Normandy
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Arromanches-les-Bains, Normandy
Arromanches is an historic D-Day location. The Mulberry harbour artificial port was installed here, and it allowed the disembarkation of 9,000 tons of materiel per day.
The Allies established this temporary harbour to allow the unloading of heavy equipment without waiting for the conquest of deep water ports such as Le Havre or Cherbourg. Although at the centre of the British Gold Beach landing zone, Arromanches was spared the brunt of the fighting on D-Day, so the installation and operation of the port could proceed as quickly as possible without damaging the beach and destroying surrounding lines of communication. The port was commissioned on 14 June 1944.
This location was one of two sites chosen to establish the necessary port facilities to unload quantities of supplies and troops needed for the invasion. The other was built further West at Omaha Beach. The British built floating concrete caissons which, after being towed from England, had to be assembled to form walls and piers which defined the artificial port called Mulberry harbour. The pontoons were linked to the land by floating roadways. Today, sections of the Mulberry harbour remain, with huge concrete blocks sitting on the sand. More can be seen further out at sea.
Some key figures: by 12 June 1944 more than 300,000 men, 54,000 vehicles, 104,000 tons of supplies had been landed. During the 100 days of operation of the port, 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tons of material were landed. The best performance of the port was in the last week of July 1944: during those seven days the traffic through Arromanches exceeded 136,000 tons or 20,000 tons per day.
