Index

World War 1
World War 2
Dunkirk Evacuation
Battle of Britain
Bombing Raids
D-Day

World War 1

Britain entered the First World War in 1914 when Germany invaded the neutral state of Belgium. Much of the war was fought from trenches. There was massive loss of life.

Many troops sailed for Flanders from Folkestone. A secret port for sending supplies was constructed at Richborough. Merchant shipping was attacked by German U-boats, German submarines, so protected convoys were organised to ensure the supply of food. The Dover Patrol guarded the Straits of Dover.

Zepplin

On the home front, a zeppelin, German airship, lifted by hydrogen gas, attacking London was brought down in the Thames by anti-aircraft fire at Dartford in March 1916. A daylight raid on Folkestone in 1917 killed 71 and injured 94. Wounded men returned from the front to be nursed by the Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs), part of the Red Cross. A countywide fund was set up to help prisoners of war from Kent. After the war each village and town commemorated the many local men who had died with a war memorial.

World War 2

Kent played a pivotal role in many of the most salient offensive and defensive operations of the Second World War. At times of continental conflict, Kent is used to being on the front line.

The region played a part in some of the most decisive moments of the war, including the Dunkirk evacuation, the Battle of Britain and the preparations for D-Day. But the county also suffered greatly. Almost incessant bombing raids left their devastating mark on Kent's landscape, which for years was a place of sandbags, shelters and blackouts.

Dunkirk Evacuation (Operation Dynamo)

With the British and French armies cornered by the advancing German army near Dunkirk in 1940, Kent became the focus of the nation's attention as, between 26 May and 3 June, more than 330,000 troops were rescued from the beaches in one of the most astonishing operations of the war.

Tunnles in White Cliffs

Vice-Admiral Bertram Ramsay masterminded Operation Dynamo from a bunker deep within the Dover cliffs. All available seaworthy craft in Kent, or the 'Little Ships' as they became affectionately known, were assembled in Sheerness dockyard before making the hazardous crossing in flotillas to Dunkirk. Dover was the busiest of the berthing ports during the frantic seven days of the evacuation. Here, ships were unloaded and refuelled before returning to the French coast, while trains shuttled the arriving soldiers away from the coast.

Battle of Britain

The summer of 1940 was to be one of the most critical periods of the war. With a German invasion of southern Britain planned for September, the Luftwaffe embarked on a heavy bombardment of the county's airfields, harbours and naval bases to clear the way for invasion forces. The Battle of Britain, as it became known, was fought in the skies above Kent's orchards, fields and villages, and it was here that Hitler's invasion plans were first stalled, and then put off indefinitely.

During the period between 12 August and 15 September 1940, wave after wave of German fighters and bombers attacked targets in Kent, and the countryside became littered with the debris of fighter aircraft from both sides. Pilots based at Biggin Hill, Manston, Lympne, Hawkinge, Eastchurch, Rochester and Detling worked tirelessly to repel the might of the Luftwaffe, as did the men and women on the ground - the gunners, radar operators, WAAFs and airfield crews.

By early September, Fighter Command's resources were stretched to the limit, but after the losses inflicted on the Luftwaffe on 15 September, the fiercest day of fighting, Hitler decided to postpone the invasion 'until further notice'. In the skies of this late Kentish summer, those whom Churchill called 'the few' had delivered one of the greatest victories of the war. Churchill said of this period: 'If the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour".'

Bombing Raids

Kent's towns were bombed throughout the war and casualties on the ground were often heavy in spite of the fact that thousands of people went underground to avoid the raids.

On 1 June 1942, Canterbury suffered a particularly heavy attack as high explosives and incendiary bombs were dropped on the city for 75 minutes. Hundreds of historic buildings were destroyed and entire streets flattened or burned. Miraculously, the cathedral was spared.

Ramsgate, Folkestone and Dover were under almost constant attack, as for much of the war the Germans had effective control of the Channel, shelling the Kent coast indiscriminately. Such was the intensity of fighting around Britain's frontline coastal towns that the area became known as 'Hellfire Corner'.

In June 1944, the first of almost 1,500 flying bombs, or Doodlebugs, began to fall on the county. Kent once again found itself on the front line and the RAF, gunners and balloon handlers fought hard to limit the damage on the ground. At the end of 1944, V2 rockets were fired on the county, again with devastating consequences.

D-Day

In the build-up to D-Day, Kent became the stage for one of the most elaborate deceptions of the war, Operation Fortitude. To convince the Germans that the Allied invasion of North West Europe would start in the Pas de Calais area, a vast dummy army was assembled in the county. Roads and bridges were built, army manoeuvres held and dummy landing craft, aircraft, tanks and military vehicles created.

At midnight on 5 June, a mock invasion was launched from Dover. Balloons, reflectors and smoke were carried across the Channel by motor launches to give the impression of a huge convoy, while the real invasion, Operation Overlord, was delivering 185,000 troops to the Normandy coast. The deception played a vital part in the success of D-Day, detaining huge German divisions in the Calais area.

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