AIRY TUNNELS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 238, 15 November 1940, Page 7

AIRY TUNNELS

RAID SHELTERS FOR THOUSANDS Ramsgate has changed its way of life more than other English towns as a result of German bombing. Women and children spend many hours a day and most of each night in shelters far underground. Beyond question.* hundreds of lives were saved at Ramsgate, which has suffered, heavily in German bombing, by the astonishing catacombs recently excavated in the chalk 011 which the town is built. There are 372 miles of these tunnels Avith 23 entrances, and they provide absolute security at a depth of 70 feet for 60,000 persons. The Mayor of Ramsgate, Mr A. B. G. Kempe, says that it is estimated that some 10,000 or 11,000 persons were in the tunnels when the Germans made their murderous raid on the town on August 14. No fewer than 250 bombs were dropped by the raiders, of which there are believed to have been about 300. The Ramsgate catacombs had a beginning in an old railway tui>nel leading to the disused harbour station. A few months before the war work of extension was begun. It has cost £00,000. The tunnels are airy and dry. They are lighted with an independent electricity supply, and contain seats that have been brought from the promenades.