Mulberry Harbour, Gold Beach, Arromanches, Normandy

Did these while I was on holiday recently. A lot of you will know about Arromanches (and if you don't you'll be seeing a lot of it on TV next week what with the 65th anniversary of D-Day and all) which was at the heart of Gold Beach - pub quiz fans among you should know the names of the others -and the main point of disembarkation for British troops on 6th June 1944. The D-Day museum is there of course, but most interestingly from an exploration point of view is the large chunks of the original Mulberry Harbour, which were built to land troops and equipment, are just washed up on the beach, with more still visible out at sea, as you can see in the first pictures below




There are two main bits of the harbour that have been washed up on the beach. The one on the right as you stand on the beach is actually several small sections, some of which you can walk around inside, as long as you don't mind the smell (obviously lots of rotting sea material inside them) and getting your feet wet. Pictures of this one below:








The other bit of harbour is on the left as you look at the sea. This is altogether bigger and much harder to get into, with what entrances there are being seven or 8 foot off the ground and it being much further out. No really decent pictures of this one I'm afraid but it was a nice day, so there were some nice distance shots to be had.



I found the whole thing very affecting, just thinking about what it might have been like to go ashore in 1944 not really having any idea what was about to happen. As we drove through the fields away from Arromanches I thought long and hard about what it must have been like to be an 18 year old infantryman in Normandy. The plaque outside the museum puts it quite well when it calls Arromanches "The key to the Liberation of Europe"


There is quite a lot of military hardware around the beach that has been polished up and preserved. My kids like this 23 pounder American field gun


If you get the chance to go to Normandy, this is a must do explore
Enjoy
GDZ

Very interesting indeedy,these sites are always evocative when you stop and try to imagine what happened there.

Well done for getting up some piccies of these -gives us a glimpse of the collossal engineering effort, as well as the pure determination and courage to keep Britain from invasion and to repel the Axis of Evil from Europe.

great pictures I took walk around here a few years ago but it was absolutely awful weather and visibility was next to nothing, you had the complete opposite wetherwise. thanks for sharing.

Very well structured report, an some very nice pics bro. This place looks so fimilliar to me, is it on the south coast if so im sure i was there a couple of summers ago.

Is my memory playing me false or isn't there a part of the Mulberry left in Portland harbour?

yes there are 2 sections of mullberry haroour still left about 100 yards from castle town beach these are not accessable from the land but with a small dingy you can reach them, but if you land on the the port authorites are normally moving you off of them very quickly

You were done out of a couple of pounds there - it's a 25 pounder, not 23.
I'd go back and complain !

Its also a British field gun not American.
Looks like a Mk2.

I'm heading to Ver Sur Mer at the other end of the British beaches. Will be there for the 6th and will be taking part in a 21 gun salute at Trungy. Fireing 25 pounders

The third last shot, is that one of the troop carriers? I'd have found the place overwhelming given the historical significance of the place. I like the fact that there are visible remains like this to serve as a way of making sure these things stay in the memory .

Nice one.

I visited this place two years ago with my family. I will never forget it. I remember leaving with a tear in my eye - I guess the whole "meaning" of the place was too much for me!

I had attempted to see inside one of the concrete harbour parts and a coastguard bollocked me in French for trying!

There is a wrecked one at Reighton Sands although not in such good condition.

Blimey, I've learned several new things today, and this is one of them...never heard of it before!
Very interesting and emotive. Lovely photos, GDZ.
Thanks for sharing this.

Thanks for all your comments everyone. Realised the mistake about the field gun after I had posted - I had the details of the one which is on the opposite side of the road!(There's so much hardware thats just on open display i didn't get a chance to write it all down!) Don't know if the bigger part on the beach was designed as a troop carrier or not. Hope those of you who are in Normandy next week taking part in the ceremonies carry with you the good wishes of all DP-ers for what I'm sure will be a tremendous occasion.
GDZ

I will be carrying the good wishes and respect of all who are grateful for what the veterans did.

It will be a great privelidge for us to fire a salute to those veterans!

ref Mullberry sections

Hi, I understand these were fabricated in the South coast & floated over.
There are several sections that were left between Portsmouth harbour & hayling Island.
They can be seen best from theWest end of Hayling Island, Ideally whilst sat at the Ferryboat inn...

Grand stuff mate.have been there quite a few times and along the Normandy coast from the Pegasus Bridge / Merville Battery end to the St Mere Eglis / Cherbourg end......awesome history.....................
As far as I am concerned ............
If anyone is unmoved or indifferent to these places ????........then they don't really deserve to be enjoying the privilage of life that was bought there for them and all future generations at such a terrible cost.......
Fu ll respect due to all of those who were there.....
PS: These remains are a collection of the bits of both 'Mulberries'.............the other one was on Omaha Beach....Both Mulberries were badly damaged in a huge storm that blew up around June 12th / 15th (?) 1944.....the Omaha one was so wrecked that the descision was made to dismantle what could be saved of it and use it to rebuild the also badly damaged one at Arromanche........
ALSO>>> If someone is in the Portsmouth area????..........please find out what has happened to the gate posts into the old Pounds Shipbreaking yard under the flyover (its been done on here a few times over the years)........WHY ???
Cos the gate posts into the yard were made out of some very recognisable bits of the steel structure parts from the Mulberries...Pounds did a lot of the clearance work on the D Day beaches after the war and they cleared up a lot of the floating harbours......Some of the other steel bridge sections are preserved around the Omaha / Arromanche areas........One bit is out the back of the Arromanche Museum....there's a few bits joinded together on display at the western end of Omaha Beach and there is a great big pile in a farmyard along the road towards Carentan that is slowly dis-appearing under brambles.............

Great shots, There is a Mulberry in Langstone Harbour Hayling Island. Never had presents of mind to take any photo's when I was down their years ago.

I went there a few years back - actually I arrived there pretty much by accident in that I wasn't looking for the Normandy landing beaches.

The scale of the harbour is pretty impressive and it still sort of works in that it creates a calm area of water within the outer break waters.

The museum is worth a look, but don't miss the audio visual display up on the headland. It's a 360 degree film show (well, video actually) which just has to be seen.

There's lots of things to explore in the area; German gun emplacements and such, as well as the fields of crosses of the American cemeteries.

Nice pictures.

Derek

Thanks Smiffy for such a detailed lot of info. Needless to say a lot of people have been talking about it this weekend.Thanks for everyones comments - this one was just a bit of luck tho' - right place right time I guess!