
Churchill's Subterranean WWII Bunker in London - pepys
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/inside-churchills-secret-subterranean-wwii-bunker-in-london
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joezydeco
I've taken this tour, the amount of preservation and history down there is
amazing.

One of the most interesting things was a room that was explained to everyone
as "Churchill's private bathroom". It was a small closet and the door even had
a "FREE/ENGAGED" lock on it, taken from an airplane lavatory. You wouldn't
dare enter or knock on a bathroom door that said ENGAGED, especially one
belonging to Churchill would you?

[http://www.timetravelturtle.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/04/L...](http://www.timetravelturtle.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/04/London-2014-29_web-lrg.jpg)

Behind the door was Churchill's SIGSALY terminal, a private encrypted voice
line between the UK and terminals at the US Pentagon and White House.

[http://www.timetravelturtle.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/04/L...](http://www.timetravelturtle.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/04/London-2014-30_web-lrg.jpg)

SIGSALY was the descendent of the Bell Labs "Voder", which was the first
attempt at electronically synthesized human speech.

[https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-heritage/historical-
fi...](https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-heritage/historical-figures-
publications/publications/wwii/sigsaly-start-digital.shtml)

1939 Voder Demonstration:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rAyrmm7vv0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rAyrmm7vv0)

The Voder eventually gave birth to the Vocoder and other developments beyond.

~~~
m_fam_wa_k
> You wouldn't dare enter or knock on a bathroom door that said ENGAGED,
> especially one belonging to Churchill would you?

Eh...I would. A huge part of my family was wiped out because of Churchill's
machinations leading to the Bengal famine. My grandfather was able to move
south with the sacrifice of his siblings.

Churchill's actions put him in the grey area for me.

~~~
oska
Thanks for saying that. I get tired of the constant lionisation of Churchill.

~~~
arethuza
I remember my father, who was in the RAF in WW2, pointing out that a lot of
people in the UK hated Churchill - they respected him as a war leader but
didn't want him running the country after the war as it would mean a return to
the pre-war status quo. This perhaps explains who he wasn't elected as PM in
the 1945 general election - picking a Labour government under Clement Attlee
that delivered things like the NHS.

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fitzwatermellow
Can also recommend __The Crown __on Netflix, with American actor John Lithgow
masterfully interpreting the Old British Bulldog. There 's even an entire
episode devoted to the affair of Sutherland's portrait commemorating
Churchill's 80th birthday, considered one of the art world's great lost
masterpieces:

Secret of Winston Churchill's unpopular Sutherland portrait revealed

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/winston-
churchill/11730850/S...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/winston-
churchill/11730850/Secret-of-Winston-Churchills-unpopular-Sutherland-portrait-
revealed.html)

~~~
afarrell
I second this recommendation. I think Claire has a very strong performance as
Elizabeth.

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Animats
It's a tour worth about an hour. The restoration has been done well.

There's a small electric bell near the exit marked, with wartime
understatement, "Immediate danger overhead if bell is ringing".

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jbuzbee
What I found most interesting was that it was right in the middle of London.
You'd think that his bunker would be out in the countryside far way from the
attacks of the blitz. But then again, I guess he needed to be close to the
politicians and the decision-makers. To me, it looked like after the war was
over, they all just got up and walked away...

~~~
mnutt
I was somewhat surprised at the level of secrecy around the location, given
that it was a couple hundred yards from what I would assume were actual known
targets. A stray bomb could have hit it totally by accident.

~~~
Theodores
I believe Syria's President Assad would understand why Churchill stayed put in
the capital. In the current Syria situation President Assad stays put with his
family because if he was to move then that would show he has lost confidence
in his armed forces and their ability to free the country from the
terrorists/defend the capital.

Saddam Hussein was probably in the same boat when the same neo-cons/neo-
liberals wanted regime change, Iraq was given the chance to hand him over but
he chose to stay put.

Taking flight from the capital didn't work out for Gaddafi, sometimes the
hardened bunker under the known palace is the only option. Moving is
tantamount to resigning in a game of chess.

~~~
gaius
Remember the context at the time. Rommel had led the invasion of France,
disobeying orders his armoured division had charged ahead, leaving the main
formation far behind, out of range of communications. The German high command
had no idea where he was so couldn't reinforce or resupply him (or summon him
for a court-martial I suppose). And Rommel was in trouble at this point; his
men were exhausted, his tanks were out of fuel and breaking down, spread over
miles of countryside. If the French had sent one reconnaissance aircraft they
would have realized this, and in fact could have just ignored him, he wasn't
able to go anywhere.

Instead word reached Paris that the Germans had penetrated 150 miles into
France and the French government panicked and fled, and that's how Rommel
invented blitzkreig. Churchill would have been perfectly well aware of what
happens when the government abandons its capital. The French are still
suffering from that reputation even today!

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dghf
According my father, my grandfather (a telecoms engineer) helped lay the
cabling in this complex. Somehow he became privy to some of the details of the
invasion, and late on the night of June 5 or very early in the morning of June
6 1944 took my four-year-old father up a hill to watch the airborne forces
covering the sky as they made their way to Normandy.

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kristianc
If you're ever in London: do this tour. It's wonderfully well executed, and
well worth the time.

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matwood
I've done this tour a few times and it is quite interesting. If you're at all
into history definitely check it out. It also, somewhat recently, added a new
section with more information on Churchill and his controversial rise to
power.

As others have said, it is amazing that it is in the center of the city, but
he felt he needed to be there in order to run the war effectively.

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readhn
Don't show this to Trump he might get some ideas... For something Under the
white house.

~~~
spydum
Already exists
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Emergency_Opera...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Emergency_Operations_Center)

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mafro
Can anyone tell me the projection of the map in the headline photo?

~~~
chucksmash
I'm not much of a cartographer so I'd be happy to be corrected, but it looks
like a Mercator projection that omits Antarctica to me.

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batrat
It is on Travel Channel almost every day as a short story.

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barney54
I also highly recommend touring Churchill's war rooms in London. It is very
much worth the time.

~~~
ghaff
That's what this is.

