54-535: Ammunition Igloo (also known as Building 88 ) was a bunker used for arms storage at Camp George West , Golden, Colorado . It was built in 1940 of stone, supported by a soil-covered concrete arch. Rubble masonry , built of basalt , was used for the parapet -equipped facade. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. This article about a property in Colorado on
108-476: A pillbox can be killed with flamethrowers . Complex, well-built and well-protected fortifications are often vulnerable to attacks on access points. If the exits to the surface can be closed off, those manning the facility can be trapped. The fortification can then be bypassed. Famous bunkers include the post-World War I Maginot Line on the French eastern border and Czechoslovak border fortifications mainly on
162-545: A British responsibility and operations were to be directed from India. General Wavell was made Viceroy of India and General Claude Auchinleck became Commander-in-Chief, India , on 20 June 1943. In August 1943 the Allies formed a new South East Asian Command to take over strategic responsibilities for the theatre. The reorganisation of the theatre command took about two months. On 4 October Winston Churchill appointed Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten supreme Allied commander of
216-561: A Japanese air attack off Malaya on 10 December 1941. Following the invasion , the government of Thailand formally allied itself with Japan on 21 December. Japan invaded Hong Kong in the Battle of Hong Kong on 8 December, culminating in surrender on 25 December. January saw the invasions of Burma and the Dutch East Indies and the capture of Manila and Kuala Lumpur . Japanese forces met stiff resistance from III Corps of
270-513: A convoy escort force as other commitments called for the more powerful ships. From May 1942, it was also used in the invasion of Madagascar — an operation aimed at thwarting any attempt by Japan to use bases on the Vichy French controlled territory. In 1942, Madras City was attacked by a Mitsubishi Rufe , (the Zero's seaplane version) operating from the carrier Ryūjō which dropped
324-453: A house is purpose-built with a bunker, the normal location is a reinforced below-ground bathroom with fiber-reinforced plastic shells. Bunkers deflect the blast wave from nearby explosions to prevent ear and internal injuries to people sheltering in the bunker. Nuclear bunkers must also cope with the underpressure that lasts for several seconds after the shock wave passes, and block radiation . A bunker's door must be at least as strong as
378-401: A house is purpose-built with a bunker, the normal location is a reinforced below-ground bathroom with large cabinets. One common design approach uses fibre-reinforced plastic shells. Compressive protection may be provided by inexpensive earth arching. The overburden is designed to shield from radiation. To prevent the shelter from floating to the surface in high groundwater, some designs have
432-400: A narrow, 1–2-metre (3.5–6.5 ft), flexible tent of thin wood is placed in a deep trench, and then covered with cloth or plastic, and then covered with 1–2 m (3.5–6.5 feet) of tamped earth. A large ground shock can move the walls of a bunker several centimeters in a few milliseconds. Bunkers designed for large ground shocks must have sprung internal buildings to protect inhabitants from
486-515: A part of a trench system. Such bunkers give the defending soldiers better protection than the open trench and also include top protection against aerial attack. They also provide shelter against the weather. Some bunkers may have partially open tops to allow weapons to be discharged with the muzzle pointing upwards (e.g., mortars and anti-aircraft weapons). Many artillery installations, especially for coastal artillery , have historically been protected by extensive bunker systems. These usually housed
540-654: A reinforced concrete shelter" is first recorded on 13 October 1939, in "A Nazi field gun hidden in a cemented 'bunker' on the Western front". All the early references to its usage in the Oxford English Dictionary are to German fortifications. However, in the Far East the term was also applied to the earth and log positions built by the Japanese, the term appearing in a 1943 instruction manual issued by
594-500: A single bomb near the St. George Fort . The physical damage was negligible, though the public response was major and the city was evacuated because of fears of subsequent Japanese bombing and invasion. Many rich families from Madras moved permanently to the hill stations in fear. Also in 1942 in preparation for a possible Japanese invasion of India, the British began improvements to
