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Seventy years on from the Dunkirk evacuation, English Heritage is holding a week of events and activities (28 May - 4 June) at Dover Castle – the nerve-centre of the rescue operation – to mark one of the most dangerous and desperate operations of the Second World War.

Operation Dynamo

The underground hospital at Dover Castle On 26 May 1940, in a cramped labyrinth of secret tunnels deep below Dover Castle, Vice Admiral Bertram Home Ramsay and his naval staff worked around the clock to plan and implement the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force and allied troops trapped at Dunkirk and under fierce attack by the German armed forces. Over the next nine days, the destroyers, corvettes and minesweepers of the Royal Navy, together with a host of requisitioned merchant vessels and pleasure ships, lifted some 338,000 stranded soldiers from the harbour of Dunkirk and the long sandy beaches to the north. They were helped by a host of tiny craft – fishing boats, cabin cruisers and the like – the 'little ships' that had sailed from England to help in the rescue. 

Directed from the Secret Wartime Tunnels at Dover Castle, this operation, code-named 'Dynamo', was not far short of a miracle. It was to prove a vital event in the Second World War, triggering a response of public sympathy for the rescued battle-weary troops and a national resolve to pull together in the face of the enemy. The 'Dunkirk Spirit' was born.

Dunkirk Anniversary

Today, Vice Admiral Ramsay's modest underground headquarters still evoke the tension and drama of those crucial days 70 years ago.  Toured by thousands of visitors each year, the tunnels are the focus of activities being staged by English Heritage at Dover Castle during the anniversary week from 28 May until 4 June, which will celebrate the bravery and heroism of the thousands involved in the rescue and commemorate those who lost their lives.

The highlight of the week is a three-day event over the May Bank Holiday weekend (10am – 5pm, Saturday 29 – Bank Holiday Monday 31 May), when the castle will be occupied by military and civilian wartime personnel as they re-create the tension and frenzy of activity experienced by those directly involved in directing Operation Dynamo in May 1940.

Naval personnel will keep watch from Admiralty Lookout with binoculars trained on the harbour below, despatch riders roar off with vital messages, a mobile tea canteen provides tea and 'wads' for returning servicemen and gun crews sandbag their positions.   

Children will be making individually named paper replicas of each of the 700 'little ships' to go on display in Ramsay's casemate from June 4, marking the final day of Operation Dynamo.  Each replica – from 'Abdy Beauclerk' to 'Windsong' – will be a poignant tribute by today's young generation to the crews who bravely set sail for Dunkirk at great risk to themselves to rescue the troops. 

On Friday June 4, a special memorial service attended by veterans – including those who were among the 700 service men and women who worked in the tunnels during the war – members of Ramsay's family, and representatives of forces' associations in regimental colours, will be held in the castle's St Mary-in-Castro Church, before a parade to Admiralty Lookout.  A wreath-laying ceremony will take place at the statue of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, which stands high above the Channel facing France. The castle's guns will be fired in tribute to those who worked selflessly during the rescue.