SIR WINSTON’S WAR ROOMS

Utilised by the prime minister and government during the Second World War, the Churchill War Rooms provide a unique insight into how Britain’s leaders led the war effort during those perilous times. Nigel Steel is part of the team that preserves and tells the history of the War Rooms. Here, he discusses their origins, how they were used during the war and how their history has been rediscovered and retold in the post-war years.

Could you describe how the War Rooms came into being?

Throughout the 1930s the British government became increasingly aware of the growing threat in the centre of Europe: Adolf Hitler consolidates power and Benito Mussolini is a lesser but noisy threat. Meanwhile the Japanese scrap naval treaties and move aggressively across China during the period. There was an increasing sense that Britain needed to prepare. Britain was the first country to undergo sustained air attack during World War I, by German aircraft and airships, and it made people aware that