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#1732801261980648-522: A skirt held down with the overburden. It may also serve the purpose of a safe room . Large bunkers are often bought by super rich individuals in case of political instability , and usually store or access large amounts of energy for use. They are sometimes refereed to as "luxury bunkers," and their locations are often documented. Munitions storage bunkers are designed to securely store explosive ordnance and contain any internal explosions. The most common configuration for high explosives storage
702-417: Is an unusually large number of bunkers because of a law requiring protective shelters to be constructed for all new buildings since 1963, as well as a number of bunkers built as part of its National Redoubt military defense plan. Some of Switzerland's bunkers have since become tourist attractions housing hotels and museums such as Sasso San Gottardo Museum. The Soviet Union maintained huge bunkers (one of
756-497: Is the igloo shaped bunker. They are often built into a hillside in order to provide additional containment mass. A specialized version of the munitions bunker called a Gravel Gertie is designed to contain radioactive debris from an explosive accident while assembling or disassembling nuclear warheads . They are installed at all facilities in the United States and United Kingdom which do warhead assembly and disassembly,
810-657: The British Indian Army and quickly gaining wide currency. By 1947 the word was familiar enough in English that Hugh Trevor-Roper in The Last Days of Hitler was describing Hitler's underground complex near the Reich Chancellery as "Hitler's own bunker" without quotes around the word bunker. This type of bunker is a small concrete structure, partly dug into the ground, which is usually
864-547: The Cold War for weapons facilities, command and control centers, and storage facilities. Bunkers can also be used as protection from tornadoes . Trench bunkers are small concrete structures, partly dug into the ground. Many artillery installations, especially for coastal artillery , have historically been protected by extensive bunker systems. Typical industrial bunkers include mining sites, food storage areas, dumps for materials, data storage, and sometimes living quarters. When
918-852: The Commander-in-Chief, India , directed the British and British Indian Armies in India and Burma. Vice Admiral Sir Ralph Leatham , the Commander-in-Chief, East Indies, directed the Royal Navy's East Indies Station and the Royal Indian Navy . In November 1940 the Far East Command was established under Air Chief Marshal Robert Brooke-Popham based in Singapore. From 23 December 1941, Far East Command
972-1205: The East Wing of the White House serves as a secure shelter and communications center for the President of the United States in case of an emergency. 1. abmm.org : Australian Bunker And Military Museum 2. BunkerBlog : All about German fortifications 1933-1945 3. Bunkersite.com : About bunkers built by the Germans during 1933–1945 in the whole of Europe 4. German bunkers in Poland : Fortified Front Odra-Warta rivers, Boryszyn Loop South-East Asian theatre of World War II Allies [REDACTED] United States [REDACTED] Netherlands [REDACTED] Free Thai Movement [REDACTED] Việt Minh [REDACTED] Khmer Issarak Axis [REDACTED] Japan Second Sino-Japanese War Asia-Pacific Mediterranean and Middle East Other campaigns Coups The South-East Asian Theatre of World War II consisted of
1026-702: The Empire of Japan invaded French Indochina in September 1940 and rose to a new level following the Attack on Pearl Harbor , and simultaneous attacks on the Philippines , Hong Kong , Thailand , Singapore and Malaya on 7 and 8 December 1941. The main landing at Singora (now Songkhla ) on the east side of the Isthmus of Kra preceded the bombing of Pearl Harbor by several hours. Although Japan declared war on
1080-693: The Indian Army , the Australian 8th Division , and British units during the Battle of Malaya , but Japan's superiority in air power, tanks and infantry tactics drove the Allied units back. After being driven out of Malaya by the end of January 1942, Allied forces in Singapore , under the command of Lieutenant General Arthur Percival , surrendered to the Japanese on 15 February 1942; about 130,000 Allied troops became prisoners of war. The fall of Singapore
1134-639: The Kodaikanal-Munnar Road to facilitate its use as an evacuation route from Kodaikanal along the southern crest of the Palani Hills to Top Station . Existing roads then continued to Munnar and down to Cochin where British ships would be available for evacuation out of India. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands (8,293 km on 139 islands) are a group of islands situated in the Bay of Bengal at about 780 miles from Kolkata (known at
