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by wickedwillie on August 11th, 2004

wickedwillie

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What was a 'Mulberry harbour'?

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Answers. 2 helpful answers below.

  • by Glenn Blaylock on September 10th, 2004

    Glenn Blaylock

    One of the keys to the success of the Normandy invasion was resupplying the troops once they were ashore. The military planners knew that by invading in Normandy that it might be sometime before they could capture and put into service one of the French port cities. So, they came up with the idea for the Mulberry harbors. These were basically piers and breakwaters that could be floated across the channel and then positioned and sunk at the Normandy beachheads to create new harbors through which they could resupply the troops. Without the Mulberries, I don't think that the Normandy invasion could have succeeded.

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  • by Kevisaurus is a Carnotaurus today on May 30th, 2008

    Kevisaurus is a Carnotaurus today

    'The Mulberry Harbour was built for D-Day in June 1944. The Mulberry Harbour’s purpose was to ease and speed up the unloading process so that Allied troops were supplied as they advanced across France after breaking out from Normandy. The success of D-Day could only be maintained if the advancing troops were supplied and more men landed. The Mulberry Harbour was one of the greatest engineering feats of World War Two.


    Remnants of the Mulberry Harbour at Gold Beach

    Support for the harbours came from on high – Winston Churchill.
    “Piers for the use on beaches: They must float up and down with the tide. The anchor problem must be mastered………let me have the best solution worked out. Don’t argue the matter. The difficulties will argue for themselves.”

    The Mulberry Harbour was actually two artificial harbours, which were towed across the English Channel and put together off the coast of Normandy. One, known as Mulberry A, was constructed at Omaha Beach and the other, known as Mulberry B (though nicknamed ‘Port Winston’), was constructed off Arromanches at Gold Beach. Put together like a vast jigsaw puzzle, when both were fully operational, they were capable of moving 7,000 tons of vehicles and goods each day.

    Each of the two artificial harbours was made up of about 6 miles of flexible steel roadways that floated on steel or concrete pontoons. The roadways were codenamed “Whales” and the pontoons “Beetles”. The ‘Whales’ ended at giant pier heads that had ‘legs’ that rested on the seabed. The whole structure was protected from the force of the sea by scuttled ships, sunken caissons and a line of floating breakwaters. The material requirements for any part of either Mulberry A or B were huge – 144,000 tons of concrete, 85,000 tons of ballast and 105,000 tons of steel.'
    Mulberry: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/mulberry_harbour.htm

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