Warehouses have always been targets in wartime. Armies cannot fight for long without food, fuel, ammunition, spare parts and medical supplies, so attacking depots, ports, railway yards and factories has long been a way to weaken an opponent.
The image of St Paul’s Cathedral rising through the smoke of the Blitz became an enduring symbol of British survival. Yet the buildings burning around it included warehouses. On the night of 29th December 1940, the neighbouring premises of Hitchcock, Williams & Co – manufacturers, warehousemen and shippers of textiles – were destroyed. Staff sheltered in the cathedral crypt while their workplace burned only yards away.
That contrast is telling. The cathedral became the famous image, but the loss of commercial storage and distribution capacity was part of the material damage inflicted on the country. Warehouses held the clothing, food, raw materials and manufactured goods needed to keep both civilian life and the war economy functioning.
Today, the nature of the warehouse target is changing. Ukrainian drones have reportedly attacked a series of fulfilment centres operated by Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer. Ukraine claims that some facilities have been used to distribute equipment and components for Russian forces; the company and Russian authorities describe them as civilian commercial sites.
Whatever the role of individual buildings, modern e-commerce networks possess many of the capabilities military logisticians value: national coverage, rapid order processing, sophisticated inventory systems and the ability to move goods quickly to thousands of destinations. A fulfilment centre may contain electronics, batteries, tools, vehicle parts, clothing and medicines. The same systems that deliver consumer orders can potentially distribute supplies needed by the state.
The boundary between civilian and military logistics has consequently become blurred. This is uncomfortable territory: people work in these buildings, small businesses depend on them and civilian casualties are a tragic reality. Russia has also repeatedly attacked Ukrainian warehouses and logistics hubs.
For the UK, the lesson is that economic strength, industrial capacity and national resilience cannot be separated. Reindustrialisation is not only about building factories. Manufacturers need components, packaging, maintenance supplies, secure storage, reliable power, transport capacity and skilled logistics partners. Defence companies, hospitals, supermarkets and public services depend on many of the same networks.
Government and industry should therefore consider geographical concentration, alternative routes, spare capacity, cyber security and recovery arrangements across commercial logistics networks. Warehousing is not an afterthought to industrial strategy; it is the connective tissue that turns production into practical capability.
We often describe warehouses as essential infrastructure for the modern economy. From the textile stores around St Paul’s to today’s vast e-commerce fulfilment centres, history shows that this is more than a campaigning slogan. The warehouse has always mattered in war. What has changed is that today’s strategic depot may look remarkably like an ordinary online shopping hub.
Clare Bottle
UKWA, CEO
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