Presidents, Prime Ministers and Politburos

Abstract

Three metres below ground level, underneath the Government Offices in Great George Street, off Whitehall, are the Cabinet War Rooms. In these blast-protected headquarters, the Government directed British operations during the Second World War at the times when London was under air attack. The visitor can tour the premises today and get an idea of the nature of the centre of government as it was in war-time during the 1940s. The War Cabinet met in the Cabinet Room, around tables arranged in a square. Churchill sat in a large wooden chair in front of a map of the world. Eight ministers attended these meetings, together with top military officers and officials of the Cabinet Secretariat. The same room was used for the Defence Committee — an inner group comprising only Churchill, Attlee (the Deputy Prime Minister), the Cabinet Secretary and the Chiefs of Staff. Nearby there is a room containing a display of the war situation on large wall maps, with an array of coloured telephones, some with scramblers fitted, which connected the Cabinet to government departments, the Admiralty and the War Office. Another room contains the personal radio-telephone link Churchill used to talk to the President of the United States, routed via a large, electronic scrambling device located in the basement of Selfridges. From the broadcasting room, Churchill transmitted messages to the nation. A typing pool with Remington manual typewriters kept up with the flow of paperwork, and the staff were accommodated in a number of offices, messes and bedrooms.