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For our extended
Easter Holiday we decided to cross off our list
one of the places we wanted to visit while in
Europe: Normandy, France. We wanted to pay
tribute to the sacrifice made by many to assure
our freedom at the time.
The drive from The
Netherlands to our B&B in the middle of the
region (Arromanches – Gold Beach) was very
picturesque. We lucked out that the B&B was
located in the center of the region. We had
Omaha and Utah beach to the west, and Juno and
Sword
beach
to the east. I had read and seen movies depicting D-Day, but had never heard of the important role that Gold Beach played during the invasion. Here is a little history borrowed from HistoryLearningSite.co.uk :) Gold Beach was one of five
designated beaches that were used during the
D-Day landings in June 1944. Gold, Sword, Juno,
Omaha and Utah beaches were all in Normandy and
designated to either the British, American or
Canadian military forces. The landings at Gold
Beach were to prove highly successful. Out of the five designated
targets for the Normandy landings, Gold Beach
was in the centre. The sector called ‘Gold’ was
five miles wide. At the western end of the beach
was Arromanches – the site for the Mulberry
Harbor. The Mulberry Harbor was built
for D-Day in June 1944. The Mulberry Harbors’
purpose was to ease and speed up the unloading
process so that Allied troops were supplied as
they advanced across France after breaking out
from Normandy. The success of D-Day could only
be maintained if the advancing troops were
supplied and more men landed. The Mulberry
Harbor was one of the greatest engineering feats
of World War Two. The Mulberry Harbor was
actually two artificial harbors, which were
towed across the English Channel and put
together off the coast of Normandy. One, known
as Mulberry A, was constructed at Omaha Beach
and the other, known as Mulberry B (though
nicknamed ‘Port Winston’), was constructed off
Arromanches at Gold Beach. Put together like a
vast jigsaw puzzle, when both were fully
operational, they were capable of moving 7,000
tons of vehicles and goods each day. Each of the two artificial
harbors was made up of about 6 miles of flexible
steel roadways that floated on steel or concrete
pontoons. The roadways were codenamed “Whales”
and the pontoons “Beetles”. The ‘Whales’ ended
at giant pier heads that had ‘legs’ that rested
on the seabed. The whole structure was protected
from the force of the sea by scuttled ships,
sunken caissons and a line of floating
breakwaters. The material requirements for any
part of either Mulberry A or B were huge –
144,000 tons of concrete, 85,000 tons of ballast
and 105,000 tons of steel. Enough of a history lesson.
Please follow the links below to view our trip
to the D-Day Normandy region beaches and other
historic sites.
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