One of two artificial harbors created by the Allied forces in June 1944
to land material and troops immediately following the
D-Day
invasion of
Normandy,
France.
Logistically, the invasion of France was incredibly difficult for the
Allied forces. Not only was the crossing point relatively wide, the
Nazi occupiers had had four years to provide a "sea wall"
of defenses, including barbed wire, tank obstacles, trenches, mines,
and heavily armed pill boxes. Most heavily protected of all were the
deep harbors. The Nazis understood that for a successful invasion of
France to occur, the Allies would need harbors to move heavy
equipment, fuel, material and men.
Albert Speer's men had ensured that choice
Normandy harbors (e.g., Cherbourg and Le Havre) were heavily
fortified, as part of
The Atlantic Wall.
The Allied solution to this problem was a bit of brilliant logistics
called a "Mulberry Harbor". They created a harbor where none
existed. Hundreds of huge floating concrete caisson (known as
"phoenix") were fabricated in Great Britain and towed across
the
English Channel. Seventeen old ships were scuttled to provide
the initial breakwall, and following that, a total of 115 phoenix
elements were placed. The docks and ramps were designed to float--they
raised and lowered with the tide, so they could operate 24 hours a day.
The
English Mulberry harbor (aka "Port Winston", aka
Mulberry B) was built at Arromanches, on
Gold Beach. An
American
harbor (aka Mulberry A) was built near
Omaha Beach but was destroyed
by a storm. The harbor at Arromanches was also damaged, but was
repaired. Over ten months, Port Winston was the landing point for 2.5
million men, 500000 vehicles, and 4 million tons of supplies for the
liberation of France and Europe.
After 50 years of ocean storms, much of the material is now destroyed or scavenged. However, twenty of the phoenix blocks remain to this day.
Sources:
Musée du Débarquement, Arromanches, France
Encyclopedia Britannica