Figure 1.--

The Government encouraged individals to prepare for the anticipasted Luftwaffe attack. There were two principal options. We had a reinforced kitchen rather than an Andersen shelter. The other option was a Morrison Shelter. This was built before my brother and I left home. There was a criss-cross of large timbers, giving extra support to the floor above. We had a large strong table underwhich the family would snuggle down. There were two exits -- one into the back garden, and the other into a side passage. Fortunately, our house escaped serious damage, although there was blast damage, from a V1 flying bomb later in the War (1944).

Our Morrison Shelter

We didn't have an Anderson shelter in our house Wood Green, London, but my of my friends did. We had a re-enforced shelter room. Our breakfast room was at the side of the house close to the house next door. This offering some blast protection. The windows were painted with a transparent paint called eisenglass, and criss-crossed with tape, to minimise, splintering. There were four large wooden upright beams supporting a matrix of beams across the ceiling. Over the large wooden kitchen table was a protective hood of plyboard to divert any falling plaster. Our whole family could snuggle up together with bedding under the table., which was a pretty robust farmhouse style.

Placement

The shelter was ideally placed in the house. There was just one outside wall, which was protected by the house next door, about 10-15 feet away. There were two exits, one through the kitchen to the back garden, and one out into the hall and a side door.

Bomb Damage

Anti-aircraft Fire

Londoners wanted to hear the anti-aircraft firing at the Luftwaffe planes. Over London this caused problems. Apart from explosive and incendiary bombs, the main hazard was the debris from anti-aircarft fire. What went up, had to come down, so during an air-raid large lumps of shell fragments would rain down, some as big as a sauce pan. My father cvollectefd a boz-full of such fragments he found in the garden. They were frightenly sharp and jagged.