AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Tucked in the old market quarter of Phra Pradaeng, just across the Chao Phraya from Bangkok, the หลุมหลบภัยสมัยสงคราม ("Wartime Air Raid Shelter") is a low concrete bunker from the Second World War. Built around 1941, when Thailand was drawn into what is locally called the Great East Asian War, it was one of the public shelters the government raised near strategic points to protect townspeople from Allied bombing raids.↗↗↗
It is not a polished, ticketed attraction. Today the shelter survives as a weathered relic at the head of Phet Hung Road, opposite the district office and the busy Bang Ko Bua minivan station. For anyone interested in the overlooked everyday history of the war on the home front, it is a rare, tangible reminder of how close the conflict came to Bangkok's doorstep.↗↗
A shelter from the Allied raids
When the war reached Thailand, the authorities worried that civilians living near transport and military targets were exposed to the Allied air campaigns that were hitting railway stations, bridges, airfields and depots across the country. The remedy was a network of public air raid pits and bunkers, and Phra Pradaeng—an old river and rail town on the route out to the Gulf—was judged important enough to get one. Records indicate that two shelters were raised in the compact market town (the place locals still call the "talat") around 1941, each sized to hold dozens of neighbours at a time.
