It's been awfully muggy and stuffy lately, hasn't it? Even rains don't really help to give your body relief in the long run. In connection with this heat, we have some very good news for you. We'll end this week by going a few meters underground, where you'll certainly find both the desired coolness and a lot of interesting artifacts. The place we're talking about is a restored and tidy air-raid shelter located in the Leszczynki district of Gdynia. Although the extensive photo set below may mostly be associated with civil defense shelters, the origins of the facility date back to the beginning of World War II, when Gdynia was located in the far rear of the Third Reich and was practically beyond the reach of Allied air forces. Over time, this began to change due to the submarine crew training centers, bases for the largest Kriegsmarine ships, a shipyard complex and other strategically important facilities located there. The first air raid came from the USSR in 1941, while the British bombed Gdynia for the first time in the summer of 1942. This year, due to the intensification of Allied air raids, turned out to be the beginning of the construction of shelters on the grounds of the German forced labor camp Deutsche Werke Kiel - Werftarbeiterlager, located in Gdynia's Leszczynki. The aforementioned shelters, which were built on the grounds of this camp, were intended only for the management staff and were placed in the utility and storage part, usually inaccessible to prisoners. The construction of these shelters was carried out by forced laborers from France, Italy and other countries conquered by Nazi Germany. Due to the rationing of cement and steel, the camp shelters had the so-called basic resistance class, which was able to protect the crew from shrapnel and blast wave blast, but in no case from a direct hit. Two such facilities that still exist today were quite cleverly camouflaged by the Germans. They were located directly under the kitchen, where meals for the garrison were prepared, and were not visible to the air force. We will only be interested in one shelter. After the end of hostilities and the establishment of the so-called people's government in Poland, the area of ​​the former camp was used in 1953 by the Technical Car Service (TOS) as a repair station for repairing trucks and buses from the entire province. In connection with such transformations, both shelters were adapted for the Civil Defense and entered into the so-called register of protective structures. The shelter in the photos below was renovated and modernized (the filter ventilation system and airtight doors were replaced) at the request of the TOS management. In the 1980s, the management of the same company operating under the name of Gdańskie Zakłady Naprawy Samochodów (GZNS) planned to expand the facility and recreate the emergency exit in the form of a staircase. Unfortunately, nothing came of it. The 90s brought the collapse of many plants and companies. This sad fate did not spare the former TOS (Gdańsk Car Repair Plants), which finally ended their existence in 1996. After the plant was liquidated, the bunker systematically fell into ruin. Scrap metal thieves and vandals did not spare anything. In addition to common theft, there were also regular fires started by the homeless people living there. For many years, the abandoned bunker was a very questionable calling card of this part of Gdynia and some of the residents requested its demolition for safety reasons. In 2007, good people became interested in the bunker in the form of young enthusiasts associated with the newly established association called Gdynia Underground Exploration Club. A year later, after completing the formalities with the Municipality of Gdynia, the club members officially took care of the shelter and put in a lot of hard work and their own financial resources so that we could see this object in the condition it is today. We wholeheartedly congratulate them on such a great effort and passionate dedication to saving this fantastic place and would like to thank them for the opportunity to immortalize it on all kinds of vision. Although today's photo report is quite extensive, we realize that photos alone are not able to fully convey the essence of this place. Therefore, we warmly invite you to Sunday's airing of the old German air raid shelter in the company of members of the Gdynia Underground Exploration Club, who will tell us in great detail about the history of this object. CHANNEL SPONSOR URBEX TEAM KWIDZYN: http://wrtransport.pl We invite you to our social media: / urbexteamkwi. . / urbexteamkw. . Remember #urbextoniewandalizm