Shelter Stories

      More LettersFrom Paradise

         Shelter Stories

I am currently reading a most excellent book about civilian life in England during WWII. The title is "How We Lived Then" by Norman Longmate. I knew all about how we lived in America during WWII, but little about what had happened over across the pond. It was worth the four bucks I spent during a book sale.

To begin with, the British were subjected to being killed by bombs from the air. To meet this threat the British had two types of shelters, aside from the London Underground, church basements etc. The first of these was the "Anderson." This shelter was constructed of six corrugated steel panels, with flat panels front and rear with a door in one end.

A hole was dug 7ft 6in long and 6 ft wide, and a depth of 4ft. the whole structure was then covered with at least 15 inches of dirt.The Anderson was tough. It could stand up to a 500 lb. bomb dropped 20 ft. away, or a 100 lb. bomb dropped only 6ft. away. Only a direct hit would destroy it. The shelter was designed to hold six persons. Bunks and chairs were added. Some people grew vegetables or flowers on  the top of shelters. Two problems were the cold, and often, water seeping into the floor.

The Andersons were given free to people who could not afford them, otherwise the cost was 7 pounds. About 3.5 million were built. Many can still be found today, being used  as tool sheds or storage.

Okay, that was shelter for people outside of cities. What about people living in cities? The answer was the "Morrison." It was a shelter which was a table and a secure place to sleep at night. It didn't protect from bomb blast, but it did protect from flying debris and falling ceilings. The Morrison came in kit form to be bolted together with 350 separate parts. It consisted of a steel top and steel legs, with steel mesh sides. The top could be used as a table between air raids.

Each Morrison measured 2 m long, 1.2 m wide, and 75 cm tall. About 500,000 were made. They were given free to people who had a yearly income of less than 350 pounds.
(It is right about here that I again miss my old typewriter, which had a pound sign on the key board.)

And now we come to another group of shelters.This was during that event known to historians as the "Cold War." Many of you reading this remember being told at school of "Duck and cover." We entered a time when the threat of bombs were long past, and the harm from radiation became real. Fearing the Russians would drop an atomic bomb, and we would all perish from radiation, shelters were built.

Civil Defense published pamphlets telling home owners how to prepare by reinforcing basements with sand bags to shield from radiation. And so on.

A whole host of literature was born out of the fear of a nuclear war. I remember an exercise I used for a class in Sociology. It was about which people should be kept outside of a shelter.

Is there today a truly safe place for shelter? It is something to think about.

      Aloha
      Grant