Dover town centre — cross-Channel shelling
1940-1944 · Dover, Kent
View this record on the map →- Date
- 1940-1944
- Record type
- Historic bombing area
- Bomb type
- shell
- Location
- Dover, Kent
- Position accuracy
- Rough area
What happened
From 1940 to 1944 Dover was bombarded by German long-range artillery on the French coast around Cap Gris-Nez, some 21 miles away — a form of attack unique in Britain and the origin of the town's Hellfire Corner name. Borough records count 2,226 shells landing on the town and 686 in the surrounding district, alongside 464 high-explosive bombs and three parachute mines.
Casualty note
216 civilians killed, 344 severely and 416 slightly injured in Dover across the whole war. This is a town-wide, war-long total covering both shelling and bombing, not a figure for any one impact.
Also worth knowing
Shells, not bombs. The 380mm guns at Cap Gris-Nez fired projectiles containing around 70kg of explosive. There were 3,059 air-raid alerts, and 10,056 buildings were damaged, 957 of them destroyed. Sources disagree on the date of the first shell, giving either 12 or 22 August 1940.