Deliverance Conies To Cinque Ports

Northern Advocate, 4 October 1944, Page 3

Deliverance Conies To Cinque Ports

(Rec. 11 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 3. Flags and bunting in the towns of France, Belgium and Holland are a Sign that their people are rejoicing in their liberation from four years’ Nazi domination. Today there are also towns in England celebi'ating their liberation —Dover. Folkestone, Deal, Ramsgate—for with the fall of Calais and capture of the long-range German guns they are now free after four years from shells battering their houses and streets.

In Dover, hundreds of people who slept every night in caves, can now go normally to bed without fear of being a target during the night. In four years, 2226 shells hit Dover from-'across the Channel, 219 hit Folkestone and 120 Deal. Ramsgate was shelled seven times.

All public buildings in Dover have been affected. Two schools have been demolished and all others damaged. Both hospitals have been damaged and countless houses destroyed. In addition to shells, Dover had 464 bombs, three flying-bombs, three parachute mines and hundreds of incendiaries. Dover's casualties were:—By shells: Killed, 107; seriously injured, 200; slightly injured, 221. By bombs: 109, 144, 197. Sleeping at Home Again

The most vicious bombardment began last Tuesday when 63 shells fell in five hours, including nearly 50 in one hour. When a hostel was hit, 49 people were killed. But now that is all over, and Dover celebrated by crowds dancing, singing and shouting in the streets. Flags hung from houses, shops, cinemas, tradesmens’ vans and lorries, while even prams carried the Union Jack. Hundreds of people went to church to give thanks for their deliverance. There were similar scenes in other bombarded towns.

Comments most frequently heard in Dover were: “It’s over at last,” and “What a treat to go to bed again in our own homes.”

German long-range guns on June 13 shelled Maidstone for the first and only time during the war. Seven shells between 1.30 a.m. and 3.45 a.m. fell in and around the town The people did not hear the shells whistling as they came in, first intimation being a loud crack and a vivid green flash. The number of houses damaged was remarkably small, with one fatality Maidstone is 65 miles from Calais.