Mulberry harbour

A Mulberry Harbour was a type of temporary harbour developed in World War II to offload cargo on a beach during the Allied invasion of Normandy.

Related Topics:
World War II - Allied invasion of Normandy

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The actual proposer of the idea of the Mulberry Harbour is disputed, but among those who are known to have proposed something along these lines is Hugh Iorys Hughes, a Welsh civil engineer who submitted initial plans on the idea to the War Office, Professor J. D. Bernal, and Vice-Admiral John Hughes-Hallett. At a meeting following the Dieppe Raid he declared that if a port could not be captured, then one should be taken across the Channel. Although this was met with derision at the time, the concept of Mulberry Harbours began to take shape when Hughes-Hallett moved to be Naval Chief of Staff to the Overlord planners.

Related Topics:
Hugh Iorys Hughes - War Office - J. D. Bernal - John Hughes-Hallett - Dieppe Raid - Channel - Overlord

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Developed by J. D. Bernal and Brigadier Bruce White, under the orders of Sir Winston Churchill, the proposed harbours called for many huge caissons of various sorts to build breakwaters and piers and connecting structures to provide the roadways.

Related Topics:
Brigadier - Bruce White - Winston Churchill - Caissons

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The caissons were built at a number of locations around the British coast and then towed across the English Channel to the Normandy coast at only 5 mph.

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For a more complete description of the elements that comprised a Mulberry harbour see Mulberry harbour - Code names.

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By June 9, just 3 days after D-Day, two harbours codenamed Mulberry 'A' and 'B' were constructed at Omaha Beach and Arromanches, respectively. However, a large storm on June 19 destroyed the American harbour at Omaha, leaving only the British harbour which came to be known as Port Winston at Arromanches. While the harbour at Omaha was destroyed sooner than expected, Port Winston saw heavy use for 8 months—despite being designed to last only 3 months. In the 100 days after D-Day, it was used to land over 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tonnes of supplies providing much needed reinforcements in France.

Related Topics:
June 9 - Omaha Beach - Arromanches - June 19

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A complete Mulberry harbour was constructed out of 600,000 tons of concrete between 33 jetties, and had 10 miles of floating roadways to land men and vehicles on the beach. Port Winston is commonly upheld as one of the best examples of military engineering. Its remains are still visible today from the beaches at Arromanches, and a section of it remains embedded in the sand in the Thames_Estuary, accesible at low tide, about 100m off the coast of the military base at Shoeburyness

Related Topics:
Military engineering - Thames_Estuary - Shoeburyness

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