A new exhibition has opened at Dover Museum telling the story of front-line Dover during the Second World War.
The exhibition, including local memories from the museum's oral history archive, runs until 3 May. It follows the impact of the military development of the Second World War on Dover, and also the day to day lives of people in the town, living with rationing, nights in air raid shelters, evacuations and closed schools. It features many personal objects from this period, including gas masks, photographs, uniforms, air raid patrol items, information leaflets and even tins of dried egg!
In May 1940, over 200,000 of the 338,000 men evacuated from Dunkirk passed through Dover, filling the town and railway station with soldiers, sailors and airmen. Vice Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay controlled the evacuation from his headquarters in tunnels beneath the castle. Shells and bombs fell on Dover, causing 3,059 alerts and killing 216 civilians. 10,056 premises were damaged and many had to be demolished. Dover became a symbol for Britain's wartime bravery, the centre of East Kent's 'Hellfire Corner'.
For more information about the Dover At War 1939-1945 exhibition, contact Samantha Harris on 01304 201066 or email samantha.harris@dover.gov.uk.
