beach Arromanches-les-Bains by Alexander Cox

About "beach Arromanches-les-Bains"

by Alexander Cox

About the artwork

Mulberry Harbour at Arromanches-les-Bains was one of the two Mulberry Harbours that were constructed after the Normandy landings in 1944. The harbor at Arromanches-les-Bains was needed to bring the country to continue to supply the Allied troops and large equipment after the invasion. For this it was necessary that ships could dock with a deep draft. The existing sea ports in Normandy were hard to take and would be expected to also be disabled by the Germans.

With the construction of the temporary port was started on June 7, 1944 by the sinking of old warships and cargo vessels (the so-called Block Ships including the Dutch cruiser Sumatra). In this way arose a breakwater with a total length of about 7 km. Following this were on the seaward side behind the sunken ships, known as Phoenix caissons sunk. These caissons were secretly previously been manufactured in England and each provided with a gun deck with Bofors-aircraft gun turret.

In the lee of the breakwater were, from steel pontoons built, constructed floating landing quays (the 'Whale' or 'Löbnitz piers), receiving over floating bridges connecting to the beaches of Arromanches. This rectangular pontoons of concrete and steel were four corners with 30-meter movable pillars. By means of these support pillars, the pontoons could follow the tidal movements and could be discharged continuously independently of the tide.

In order to increase the unloading capacity of the pontoons have been concrete pontoons as a k