On May 26, 1940, Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay received the signal
to start Operation Dynamo and Kent was thrown into the front line
of the Dunkirk evacuation. The Dunkirk spirit was witnessed by Kent
Messenger reporters, read their story here in our special supplement.
Fifty ships, small and smaller, left Ramsgate to recreate a
journey they took 70 years ago. In a knod to the legendary
Dunkirk spirit hundreds gathered in torrential rain to wish them
well.
Video:
Rare archive footage of troops arriving in Kent
This amazing film was shot and edited by the Southern Railway
Film Unit at the height of the evacuation and shows battle-weary
soldiers returning to the UK and enjoying a spot of Kentish
hospitality.
Video: Secrets of
Dover's war tunnels revealed
Seventy years ago, secret tunnels
below Dover Castle became the nerve centre for one of the most
dangerous and desperate operations of the Second World War.
Audio: A boy cook's fishy
tale
Fred May was 15 and a live-aboard cook
on the Sun X when Operation Dynamo began. Despite his fellow
crew members sending him to buy fish and locking him in a toilet,
Fred outwitted everyone's attempts to stop him sailing to
France.
Audio: Her Britannic majesty
She may have been built as a pleasure boat ferrying passengers
on excursions to the Goodwin Sands and along the coast to Deal, but
little ship New Britannic from Ramsgate proved to be the
perfect craft to save stranded soldiers from the beaches of
France.
The train takes
the strain
From the moment the first soldiers of the British Expeditionary
Force arrived at quaysides across Kent, there was a desperate need
to get them away from the coast and inland to stop the ports
clogging up. That's where Southern Railways came in.
Medway's royal
rescue
The paddle steamer Medway Queen’s contribution to the evacuation
is legendary. She made seven trips across and brought back 7,000
survivors. But what about the men of Medway who braved hell
and high water to make it home to their families?