BOMBED, shelled and devastated, Kent emerged war-weary but proud as the jubilation of VE Day replaced more than five years of suffering and horror.

Kent had been the nation’s front-line county.

Kent and its people were perpetually at the sharp end of every major action of the Second World War in Europe. Since the very start of the war, Dover, Folkestone and Ramsgate were under almost constant attack.

On June 1, 1942, Canterbury suffered a devastating air raid and hundreds of historic buildings were destroyed. But it was in early summer of 1940 that our county got its first taste of real war.

Vessels like our own Medway Queen, now being restored, were part of the huge armada of little ships which valiantly rescued 338,226 exhausted British and French troops from Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo. The fleet of little ships assembled at Sheerness before beginning the perilous voyage to Dunkirk.

On June 4, 1940, the evacuation was complete. Crowds waving Union Jacks and shouting "Well done, boys" were waiting on the shore at Dover and other south coast ports as the exhausted men were put aboard trains for barracks or home.

Scores of ships were lost or badly damaged as they waited to load up their precious cargoes along the beaches of Dunkirk. Seven French destroyers alone were sunk. Many men were left behind to meet their fate.

Dynamo had been masterminded by Vice-Admiral Bertram Ramsay from a bunker deep under the white cliffs of Dover and for seven days, the port was the centre of what was one of the most astonishing operations of the war.

Three months later, Kent was in the front line once again as the Luftwaffe began its onslaught.

The attacks began on August 18. The Battle of Britain had begun.

Throughout the summer of 1940, Luftwaffe squadrons, flying mainly from bases in northern France, attacked airfields dotted across Kent, including Manston, Hawkinge, Eastchurch, Rochester and Detling.

The RAF was losing more pilots than it could replace and German bombers were pounding our airfields to almost total destruction.

During these two nail-biting months, more than 450 British fighters were destroyed, 103 RAF pilots were killed and 128 were wounded.

On September 15, the fiercest day of the fighting, the Luftwaffe suffered heavy losses. Hitler decided to postpone the invasion and sent his bomber fleets to attack London.

The nation’s darkest hour had passed.