thumb|280px|One of the [[London deep-level shelters, in Belsize Park]]

thumb|right|280px| () is the complex of underground air-raid tunnels dating to [[World War II, which still exists in Trieste, Italy]]

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 have been used as defensive structures in such situations).

History

Pre-WWII

Prior to World War II, in 1924, an Air Raid Precautions 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 1935, every city in the country was given a document to prepare air raid shelters. A commonly used home shelter known as the Anderson shelter would be built in a garden and equipped with beds as a refuge from air raids.

Types

Trenches

Air raid trenches are forms of trenches that began to be constructed for defensive purposes around the world after the creation of bomber aircraft. They were especially prevalent during World War II, but have also been used in other wars.

Cellars

right|thumbnail|Single-person air raid shelter on display at the [[Aviation Museum Hannover-Laatzen|Günter Leonhardt aviation museum near Hanover, Germany]]

Cellars have always been much more important in Continental Europe than in the United Kingdom and especially in Germany 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 and Dresden. When burning buildings and apartment blocks above them collapsed in the raging winds (which could reach well over ), 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

right|thumb|The in [[Trier]]

right|thumb| in [[Wünsdorf, Brandenburg]]

( or blockhouses), were a type of construction designed to relieve the pressure Nazi 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 had the advantage of being built upward, which was much cheaper than downward excavation. usually consisted of large concrete blocks above ground with walls between thick and with huge lintels above doorways and openings. They often had a constant interior temperature of , 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, 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 towers 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 in Berlin was successfully demolished.

One particular variant of the was the , named after its designer, Leo Winkel of Duisburg. Winkel patented his design in 1934, and from 1936 onward, Germany built 98 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 and the height between . The walls of the towers had a minimum thickness for reinforced concrete of and for ordinary concrete. The towers were able to shelter between 164 and 500 people, depending on the type. The intent with the and the other 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 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.

Israel

Miklat (, ) Is a type of air raid shelter found in Israel inside homes, near residential areas and in other places across the country.

These places are also called Merkhav Mugan (, ). They are reinforced security rooms required in all new buildings by Israeli law.

Types

  • Miklat Tzibury (מקלט ציבורי) – , a partly underground facility, installed in residential areas. They are commonly used for community needs (clubs, education etc.). Maintained by the local governance and Home Front. They are located in streets and near public facilities.

thumb|Public miklat in [[Holon]]

  • Miklat BeBayit Meshutaf (מקלט בבית משותף) – in a condominium, a facility built into a building which has been declared as a condominium (commonly in a low-rise building) it includes all the facilities that a public shelter has, but is maintained by the building residents.
  • Merkhav Mugan Dirati (מרחב מוגן דירתי or ממ״ד) – installed in residential apartments and private houses.
  • Merkhav Mugan Komati (מרחב מוגן קומתי or ממ״ק) – common floor space in apartment buildings in which there is no Merkhav Mugan Dirati in every apartment and in other multi-storey buildings (mostly offices and industry).
  • Merkhav Mugan Mosadi (מרחב מוגן מוסדי or ממ״מ) – installed in every public structure.

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, 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 (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 and Anderson shelters.

Basements

Basements 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 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)

British cities prepared for use of railway arches and underpasses in 1935 and railway arches and subways

London Underground stations

Prior to the beginning of the war, shelter policy had been determined by John Anderson, 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, 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".

Over the night of 19/20 September, thousands of Londoners took matters in their own hands. They had flocked to the Tubes for shelter, at some stations, they began to arrive as early as 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. The police did not intervene and some station managers, on their own initiative, provided additional toilet facilities. Transport Minister John Reith, and the chairman of London Transport, Lord Ashfield, inspected Holborn tube station to see for themselves.

The government 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, 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.

thumb|left|[[London Underground station in use as an air-raid shelter during World War II]]

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. Tube stations and tunnels were still vulnerable to a direct hit and on 14 October 1940, a bomb penetrated the road and tunnel at Balham tube station, blew up the water mains and sewage pipes, and killed 66 people. At Bank station, a direct hit caused a crater of on 11 January 1941; the road above the station collapsed and killed 56 occupants. The highest death toll was caused by an incident at the unfinished Bethnal Green tube station 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.

The London Underground system 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 the war. Although not a great number in comparison to the population of the capital, it almost certainly saved the lives of the people who probably would have had to find alternative, less secure means of protection. Artists and photographers such as Henry Moore and Bill Brandt were employed as war artists to document life in London's shelters during the war.

Other tunnels

thumb|The [[Victoria Tunnel (Newcastle)|Victoria tunnels, offered air raid shelter.]]

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 (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.

