OPERATION DYNAMO

A great deal has been written about ‘Operation Dynamo’, the huge logistics exercise that took place in 1940 to rescue much of the British Expeditionary Force and its allies from the beaches of Dunkirk and at least two feature films have been made on the subject. However, much less is known about the extensive operation mounted by the Southern Railway, at very short notice, to carry those rescued troops from the ports of disembarkation to Army bases and hospitals around the country.

The General Manager of the Southern Railway during the war was Sir Eustace Missenden who had started his railway career as a junior clerk at Bishopsbourne, near Canterbury, on the Elham Valley line in 1899 at the age of fourteen, before spells at New Romney and Lydd stations prior to working his way up the ladder.

The Southern Railway operated around 580 special trains during the period from Monday 27th May to Wednesday 4th June to convey troops from Kentish ports to which they had been conveyed from Dunkirk by the Royal Navy aided by an armada of ‘small boats’ some of which were part of the Southern Railway’s shipping fleet. Of these 483 trains travelled from Kent ports via Tonbridge to Redhill where, because of the layout of the station, they had to reverse before continuing via Guildford to Aldershot or on to a wide variety of destinations beyond as far afield as locations such as Yeovil, Plymouth, Blandford Forum and Weymouth.

The train would pull into the