Monument à la Dover Patrol
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Monument à la Dover Patrol
Cap-Blanc-Nez - 62179 ESCALLES
From the very beginning of the First World War, the Strait of Dover was a strategic prize. The German Navy and its submarines aimed to gain access to the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean to attack Allied ships. France and Great Britain created the Dover Patrol. Approximately 25,000 ships of all sizes operated from Dover and Folkestone (UK), Calais, and Boulogne-sur-Mer. Mining, mine clearance, escort, patrol, and the laying of anti-submarine nets—the Dover Patrol waged a little-known but essential battle: the German Navy was slowed in the strait and did not disrupt the maritime link between the two Allies. After the Armistice came the time for commemorations and the construction of monuments. On January 26, 1920, Marshal Foch laid the commemorative stone, and the official inauguration took place on July 20, 1922, in the presence of the Minister of the Navy, Flaminius Raiberti. An obelisk surmounts a pedestal, forming a 133-meter structure visible from afar. It is THE landmark to reach for a 360° panoramic view from the top of the cliffs of Cap Blanc-Nez. When the German army took possession of the Opal Coast in May 1940, this monument was immediately destroyed. The current Dover Patrol monument dates from the early 1960s. The last restoration was in 2007. Note that there are two other, smaller, Dover Patrol monuments in the world! Logically, there is one on the other side of the Strait, at Saint Margaret at Cliff, between Dover and Folkestone. Even more surprising, a 1931 Dover Patrol Memorial is in John Paul Jones Park…at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York!
