(Click this Dunkirk War Memorial text link to see the largest size)
The front panel, or plaque, depicts a battle scene showing a British Army soldier carrying a wounded comrade towards a small rowing boat below which is inscribed:
Dunkirk Veterans Association East Kent (1). This memorial was erected on the 16th August 1975, the 35th anniversary of the battle of Dunkirk. During the period May 10th to 1st June 1940 202,306 British, British Commonwealth and allied troops were evacuated to Dover. The memorial not only pays tribute to the bravery and discipline of the servicemen, but to the courage of the crews of the armada of little ships which assisted, and the people of the port of Dover who received them.
But as Richard Overy of the UK newspaper, The Telegraph, noted in A very British defeat, a review of the 2006 book, Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man (Hugh Sebag-Montefiore, 2006):
Yet the retreat (from Dunkirk) was also a humiliating defeat. The object of British and French forces was to hold back the German attack, sit in France and Belgium as they had done during the Great War, and wait until the battle of attrition took its toll on German resolve. What actually resulted was the smashing of French and British resistance in a few weeks, and Britain's expulsion from a continent she had no hope of re-entering again unaided.
The book gives the following statistics, but notes that the figures for the last four countries should be regarded as best estimates:
British: Killed and died of wounds - 11,014, Wounded - 14,074, Missing/Prisoners of War (POW) - 41,338
French: Killed - around 90,000, Wounded - around 200,000
German: Killed - 27,074, Wounded - 111,034, Missing - 18,384
Belgian: Casualties - 23,350
Dutch: Casualties - 9779
Richard Overy says of the retreat to Dunkirk:
Some British units were ordered to stand and fight with sacrificial bravery to allow their compatriots to escape.
There was no shortage of suicidal bravery. Troops at Arras were ordered to 'fight to the last man and the last round', and in many cases they did so.
"At the Going Down of the Sun" is, of course, a line from the Ode of Remembrance:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
The Ode of Remembrance is an ode taken from Laurence Binyon's poem For the Fallen, which was first published in The Times in September 1914.
The flowers among the pebbles to the right of the memorial are poppies.
A statue of Admiral Sir Bertram Home Ramsay, KCB KBE MVO (2), Royal Navy co-ordinator of the Dunkirk evacuation, stands in the grounds of Dover Castle near the edge of the White Cliffs of Dover, overlooking the harbour:
Operation Dynamo
As Vice-Admiral Dover, Ramsay was responsible for the Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo, between 26 May and the early hours of 3 June 1940. Working from the underground tunnels beneath Dover Castle, he and his staff worked for nine days straight to rescue troops trapped in France by the German forces (the "Dunkirk Little Ships").
For his success in bringing home 338,226 British and allied soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk, he was asked to personally report on the operation to the King and was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. (Wikipedia)
A lesser-known role was played by Charles Herbert Lightoller, once of 8 East Cliff, Dover, who was the second mate (second officer) on board the RMS Titanic, and the most senior officer to survive the 1912 iceberg disaster. Lightoller was decorated for gallantry as a naval officer in World War I and later, in retirement, further distinguished himself by providing and sailing the Sundowner as one of the "little ships" during the Dunkirk evacuation.
Comment
This Dover World War II British Army history photo was taken at 6.11 pm while on my evening cycle ride (3). NB I had assumed the Dunkirk memorial was a bronze, but according to New statesman, new society (Volume 9, Issues 397-409), it's made of fibre-glass.
Other Dover photos relating to Dunkirk (most are yet to be uploaded) include :
Cliff Casemates Balcony, Secret Wartime Tunnels Entrance, Dover Castle
The Admiralty Lookout and Port War Signal Station, Dover Castle
LCU Mark 10 Royal Marines/Royal Navy Landing Craft, Dover Harbour
Elsewhere in the photo:
Top left: the Southern Breakwater and West End Light (the lighthouse), behind which is a cross-channel ferry.
Top right: the Western Entrance (site of the First World War Spanish Prince blockship) and English Channel beyond; the Admiralty Pier (where the Cruise Ships berth) and Admiralty Pier Light in front of which is the Prince of Wales Pier and Prince of Wales Pier Light (see all Dover Lighthouse photos).
On the pebble-strewn beach behind the Dunkirk memorial is a meandering pathway, part of three artworks called "Lifting Wave, Resting Wave, and Lighting Wave", designed by London-based architects, Tonkin Liu, and officially opened in 2010.
Nearby:
The Tonkin Liu Artworks or Sculptures at Sunrise, Dover Seafront (NYA)
Geology
A pebble is a clast of rock with a particle size of 4 to 64 millimetres based on the Krumbein phi scale of sedimentology. Pebbles are generally considered to be larger than granules (2 to 4 millimetres diameter) and smaller than cobbles (64 to 256 millimetres diameter). A rock made predominantly of pebbles is termed a conglomerate. Pebble tools are among the earliest known man-made artifacts, dating from the Palaeolithic period of human history.
A beach composed chiefly of surface pebbles is commonly termed a shingle beach. This type of beach has armoring characteristics with respect to wave erosion, as well as ecological niches which can provide habitat for animals and plants. (Wikipedia)
Notes
(1) The Dunkirk Veterans Association "was one of the first ex-Service organisations to be formed from personnel who served in the Forces of the Crown during the Second World War; it was founded at Leeds in 1953 and registered as a War Charity, and its Central Benevolent Fund is registered with the Charity Commission."
(2) Other recent photos of Admiral Sir Bertram Home Ramsay's statue and surrounding area:
The Stone Map and Statue of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, Dover Castle (side view)
Statue of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay and The Stone Map, Dover Castle (front view)
Robsons Yard Flats
(3) Cycle route begins at Robsons Yard Flats in the Tower Hamlets area of Dover, then: Athol Terrace (Eastern Docks) - Seafront Promenade - Prince of Wales Pier (Western Docks) - Robsons Yard.
This is where I do my Evolution and Psychology research! (archive)
The main photo first appeared at:
At the Going Down of the Sun..., Dunkirk War Memorial, Dover Seafront
To be uploaded:
We Will Remember Them..., Dunkirk War Memorial, Dover Seafront (Recommended)
Other Dover Memorial images include:
Also nearby:
Dover Marina Hotel and Spa of Waterloo Crescent from the Beach at Sunrise
A Dover history photo.
Clickable thumbnails of all harbour- and marina-related photos from the main Panoramio Images of Dover website are available on this blog at Port of Dover Page (also linked to below the blog title).
The main site Panoramio photos are each accompanied by a Google Earth satellite map. However, the images are smaller than those on the Images of Dover Blog and the captions are less well formatted.
John Latter / Jorolat
Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town
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