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Joe
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I've asked similar questions in the past, Meryl, but not had much luck getting answers. All I do know, well was told, is that when there's light snow on the ground the snow in the area directly above the shelter melts first showing where the shelter is.
One thing I've wondered about is how such shelters are constructed. I'd love to see photos taken while they were dug out showing, first, the big hole, & second, the roof being put on. The roof problem interests me because the shelter would necessarily be quite big, so how would it be made to support the weight of the concrete above it & still be safe 65 years later.
Thanks for asking, I'll be followng this thread with interest.
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Meg
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There were shelters on the Grammar School playing field when I went there in the 1950's.There were steps going down each end and they were quite long.These were on the "girl's side" of the field so don't know if there were any on the other side-maybe Mick(freelance) can tell us.We used to go down in them if it rained while we were outside.
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freelance
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Yes we had the shelters on the boys' side as well.
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bombtheb
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"History with its flickering lamp"
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Minor correction, but I think the log book entry should have read "air-raid ALERT", either that or it was assumed that when the sirens sounded an attack was in progress. I'm sure that I don't need to explain that there were many instances when air-raid warnings were sounded and nothing happened; conversely, there were quite a few attacks on the town when no warnings were given - that of 12 May 1943 being the worst with 32 killed.
I think Robert Jarvis has done some research into the Dell Road School shelter, but whether any plans or detailed records of construction have emerged I am unable to say. The various wartime shelters around the town is certainly a subject worthy of further research.
BC
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Joe
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It seems I followed you to the record office, Meryl! I asked Ivan Bunn about construction of air raid shelters & he told me there weren't any photos taken. Furthermore he said it was absolutely illegal to photograph them being built, something maybe to do with a fear of the photos reaching the Germans - who, it sems, built fantastic air raid shelters, he showed me pictures of some. In fact, if I'm getting this right, Ford Jenkins was the 'official' photographer of Lowestoft during WW2 & only he was allowed to take photos of war releted events.
One therefore has to hope some amateur photographers were able to take & develop photos of air raid shelters being built, & that, if they did, they weren't double agents passing their results to the enemy! Because, if they didn't, this part of recent history could very easily be lost.
Is there anyone reading this who actually watched air raid shelters being built?
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malcolm
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I must find out when the Duxford autumn air display is on.
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Forever Yellow
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Martoe
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A big air raid shelter was in WW2 built on the site which is now the multi story car park,it had differant sections all sections having double bunks and a coal bogie,latter part of the war us lads did sleep in them.
Can remember coming out of the shelter one morning hearing the thud as a engine came off of a American Bomber and landed on a bombsight which is now Ottamans Bookshop.
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Martoe
Junior Member
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I can remember a Air Raid Shelter which was built on the Battery Green opposite which was Pryces store,
latter part of WW2 we would sleep in them.
The shelter was roomy with quite a few differant sections,each section with two berth bunks and a coal bogie,I cannot remember who supplied the wood and coal for the fires.
Can remember one morning leaving the shelter a engine fell from a American Bomber landing on a bomb site
which is now Ottamans Book Shop which was only a stones throw away
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bombtheb
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"History with its flickering lamp"
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The incident referred to took place at 0730 hours on 9 November 1944 and involved a B-17G Flying Fortress from the 452nd Bombardment Group from Deopham Green, Norfolk. A flare dropped from a preceding aircraft is believed to have lodged in an engine and started the fire. The aircraft circled over Lowestoft shedding pieces (a bomb door landed in the garden of 17, Sussex Road) and the engine as described, landed in open ground opposite the Odeon on the bomb-site created by the 13 January 1942 raid.
The B-17 crashed in the sea NE of Lowestoft, and despite the fact Coastguards and the ROC reported seeing parachutes descending, rescue craft which searched the area found only the body of Lt Meyer, the pilot. The aircraft had a crew of nine.
Can you recall if the engine was complete, or had the propeller attached ? The Police report describes it as "Part of an engine"
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Martoe
Junior Member
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Could not say for sure whether the propeller was attached but thought at the time that hope no one was standing at the bus stop which was only a matter of a few feet away.
