demonstrated in explosion trials, communal shelters became highly unpopular, and shortly afterwards householders were being encouraged to build or have built private shelters on their properties, or within their houses, with materials being supplied by the government.
Anderson shelter
![Anderson3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Anderson3.jpg)
The Anderson shelter was designed in 1938 by William Paterson and Oscar Carl (Karl) Kerrison in response to a request from the Home Office. It was named after Sir
John Anderson John Anderson may refer to:
Business
*John Anderson (Scottish businessman) (1747–1820), Scottish merchant and founder of Fermoy, Ireland
* John Byers Anderson (1817–1897), American educator, military officer and railroad executive, mentor of ...
, then
Lord Privy Seal
The Lord Privy Seal (or, more formally, the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal) is the fifth of the Great Officers of State (United Kingdom), Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and abov ...
with special responsibility for preparing air-raid precautions immediately prior to the outbreak of World War II, and it was he who then initiated the development of the shelter.
After evaluation by David Anderson, Bertram Lawrence Hurst, and Sir Henry Jupp, of the
Institution of Civil Engineers
The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...
, the design was released for production.
Anderson shelters were designed to accommodate up to six people. The main principle of protection was based on curved and straight
galvanised corrugated steel panels. Six curved panels were bolted together at the top, so forming the main body of the shelter, three straight sheets on either side, and two more straight panels were fixed to each end, one containing the door—a total of fourteen panels. A small drainage
sump
A sump is a low space that collects often undesirable liquids such as water or chemicals. A sump can also be an infiltration basin used to manage surface runoff water and recharge underground aquifers. Sump can also refer to an area in a cave ...
was often incorporated in the floor to collect rainwater seeping into the shelter. The shelters were high, wide, and long. They were either buried 4 ft (1.2 m) deep in the soil and then covered with a minimum of of soil above the roof or in some cases installed inside people's houses and covered with sandbags. When they were buried outside, the earth banks could be planted with vegetables and flowers, that at times could be quite an appealing sight and in this way would become the subject of competitions of the best-planted shelter among householders in the neighbourhood. The internal fitting out of the shelter was left to the owner and so there were wide variations in comfort.
Anderson shelters were issued free to all householders who earned less than £5 a week (equivalent to £ in , when adjusted for
inflation
In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reductio ...
). Those with a higher income were charged £7 (£ in ) for their shelter. One and a half million shelters of this type were distributed between February 1939 and the outbreak of war. During the war a further 2.1 million were erected. Large numbers were manufactured at
John Summers & Sons
John Summers & Sons Ltd was a major United Kingdom iron and steel producer, latterly based on the Dee Estuary at Shotton, Flintshire. The company was absorbed into British Steel Corporation in 1967; British Steel became Corus in 1999 and this c ...
ironworks at
Shotton on Deeside with production peaking at 50,000 units per week.
The Anderson shelters performed well under blast and ground shock, because they had good connectivity and ductility, which meant that they could absorb a great deal of energy through plastic deformation without falling apart. (This was in marked contrast to other trench shelters which used concrete for the sides and roof, which were inherently unstable when disturbed by the effects of an explosion – if the roof slab lifted, the walls fell in under the static earth pressure; if the walls were pushed in, the roof would be unsupported at one edge and would fall.) However, when the pattern of all-night alerts became established, it was realised that in winter Anderson shelters installed outside were cold damp holes in the ground and often flooded in wet weather, and so their occupancy factor would be poor. This led to the development of the indoor
Morrison shelter
Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but many ...
.
At the end of the war in Europe, households who had received an Anderson shelter were expected to remove their shelters and local authorities began the task of reclaiming the corrugated iron. Householders who wished to keep their Anderson shelter (or more likely the valuable metal) could pay a nominal fee.
Because of the large number made and their robustness, many Anderson shelters still survive. Many were dug up after the war and converted into storage sheds for use in gardens and
allotments.
