Building for War: From Shadow Factories to Cold War Bunkers

Britain was unprepared at the start of the Second World War for what it was to endure. Bombed mercilessly during the Blitz and under threat of invasion, all sorts of defenses sprang up around the coasts and along ‘stop lines’ such as canals and rivers. But Britain was also building to supply its armed forces with equipment and men and by 1943 for the invasion of Europe once more. From pillboxes and shadow factories to airfields and military installations, Mulberry harbors and pipe lines the needs of war changed from the defensive to the offensive.

Bob Clarke tells the story of Britain’s building for war, something which continued after 1945, and indeed until the late 1980s, as the Communist scourge behind the iron Curtain threatened peace and nuclear oblivion. The postwar story is one of bunkers, cruise missile bases and observation posts.

Using archive images and a lifetime spent studying Britain’s Cold War heritage, Bob Clarke shows how Britain prepared for war, and the logistics of building everything needed to keep Britain at the forefront of both the Second World War and the Cold War. He shows us what still survives today and how otherwise innocuous buildings were built or converted for wartime use.