One man air raid shelter found.

Discussion in 'United Kingdom' started by Smudger Jnr, Jun 2, 2009.

  1. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

  2. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist

    Nice find Tom. Isn't that a firewatcher's post?
     
  3. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    Nice one Tom

    Regards
    Peter
     
  4. James S

    James S Very Senior Member

    Goes to show you what is still out there , glad to see that it will be going to a good home.
     
  5. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

    Strange looking shelter but as has been said, glad to see its going to a good home!
     
  6. Paul Reed

    Paul Reed Ubique

    Good find there, Tom, and interesting story.
     
  7. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

  8. marcus69x

    marcus69x I love WW2 meah!!!

    Never heard of them before. I can imagine it being a scary and lonely experience being in one of them during an air raid.
     
  9. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

  10. ww2ni

    ww2ni Senior Member

    Very interesting.

    Reminded me of the 2 X one man pillbox which the Berlin Underground Group have put close to the Humboldt Flak Tower (Which is worth a visit)
     
  11. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    One man shelter IWM
    they call it a "One person shelter"
    upload_2017-6-7_15-20-4.png
    upload_2017-6-7_15-21-33.png
    upload_2017-6-7_15-22-15.png
    upload_2017-6-7_15-22-58.png
     
    Tricky Dicky likes this.
  12. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    An example of one from The Sphere, 2 September 1939:
    The Sphere 02 September 1939.png
     
    Guy Hudson likes this.
  13. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    That appears to be a machine watcher's shelter. The idea was that when everyone dived for the shelter when the sirens went some one could be left in charge of still running machinery with the idea that he/she could duck inside when the bombs actually started coming through the roof. The Germans produced rather similar items but then stopped and just used slaves as machine minders regarding them as expendable.
     
  14. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    These were found in power stations to protect shift operators and engineers.I remember seeing photographs of odd ones from wartime power stations in the south east.

    During air raids power plants never shut down but continued generating.These one man shelters afforded instant protection close to their operational duties instead of having to leave plant without control which would follow a general evacuation.
     
  15. High Wood

    High Wood Well-Known Member

    I remember seeing one of these in situ near an underground ammunition depot in Banstead, Surrey about 30 years ago. The depot was surrounded by farm land that we used to cross taking a short cut to a pub called The Mint. The depot is still there all fenced off but I am not sure about the shelter.
     
  16. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    Waterworks and gasworks similarly stayed "open all hours" and probably had similar
    arrangements. There are a great many industrial processes that cannot be stopped just for an air raid. Oil refining for example.
     
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2020
  17. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    The example of power plant is the best you can have.The mainland British power stations were tied into the British integrated electricity Grid System.Reductions in generation where generation did not cover demand would have considerable adverse effects on the ability to supply the war economy industry,military sites,commerce and domestic consumers and also run the risk of destablishing the Grid System and plant connected to the Grid during low frequency situations.

    Gas supplies and water supplies were also important to the war economy, the production of coke for the steel industry and domestic use.Many homes at the time depended on gas for cooking and lighting but it was imperative not to lose the security of the electricity Grid System.
     
    timuk and Tricky Dicky like this.
  18. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    Major chemical processing plants (particularly petrochemical) can pose a bigger problem as they cannot be shut down quickly and safety is compromised if left unattended. This could lead to major explosions and/or out gassing that would affect a wide area. When a refinery is for example shut down for planned maintenance the process can take weeks and has to be carefully planned in advance. You can't just throw a switch. When the Haifa refinery that supplied fuel to the RN in the Med was bombed in 1940 it kept running throughout the raid. However almost all the Americans working there (50% of the work force) walked out afterwards and had to be replaced with British and local staff. The loss of the refinery would have meant that the British Med fleet would have relocated via the Canal to the Indian Ocean (such a move was in a contingency plan) and all of North Africa would almost certainly have been lost to the Axis
     
  19. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member


    Despite what you are attempting to claim,the British electricity grid system was one of the features of the energy infrastructure that the country could ill afford to lose and was vital to the war economy.Interesting to note that during the Great War,the fledgling electricity generation industry had no integrated system to depend on.Serious shortfalls of electrical generation to match electricity demand on these independent systems usually resulted a blackout of their network.

    As for the cold war,each regional grid control centre hosted an emergency National Grid Control Centre which would be used during a nuclear attack....vital to restore electricity generation,transmission and the distribution networks.

    No doubt similar measures have continued to ensure that the country does not suffer from adverse electricity availability during national emergencies.
     
  20. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    You are rambling away from the original subject which is a shelter that allows the minder of single set of machinery to continue operating during an air raid. I will post something on the difference in resilience of the German and British electric power system both generation and distribution but it's irrelevant to this thread.

    Getting back to the subject the first mention of these shelters is pre war
    NAUKA I TEKHNIKA (Leningrad) 1939, July, No. 14, (660) p. 15
    Two methods of defense against air attacks were recently
    tested in England, according to a news item appearing in the
    "Colliery Guardian", in 1939 (number of issue not given).
    The first is the use of balls made of concrete placed in
    pyramids on roofs of buildings acting as a deflecting device.
    The concrete balls were approximately 40-50 centimeters in
    diameter, weighing anywhere from 57 to 94 kilograms. The
    design of the pyramid when placed on the roof followed the
    general lines of the building.’ As a control, a model five
    storey building was erected; bombs were dropped first on the
    building with the concrete pyramid. The projectiles used were
    of the same size and weight; they were hoisted to a height of
    30 meters and dropped by a special disconnecting switch. The
    experiments showed that the pyramid of concrete balls cushioned
    the shock to a considerable degree. The second experiment was
    with portable shelters of a bell-shaped type. These portable
    shelters were tested under conditions of crumbling walls, and
    the dropping of stone fend bricks. According to the authors
    most of the shelters were not seriously damaged.
     
    ARPCDHG likes this.

Share This Page