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#17328012619801188-698: The South East Asia Command (SEAC). The American General Joseph Stilwell was the first deputy supreme Allied commander. On 15 November, Auchinleck handed over responsibility for the conduct of operations against the Japanese in the theatre to Mountbatten. The initial land forces operational area for SEAC included India, Burma , British Ceylon and Malaya . Operations were also mounted in Japanese-occupied Sumatra , Thailand and French Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos). Initially SEAC commanded: In October 1944, CBI
1242-675: The 14th Army's advance from Imphal to Rangoon, the coastal amphibious assaults, and the Battle of Pegu Yomas, August 1944 to August 1945. The earliest successes were gained by mine laying and submarine warfare. The Japanese minesweeping capability was never great, and when confronted with new types of mines they did not adapt quickly. Japanese shipping was driven from the Burmese coast using this type of warfare. British submarines based in British Ceylon operated against Japanese shipping. It
1296-616: The Germans to describe permanent structures both large ( blockhouses ), and small ( pillboxes ), and bombproof shelters both above ground (as in Hochbunker ) and below ground (such as the Führerbunker ). The military sense of the word was imported into English during World War II, at first in reference to specifically German dug-outs; according to the Oxford English Dictionary , the sense of "military dug-out;
1350-549: The National Register of Historic Places is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Bunker A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. They were used extensively in World War I , World War II , and
1404-859: The Pacific theatre into three areas: the Pacific Ocean Areas (POA), under Admiral Chester Nimitz ; the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA), under MacArthur as Supreme Allied Commander South West Pacific; and the Southeast Pacific Area . McArthur took up his Supreme Commander's post on 18 April. SWPA was given responsibility for the Philippines, Java, Borneo, and all the water areas of the South China Sea . Malaya, French Indochina, and Thailand remained
1458-560: The Pacific, from Burma to the Dutch East Indies . However, advances made by the Japanese over the next month split the ABDA forces in two. On 23 February 1942, with Malaya lost and the Allied position in Java and Sumatra precarious, ABDACOM was closed down and its headquarters in Java evacuated. Wavell returned to India to resume his position as C-in-C India where his responsibilities now included
1512-679: The South West Pacific was the Southern Expeditionary Army headquartered in Saigon , Indochina . It was commanded by General Count Hisaichi Terauchi , who commanded it from 1941 to 1945. The Japanese also deployed the South Seas Force , a combined force of Army and Special Naval Landing Force personnel. The Southern Army's major field commands were the 14th Army , the 15th Army , the 16th Army and
1566-615: The United States and the British Empire , the declaration was not delivered until after the attacks began. On 8 December, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands declared war on Japan, followed by China and Australia the next day. The Allies suffered many defeats in the first half of the war. Two major British warships, HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales were sunk by
1620-706: The administration of the territory. One of the major logistical efforts of the war was "flying the Hump" over the Himalayas and the building of the Ledo Road from India to China as a replacement for the Burma Road . RAF battle honours : Qualification: For operations against Japanese aircraft and naval units by squadrons based in Ceylon during the Japanese attacks of April 1942 . Qualification: For operations during
1674-602: The area a series of strikes were flown against oil targets in Sumatra , such as Operation Meridian . USS Saratoga was lent for the first attack by the United States. The oil installations were heavily damaged by the attacks, aggravating the Japanese fuel shortages due to the American blockade. The final attack was flown as the carriers were heading for Sydney to become the British Pacific Fleet . After
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1728-452: The blast wave or a reflection cannot lift the edge. A bunker should have two doors. Door shafts may double as ventilation shafts to reduce digging. In bunkers inhabited for prolonged periods, large amounts of ventilation or air conditioning must be provided in order to prevent ill effects of heat. In bunkers designed for war-time use, manually operated ventilators must be provided because supplies of electricity or gas are unreliable. One of
1782-646: The campaigns of the Pacific War in the Philippines , Thailand , Indonesia , Indochina , Burma , India , Malaya , and Singapore between 1941 and 1945. Japan attacked British and American territories with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific on 7/8 December 1941. Action in this theatre ended when Japan announced an intent to surrender on 15 August 1945. The formal surrender of Japan ceremony took place on 2 September 1945. Conflict in this theatre began when