Regarding propellers dozens were brought in which the Longshore fishermen had brought up in their nets,for years they were on the south side of the Hamilton Dock,a few were taken but most were dumped when the dock was cleaned up,for a long while a engine laid there from a Sunderland.
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malcolm
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Thanks for that date Meryl i missed it when you posted so sorry about the delay. Wife s foot is improving but still curtailing our activities.
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Forever Yellow
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bombtheb
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"History with its flickering lamp"
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I suspect most of the propellers went for scrap. However, a three-bladed American Hamilton Standard propeller, with the blades fully "feathered" was removed to the Flixton Air Museum in the 1980s, along with a badly corroded Rolls Royce Merlin engine. It (the prop) was subsequently used as the centrepiece for the memorial to the men of the 446th Bombardment Group, who flew from Flixton in WW 2. When I visited the docks in 1980, accompanied by my late brother Dibs, a section of geodetic wing structure from a Wellington/Warwick, and the fuselage mounting for a top turret from either a B-17 or B-24 were lying on the dockside together with various anchors, pieces of maritime wreckage and quite a lot of tangled fishing nets which had obviously been snared on these items on the sea bed.
No doubt many of the wrecks are still out there. I have records relating to some.
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Martoe
Junior Member
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Can remember seeing a Lberater come down in the water a few miles east of Lowestoft pier heads 1944-45,Air Sea Rescue promptly set out after them not sure if there were any survivers.
All sorts of WW2 Footprints were brought in by trawlers,Mine Cradles,1-5 ammunition,propellers,aero engines,
I did see a torpedo tube,one trip a trawler brought a Depth Charge up in his trawl,it was put back over the side and it exploded doing alot of damage to the trawler,lots of differant size Cannon Balls,one trip a Phantom
aircraft was brought in,the American s were waiting on her arrival.
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Lowestofthistory
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So Many Questions..... So Little Time.....
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Whilst i cannot tell you anything specific regarding these shelters, what is on record is that during the summer of 1945 the Minister of Education allocated £3,000 locally for the demolition and sealing of school air shelters.
Nationally, many of the shelters had been well built and demolition as such consisted as little more than breaking up the entrance way and piling the materials created into the passage. Few were truely "filled in" as such...
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Meg
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I went to the Grammar school from 1950 to 1954 and the air raid shelters were still there when I left school.
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bombtheb
Senior Member
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"History with its flickering lamp"
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Martoe,
The Liberator MAY have been the 489th Bomb Group B-24 which came down in the sea at 1510 hours on 5 August 1944. The bomber had been crippled by flak over Brunswick and came down in the sea 3 miles off Lowestoft after the crew of nine all baled out. You will be pleased to learn that all the crew were safely picked up and brought ashore at Lowestoft and Yarmouth.
The Phantom that you saw the wreckage from was probably USAF F-4C Phantom 64-0824 which was involved in a mid-air collision with another 81st TFW F-4 over the north Sea approx 7 miles off Lowestoft at 1400 hours on 21 August 1972. '824 crashed in the sea and although both crew ejected, they did not survive. The other aircraft sustained severe damage to the tail unit but managed to return and land safely at base at Bentwaters.
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Sunny
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Hi all, I cant remember that we had any shelters in 1939, and we were evacuated in 1940 , and I cant remember seeing any before we left for Nottingham, but I was sent home from there to work in Lowestoft( as Iwas 15 )and had to use the shelters then to sleep, they were in stanley street, but we also had one in our backyard in raglan street, that was early in 42.They were not nice to sleep in re: condensation etc: but at least we felt safer than in the house.
