Australian Army Museum of Western Australia > Records

World War 2, Europe, France, Normandy, Mulberry B Harbour, 1944

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1944

Overview

Aerial view of breakwaters and shipping at Mulberry B harbour -

Historical information

Mulberry harbours were temporary portable harbours developed by the United Kingdom during the Second World War to facilitate the rapid offloading of cargo onto beaches during the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. After the Allies successfully held beachheads following D-Day, two prefabricated harbours were taken in sections across the English Channel from UK with the invading army and assembled off Omaha Beach (Mulberry "A") and Gold Beach (Mulberry "B").
The Mulberry harbours were to be used until major French ports could be captured and brought back into use after repair of the inevitable sabotage by German defenders. The Mulberry B harbour at Gold Beach was used for 10 months after D-Day, and over 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tons of supplies were landed before it was fully decommissioned. The still only partially-completed Mulberry A harbour at Omaha Beach was damaged on 19 June by a violent storm that suddenly arrived from the north-east. After three days the storm finally abated and damage was found to be so severe that the harbour had to be abandoned.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-32-P1986.1.3q

Item type

Photographs

Themes

War and Conflict
War and Conflict > World War 2

Year

1944

Geotag

49.341875253198, -0.62012442318983

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