Ramsgate Tunnels will be sounding its air siren on Wednesday (August 24) to mark the 82nd anniversary of the World War Two Ramsgate Blitz Raid on 24th August 1940.
On that day Ramsgate suffered three air raids with 500 bombs dropped on the town, resulting in the loss of 31 lives.
It was part of a day of intense air activity over the south coast with German raiders targeting RAF airfields and ports and harbours.
During the raids Ramsgate’s gas works were devastated and Camden Square and Margate Road and Woodford Avenue areas sustained serious damage.
The mayor, Alderman A.B.C. Kempe, was standing outside the council offices overlooking the harbour when the first bombs fell and was blown down the entrance passage into the basement. Auxiliary firemen attempting to put out the resulting fires were subjected to machine gun fire from the raiders.
There were 78 houses totally destroyed and 1,200 other properties damaged in the raid. Twenty-nine civilians and two soldiers lost their lives, with a further fifty-nine injured.
The casualties would have been much greater if it had not have been for the town’s extensive air-raid shelters.
Ramsgate Tunnels will sound the air siren to match the times of those raids.
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Air raid details with many thanks to Dunkirk1940.org
