Churchill's Bunker: The Cabinet War Rooms and the Culture of Secrecy in Wartime London

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We would never talk about what we were trained to do,” Trevor Miners, who was 16 years old when he volunteered with the Auxiliary Units in Oxfordshire, told BBC News in 2013. “One of my unit was even sent a white feather by someone who thought he was a coward for not going out to fight, but we knew different.” Their maintenance became the responsibility of the Ministry of Works. [32] In March 1948 the question of public access to the War Rooms was raised in Parliament and the Minister responsible, Charles Key MP, considered that 'it would not be practicable to throw open for inspection by the general public accommodation which forms part of an office where confidential work is carried on'. [32] Even so, a tour was organised for journalists on 17 March, with members of the press being welcomed by Lord Ismay and shown around the Rooms by their custodian, Mr. George Rance. [33] CNN Travel got a preview of the experience, ahead of a new batch of London Transport Museum’s Hidden London tours going on sale on December 3. During World War I, writes veteran British military historian Holmes, German aircraft dropped about 300 tons of bombs on Britain, causing 1,500 deaths and a good deal of terror. These sorties had no effect on the war’s outcome but great influence later, as British leaders assumed bombing would determine the outcome of the next war. In 1936 the Air Ministry estimated that raids on London in any new conflict would kill 60,000 during the first week (in fact, 80,000 Londoners died during all of World War II). Working on an assumption that “the bomber will always get through,” British leaders decided the best way to deter a potential enemy was to match his bombing capacity (a take on “mutual assured destruction” two decades before the Cold War nuclear standoff). Thus, when rearmament began, the Royal Air Force clamored for bombers. In 1937, realizing it could not afford them, it switched to defensive (and far cheaper) fighters. We now know what British intelligence didn’t—that Germany ignored the prevailing obsession with bombing. Adolf Hitler intended the Luftwaffeas tactical support for ground forces and never built a heavy-bomber fleet.

Winston Churchill broadcast these words from a secret underground command center in central London on September 11, 1940, just after Germany began bombing the city. Now known as Churchill’s War Rooms, the complex was situated beneath Whitehall and, for the next five years, would serve as the center of wartime operations. Churchill's office-bedroom, open from 27 July 1940, [24] included BBC broadcasting equipment; Churchill made four wartime broadcasts from the Cabinet War Rooms, the first being on 11 September 1940. [25] Although the office room was also fitted out as a bedroom, Churchill rarely slept underground, [26] preferring to sleep at 10 Downing Street or the No.10 Annexe, a flat in the New Public Offices directly above the Cabinet War Rooms. [27] His daughter Mary Soames often slept in the bedroom allocated to Mrs Churchill. [28] Now, the opportunity has come round again to slip behind the door of the abandoned Down Street Tube station and descend by torchlight into the World War II hideaway from which campaigns such as the D-Day landings and the Dunkirk evacuation were coordinated. Paging through Secrets of Churchill’s War Rooms, what is striking about the underground bunker is the level of improvisation that went into its creation and evolution. The decision of which maps would go into the Map Room, for example, was just made by some government worker who was told that there was going to be a war room and that it would need maps. When he asked his commanding officer what maps he should acquire, “The guy just said, 'well, your guess is as good as mine,'” says Asbury.In June 2012 the museum's entrance was redesigned by Clash Architects with consulting engineers Price & Myers. [38] Intended to act as a 'beacon' for the museum, [39] the new external design included a faceted bronze entranceway, and the interior showed the cleaned and restored Portland stone walls of the Treasury building and Clive Steps. The design was described as 'appropriately martial and bulldog-like' and as 'a fusion of architecture and sculpture'. [40] [41] Churchill Museum [ edit ] AOC Archaeology took laser scans of the bunker, producing computer models of its location in the forest.

The best niche histories teach readers new information about oft-covered events, and this World War II account of Winston Churchill’s underground headquarters is an admirable example. The second and last War Cabinet meeting took place in 1941, where a review of the Australian war effort was presented by the Australian premier Robert Menzies. Churchill was not in attendance due to a bronchial cold, so instead the meeting was chaired by Clement Atlee, the Lord Privy Seal.Most of these bunkers’ specific locations are lost to history, as the men who built them signed the Official Secrets Act, which prohibited them from talking about their assignments for decades. Imperial War Museum (2010). "History of the Cabinet War Rooms: Constructing the war Rooms". Churchill War Rooms. Archived from the original on 6 August 2010 . Retrieved 17 April 2013. With nearly two dozen history books to his credit, Holmes has no trouble delivering an opinionated, thoroughly entertaining account that follows the hyperactive Churchill, his family, servants, staff, advisors, cabinet and generals as they troop in and out of the bunker, various London command centers, country estates and world capitals while fighting World War II.

Waite, Richard (8 June 2012). "Clash opens new Churchill War Rooms entrance". Architects' Journal . Retrieved 19 June 2012.Down Street opened in 1907 and served the Piccadilly line but by 1932 it had already closed. In the heart of affluent Mayfair, a short walking distance from what are now Hyde Park Corner and Green Park tube stations, it was an underused station. In addition, it was particularly deep underground and there were long passageways taking it under the busy Piccadilly thoroughfare. The war had barely ended when nostalgia for Britain’s finest hour occasioned an avalanche of requests to visit the bunker; only a favored minority was granted informal tours. The government ultimately set aside money to restore the complex, under the auspices of the Imperial War Museum. The Cabinet War Rooms opened to the public in 1984. Its success prompted the opening of the adjoining Churchill Museum [http://cwr.iwm.org.uk] in 2005. Imperial War Museum (11 May 2010). "Churchill War Rooms – May Half-term 2010: Press Release" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 August 2010 . Retrieved 22 September 2010. A lonely playing card on the floor of Churchill undeground bunker. Find out more on underground bunkers.