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I Love Lowestoft
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bombtheb
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"History with its flickering lamp"
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Cold and damp they may well have been, but the shelters saved a HELL of a lot of lives. There was of course, nothing that would save the occupants from a direct hit from an HE bomb; there were several instances (Rotterdam Road April 1941 (9 killed) and Woolaston Road August 1941 (6 killed) were two that spring to mind) where tragedies occurred in Lowestoft. However, there are also a number of instances where the occupants of these shelters emerged to find a bomb crater right next to their Anderson and escaped serious injury. In one case (Stradbroke Road April 1941) the occupants were trapped in their shelter by a 250 kg bomb which passed underneath them at a shallow angle, churning up the earth and blocking both exits. When they were finally freed the next morning, they found they had spent the night with the bomb, which failed to detonate, buried in the garden next to their shelter !
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Sunny
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Yes you are so right there B T B they did save hundreds of lives , we had one very near miss whilst in the Stanley street shelter, my young brother was in it at the time,(we had just left)and he was blown from his bunk, but was more frightened than hurt, we dont want those days again do we. 
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johnd
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Hi Meryl
I can confirm there were shelters underneath the large playground at Lovewell road school. I can remember having air raid drills where we all had to walk slowly down into the shelters. Im sure this was in 1940 just befor i was evacuated.
Hope this will help
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Joe
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Did you watch the shelters being dug out & built, John?
If you did I'd be very interested to learn more of the stages of building that particular shelter, the Lovewell Road one.
Do you also know when it was closed up & bricked in, & if there were any re-enactments just before it was, maybe with photos. And if time capsules or anything else was hidden in it before it was bricked up.
I can't help thinking it's a shame these historical buildings are just utterly brushed aside these days. Well OK, some people like remembering them, but the War was way before my time & I'd actually like to go inside them: to see what they were like furnished & occupied, to wander about & feel for real what it must have been like.
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Sunny
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I guess JohnD that they did start to build them in 1940 at some time, I just cant remember seeing any being built before we were evacuated, I think that was in May1940, I know what you mean Joe about wanting to go in them , there are still pictures of them ,but that`s not the same is it, they did their job well though.
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Catchy
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sorry about being so late into this topic but while I am not going to argue I must say I find it hard to believe there was ever an air-raid shelter under the playground at Lovewell Road school. I was a pupil there for a while when the school re-opened after the war. Well that has always been my understanding that it was re-opening. If it was closed for the duration of the war and a shelter WAS built, was it for the surrounding populace rather than for school children.
After a while at Lovewell Road I transfered to Pakefield Primary where there definitely where two shelters - sort of mounded things. Quite frightening to a young boy and I clearly remember my teacher Mr Outlaw telling usin 1950, at the outbreak of the Korean war, that there would be another world war soon. I was pretrified that I might have to go into those smelly shelters.
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If your parents never had any children the chances are you won't either.
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Sunny
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I dont have any knowledge of the shelters being built catchy but it`s interestring reading the posts about them, and I guess Joe would know about the Lovewell road one. I see Meryl has information re: that one catchy. 
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pm1967
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I know this is slightly different,but I can remember my Grandparents having an air raid shelter in their garden in Fir lane,after the war the earth around it was removed and it became the garden "tin" shed
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Sunny
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Interesting p m 1967, I guess there are lots of tales connected with them
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CybertraxUK
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I know this is slightly different,but I can remember my Grandparents having an air raid shelter in their garden in Fir lane,after the war the earth around it was removed and it became the garden "tin" shed
Exactly the same happened with my grandparents. My grandfather dug up the air raid shelter at the end of the garden and for around 40 years it was used as a garden shed! It was only after he died in 1990 that the shed was replaced with a more modern wooden structure.
Photo attached shows a rather more youthful 'me' back in 1985 (I think) with my father, in front of the shed/air raid shelter.
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Sunny
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Nice picture Cyber, they really served their purpose didnt they.
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funkychick
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You really look like your dad now cyber I guess he was about age then or maybe younger
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snowdrop
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i had Anderson shelter in my old house used it as a shed for years,sold it for scrap iron in the end..you do indeed look like your dad
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Sunny
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Hi funky yes Cyber does look like his dad, lovely picture isnt it, looks like he means a lot to him, the way he is holding him there.
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