Located along the English Channel, Dover Castle is incredibly important for strategic defense. William the Conqueror turned Dover from an Anglo-Saxon fort settlement (even before that, it was a Roman lighthouse) into a medieval castle. From then on, Dover would be a constant target to foreign enemies, and a working garrison would continuously operate about the castle until the mid 20th century.
The castle was greatly strengthened during the reign of Henry II. Because Dover was right along the English Channel, it was important for Henry to make a good impression through the castle to foreign visitors, which varied from pilgrims to the king of France. People would often visit the chapel in the castle dedicated to Thomas Becket, an Archbishop that Henry accidentally murdered.
New ingenious defenses would be added to Dover Castle during the reign of King John, when rebel barons persuaded the French Prince Louis to invade England. After an unsuccessful siege, the French army came up with a plan to penetrate its defenses by burrowing through the white cliffs on which the castle sat. Although the French were eventually driven out of Dover, both the French and English armies had engineered complex tunnel systems that would expand over time for the threat of Napoleon Bonaparte (who never actually succeeded in reaching Dover), Germans in World War II, and nuclear war.
During World War II, soldiers of the Allied forces were stranded on the shores of Dunkirk, northern France, where they faced the constant threat of attack from German forces. Within the underground tunnels at Dover, British intelligence came up with a plan to help these soldiers evacuate Dunkirk and sail safely across the English Channel back to Britain. Admiral Bertram Ramsey constructed Operation Dynamo in 1940, where civilian boats would pick up soldiers from Dunkirk and ship them back to Britain, saving more than 300,000 lives.
In the course of the Cold War, Dover became the perfect place to build an underground shelter for possible nuclear attack. The British government designed rooms that will have access to electricity, water supply, and a radio system. This level underground is nicknamed “Dumpy” and it’s not usually available to public visit. Luckily these shelters were never put to the test.
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