Morrison shelter
![A couple sleeping in a Morrison shelter during the Second World War](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/A_couple_sleeping_in_a_Morrison_shelter_during_the_Second_World_War._D2055.jpg)
The Morrison shelter, officially termed ''Table (Morrison) Indoor Shelter'', had a cage-like construction beneath it. It was designed by
John Baker and named after
Herbert Morrison
Herbert Stanley Morrison, Baron Morrison of Lambeth, (3 January 1888 – 6 March 1965) was a British politician who held a variety of senior positions in the UK Cabinet as member of the Labour Party. During the inter-war period, he was Minis ...
, the
Minister of Home Security at the time. It was the result of the realisation that due to the lack of house cellars it was necessary to develop an effective type of indoor shelter.
The shelters came in
assembly kits, to be bolted together inside the home. They were approximately long, wide and high, had a solid steel plate "table" top, welded wire mesh sides, and a metal lath "mattress"-type floor. Altogether it had 359 parts and had three tools supplied with the pack.
The shelter was provided free to households whose combined income was less than £400 per year (equivalent to £ in ).
When Head of the Engineering Department at
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
, Professor
John Baker (later Lord Baker) presented an undergraduate lecture on the principles of design of the shelter, as an interesting introduction to his theory of plastic design of structures and it can be summarised as follows:
Half a million Morrison shelters had been distributed by the end of 1941, with a further 100,000 being added in 1943 to prepare the population for the expected German
V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany), Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buz ...
(doodlebug) attacks.
In one examination of 44 severely damaged houses it was found that 3 people had been killed, 13 seriously injured, and 16 slightly injured out of a total of 136 people who had occupied Morrison shelters; thus 120 out of 136 escaped from severely bomb-damaged houses without serious injury. Furthermore, it was discovered that the fatalities had occurred in a house which had suffered a direct hit, and some of the severely injured were in shelters sited incorrectly within the houses.
In July 1950, the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors made an award of £3,000 (£) to Baker for his design of the Morrison shelter.
Stanton shelters
![Disused air-raid shelter, Dilton, New Forest - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Disused_air-raid_shelter%2C_Dilton%2C_New_Forest_-_geograph.org.uk_-_430429.jpg)
A segment shelter manufactured by the
Stanton Ironworks,
Ilkeston
Ilkeston is a town in the Borough of Erewash, Derbyshire, England, on the River Erewash, from which the borough takes its name, with a population at the 2011 census of 38,640. Its major industries, coal mining, iron working and lace making/texti ...
, Derbyshire. The shop producing
spun-concrete lighting columns ceased production and turned over to concrete air-raid shelters, of which 100,000 tons were manufactured, principally for the air ministry. Reinforced concrete proved an ideal material for air-raid shelters, being strong and resistant to shock with no deterioration with the passing of time. This type of segment shelter was of simple design and of low cost—any length of shelter could be built up from the pre-cast steel reinforced concrete segments. The segments were 20 inches wide; a pair of them formed an arch 7 feet high and transverse struts were provided to ensure rigidity. These fitted into longitudinal bearers which were grooved to receive the foot of each segment. Each pair of segments was bolted together at the apex of the arch and each segment was also bolted to its neighbour, the joints being sealed with a bituminous compound. The convenient handling of these segments enabled them to be transported onto sites where close access by motor lorry was not possible. Partly buried in the ground, with a suitably screened entrance, this bolted shelter afforded safe protection against blast and splinters.
Other construction
![Gdansk Remontowa Shipyard air-raid shelter Ostrowica IV](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Gdansk_Remontowa_Shipyard_air-raid_shelter_Ostrowica_IV.jpg)
Some air-raid shelters were constructed in residential building schemes in anticipation of the Second World War. There is a surviving example at
St Leonard's Court in
East Sheen
East Sheen, also known as Sheen, is a suburb in south-west London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
Its long high street has shops, offices, restaurants, cafés, pubs and suburban supermarkets and is also the economic hub for Mort ...
, southwest London.
Military air-raid shelters included
blast pen
A revetment, in military aviation, is a parking area for one or more aircraft that is surrounded by blast walls on three sides. These walls are as much about protecting neighbouring aircraft as it is to protect the aircraft within the revetment ...
s at
airfield
An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...
s for the security of
aircrew
Aircrew, also called flight crew, are personnel who operate an aircraft while in flight. The composition of a flight's crew depends on the type of aircraft, plus the flight's duration and purpose.
