Relics of War - The Artificial Ports of World War II

The key to victory at D-Day in 1944 was to get troops ashore, consolidate the beaches and begin the push to Paris before the Germans could mount a successful counter-attack. To move the vast amount of troops and supplies, you need a deep water port. Unloading at sea to smaller vessels that can drop off supplies at a beach is simply not possible.

The Germans knew this, and it was at the heart of their defensive plan. They had to defend thousands of miles of coastland from Norway to Spain, but in reality, there were only a few places that the allies can land. A deep water port with suitable landing beaches nearby. Because for the allies to be successful, they had to get ashore and seize a port to open the way for follow-on troops. Without a port, the initial troops could easily be overwhelmed by German reinforcements.

That's one reason why the Germans dismissed Normandy as a landing point. The first reason was that it was much more difficult than Calais - the closest French port to England. But a second compelling reason against a landing in Normandy was the availability of ports. The closest port was Cherbourg, a good distance away to the Northwest. The Germans felt certain that in the event of an allied landing at Normandy, they could isolate the beaches before Cherbourg fell, and if it did, they could dynamite the port facilities (which they eventually did).

Certainly, the idea of constructing an artificial port occurred to them. But Normandy is almost not even in the English Channel. It's practically the Atlantic Ocean, which means big, thunderous waves and storms which would easily wreck a flimsy temporary port.

The Allied Solution was Mulberry - not just an artificial port, but an artificial bay. So, working in secret in England, they constructed massive floating concrete blocks (yes, concrete that can float!). These were hollowed out and affixed with rudders, so they could be steered like ships. Two-hundred feet long, they were built to match the precise depth of the water, so that when sunk, they would rest on the bottom, jutting out of the water just enough to accomplish their mission. Once completed in England, they were quietly sunk in the estuary of the River Thames, where they would be invisible to German aircraft flying overhead, and easily re-floated by pumping them full of water.

Shortly after the D-Day landings, Mulberry went into operation. There were two ports planned. The concrete blocks were re-floated, and along with the steel components for the artificial port itself, they were slowly, carefully towed across the English channel.

One port was planned at the French coastal town of Arromanches, situated on a narrow flatland between two large hills. Located between the American Omaha Beach and the British Gold Beach, it was secured a few days after D-Day. Below is a picture of Arromanches today, which I took on my visit in late March:

As you can see, many of the massive concrete pilings are still there. Linked together in a continuous chain, and supplemented by the deliberate sinking of old freighters, they formed the breakwater which turned this turbulent beach into a relatively calm and easily navigable bay. As you can see, the line of concrete blocks stretched out from the coast on either side of the town, going more than a mile out to sea, forming a protective bubble. In the next photo, you can see some of the blocks further out from the coast.

Within this bubble, the remarkable port was built. Named Port Winston after the British Prime Minister, it consisted of additional concrete blocks linked with massive steel piers sunk well off of the coast, in deep water that even the largest freighters could navigate. These piers were then linked to land by two long bridges consisting of steel sections of road (see below) that would sit atop large, anchored floats that would litterally allow the bridge to bend, but not break, with the gentle (thanks to the breakwaters) sea.

Looking at this bridge section, you can easily imagine how the floats would have been attached where the concrete piers are today.

When it was completed, the two spans of roadway allowed for continuous flow of traffic - one direction with cargo-laden trucks heading to the beaches and another for the empty trucks to return and pick up a new load of supplies.

It was all organized with typical American assembly-line efficiency, and the ultimate effect was a flood of supplies that secured our invasion beachhead and allowed for the quick breakout which devastated the German Army. Along with a massive underwater pipeline that pumped fuel for our trucks, tanks and airplanes directly underneath the English Channel, these logistical innovations made possible the fastest-moving military offensive in world history. And time was crucial. Hitler, realizing France was lost, gave orders to his commanders to blow up the entire city of Paris. But the advancing Allied armies were too fast, and their quick advance to the city (and the traitorous action of a German officer who delayed the laying of explosives until it was too late) saved the French capitol from destruction.

