I'm Benjamin Richard Sheen
Member of the Royal Corps of Signals
I served for six and a half years
two and a half years in Dover where I was 20 years old
I was posted to Dover November of 1939
And later on I went to Normandy and landed on Juno Beach
Not on D-Day, thank goodness, though shortly after.
There was a small detachment in Dover Castle
We worked in the gun control room there 70 feet below the castle
When the Germans first took over France and
the northern coast they actually had an easy run through. Consequently our army
400,000 men were trapped in Dunkirk, the problem was there was only a small
jetty. They were able to get some of the men but obviously being the large ships
they couldn't get into the beach. Operation Dynamo was I think one of
the main epics of the war and I think it was certainly a turning point
I happened to be with a couple of the chaps walking along the front of Dover and it was a very quiet peaceful sort of evening
The sea was like a mill pond and we could literally hear the battle going on
You could hear the explosions, you could hear the shells being fired
We were saying, oh, things are getting pretty close. Well then the few days after
I could hear quite a lot of noise, then I got up to look out of the window
it was almost like magic. The whole harbour was full of little ships
and they were manned by elderly men, boys,
but at least they were able to get on to the beaches in Dunkirk and transport
the soldiers on to the larger ships, quite astonishing really.
Of course all the time they were getting dive-bombed by these Junker 87s
In the gun control room we were very busy.
Our job was to make sure that we were keeping a good look out for
any enemy aircraft which were approaching, the numbers of aircraft
the height, direction and so forth ready to engage.
We went down to help the soldiers off the ships, Churchill wanted to get them away as soon as possible
so they were off the ships, straight on the trains and away as they were afraid that
you know as the Germans didn't get them in Dunkirk they'd get them in Dover
or Folkestone or somewhere like that. They reckon 1 out of 4
was left behind, but in all they rescued 388,000 soldiers
without that army that was saved
You know we were virtually devoid of any sort of defence.
Vice Admiral Ramsay was a major person who brought back all the soldiers really.
And then of course the Battle of Britain started,
and it was like a war zone there then. I mean, you wouldn't believe it
but it was like a film. Especially when these Junker 87s
used to come and dive bomb the harbour and there was a submarine base which they were
after and they literally use to go past our window, and being
right on the edge of the cliff you know, it wasn't too healthy. The RAF started putting
up barrage balloons and then the Germans use to have a lot of fun.
The fighters would come over and start shooting all the balloons down. On this particular evening,
there was one balloon left, there was one saucy devil who came
shooting along to shoot it down. So everything in the harbour
let loose you know everybody was having a go at it. Anyway, shot the balloon down,
and then he made out that he'd been hit, and he got to sea level,
flattened out, shot back across to France, and
I bet they had a good old laugh when they got over there you know, these German airmen.
And if it hadn't been for Operation Dynamo, you know,
I think we would be in a different situation than we are today, and can you imagine that you know?
I can't imagine that.