Hiding in Plain Sight: Air Raid Shelters in Second World War Britain
The piercing wail of the air raid siren and roar of the German planes sent fear throughout Britain in the early 1940s. With thousands of tonnes of explosives raining down on Britain's towns and cities killing over 43,000 civilians and leaving many more homeless or injured. Known as the Blitzkrieg or Blitz, the German term for lightning war, the raids resulted in the countrywide use of Air Raid Shelters with millions of people huddled together fearing for their lives. Beginning in 1938, as the threat of war increased with a policy of appeasement allowing Adolf Hitler to expand his territory unchecked, the British Government offered advice and materials which families could use to protect themselves. Guidance booklets and posters were circulated detailing instructions on how to keep your family safe and protect your property during one of the most dangerous periods in history. Everyone who lived through this time had their own stories of what their families did to protect themselves. To shed some light on this, I spoke to Yvonne, 97, Doreen, 90, and Gordon, 88, who all remember hiding from the German barrage during the conflict.
Anderson Shelters
One option from the beginning of the conflict were home-based shelters, issued by the government from 1938. The Anderson Shelter, named after Lord Privy Seal Sir John Anderson, was the first to be sent out, with over 3.5 million units protecting families in the most at risk urban areas, with the first shelter built in Islington, London. The small shelters were made of galvanised steel and delivered to most homes at a cost of £7 a unit, with those whose income was below £250 a year receiving them free-of-charge. Around a year later in 1939, the Directions for the Erection and Sinking of the Galvanised Steel Shelter booklet was issued, advising families that the shelter should be buried in an area ‘7ft. 6in. long 6ft to be dug to a depth of 4ft’. Homeowners were instructed to erect the structures ‘near the house … [but] not against it’, with the steel covered with a minimum of 2ft. of soil. The guide also advised the homeowner to ‘furnish the shelter with whatever accessories he considers necessary’, with lamps and wooden seating common with some families placing beds inside; flowers were often planted around hiding the structure. However, if incorrectly buried or situated, the structures didn't offer much protection, relying heavily on environmental factors to make them effective. As the bombing increased during 1940 and winter drew in, Anderson Shelters became very cold, damp and prone to flooding, making them increasingly impractical for regular and prolonged use, with the structures also unable to keep out the noise of the bombings making sleeping almost impossible. This caused people to criticise the use of Anderson Shelters, W. Lees Templeton used a British Medical Journal article in the same year to call Anderson shelters ‘inadequate’ due to an increase in what he referred to as ‘shelter oedema’, swelling caused by ‘long hours of sitting with bent knee’. Bernard Martin was one of many people who used Anderson Shelters before his conscription in 1941. Working as a shipping clerk in Cardiff docks, Bernard remembers the first raid he experienced was in 1940, whilst sitting behind his desk, hearing the roar of the German planes overhead. However, he explained that this was unusual as the majority of raids happened at night. When at home during a raid, Bernard recalls hiding in an Anderson Shelter, which had ‘been dug out by council workers in the early stages of the war’, on one occasion watching his former school burn after the Germans dropped an incendiary bomb on it.
Morrison Shelter
Another option for families was the Morrison “Table” Shelter, named after the Minister of Home Security, Herbert Morrison and designed by John Baker. These new shelters were first delivered in 1941, free to anyone earning less than between £350 and £400 per year. Herbert Morrison stressed their necessity in a speech to the House of Commons. Emphasising that even during the height of the Blitz in 1940, ‘85% of the population were sleeping at home or in a small shelter’ and this new style of shelter meant people could sleep in their own homes with the added protection. A second wave of deliveries followed two years later, preparing households for the threat of German V-1 flying bomb (doodlebug) attacks. The Morrison Shelter was issued as an at home assembly kit which was designed to be ‘bolted together’, consisting of welded wire mesh sides and a metal lath mattress type floor, the shelters were able to be used as a table when the sirens were not ringing out and accommodated up to two adults and a child. The How to put up your Morrison “Table” Shelter leaflet offered instructions on how to correctly and safely install and use the shelter. The guide began by reassuring the public that ‘the walls of most houses give good shelter from blast’ but goes on to state that a bombing might ‘bring down part’ of a home which is where the Morrison Shelter can protect a family. The guide advised homeowners on where to put their shelter, stating that ‘under no circumstances should the shelter be placed on the first or higher floors’ as the structures were designed to protect from falling debris. It goes on to offer detailed instructions on how to build the shelter, ensuring homeowners did this correctly to offer the most protection. In one study, 120 out of 136 people using the shelter escaped from severely bomb-damaged houses without serious injury, with only three people killed, highlighting the effectiveness of the new shelter. Gordon, now 88, lived in a two bed flat in Cheltenham throughout his childhood. He recalled not going to a public shelter, instead sheltering in a Morrison shelter, which was fitted under the bed he shared with his sister. He recalled not being particularly aware of the war as he was very young but remembered the flames and damage from a bombing in December 1940. It was during times like these that Gordon spoke about being squeezed in the metal cage, feeling safe as he was reassured by his mother. However, he doesn't remember this occurring too often as Cheltenham was not a primary target, as the Germans primarily targeted industrial cities, but did still receive its fair share of attacks. This included a 1942 bombing as part of the Nazi's Baedeker raids, retaliatory attacks which targeted culturally important locations, including Bath and York, with the aim of demoralising the British.
