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The first tunnels under Dover Castle
were constructed in the Middle Ages to provide a protected
line of communication for the soldiers manning the northern
outworks and to allow the garrison to gather unseen
before launching a surprise attack. During the Napoleonic
Wars, this system of tunnels was greatly expanded to
fortify the Castle in readiness for a French invasion.
Seven tunnels (running with damp and prone to collapse)
were dug as barracks for the soldiers and officers who
were filling both castle and town to overflowing. These
were capable of accommodating up to 2,000 troops. They
are the only underground barracks ever built in Britain.
In May 1940, as France fell before
the German advance, the tunnels became the nerve centre
for 'Operation
Dynamo' - the evacuation of the British Expeditionary
Force (BEF) and French troops from Dunkirk's beaches.
Admiral Ramsay and
his staff worked round the clock for nine days. On 26
May some 400,000 troops were awaiting rescue on the
beaches of Dunkirk. The best estimate was that only
45,000 could be brought back. Yet, by 4 June, nearly
all were evacuated. In total, 338,000 men came back:
the BEF and 139,000 French soldiers.
In the Cold War the tunnels were further
expanded to form a Regional Centre of Government in
the event of nuclear war. With the fall of the Berlin
Wall in 1989 the need for this facility decreased and
in the early 1990s it was decommissioned and areas of
the tunnels opened to the public.
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Anti-aircraft Operations Room plotting
table.
The main military telephone exchange,
installed in 1941. Manually operated, it linked Dover
to the Admiralty, the War Office and the Air ministry,
to the fighter airfields, anti-aircraft batteries, naval
bases, coastal artillery and radar sites. |