1836-597: The cargo of a ship". In the 19th century the word came to describe a coal store in a house, or below decks in a ship. It was also used for a sand-filled depression installed on a golf course as a hazard. In the First World War the belligerents built underground shelters, called dugouts in English , while the Germans used the term Bunker . By the Second World War the term came to be used by
1890-552: The change. It combined Commonwealth and US forces, with its headquarters at Kandy. On 1 December ALFSEA HQ moved to Barrackpore, India. On 15 August 1945 responsibility for the rest of the Dutch East Indies was transferred from the South West Pacific Area to SEAC. SEAC was disbanded on 30 November 1946. The Imperial Japanese Army Unit controlling all army land and air units in South East Asia and
1944-428: The crews serving the weapons, protected the ammunition against counter-battery fire, and in numerous examples also protected the guns themselves, though this was usually a trade-off reducing their fields of fire. Artillery bunkers are some of the largest individual pre-Cold War bunkers. The walls of the ' Batterie Todt ' gun installation in northern France were up to 3.5 metres (11 ft) thick, and an underground bunker
1998-596: The defence of Burma . Burma ( Burma Command and RAF forces there) had been included in Far East Command; reverted to direction by India; transferred to ABDA, but with India remaining responsible for administration; and then finally reverted back to command from India. Dutch resistance to the Japanese in Java ceased on 8-9 March 1942. On 30 March 1942, the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington divided
2052-550: The departure of the main battle forces the Indian Ocean was left with escort carriers and older battleships as the mainstay of its naval forces. Nevertheless, during those months important operations were launched in the recapture of Burma, including landings on Ramree and Akyab and near Rangoon. At the start of the war the British forces in the area fell under at least three separate commands. General Sir Archibald Wavell ,
2106-468: The invasion of Burma . The raid was only partially successful. It did not succeed in destroying Allied naval power in the Indian Ocean but it did force the British fleet to relocate from British Ceylon to Kilindini at Mombasa in Kenya , as their more forward fleet anchorages could not be adequately protected from Japanese attack. The fleet in the Indian Ocean was then gradually reduced to little more than
2160-563: The largest being the Pantex plant in Amarillo, Texas , which has 12 Gravel Gerties. Bunkers deflect the blast wave from nearby explosions to prevent ear and internal injuries to people sheltering in the bunker. While frame buildings collapse from as little as 21 kPa (3 psi ; 0.21 bar ) of overpressure , bunkers are regularly constructed to survive over 1,000 kPa (150 psi; 10 bar). This substantially decreases
2214-513: The likelihood that a bomb (other than a bunker buster ) can harm the structure. The basic plan is to provide a structure that is very strong in physical compression . The most common purpose-built structure is a buried, steel reinforced concrete vault or arch . Most expedient blast shelters are civil engineering structures that contain large, buried tubes or pipes such as sewage or rapid transit tunnels. Improvised purpose-built blast shelters normally use earthen arches or vaults. To form these,
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2268-511: The most efficient manual ventilator designs is the Kearny Air Pump . Ventilation openings in a bunker must be protected by blast valves . A blast valve is closed by a shock wave, but otherwise remains open. One form of expedient blast valve is worn flat rubber tire treads nailed or bolted to frames strong enough to resist the maximum overpressure. Bunkers can be destroyed with powerful explosives and bunkerbusting warheads. The crew of
2322-1003: The northern Czech border facing Germany (but to lesser extent all around), Fort Eben-Emael in Belgium, Alpine Wall on the north of Italy, World War II Führerbunker and in Italy, industrial Marnate's Bunker , the V-weapon installations in Germany ( Mittelwerk ) & France ( La Coupole , and the Blockhaus d'Éperlecques ) and the Cold War installations in the United States ( Cheyenne Mountain Complex , Site R , and The Greenbrier ), United Kingdom ( Burlington ), Sweden ( Boden Fortress ) and Canada ( Diefenbunker ). In Switzerland, there
