Green’s Dictionary of Slang

basher n.2

also bash
[milit. jargon basha, a shelter made of bamboo and attap (a type of palm frond used for thatching), which was common in Southeast Asia. More recently it has been found among the homeless denizens of London’s cardboard city n. or the protesters at the women’s camp at Greenham Common, Berkshire]

a makeshift shelter.

Show quotations
[J.F. Wall in Union Pacific Bulletin Dec. n.p.: If it would not inconvenience you too much, I and the other boys in our basha (a bamboo hut) would very much like to have you send us your special map of the U.S.A.].
[[US]D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 7 July A7: Into the clearing where the villages sat / The two fell in port, into that basha flat].
[[UK](con. WWII) B. Aldiss Soldier Erect 74: Our mess was just a big native basha, a rattan-screen affair with a roof attached with palm-leaves].
[UK]N. Griffiths Grits 273: Did ee fuck live inner bash upper fuckin tree fer six months or fight the bailiffs, ever even sabotage a fuckin bulldozer.
[Ire]J.-P. Jordan Joys of War 57: I had a hammock and a basher, a rain sheet to go over where I was sleeping.