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Air raid shelters

mw0njm. said:
wonder if that is just the front of the shelter it does say 400 ft.the rest might have been coverd in soil. dont think we will ever know Viv.
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I think that must be it. I would think even the tree in the background is not 400 ft above the Lord Mayor.
 
The building of really significant and expensive structures like this in late 1938 and early 1939 reminds us of just how inevitable the imminent conflict was regarded. I think that our own, Dad-built structure in the garden at home was probably completed - or very nearly so - by this point.

I wonder how well documented the later use of the above shelter was, how often it was used and how may lives it saved. A decision within the factory as to whether to halt production and send the work-force to the shelters was a major one and, one assumes, not taken lightly. (There survives a wonderful description of how it was done during a daytime air-raid on the ICI/Kynoch factory at Witton). There was just one incident which involved significant loss of life at Longbridge and on that occasion, for one reason or another, employees were not sheltering. Despite the horrors of the Blitz it always astonishes me that Luftwaffe attempts to destroy some of these huge factory complexes were not more determined and effective.

Chris
 
hi chris that has always amazed me as well...i often wonder how the massive lucas factory at gt king st survived the bombings but so glad it did....sad to say that it has gone now

lyn
 
Bombing during WWII was far from accurate especially in 1940/41. I think in the early days of the war the RAF regarded 5 miles as a near miss. I was told at one local history seminar that I attended that there was a massive shadow factory underground at Longbridge and when it was explored before the redevelopment of the site, it was still like it was when the last shift walked out in 1946. I think it was at that seminar that someone insisted that there had not been any preparation for war prior to September 1939. Actually Neville Chamberlain knew that war was inevitable and had instigated preparations well before. We were not ready in September 1939 but we were not unprepared.
 
www.28dayslater.co.uk

Report - - Longbridge Underground Tunnels - East Works - February 2012 | Underground Sites

Longbridge Underground Tunnels - East Works About time I shared these……………probably the most interesting site I’ve ever visited to document. Again, credit to all those who have managed to gain access to any of the networks underneath Longbridge prior to this visit. Don’t know...
www.28dayslater.co.uk www.28dayslater.co.uk
www.derelictplaces.co.uk

Longbridge shadow factory..Birmingham

I have had a bit of a fascination with these places for a while.so me and man gone wrong decided to give the longbridge tunnels a little look.a few years back we stumbled on the east works tunnel entrance as we were looking for a way in the car plant.we had a quick look in.but water was high,and...
www.derelictplaces.co.uk www.derelictplaces.co.uk
 
Yes there was. I’ve seen photos of a Royal Visit to the shadow factory. They were making ‘fairy’ something or others. Must try and find the details. Viv.
 
This is a visit to the Austin shadow factory, can’t say if it was Longbridge. And it’s months before WW2 started, Viv.

321D5B47-9A50-4F3C-9E29-E6DB748192F9.jpeg
Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
mikejee said:
www.28dayslater.co.uk

Report - - Longbridge Underground Tunnels - East Works - February 2012 | Underground Sites

Longbridge Underground Tunnels - East Works About time I shared these……………probably the most interesting site I’ve ever visited to document. Again, credit to all those who have managed to gain access to any of the networks underneath Longbridge prior to this visit. Don’t know...
www.28dayslater.co.uk www.28dayslater.co.uk
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they found a old mini dumped down there with a few miles on the clock
1642947310379.png
 
Fairey Battles, Viv. A 1930s three-man light bomber, manufactured for the first year of the war and quickly superseded by more effective types. Just over 1000 were built at Cofton Hackett, a late-1930s shadow factory adjacent to the main Longbridge site.