Commercial aviation
Flight deck positions ...
s and
aircraft maintenance
Aircraft maintenance is the performance of tasks required to ensure the continuing airworthiness of an aircraft or aircraft part, including overhaul, inspection, replacement, defect rectification, and the embodiment of modifications, compliance ...
personnel away from the main airbase buildings.
Few shelters could survive a direct bomb-hit. The German authorities claimed that ''hochbunkers'' were totally bomb-proof, but none were targeted by any of the 41 10-ton
Grand Slam
Grand Slam most often refers to:
* Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves
Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to:
Games and sports
* Grand slam, winning category te ...
earthquake bombs dropped by the RAF by the end of World War II. Two of these bombs were dropped on the ''U-Bootbunkerwerft''
Valentin submarine pens
The Valentin submarine factory is a protective shelter on the Weser River at the Bremen suburb of , built to protect German U-boats during World War II. The factory was under construction from 1943 to March 1945 using forced labour, but was dama ...
near
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
and these barely penetrated of reinforced concrete, bringing down the roof.
More recently, the penetration by laser-guided
"smart bombs" of the
Amiriyah shelter during the 1991
Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
showed how vulnerable even reinforced concrete shelters are to direct hits from bunker-buster bombs. However, the air-raid shelters are built to protect the civilian population, so protection against a direct hit is of secondary value. The most important dangers are the blast and shrapnel.
Air-raid shelters in modern times
Old air-raid shelters, such as the
Anderson
Anderson or Andersson may refer to:
Companies
* Anderson (Carriage), a company that manufactured automobiles from 1907 to 1910
* Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car
* Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer
* Anderson ...
, can still be found in back gardens, in which they are commonly used as sheds, or (on a roof covered with earth) as vegetable patches.
Countries which have kept air-raid shelters intact and in ready condition include
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
and
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
.
Switzerland
Many Swiss houses and apartment blocks still have structurally reinforced, underground basements, often featuring a concrete door around thick. In more modern, post-war times, these shelters are often used as storage, with the footprint of the reinforced basement divided up into individual storage units according to the number of apartments in the house. The basement shelters are built to more stringent building codes, as the ceiling especially should protect shelter-seeking people from the house collapsing. Although most Swiss houses provide their own shelters, those that don't are required by law to post directions to the nearest shelter.
Spain
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
was
severely bombed by Italian and German Air Forces during
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
, particularly in 1937 and 1938. Tunnels were used as shelters at the same time that the population undertook the building of bomb shelters under the coordination of a committee for civil defense (Catalan: ''Junta de defensa passiva'') providing planning and technical assistance. Hundreds of bomb shelters were built. Most of them are recorded, but only a few are well preserved. Among these stand out the ''Plaça del Diamant'' refuge as well as air-shelter 307 (''Refugi 307''), today one of the
Barcelona City History Museum
The Museum of the History of Barcelona ( ca, Museu d'Història de Barcelona, MUHBA) is a history museum that conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the historical heritage of the city of Barcelona, from its origins in Roman times until ...
heritage sites.
Other cities with extant bomb shelters from the Spanish Civil War include
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
,
Guadalajara
Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the list of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Me ...
,
Alcalá de Henares
Alcalá de Henares () is a Spanish city in the Community of Madrid. Straddling the Henares River, it is located to the northeast of the centre of Madrid. , it has a population of 193,751, making it the region's third-most populated Municipalities ...
,
Santander
Santander may refer to:
Places
* Santander, Spain, a port city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain
* Santander Department, a department of Colombia
* Santander State, former state of Colombia
* Santander de Quilichao, a m ...
,
Jaén,
Alcañiz
Alcañiz () is a town and municipality of Teruel province in the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. The town is located on the banks of the river Guadalope. Alcañiz is the unofficial capital of the Lower Aragon historical region. It lies ...
,
Alcoy
Alcoy ( ca-valencia, Alcoi) is an industrial and university city, region and municipality located in the Valencian Community, Spain. The Serpis river crosses the municipal boundary of Alcoy. The local authority reported a population of 61,135 res ...
