B
Beryl M
Guest
Churchill’s Bunker
London’s Cabinet War Rooms museum includes the Operation’s War Room and bed were Churchill slept.
It is 8 a.m. on a chilly September morning in 1940. While Londoner’s struggle to mop up after yet another overnight bombardment that reduced many homes to twisted rubble. Prime Minister Churchill is propped up in bed in his favourite green and gold dressing gown puffing on the first of the days dozen or so cigars. But this is no ordinary lie in.
Two secretaries hunched over their notebooks on either side of the bed straining to take dictation from the British leader’s famous muffled delivery. A uniformed officer rushes in with a sheaf of confidential papers for the prime minister custom built lamp table. A couple of hours later Churchill is reclining in the regular morning tub, there is string of bathroom briefings with senior military personnel.
Although sometime Londoners might have raised an eyebrow at their leader’s unusual working habits, many would have been more shocked on his location on this particular morning. A few steps from the end of Downing Street, three meters below the ground in a highly secretive facility officially known as number 1 Storey Gate. the sites anonymous postal address.
The 21 room subterranean complex – Later named Cabinet War rooms and now open to the public as a unique museum – was the Central London Evacuation point of Britain’s Senior Wartime Administration, along with an army of several hundred staff that included secretaries, Royal Marines and Churchill's own butler. But rather than being a simple bomb shelter for hiding out during air raids, the covert site was a fully functional government facility where the coordination of Britain’ s War effort could be continued uninterrupted by the ferocious bombing above.
The bunker became operational on August 7 1939 a week before the invasion of Poland and Britain’s declaration of War. When Churchill made his first visit a few months later he declared to his senior attendant ‘This is the room’ where I will diret the war" The prime minister was specifically referring to the complex cabinet room, a cramped subterranean meeting space with 40 watt light bulbs where Britain’s inner sanctum of ministers government advisers and military chiefs of staff gathered 115 times between 1939 and 1945. .
Visitors to the museum can only imagine the tense atmosphere that must have filled these rooms during the final hours of planning and preperoation for the Jun 6th 1944. Allied invasion of Normandy. . .
To keep leadsers and VIP's informed of development, the facility had some highly sensetive intellegence and communications features, the most strategeically impoirtant of which was the map room.
The room's largest map now faded yellow but still hanging by the entrance used pins and wool threads to show the routes taken by convoy's that criss -crossed the Atlantic to collect and deliver vital supplies. Ominus black dots pin point where many ships were destroyed by enemy submarines. . continued
Biblography
A Visit to Cabinet Rooms War Museum
History Chanel
'The Gathering Storm'
London’s Cabinet War Rooms museum includes the Operation’s War Room and bed were Churchill slept.
It is 8 a.m. on a chilly September morning in 1940. While Londoner’s struggle to mop up after yet another overnight bombardment that reduced many homes to twisted rubble. Prime Minister Churchill is propped up in bed in his favourite green and gold dressing gown puffing on the first of the days dozen or so cigars. But this is no ordinary lie in.
Two secretaries hunched over their notebooks on either side of the bed straining to take dictation from the British leader’s famous muffled delivery. A uniformed officer rushes in with a sheaf of confidential papers for the prime minister custom built lamp table. A couple of hours later Churchill is reclining in the regular morning tub, there is string of bathroom briefings with senior military personnel.
Although sometime Londoners might have raised an eyebrow at their leader’s unusual working habits, many would have been more shocked on his location on this particular morning. A few steps from the end of Downing Street, three meters below the ground in a highly secretive facility officially known as number 1 Storey Gate. the sites anonymous postal address.
The 21 room subterranean complex – Later named Cabinet War rooms and now open to the public as a unique museum – was the Central London Evacuation point of Britain’s Senior Wartime Administration, along with an army of several hundred staff that included secretaries, Royal Marines and Churchill's own butler. But rather than being a simple bomb shelter for hiding out during air raids, the covert site was a fully functional government facility where the coordination of Britain’ s War effort could be continued uninterrupted by the ferocious bombing above.
The bunker became operational on August 7 1939 a week before the invasion of Poland and Britain’s declaration of War. When Churchill made his first visit a few months later he declared to his senior attendant ‘This is the room’ where I will diret the war" The prime minister was specifically referring to the complex cabinet room, a cramped subterranean meeting space with 40 watt light bulbs where Britain’s inner sanctum of ministers government advisers and military chiefs of staff gathered 115 times between 1939 and 1945. .
Visitors to the museum can only imagine the tense atmosphere that must have filled these rooms during the final hours of planning and preperoation for the Jun 6th 1944. Allied invasion of Normandy. . .
To keep leadsers and VIP's informed of development, the facility had some highly sensetive intellegence and communications features, the most strategeically impoirtant of which was the map room.
The room's largest map now faded yellow but still hanging by the entrance used pins and wool threads to show the routes taken by convoy's that criss -crossed the Atlantic to collect and deliver vital supplies. Ominus black dots pin point where many ships were destroyed by enemy submarines. . continued
Biblography
A Visit to Cabinet Rooms War Museum
History Chanel
'The Gathering Storm'