In 1981, the British government would issue a series of Domestic Nuclear Shelters publications to complement the earlier Protect and Survive pamphlet. One of the shelters depicted in Domestic Nuclear Shelters, the Type 2 indoor shelter, was mostly identical to the Morrison shelter, and the assembly instructions were essentially the same as those contained in the 1941 How to Put Up Your Morrison 'Table' Shelter pamphlet.

Scallywag bunkers

thumb|right|Reconstruction of a Scallywag bunker at [[Parham Airfield Museum, Suffolk]]

Scallywag bunkers or Operational Base (OB) were underground bunkers used by Auxiliary Units of the British Resistance against Axis powers invasion of the United Kingdom. They were provided with elaborately concealed underground Operational Bases, usually built by the Royal Engineers in a local woodland, with a camouflaged entrance and emergency escape tunnel.

Stanton shelters

right|250px|thumb|An abandoned Stanton shelter at the disused airfield [[RAF Beaulieu (2007)]]

A segment shelter manufactured by the Stanton Ironworks, Ilkeston, Derbyshire. The shop producing spun-concrete lighting columns ceased production and turned over to concrete air-raid shelters, of which 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 wide; a pair of them formed an arch 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

thumb|right|250px|German anti-aircraft shelter from the Second World War at the shipyard in [[Gdańsk was built without a basement due to the presence of groundwater]]

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, southwest London.

Military air-raid shelters included blast pens at airfields for the security of aircrews and aircraft maintenance personnel away from the main airbase buildings.

Few shelters could survive a direct bomb-hit. The German authorities claimed that were totally bomb-proof, but none were targeted by any of the 41 Grand Slam earthquake bombs dropped by the RAF by the end of World War II. Two of these bombs were dropped on the Valentin submarine pens near Bremen 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 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, 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, Spain and Finland.

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 do not are required by law to post directions to the nearest shelter.

Spain

Barcelona was severely bombed by Italian and German Air Forces during Spanish Civil War, 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 () 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 refuge as well as air-shelter 307 (), today one of the Barcelona City History Museum heritage sites.

Other cities with extant bomb shelters from the Spanish Civil War include Madrid, Guadalajara, Alcalá de Henares, Santander, Jaén, Alcañiz, Alcoy, Alicante, Almería, Valencia 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 out by the German Condor Legion on 25 November 1936. The largest air raid shelter in Cartagena, which could accommodate up to 5,500 people, has been a museum since 2004.

<gallery class="center" widths="180" heights="180">

File:Mhcb070401 008.jpg|Air-raid Shelter 307 () in Barcelona, was built during Spanish Civil War

File:Refugi antiaeri de Carcaixent a l'Asil Mare de Déu dels Desemparats, 2 (País Valencià).jpg|Air raid shelter in Carcaixent (Valencian Community) built by republicans during the Spanish Civil War

</gallery>

Israel

thumb|250px|The inside of an Israeli bomb shelter in 2012

The State of Israel required all buildings to have access to air-raid shelters from 1951, and all new flats possess access to Merkhav Mugan (in-building protected spaces). All medical and educational facilities are prepared for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CRBN) attacks for example, each surgery room is built to withstand a direct missile hitsome 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.

Finland

thumb|A normal Finnish S1-shelter steel door; 'S' is short for suoja (protection, shelter)

The Ministry of Interior, responsible for civil defence in Finland, maintains hard shelters, capable of accommodating 3.6million 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. In total Finland has over 45,000 civil defence shelters which can house 3.6million 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.

  • 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 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. 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 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, 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 and Athens.

Notable surviving shelters include the Likavitos shelter, built inside the mountain of the same name, the Ministry of Finance bunker and the Piraeus bunkers in Athens, and the nuclear bunker under the Military Hospital no 414 in Thessaloniki.

Ukraine

thumb|Residents sheltering in a [[Kyiv Metro station during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.]]

The Kyiv Metro was built in the wake of World War II. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, 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 24 February 2022, regular service on the metro was suspended.

A reduced schedule was adopted with limited services running between 8am and 7pm. All underground stations remain open 24 hours a day to provide shelter. According to Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klitschko, on 2 March 2022, as many as 150,000 residents of Kyiv sought shelter in the Metro. Stations in the Kharkiv Metro were also used as shelters.

<gallery class="center" widths="267px" heights="275px">

The Home Front in Britain during the Second World War HU36196.jpg|Three Anderson shelters that survived the destruction of the houses adjacent to them following a bombing raid 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 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

</gallery>

See also

  • Air Raid Precautions in the United Kingdom
  • Blast shelter
  • Fallout shelter
  • Underground living

References

Bibliography

  • Photographs from English WW2 Public Shelters
  • Underground Bomb Shelter Website
  • Clifford Road Air Raid Shelter Museum, Ipswich, UK
  • Archives of the German military manuals
  • 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
  • Pyamid-sphere bunker system