Redhill station - Evacuation trains from Dunkirk 1940

THANK-YOU for the feature in The RM (May) about the trains used for the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk.

The lower picture (p43) showed the Up platforms at Redhill, where troop trains from Dover and other ports arrived.

I lived up the line just beyond the bridge No. 1083, shown in the background, where engines coming off the trains would assemble before going back down the main through line to the engine sheds for coaling, watering and use of the turntable.

My mother and many other ladies went to the station to hand out mainly tea, sandwiches and cigarettes.

My earliest memories are ofthis time, not just the British troops, but those from France and Belgium, who wore totally different uniforms and helmets.

Redhill was the only realistic junction in southern England that avoided London and where trains could go north, south, east or west.

Virtually all traffic came in from the Tonbridge direction, and after reversing went out on the Guildford/Reading line to the Aldershot area and numerous other points mainly in the West Country.

The number of trains handled through Redhill in the last week of May and the first week of June was:

Monday 27____7

Tuesday 28___28

Wednesday 29 .......................... 49

Thursday 30___66

Friday 31 ____78

Saturday June 1 ....................... 77

Sunday2 ____44

Monday 3____44

Tuesday 4____45

Total _____ 438

Full details, including train times into and out of Redhill, destinations and locomotives involved, can be found in Return from Dunkirk, by PeterTaplow. In addition to these trains, on June 2, eight evacuation trains for children were handled through Redhill. Shortly after this we had the Battle of Britain overhead, since Biggin Hill, Kenley and Croydon were only minutes away, and Redhill aerodrome was used as a dispersal airfield when other airfields became unavailable. Then in September the skies were filled with German planes on their way to bomb London. They often used the railway lines as 2020 navigational aids, and some flew so low you could clearly see the pilot in his cockpit.

Towards the end of the war we sometimes travelled on the train from Redhill to London. As we approached the Croydon area we passed thousands of houses that were either demolished or had their roofs blown off. Croydon was the most heavily bombed London borough.

Crawford Wright Swanmore