Still, there was opulence here, after a fashion. “Bunkers and shelters were off-rations during the war,” says Holloway. A much higher class of food was to be enjoyed here than by civilians above ground. The REC was the same company behind Britain’s many grand railway hotels, and the staff here were able to dine on crystal dining ware and wash at Royal Doulton sinks. 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 Luftwaffe as tactical support for ground forces and never built a heavy-bomber fleet.

Within a month, crews had cleared, reinforced, soundproofed and installed communications in several of what became the Cabinet War Rooms. By the war’s outbreak, dozens of rooms were functional, fitted with air conditioning, independent water and lighting, medical facilities and sleeping quarters. The Office of Works considered the arrangements temporary, and the budget for expansion was tight. Inhabitants paid the price. The rooms were chilly, damp and poorly ventilated. In an era when almost everyone smoked, tobacco fumes mingled with cooking odors and smells from the primitive toilets. On 26 September 1940, the rooms survived a near-miss when a bomb hit the Clive Steps almost directly above them, which prompted the authorities to construct a huge concrete slab to protect the cabinet room itself. Although at least 140 bombs had fallen on that area of Whitehall by the following February, the rooms escaped serious damage. Betty Green, a secretary working there at the time, reminisced: "I used to spend every other night sleeping in the office ... sometimes I was there for about three nights running because I just couldn't get home, so in some ways I was fortunate that one could get a good night's sleep because you didn't hear the bombs raining down, which is just as well, because we'd have all been buried alive in the Cabinet War Rooms." The origins of the Cabinet War Rooms lie in the growing realisation by the war planners of the 1930s that aerial bombardment would play a vital role in any future conflict. The civilian casualties suffered during the Spanish Civil War from the ravages of German and Italian bombers convinced British governments of the necessity of protecting the population of London. If the high command was also to be protected, a bunker deep underground needed to be constructed as soon as possible.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. Kennedy, Maev (9 April 2003) The Guardian Restored underground apartments opened to public. Accessed 28 July 2009. Accommodation in the bunker was reserved for high-ranking officials and their secretaries, whilst the bunker staff and military personnel would be billeted in local schools or nearby flats. 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.

When war was declared in 1939, Down Street was converted in a matter of days into the new headquarters of the Railway Executive Committee. The REC acted as an intermediary between the War Office and Britain’s rail companies and would be crucial to the movement of troops, horses and equipment in the fight ahead.

Historian and guide Siddy Holloway meets us at ground level, where the distinctive Leslie Green oxblood-tiled arches of the facade are still the same as at the many other famous Edwardian Tube stations he designed, including Covent Garden and Russell Square. 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. Rose, Steve (1 June 2012). "Constructive criticism: the week in architecture". The Guardian . Retrieved 19 June 2012. A celebrated military historian, Holmes is the author of the best-selling and widely acclaimed Tommy and Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket. His dozen other books include Dusty Warriors, Sahib, The Western Front, The Little Field Marshal: Sir John French, The Road to Sedan, Firing Line, The Second World War in Photographs and Fatal Avenue: A Traveller’s History of Northern France and Flanders (also published by Pimlico). a b Hansard 6 December 1978; 'War Room, Storey’s Gate HC Deb 6 December 1978 vol 959 cc681-2W' Hansard 1803-2005. Accessed 18 March 2009.

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] a b c Finch, Cressida (Summer 2009). "A short history of the Cabinet War Rooms 1945-1984" (PDF). Despatches: The Magazine of the Friends of the Imperial War Museum. London: Imperial War Museum: 18–22 . Retrieved 25 April 2012. [ permanent dead link] 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 war cabinet met in the bunker 115 times during the course of the war, discussing everything from Dunkirk to the Battle of Britain to Stalingrad. The staff kept the bunker operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until August 16, 1945, two days after Japan publically announced its unconditional surrender. Only then did the lights in the Map Room Annex—where all of the intelligence came in to Churchill’s military advisers—turn off for the first time in six years. This is Ray’s recollection of that afternoon – as related in the letter by his wife Dorothy: “Churchill greeted Ray cordially, calling him by his first name… They talked about the similarity in their last names… about the United States… and particularly about old British coins and stamps. Ray mentioned he collected [them] and Churchill was very interested. Churchill offered Ray a cigar to smoke. Ray said he’d smoke it later, so Churchill gave him another one to smoke later. Ray was offered a drink of brandy, but refused because he was on duty. Churchill then continued to drink his brandy that was on a table beside his chair.

Getting to Churchill’s Secret Bunker

Two other notable rooms include the Transatlantic Telephone Room and Churchill's office-bedroom. From 1943, a SIGSALY code-scrambling encrypted telephone was installed in the basement of Selfridges, Oxford Street connected to a similar terminal in the Pentagon building. [22] This enabled Churchill to speak securely with American President Roosevelt in Washington, with the first conference taking place on 15 July 1943. [22] Later extensions were installed to both 10 Downing Street and the specially constructed Transatlantic Telephone Room within the Cabinet War Rooms. [23] However, after seven years of disuse, explains Holloway, “All of the things that made it not viable as a station made it absolutely perfect for secret bunkers during the Second World War.” But while anyone can tour the War Rooms for themselves today, what they can’t do is go behind the glass to see the artifacts in the detail that Asbury shares in his book. Ralph Wedgwood, chairman of the Down Street facility and brother of the British member of parliament Josiah Wedgwood, convinced Churchill to come to Down Street “because it’s so close to the seat of power,” says Holloway. It’s very comfortable, It’s very private, it’s very well provisioned with brandy and cigars and things like that.” Asbury, Jonathan (2019). Churchill War Rooms Guidebook (6thed.). London: IWM Publishing. p.7. ISBN 978-1-904897-55-2.

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] Rooms 60 Right and 60A were used as a telephone switchboard and a typing pool respectively. Due to the rudimentary nature of photocopying equipment available at the time, up to 11 typists were stationed in the typing pool at any one time, typing out copies of meeting minutes by hand. [30] Abandonment and preservation [ edit ]I don’t think you can say he was personally responsible for [the War Rooms] being created. Other people were thinking along the same lines, but he lead the pressure … to make sure it happened,” says Asbury. Researchers from Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) unearthed one of these long-overlooked bunkers while conducting tree felling operations last month, according to a press release. While the better known Churchill War Rooms, a British government command center throughout the war, is open to the public as part of the Imperial War Museum, tours of Down Street are a much more infrequent delight. If the Nazis had invaded Great Britain during World War II, they would have faced an uprising of scallywags—specifically, the Auxiliary Units also known as Winston Churchill’s “ secret army.” These elite fighters, chosen for their knowledge of the surrounding landscape, were among the United Kingdom’s last line of defense. Tasked with sabotaging enemy invaders, the men were trained to hide out in underground bunkers, lying in wait as the Nazis drove past before emerging to wreak havoc behind German lines. It took two more years, after the Nazis had taken over Czechoslovakia and annexed Austria, for the idea of an emergency headquarters to be approved. Finally, in May, 1938, construction began in earnest to create a safe space to house the heads of the military; the structure became fully operational on August 27, 1939, one week before Britain and France declared war on Germany. Within the next year, Baldwin’s successor, Neville Chamberlain, resigned as prime minister, and Churchill found himself suddenly at the seat of British power. When he walked through his War Rooms for the first time as prime minister in 1940, the country was bracing itself for total war, and the Battle of Britain was just weeks away.