Telephone Exchange

Dover Castle in Kent is a place that I had visited many years ago, but never knew until my trip back to England in June that there was a whole section that I had never seen. I had heard of the wartime tunnels built into the White Cliffs of Dover, but never knew that you could go for a tour inside of them. The tour takes you around the main areas of the tunnels showing you the barracks, kitchen, hospital, operating theatre, planning room, generator and radio room and the room pictured above the telephone exchange. The tunnels are about 4 miles in length and were constructed during the Napoleonic War as an underground barracks 50 feet below the cliff top. During that war they housed more than 2000 men. The tunnels were eventually abandoned  for over 100 years until they were converted in WWII to an air raid shelter, before becoming a naval headquarters. Admiral Ramsey directed Operation Dynamo (the evacuation of Dunkirk) from here. Rumour has it that Admiral Ramsey and Prime Minister Churchill met to discuss this operation in secret in the generator room where no one else could hear them, hence the name Operation Dynamo. We were not allowed to take photographs on the tour so this was the only one I could sneak when the tour guide was not looking.