Off Arromanches, a Drone over the Mulberry

Here is a lovely drone video by François Monier of what is left of Mulberry B just offshore near the French village of Arromanches.

One of the reasons that the Germans were skeptical of an Allied invasion of Normandy was the lack of a nearby harbor through which to unload men and supplies. The Allies addressed the problem by building Mulberry harbors, two massive portable harbors which were fabricated in Britain in modules, towed across the Channel and then reassembled off the coast of Normandy shortly after D-Day, in 1944.  Mulberry A was assembled off Omaha Beach, while Mulberry B was installed off Gold Beach near the French village of Arromanches. During the eight months that it operated, the Mulberry off Arromanches was used to disembark two and a half million men, a half million vehicles, and four million tons of supplies.  To learn more, see our post from June 2016, The Mulberries Battle the Storm — June 19, 1944.

Au ras des caissons !

Comments

Off Arromanches, a Drone over the Mulberry — 2 Comments

  1. My friend Jim Radford was there with deep sea Tug EMPIRE LARCH towing block ships in he was just short of 15 and is today known to be the youngest D day veteran living. Jims song Normandy beaches comes from that experience which marked him for life. Jim should not have been there he was in a river tug on the Humber as a cabin boy when his skipper joined the bigger ship and asked Jim would he like to go with him for an extra 6d a day. As Jim changed ships he did not have to go through the shipping office and so got away with the fact he was not yet 16.

  2. My great-uncle, Jeremiah Bryant, was a Merchant Marine who was involved in the construction of the Mulberry Harbors. I am proud of his service!