Mulberry Harbors

[shep854]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3rvgK2iqwI&feature=em-uploademail

[Stuart Galbraith]

Dassault did a really good recreation of it in 3d. Wish this was available in VR...

[shep854]

WOW! Thanks, Stuart!

I didn't realize the scale of the effort; I had only seen passing references here in the States, most likely because the 'American' harbor had been so quickly wrecked by the storm.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Yes, I think the one shown here is the ultimate mulberry, which was made by merging the wrecked American and largely intact British Mulberry.

 

Its an interesting thing, I was watching a TV programme some months ago and off Devon there is still a caisson that never made it. Apparently they floated them out and parked them on the sea bed until they were needed. All of them floated off just fine, the problem came with one stubborn one that sat in soft mud and refused to be refloated after pumping out. Its still something of a local tourist attraction.

 

I imagine all the piers were sold for scrap, but id be curious to know what happened to the caissons after they were no longer used. Clearly some are still there, but I believe some were removed. There must have been relatively low salvage value in them.

[sunday]

I think we saw the Dassault animation at the museum at Utah or Arromanches.

[rmgill]

Quite a few of the pheonix breakwaters are still there.

I suspect the value of the rebar in them is low compared to the cost to get to them and demolish them. They were probably valued after the war for the fact that they provided a helpful mooring place. I wonder if folks locally thought of adding gravel to the break waters to make an artificial harbor.



https://www.google.com/maps/place/Normandy,+France/@49.3472424,-0.6358009,5145m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x47e1bd6c23f8c087:0x26f2f1561148e202!8m2!3d48.8798704!4d0.1712529

[rmgill]

RN Did some under water scanning. Apparently there is MUCH more just below the water.

https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2013/march/06/130306-d-day-harbour-3d-images

[rmgill]

I bet there are some interesting articles here:
https://www.usni.org/search?search_api_fulltext=mulberry&sort_by=search_api_relevance&sort_order=DESC

[MiloMorai]

from Wiki

 

Deployment[edit]

Wrecked pontoon causeway of one of the "Mulberry" artificial harbours, following the storm of 19–22 June 1944.

On the afternoon of 6 June 1944 (D-Day) over 400 towed component parts (weighing approximately 1.5 million tons) set sail to create the two Mulberry harbours. It included all the blockships (codenamed Corncobs) to create the outer breakwater (Gooseberries) and 146 concrete caissons (Phoenixes).

Arromanches Mulberry[edit]

At Arromanches, the first Phoenix was sunk at dawn on 9 June 1944. By 15 June a further 115 had been sunk to create a five-mile-long arc between Tracy-sur-Mer in the west to Asnelles in the east. To protect the new anchorage, the superstructures of the blockships (which remained above sea-level) and the concrete caissons were festooned with anti-aircraft guns and barrage balloons.

Omaha Mulberry[edit]

Arriving first on D-Day itself were the Bombardons followed a day later by the first blockship. The first Phoenix was sunk on 9 June and the Gooseberry was finished by 11 June. By 18 June two piers and four pier heads were working. Though this harbour was abandoned in late June (see below), the beach continued to be used for landing vehicles and stores using Landing Ship Tanks (LSTs). Using this method, the Americans were able to unload a higher tonnage of supplies than at Arromanches. Salvageable parts of the artificial port were sent to Arromanches to repair the Mulberry there

[Inhapi]

Yes, I think the one shown here is the ultimate mulberry, which was made by merging the wrecked American and largely intact British Mulberry.

 

Its an interesting thing, I was watching a TV programme some months ago and off Devon there is still a caisson that never made it. Apparently they floated them out and parked them on the sea bed until they were needed. All of them floated off just fine, the problem came with one stubborn one that sat in soft mud and refused to be refloated after pumping out. Its still something of a local tourist attraction.

 

I imagine all the piers were sold for scrap, but id be curious to know what happened to the caissons after they were no longer used. Clearly some are still there, but I believe some were removed. There must have been relatively low salvage value in them.

 

Appaerently some were donated to the Netherlands after the floodings of the 1953 disaster

[Inhapi]

Quite a few of the pheonix breakwaters are still there.

 

I suspect the value of the rebar in them is low compared to the cost to get to them and demolish them. They were probably valued after the war for the fact that they provided a helpful mooring place. I wonder if folks

 

I suspect the value of tourism outweighs any reprocessing of the materials now....

[RETAC21]

The harbors weren't built out of any economic value, so post-war they were worthless. Whatever valuable scrap was available was in the sunken ships rather than the caissons.

[Stuart Galbraith]

 

Yes, I think the one shown here is the ultimate mulberry, which was made by merging the wrecked American and largely intact British Mulberry.

 

Its an interesting thing, I was watching a TV programme some months ago and off Devon there is still a caisson that never made it. Apparently they floated them out and parked them on the sea bed until they were needed. All of them floated off just fine, the problem came with one stubborn one that sat in soft mud and refused to be refloated after pumping out. Its still something of a local tourist attraction.

 

I imagine all the piers were sold for scrap, but id be curious to know what happened to the caissons after they were no longer used. Clearly some are still there, but I believe some were removed. There must have been relatively low salvage value in them.

 

Appaerently some were donated to the Netherlands after the floodings of the 1953 disaster

 

 

Thats interesting, Id not heard that. I wonder if any of the components are still in use anywhere?

 

The Germans apparently built a prefabricated pier for sealion that, not surprisingly , was only completed in 1941. It was used for decades on Alderney till it became derelict and had to be demolished.

[erwinl]

 

 

Yes, I think the one shown here is the ultimate mulberry, which was made by merging the wrecked American and largely intact British Mulberry.

 

Its an interesting thing, I was watching a TV programme some months ago and off Devon there is still a caisson that never made it. Apparently they floated them out and parked them on the sea bed until they were needed. All of them floated off just fine, the problem came with one stubborn one that sat in soft mud and refused to be refloated after pumping out. Its still something of a local tourist attraction.

 

I imagine all the piers were sold for scrap, but id be curious to know what happened to the caissons after they were no longer used. Clearly some are still there, but I believe some were removed. There must have been relatively low salvage value in them.

 

Appaerently some were donated to the Netherlands after the floodings of the 1953 disaster

 

 

Thats interesting, Id not heard that. I wonder if any of the components are still in use anywhere?

 

The Germans apparently built a prefabricated pier for sealion that, not surprisingly , was only completed in 1941. It was used for decades on Alderney till it became derelict and had to be demolished.

 

The Dutch mullberries are still there, where they were used.

Google maps

These four closed the final breach of the dikes and are now a host to a museum of the 1953 disaster.

Edited October 22, 2019 by erwinl