by Socceroo » Sat Jan 21, 2006 2:13 am
The following article is from The Scotsman in February 1941, which for me is quite interesting in that it gives an insight to the Air Raid Shelter provisions in Glasgow.
The propoganda aspects of the article paint a picture that all is well with Glasgow's Air Raid provision, yet just the following month in March 1941, thousands died in the main Clydeside Blitz.
GLASGOW SHELTER
Miss Wilkinson’s Praise
THE STRUTTED CLOSES
Tributes to Glasgow’s City Engineer for the way he had tackled the problem of shelter accommodation was paid last night by Miss Ellen Wilkinson, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Home Security, when interviewed by Pressmen after her day’s tour of the city.
“I have seen a great deal in Glasgow”, she said. “I might call it a cross section of every kind of shelter, from the basement, communal domestic type, strutted closes, schools, Anderson trench, and a shelter in a Church crypt. I am told that the shelters including those in factories have provision for a million of the population and that I think is a very high proportion. Personally I think you have to congratulate your City Engineer. Not only has he done a good job but an imaginative one. He had a difficult problem to face, because of the high concentration of the population in those high tenement buildings.”
Miss Wilkinson considered that the surface brick shelter, with the reinforced arched roof was as good as anything she had seen in the country. The basement shelters seemed very good and, from what she was told, their strength was well above the specification laid down by the government.
STRONGER BUILDINGS
Referring to the strutted tenement closes, she noted that the buildings were very much stronger than those in London. The closes, however, were cold and draughty, but she learned that the City Engineer was trying to overcome that by arranging for a heavy curtain, which could be run up by the people themselves, she felt that stair windows in closes should have a covering of muslin or strong netting.
Women in the tenements told her that when an emergency arose, instead of standing in the strutted close, they usually were invited into homes of the tenants on the ground flats. The strutted close was a quick form of shelter in an area where there was no room for other types of shelter.
Commenting on a visit to tenement basement shelters she said that on the invitation of some women who hailed her at another shelter she visited the place they had arranged for a time of emergency. This basement had a stove, a cupboard with tea cups and the walls were papered quite attractively by themselves. Like the other shelters. It was well ventilated, and she was very pleased with the reception she received from the women.
DRY TRENCH SHELTERS
The trench shelters were the nightmare of all Local Authorities but those that she visited at Alexandra Park were extraordinarily dry, and she had not seen similar shelters as dry anywhere. Many of the owners of Anderson Shelters had made them very comfortable. Where the Anderson type could not be properly drained, she thought the best thing was to remove them and supply the new form of indoor shelter suitable for ground floor houses.
Miss Wilkinson was not much in favour of deep shelters, which a section of the people have been advocating.
“The deep shelter complex” she said. “Is a good way of losing the war. We don’t want our people to get the idea of a Maginot Line. If people get into deep shelters they tend to stay there, and if cities and towns were going to get showers of incendiary bombs, the able – bodied people would all be needed above the ground and not in deep shelters. London’s fire damage would not have been so heavy if the people had not been in their shelters, but now we have trained two – thirds of them to deal with the fire bombs.”
With regards to the Haldane shelter, she remarked that if areas with concrete availability used it in that way it would mean that other areas would have to go without. They could not claim that a shelter was bomb – proof unless it was 60 to 80 feet under the ground.
PROTECTION AFFORDED BY HOUSES
It had been found that the protection afforded by reasonably well – built houses was greater than had been imagined. It was amazing how people had been rescued from under stairways when the walls around had collapsed.
Miss Wilkinson denied a report that she had refused to meet a deputation when she lunched at the City Chambers.
“I saw the women parade in George Square”, she said, “ and read their placards. But I did not receive any request from a deputation. If an application were made in the proper way, by a recognised body, the arrangements would be made and they would be received.”
The incident referred to concerned about a dozen women, who marched in front of the City Chambers, carrying placards, which advocated tunnel and haldane shelters.
Sir Patrick Dollan, the Lord Provost, who accompanied Miss Wilkinson on part of her tour, said the demonstration did not represent the women of Glasgow, but were urged to make the protest by the Communist Party. He personally saw several leading Communists among the demonstrators.