Taking Cover

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 67, 4 October 1940, Page 5

Taking Cover

HAVE been asked what an Anderson air-raid shelter is like. Well, let us imagine you have asked for an Anderson shelter and it is being delivered. It arrives in differently shaped pieces of what at first looks like ordinary corrugated iron, but not so shiny and a good deal thicker and heavier.

for it is corrugated steel. And now father comes into the picture with his spade, and begins to excavate. First of all he must choose a suitable corner of the garden, for the entrance of the shelter has to be protected by a good solid wall of some kind within a few feet of it. (This is very important if you want your shelter to be as safe as possible). Then he makes the hole, usu-

ally deep enough for the shelter to be half underground (about three feet) when the job is finished. Then he fits the pieces together into position and you have what looks rather like a corrugated steel tent-except the roof doesn’t form an angle, but is semi-cylindrical, and the front piece doesn’t seem to fit-it has an overlap which keeps the earth from falling down from the top of the shelter and blocking up the entrance. Then comes the business of piling earth round the shelter. This must be fifteen inches deep on top and thirty inches at the sides and back. Fifteen inches and thirty inches may not sound very much, but it’s amazing how long it takes and how much earth it takes to get the shelter properly covered. Father usually calls for help long before it’s finished, and sets the rest of the family to work on it. When the shelter is quite finished, you can do all sorts of things: with it. You can grow lettuces and radishes on top-or flowers, You can train creepers over it or make it into a rockery. People did all these things on the shelter tops so that sometimes, far from disfiguring the garden and using up valuable space, they were both picturesque and useful. The insides were often made quite comfortable and attractive with little chairs and a table for cards and some people were planning to put in an oil burning stove for the winter, when they will be yery different places indeed-(Mrs. A. N. Prior, "A Shelter in Your Garden: Life in . el land To-day,’ 2YA).