Possible air-raid shelter

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Sat 06 Feb, 2010 8:05 pm

PS A 500kg bomb dropped from 15000' isn't going to bounce off 3" of concrete and be deflected into the shop! Too true. The simple WW2 air raid shelters mainly protected people from shrapnel. They could also protect from the blast of a near miss , building collapse, flying glass etc. A major source of shrapnel, of course, was our own anti aircraft guns - the fragments from every shell fired had to come down somewhere (unless they got stuck in a jerry and flown back to Germany!). Thats an awful lot of metal shards falling to earth apart from the bombs.

Si · Post by Si » Sun 07 Feb, 2010 10:31 am

blackprince wrote: Too true. The simple WW2 air raid shelters mainly protected people from shrapnel. They could also protect from the blast of a near miss , building collapse, flying glass etc. A major source of shrapnel, of course, was our own anti aircraft guns - the fragments from every shell fired had to come down somewhere (unless they got stuck in a jerry and flown back to Germany!). Thats an awful lot of metal shards falling to earth apart from the bombs. Kids used to collect the shrapnel from the streets the morning after. There are stories of air-raid shelter occupants all being found dead, yet otherwise completely untouched. This was caused by a nearby exploding bomb's concussion. Not nice.

BIG N · Post by **BIG N** » Mon 08 Feb, 2010 11:21 pm

Might be well wide of the mark here but do you think the steep slope sheet facing the shop was a simple add on later because they got sick of kids etc gathering there and climbing on it all the time, kinda early chav control ??Just a thought.

Brandy · Post by **Brandy** » Tue 09 Feb, 2010 12:24 am

BIG N wrote: Might be well wide of the mark here but do you think the steep slope sheet facing the shop was a simple add on later because they got sick of kids etc gathering there and climbing on it all the time, kinda early chav control ??Just a thought. Could be mate,if you look at the picit looks as though they have already had to cement broken glass into the roof for some reason??

BIG N · Post by **BIG N** » Tue 09 Feb, 2010 1:17 am

Exactly Brandy - plus, if you study it, the steep slope brickwork appears newer than the rest and I would bet my last quid that the "roof" of that part is timber as opposed to concrete.

sirjohn · Post by **sirjohn** » Tue 09 Feb, 2010 1:30 am

it is a sainsbury's cash machine now.

Si · Post by Si » Tue 09 Feb, 2010 12:02 pm

Brandy wrote: BIG N wrote: Might be well wide of the mark here but do you think the steep slope sheet facing the shop was a simple add on later because they got sick of kids etc gathering there and climbing on it all the time, kinda early chav control ??Just a thought. Could be mate,if you look at the picit looks as though they have already had to cement broken glass into the roof for some reason?? I'm not sure, Big N. I think the broken glass set in concrete is a big enough "early chav" deterent, without the expense of extra bricklaying. Maybe it was to stop German paratroopers from landing on it. "They don't like it up 'em, Mr Mainwaring!!!"