,
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...
and
Cartagena. During the war, Cartagena, an important naval base, was one of the main targets for Franco's bombers. Cartagena suffered between 40 and 117 bombings (sources are mixed about the number of attacks). The most dramatic was one carried on by the German
Condor Legion
The Condor Legion (german: Legion Condor) was a unit composed of military personnel from the air force and army of Nazi Germany, which served with the Nationalist faction during the Spanish Civil War of July 1936 to March 1939. The Condor Legio ...
on November 25, 1936. The largest air raid shelter in Cartagena, which could accommodate up to 5.500 people, has been a museum since 2004.
Israel
![Flickr - Israel Defense Forces - Israelis Hiding in a Bomb Shelter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Flickr_-_Israel_Defense_Forces_-_Israelis_Hiding_in_a_Bomb_Shelter.jpg)
The
State of Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
required all buildings to have access to air-raid shelters from 1951, and all new flats possess access to
Merkhav Mugan
''Merkhav Mugan'' ( he, מרחב מוגן) (lit. protected space), also known as a "miklat" and popularly known as a ''mammad'', is a reinforced security room required in all new buildings by Israeli law. A ''Merkhav Mugan'' is deemed preferable ...
. All medical and educational facilities are prepared for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CRBN) attacks (as of 2010) (as an example each surgery room is built to withstand a direct missile hit); some are built with closed-cycle air systems and are capable of being resistant to chemical agents for short periods of time; in addition all must include chemical air filtering systems. The public air-raid shelters are commonly employed as game rooms in peacetime so that the children will be comfortable to enter them at a time of need, and will not be frightened.
[Home front command,תקנות מוסדות בריאות ,201]
/ref>
Finland
The Ministry of Interior, responsible for civil defence in Finland, maintains hard shelters, capable of accommodating 3.6 million persons, in cities and in other densely populated areas where two-thirds of the country's population live. They are built to withstand the detonation of a 100-kilotonne-of-TNT (420 TJ) nuclear bomb at ground zero.[Text from PD source: US Library of Congress: ]
A Country Study: Finland
', Library of Congress Call Number DL1012 .A74 1990. In total Finland has over 45,000 civil defence shelters which can house 3.6 million people (65% of the population). A shelter is designed to protect the population in the event of a threat of a possible gas or poison leak, armed attack such as war, radioactive fallout, or the like. Private homes rarely have them, but houses over are obliged to build them. Fire inspectors check the shelters every ten years and flaws have to be repaired or corrected as soon as possible. Shelters are often used as storage spaces but the law requires that inhabitants of apartment blocks must be able to clear the shelters and put them into action in less than 72 hours. Half of the air-raid shelter has to be ready to use in two hours. The types of shelters are:
* K, a small shelter for a small apartment house.
* S1, a usual shelter for apartment house.
* S3, lightweight shelter in solid rock or heavyweight shelter of ferroconcrete.
* S6, large shelters in solid rock that must be able to withstand a 6 bar pressure wave.
All shelters must have:
* an electric and hand-operated air-conditioning system, which can protect from biological and chemical weapons and radioactive particles.
* a radiometer
* dry toilets
* a fixed-line telephone interface
* a spare exit
* water tanks
* a first aid kit
Singapore
Since 1998, Singapore has required all new houses and flats to have a shelter built to certain specifications. The Singapore Civil Defence Force
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) is an uniformed organisation in Singapore under the Ministry of Home Affairs that provides emergency services such as firefighting, technical rescue, and emergency medical services, and coordinates nati ...
rationalizes building such shelters in high-rise buildings by noting that weapon effects tend to be localized, and are unlikely to cause an entire building to collapse.
Taiwan
There are currently 117,669 air raid shelters in Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
. The first air raid shelters were constructed in the Japanese colonial period and construction expanded during WWII as allied bombers began hitting Taiwan.
Greece
During the pre-WW2 period the Metaxas regime
Metaxās or Metaxa may refer to:
Places
* Metaxas Line, fortifications in northeastern Greece in 1935–1940
* Metaxas, Greece, a village in the Greek region of Macedonia
* Metaxas Regime or 4th of August Regime, a short-lived authoritarian regim ...
initiated an extensive Civil Defence system designed to protect civilians in the event of enemy bombing. The system included extensive training of civilians as well as the construction of more than 12,000 air raid shelters in Attica
Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...