2376-406: The secondary uses of the very deeply dug Moscow Metro and Kyiv metro systems was as nuclear shelters). A number of facilities were constructed in China, such as Beijing 's Underground City and Underground Project 131 in Hubei ; in Albania , Enver Hoxha dotted the country with hundreds of thousands of bunkers . In the United States, the Presidential Emergency Operations Center underneath
2430-402: The time as Calcutta), 740 miles from Chennai (known at the time as Madras ) and 120 miles from Cape Nargis in Burma . On 23 March 1942 a Japanese invasion force seized the islands and occupied them until the end of the war. On 29 December 1943, political control of the islands was theoretically passed to the Azad Hind government of Subhas Chandra Bose . Bose visited Port Blair to raise
2484-425: The tricolour flag of the Indian National Army . After Bose's departure the Japanese remained in effective control of the Andamans, and the sovereignty of the Arzi Hukumat-e Hind was largely fictional. The islands themselves were renamed "Shaheed" and " Swaraj ", meaning "martyr" and "self-rule" respectively. Bose placed the islands under the governorship of Lt Col. A. D. Loganathan , and had limited involvement with
2538-409: The walls and floors. Nuclear bunkers must also cope with the underpressure that lasts for several seconds after the shock wave passes, and block radiation . Usually, these features are easy to provide. The overburden ( soil ) and structure provide substantial radiation shielding, and the negative pressure is usually only 1 ⁄ 3 of the overpressure. The doors must be at least as strong as
2592-437: The walls. In bunkers inhabited for prolonged periods, large amounts of ventilation or air conditioning must be provided. Bunkers can be destroyed with powerful explosives and bunker-busting warheads . The word bunker originates as a Scots word for "bench, seat" recorded 1758, alongside shortened bunk "sleeping berth". The word possibly has a Scandinavian origin: Old Swedish bunke means "boards used to protect
2646-407: The walls. The usual design is now starting to incorporate vault doors . To reduce the weight, the door is normally constructed of steel, with a fitted steel lintel and frame. Very thick wood also serves and is more resistant to heat because it chars rather than melts. If the door is on the surface and will be exposed to the blast wave, the edge of the door is normally counter-sunk in the frame so that
2700-507: Was commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Royds Pownall . Far East Command was responsible for Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore and other British Far East possessions, and took over responsibility for Burma. It was responsible for military and air, but not naval, forces. A month after the outbreak of war with Japan on 7 December 1941, the Allied governments jointly appointed General Wavell as Supreme Allied Commander of all " American-British-Dutch-Australian " (ABDA) forces in South East Asia and
2754-608: Was constructed for the V-3 cannon . Typical industrial bunkers include mining sites, food storage areas, dumps for materials, data storage, and sometimes living quarters. They were built mainly by nations like Germany during World War II to protect important industries from aerial bombardment . Industrial bunkers are also built for control rooms of dangerous activities, such as tests of rocket engines or explosive experiments. They are also built in order to perform dangerous experiments in them or to store radioactive or explosive goods. Such bunkers also exist on non-military facilities. When
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#17328012619802808-449: Was only after the war in Europe was clearly coming to an end that large British forces were dispatched to the Indian Ocean again. Following the neutralisation of the German fleet in late 1943 and early 1944, forces from the Home Fleet were released, and the success of Operation Overlord in June meant even more craft could be sent, including precious amphibious assault shipping. During late 1944, as more British aircraft carriers came into
2862-412: Was split into US Forces China Theater (USFCT) and India-Burma Theater (USFIBT). On 12 November 1944 Eleventh Army Group was redesignated by Allied Land Forces South East Asia (ALFSEA) still under SEAC, as it was felt that an inter-Allied command was better than the purely British headquarters. Command problems with General Stilwell and his interactions with the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff had precipitated
2916-452: Was the largest surrender in British military history . The Japanese Indian Ocean raid was a naval sortie by the Fast Carrier Strike Force of the Imperial Japanese Navy from 31 March to 10 April 1942 against Allied shipping and bases in the Indian Ocean. Following the destruction of the ABDACOM forces in the battles around Java in February and March, the Japanese sortied into the Indian Ocean to destroy British seapower there and support
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