Monday 23 March 20.54 TO 21.47 1942

It was a brilliant moonlit night. The sirens went off just before 21.00. Four JU88s were identified in silhouette, against the silver clouds. Ack-ack guns opened fire. The cacophony of sound burst upon the ear-dums as exploding bombs straddled Plum Pudding Hill. Windows and doors blew in and roof tiles cut through the night air like knives. When a JUS8 released its bombs so another followed in a shallow dive towards the town. Bombs hurtled into the Market Square, taking out the back of the Carlton Club, demolishing the East Kent Road Car Company office, the International Stores, and several other shops. Mrs Lilian Cleak, the stewardess of the club, was not released from her tomb for thirteen hours. She had remained conscious throughout her ordeal. A tunnel was made, only large enough for one person to get through.

An officer in the Buffs and a Salvation Army officer no doubt saved her life as they passed rubble back from one to the other and eventually reached her in time to find that the gradual subsidence of tons of wreckage was threatening to crush her to death. Heavy lifting gear was brought to shore-up the beams and rafters. For five hours the army officer stayed by her side and was able to give her an injection of mor­phia when the pain became unbearable. She was finally released about 10.00 the following morning. Her two children, Pauline and Ivan, were in the billiards room. They were rescued unhurt by soldiers. The club was a venue for many of Dover's leading citizens, and among those killed was Councillor William Austen, who had been deputy mayor three years before, Percy Sneller a well-known local haulage contractor, and Donald McKenzie, manager of the Co-op Bakery and Charles Banks who had been employed by the Royal Engineers. Both Austen and Sneller were Special Police War Reservists.