Ultimately, a massive storm smashed one of the two Mulberry ports, but by then, the issue was virtually decided. They gave the Allies a crucial window in which to build up supplies. Before long, the harbor of Cherbourg was cleared and additional harbors were seized. The Mulberry ports had done their job, and faded into history.

Their remains to this day are a testament to the genius and determination of allied engineers, and the ultimate truth that strategy wins battles, but logistics wins wars. They were possible because the free world, when united and determined, can come up with innovative, out-of-the-box solutions that can match and beat the best that fascism and tyranny can come up with. They were an important part of the greatest effort of the greatest generation: the crucial battle that won the war and liberated millions, and to this day remains the greatest moment in American history. I'll speak more about that moment, that crucial day, next time.

Relics of War - Marston Mats

World War II was a war of inventions, more so than any other in history. Some changed the world, like the jet engine, the helicopter, the portable telephone, canned beer and the atomic bomb. Some were more obscure and though they revolutionized our world, most people have never heard about them.

In war, roads and airfields are at a premium. You can't always expect them to be where you need them to be, and often have to make your own. In the Civil War, soldiers cut down trees and layed down the logs to make "corduroy roads." In World War I, trenches and mud dominated the landscape, and the technology was little improved. When the limited breakthroughs in enemy lines happened late in the war, only tracked vehicles like tanks could easily move through the quagmire. For an army to be mobile - and exploit such breakthroughs, a better solution had to be found.

Shortly before WWII, American Engineers were looking for a way to quickly build roads, airfields and dozens of other projects with mass-produced materials that could be quickly brought to the front and assembled. In short, they were looking for the "legos" of infrastructure.

The solution they came to was Marston Mats - sheets of interlocking pierced steel planking that could be pieced together quickly. They could provide all-weather traction over mud in the South Pacific, Tundra in the Aleutian Islands, volcanic ash on Iwo Jima and Sand on Normandy. And once a flat base had been bulldozed by Army Engineers or Seabees, they could be laid down as the foundation of a temporary airfield.

To give you an idea how it worked, here is a photo from a museum in Normandy. The planks aren't all inter-linked, but the museum did that to show how they worked.


One of the most ingenious features of the matting is that after the U.S. military moved on to the next road, the next airbase or whatever, the planks could be disassembled and recycled. Many times they were, but as the war went on, we seized rail lines and airfields and other traditional infrastructure, and the matting faded in importance.

After the war, of course, there were millions of tons of marston matting lying all over Europe and the Pacific. Most of it was abandoned. The U.S. Military only needed so much. Some of it remained part of the infrastructure. If you fly to the South Pacific today to scuba dive, it's likely that the airfield you land at is the old U.S. airfield, perhaps with a layer of asphalt thrown over the still-existing marston matting.

The matting, of course, has an infinite variety of uses, and what the U.S. military left behind, the locals still used. Here, for example, is some matting that I saw in a park in Nancy, France. It was piled up next to the public restroom and had evidently been pulled up recently - and was probably being recycled for a new use.

As you notice, the stuff has hardly corroded at all, even after over 60 years in the dirt. That's because of the unique mixture of steel and maganese.

This was likely used for a base for the walkways in the park, perhaps with gravel thrown over it.

Marsten matting is visible all over France, and I also discovered this wonderful example in Bayeux. The first city in France that was liberated, Bayeux was captured virtually intact, with no bombing or major damage - avoiding the fate of so many cities in Normandy and France. Bayeux is located just inland and virtually in the middle of the five invasion beaches that the allies used on Normandy. So it was one of the first cities to see the massive influx of personnel, weapons and supplies that followed after the invasion.

It was also inundated with Marston Matting. Naturally, the Americans didn't recover it all, and much was left behind. Here is what one enterprising Frenchman did with some he found. Not sure if this is to create a cool screened porch along the waterfront or a security fence. Either way, it's a fascinating relic - a footprint in time - of the U.S. military presence in Europe in WWII.

Next time, I'll introduce you to some relics of war that are even more impressive. What happens when you have to pour millions of men, weapons and equipment into a foreign shore in a very short time and the enemy controls or destroys all the available ports?

Easy. You bring your own port with you. More next time.