22nd December – Post 22 – White Cliffs of Dover

A familiar site for hundreds of thousands of passengers coming into Dover each year, the White Cliffs are symbolic, immortalised in song and home to at least two different battlefield sites.

 Inside the cliffs beneath the magnificent Dover Castle, a network of tunnels existed and were utilised to plan Operation Dynamo.  This operation planned to lift as many soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk at the end of May 1940, taking them from the clutches of the encircling German advance.  Under the leadership of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, a staggering 338,226 men aboard 861 lifted from the beaches.

 Just a month later, the skies above the white cliffs would be filled with RAF and Luftwaffe fighters battling for control of the airspace - the Battle of Britain. 

 The White Cliffs are a reminder of these dark days but remain a lovely welcome home sight, just like in 1940.