Street Communal Shelters
London and its people bore the brunt of the German bombings, with the city targeted for 57 consecutive nights in 1940. This meant that the closer you lived to the capital you experienced air raid warnings more frequently. During this time, people who did not have access to a home shelter or were travelling at the time, took advantage of Britain's extensive network of public Street Communal Shelters. Often built of brick or concrete, public shelters have been described as ‘a railway station, without the railway’ with wooden benches lining the walls and lit by small lamps. Doreen was just four years old at the beginning of the conflict, living in a two bed canal-side home in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire alongside her mother, father and three siblings. She spoke about rushing to her closest shelter located just a few minutes from her home, with her mother saying ‘to Lily [her elder sister] get them in the pram and get them down the Air Raid Shelter’. Doreen remembered that her mum would tell her eldest sister, who was fifteen at the end of the conflict, to run down to their cousin's house located just a few minutes away and help their mother protect her very young children, illuminating how families came together to support one another during the war, both as a way to protect each other during a raid and boost morale with Richard Titmus believing the ‘mental health of the nation improved’ during the war due to this need. Public shelters were similar across the country, with many terrified people of all ages sheltering together, to the backdrop of wailing sirens and the roar of explosions. Cheltenham resident, Yvonne was a teenager during the war and remembers the fear she felt whilst hiding with her mother, father and grandmother in the yard of the gas works, where her home was situated, her cocker spaniel shivering on her lap. Yvonne recalls how the water, which was dripping through the leaky roof, made the thin wooden benches lining the cramped shelter very damp making the shelters very unpleasant to be in. One night in December 1940, as a few hundred bombs and incendiary devices rained down on Cheltenham, Yvonne recalls an Air Raid Warden, members of the ARP who were tasked with enforcing black-outs and compliance with warnings as well as rescuing casualties and reporting bomb damage, coming into the shelter to speak to her father, who was a manager at the gasworks. She recalls her father telling the family that ‘he had to go’ as the Germans had bombed a gasline, compounding the fear they all were feeling on a night when 600 people were made homeless across the town. On some occasions families were not able to make it to a shelter and one of the many documents that families like Yvonne's, Doreen's and Gordon's may have used to inform their response in this situation was the Home Office issued the protection of your home against air raids. This document focused on using ‘almost any room’ as a refuge space ‘if soundly constructed’ promoting the use of basements to shelter in. The booklet also lists what should be kept in the room including ‘candles and matches’ and ‘a box of First Aid Supplies’ which you need to ‘collect’ from around your house. Booklets like these allowed citizens to prepare themselves if the war would come, including protection ‘against the entry of gas’ despite the fact that gas was luckily never deployed on the home front, highlighting the government's preparedness for various forms of German attack. The booklet also advises what you should do in the event of an air raid, including strict instructions for the head of house to protect all members of the family. Doreen's family also sheltered at home when it was not possible to get to the shelter, the family kept coal under their stairs and Doreen remembers squeezing under there with her siblings hoping for the threat to pass. For children like Gordon, Doreen and Yvonne and young men including Bernard, the shelters were more than just brick and metal, they became part of everyday life, protecting themselves and people they loved from the threat of the German bombs. Their memories remind us that these structures were not just about defence but highlight the spirit of determination shown by the children of the Second World War. It remains as important as ever today to collect and remember the first hand accounts of those who lived through one of the darkest and greatest moments in our country's history.
By David Morgan
Sources
Anderson Shelters, Anderson Shelters https://andersonshelters.org.uk/other-shelters/anderson-shelters/ [accessed 25 September 2025].
Morrison Shelters, Anderson Shelters https://andersonshelters.org.uk/other-shelters/morrison-shelters/ accessed 25 September 2025].
Bernard Martin, Unpublished Memoir of the Second World War, Bernard Martin Archive. The Blitz around Britain, Imperial War Museum, https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-blitz-around-britain [accessed 17 September 2025].
The Blitz Companion: Aerial Warfare, Civilians and the City since 1911 (2019), pp. 37–76, p. 59.
Directions for the Erection and Sinking of the Galvanised Steel Shelter, The Home Office (1939).
Interview with Gordon Davis as part of From Bombs to Bellbottoms, Holst Victorian House. Interview with Yvonne Ebdon by David Morgan, held within the Lilian Morgan Second World War Collection.
The How to Put Up Your Morrison “Table” Shelter (1941).
Interview with Doreen Law by David Morgan, held within the Lilian Morgan Second World War Collection.
The Protection of Your Home Against Air Raids, The Home Office (1938). ‘Shelter at Home in the Second World War’, The History Press, https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/shelter-at-home-in-the-second-world-war/ [accessed 17 September 2025].
Templeton, Lees W., ‘Air-Raid Shelters: A Criticism’, The British Medical Journal, 2.4160 (28 September 1940), 432.