Chris

(Image source: IWM)
Battle.jpg
 
Peter Walker said:
Between Grasmere Road and Ashwin Road in Handsworth there is a pedestrian tunnel through the railway embankment. I believe it runs parallel to (and possibly above) Hockley Brook.
I have a memory of one night only in 1940 when I was visiting my Nan at 62 Grasmere Road, being bundled overnight with all the locals in the tunnel, which had had about eight brick "blast walls" built in. These blast walls came in pairs, about five feet apart, across all but five feet of the width, so that you (and perhaps the blast of a bomb) had a slalom to get through.
At home we had an Anderson shelter in the garden, but that tunnel was a very social place, and to a seven-year-old it was quite an experience.
During the day it was fun too, because there was next to no lighting between these barriers, and you (well, I did) needed confidence to charge through these unfathomable chambers.
It was also a challenge to the ear. Kids always loved to shout and stamp their feet going through the tunnel before the blast walls were put in, and afterwards as well. But when the walls were there and I was just a titch, the sounds could be terrifying.
Peter
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I lived in Erdington through the war. I was the youngest child and had two sisters. We didn’t really understand what was happening but Fort Dunlop, Aston Chain and hook, and Rollisons Wire factories were close by so it seems we were bombed quite regularly. After tea all three of us were put to bed in the Anderson shelter because Mum said that she couldn’t carry all three of us out to the shelter when the air-raid warning sounded. The shelter didn’t have a door but the dustbin was pulled against the opening. We had two women war workers staying with us but they always stayed in bed during raids .They said that if they were going to die they would prefer to be in bed! Eventually my two sisters were evacuated but I was kept at home but one of the war-workers, Chris, arrange for all three of us to stay with her family for a time in Scotland on a farm. We went to the local school and were very happy there and well away from the bombing.
 
Astoness said:
right folks i think these are the best of the lot...the shelter which is in the car park behind the co op wylde green is very long and covered in ivy now..please excuse the fingers showing in the shots taken of the inside as it was very difficult getting the camera in the gap at the right angle..looks to be modern rubbish in there but unless the roof comes off who knows what ww2 relics could be hidden..note the corrugated sides inside the shelter..fascinating it of history..if anyone wants to post these photos on any other internet site as always i have no objection at all but i would ask that you credit the birmingham history forum...thanks

lyn

pic 1 the length of the shelter overgrown roof with ivy
pics 2.3 and 4 entrance bricked up
pic 5 is the end of the shelter with some concrete broken off this is where the camera went in
pics 6.7 and 8 the inside of the shelter



.View attachment 155329View attachment 155330View attachment 155331View attachment 155332View attachment 155333View attachment 155334View attachment 155335View attachment 155336
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Hi. I used to live on Harman Road (1978-1990) and this shelter was one of my favorite places to go in my childhood. Thanks for the memory trip. :grinning:
 
Yes Pete they were dangerously sharp. I remember ours - dismantled but still sitting in our garden in the 1950s. One panel was used to cordon off half of our garden. Not sure why, but that didn’t deter us from climbing over it. Often ended up with cuts from the sharp edges. Viv.
 
I’ve given this some thought about the panels we had in our garden. I have a feeling they were never assembled. They didn’t look like they’d been dug/sunken into the ground and I certainly don’t remember one assembled. They weren’t shiny just very rusted. They’d been stacked together against the coal shed and it was only when they were moved that I took any notice. My dad bought the house after the War so the previous owners must have taken delivery of them and not assembled the parts. So where did they go for protection ? Under the stairs? Maybe they preferred the public shelters - there were many in Kingstanding. Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
I’ve given this some thought about the panels we had in our garden. I have a feeling they were never assembled. They didn’t look like they’d been dug/sunken into the ground and I certainly don’t remember one assembled. They weren’t shiny just very rusted. They’d been stacked together against the coal shed and it was only when they were moved that I took any notice. My dad bought the house after the War so the previous owners must have taken delivery of them and not assembled the parts. So where did they go for protection ? Under the stairs? Maybe they preferred the public shelters - there were many in Kingstanding. Viv.
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There were some people who thought they were safer in the house. My grandfather was one. They had a bomb hit their back garden in Hermitage Road and blow the next-door neighbour garden shed to bits. There were bits of the shed all over the roofs of the terraced houses and it left a significant crater in the garden. The soil was four feet high up the back door.

My grandfather did not even bother getting out of bed. My dad said he just said **** Hitler and **** the Germans, rolled over and went back to sleep.
 
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