, equipped with German made blast doors and air filtering systems. From 1939 forward virtually all new apartment buildings contained built-in hardened basements and cellars that functioned as (unofficial) bunkers, although these lacked the more sophisticated equipment of the state built shelters.
After the war, most of these shelters were either abandoned or demolished along with the apartment buildings they were built in. Public shelters were covered to make way for the modern street network. The last public inspection of the remaining shelters was performed in the 70s. Nowadays very few state built shelters remain intact, although hardened cellars still remain in the basements of most buildings in the older districts of Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...
and Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
.
Notable surviving shelters include the Likavitos shelter, built inside the mountain of the same name, the Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the finance.
Lists of current ministries of finance
Named "Ministry"
* Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan)
* Ministry of Finance and Ec ...
bunker and the Piraeus
Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saronic ...
bunkers in Athens, and the nuclear bunker under the Military Hospital no 414 in Thessaloniki.
Ukraine
The Kyiv Metro
The Kyiv Metro ( uk, Ки́ївський метрополіте́н, Kyivskyi metropoliten, ) is a rapid transit system in Kyiv that is owned by the Kyiv City Council and operated by the city-owned company Kyivsky Metropoliten''.'' It was initi ...
was built in the wake of World War II. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
, the metro stations doubled as bomb shelters, as residents took shelter from Russian bombs. Like other former Soviet metro systems, the Kyiv metro was designed with this purpose in mind, and 47 of the city's 52 stations were designated for this purpose. During the invasion, on February 24, regular service on the metro was suspended.
A reduced schedule was adopted with limited services running between 8:00 and 19:00. All underground stations remain open 24 hours a day to provide shelter. According to Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
's mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
Vitali Klitschko, on 2 March 2022, as many as 150,000 residents of Kyiv sought shelter in the Metro.[Kramer, Andrew E., and Lynsey Addario. “15,000 Are Sheltering in Kyiv's Subway.” The New York Times. The New York Times, March 2, 2022]
Link
. Stations in the Kharkiv Metro were also used as shelters.
Gallery
The Home Front in Britain during the Second World War HU36196.jpg, Three Anderson shelters standing intact amid a scene of debris in Norwich
Morrison Shelter on Trial- Testing the New Indoor Shelter, 1941 D2294.jpg, A Morrison shelter containing a dummy, after the house it was in had been destroyed as a test
ValenciaRefugio.JPG, Air-raid shelter built during the Spanish Civil War in Valencia
Children outside air raid shelter, Gresford (4365436432).jpg, Children outside air raid shelter in Gresford, 1939
Finnish civilians enter a bomb shelter in Helsinki as air-raid sirens start, with Soviet bombers inbound. (48870778027).jpg, Finnish civilians enter a bomb shelter in Helsinki during the Winter War, 1939
Tateyama air-raid shelter.JPG, Air-raid shelter in Tateyama, Nagasaki
Beth-El Industries Blast Valves installed in bomb shelter.jpg, Blast protection Blast valve, valves installed in a bomb shelter
AirRaidShelterHolon01.JPG, A communal air raid shelter located in a public garden in Holon, Israel
Sderot Shelter.JPG, Entrance to a public bomb shelter in Sderot, Israel
PikiWiki Israel 29533 Israel Defense Forces.JPG, An example of a bomb shelter at a playground in Israel
百年防空洞 Century Old Bomb Shelter - panoramio.jpg, Japanese colonial period air raid shelter in Taiwan
See also
* Air Raid Precautions in the United Kingdom
* Blast shelter
* Fallout shelter
* Underground living
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
*
External links
Photographs from English WW2 Public Shelters
Underground Bomb Shelter Website
Clifford Road Air Raid Shelter Museum, Ipswich, UK
German WW2 Airraid Shelters
Interview with writer/researcher of Bethnal Green Tube shelter tragedy, largest civilian losses in WW2 London
A short history of Anderson shelters, plus information about shelters still in existence
{{DEFAULTSORT:Air-Raid Shelter
Subterranea (geography)
Home front during World War II
Air raid shelters,
Towers