ARROMANCHES-LES-BAINS

21.11.2009

This town, in the Calvados department of Normandy, lies along the coast designated as Gold Beach during the D-Day landings. It was used by the British troops during the Allied invasion. Mainly a tourist town, it is known for its temporary harbor, called a “Mulberry”.

This harbor eventually came to be known as Port Winston at Arromanches and saw heavy use for 8 months—despite being designed to last only three months. In the 10 months after D-Day, it was used to land over 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tons of supplies providing much needed reinforcements in France.

The reinforced concrete caissons called “Phoenix” (seen in the distance) were brought to the Normandy coast and sunk by allowing the seawater to enter. Attached to them were floating bridges called “Whales” made from torsionally flexible bridging units that had a span of 80 ft., mounted on pontoon units of either steel or concrete called “Beetles”. After the war many of the "Whale" bridge spans from Arromanches were used to repair bombed bridges in France, Belgium and Holland.

Advertising