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Ludicrous.. 😁 Especially noteworthy is how the activity ramped up from about January last year - just as Google (who own the Blogger platform, and must be rubbing their hands at the
size of the free data lake on their doorstep) and the others were going big with their new AI tools.
(PS. My thanks to the
Emperor Elector blog, though.. apparently they are still the fourth most popular way that people find this tiny little dark and dusty corner of the web! 👍)
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"I have been to"... Arromanches!
Despite the lack of any meaningful wargaming activity, the current Mrs Steve the Wargamer and I have however managed to get away for three or four days in France, Normandy to be precise. Any hopes that it might be cooler there were dashed of course; temperatures in northern France while we were there were topping 38'C - oh well - the coach and the hotel had AC! 😏
This was an organised tour, and had attractions for both of us; based in Rouen (Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake there, and it was an English garrison/stronghold during the 100 Years War), we also visited Honfleur (tick - boats!), but while the draw for the memsahib was Monet's House and Gardens (including the lily pond) the draw for me was a trip to Arromanches (some military history at last!).
More precisely Arromanches-les-Bains, the town was in the middle of Gold beach, but even more importantly was subsequently the site of the Mulberry B (British) artificial harbour..
The Museum is new, and replaces the old one, that I think I went to over 50 years ago - this one has only been open 3 or 4 years. The old one was demolished and is now gardens at the back of the current museum.
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| New museum left, old museum gardens behind it - if you look carefully there's a Sherman up on the hill to the right of the road.. |
Gold Beach was in the British (and Canadian) sector (see map above) and was allocated to the 50th Northumbrian "Tyne Tees" Infantry Division - there's a couple of reminders in front of the museum.. got to love an M3 half track ever since my Airfix days.. 😁
...and of course a 25pdr with it's "TT" (Tyne Tees) divisional markings.. the second badge (44 in a red over blue square) indicates that this gun was in the third (of three) Field Artillery Regiments in the Division ..
...and so to the museum - how was it? In a word, rammed.. lots of people, but they have some excellent over the ears headsets, with a key pad allowing you to select each of the exhibits in turn, and have added information. The headphones are very good, but a bit awkward if you wear reading glasses as you have to take them on on and off with the glasses. 😏
There's a lot of information in there on the combatants of both sides, weapons , uniforms and so forth, but by far the greater focus is on the Mulberry, in fact it could probably be called the Mulberry Museum an nothing wrong with that, the subject is fascinating..
They have a huge amount of information and background on the construction and types of units that go to make up the Mulberry harbour (which I have touched on previously
here [clicky] and
here [clicky] as I have a local connection) but by far the most fascinating feature of the museum was a 1:72 scale model featuring all elements of the harbour.. roadway, caissons of various types (code name Phoenix) and block ships (code name Corncob) but for me the best but was showing how the Allies actually unloaded cargo..
Large transport unloading - note the wooden ramps to the Mulberry
Better view of same - in the background a floating pier head (known as Spuds) held in place by four legs that sat anchored to the sea bed
Better view of the pier head - to the left the road to the shore (code name "Whale") supported on barges (code name "Beetle") - the vehicles give an excellent idea of the scale of this damn thing - it was huge! There would have been other pier heads, floating piers and roadways either side of this one, and in the centre at least one further road to the shore..
LCT (Landing Craft Tank - one of which we have also seen previously
here [clicky]) unloading directly to the pier head..
...and this is what it would have looked like at the time...
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| "View of the Mulberry B harbour "Port Winston" at Arromanches in September 1944. Centre and left are "spud" pierheads with floating piers of "whales" and "beetles". At right is 2,000 ft (610 m) of "Swiss roll"." Piccie courtesy Wikipedia |
"Swiss roll" by the way was the code name for a kind of lightweight flexible road/track system made of waterproofed canvas reinforced with slats and tensioned by cables - it would take up to a 7 ton truck...
A quite surprising amount of Port Winston survives despite over 80 years of Channel weather, and still visible from the beach - it was a bit breezy and hazy but the following shows the remains of the end of on of those two central roadways that services the pier heads
...and you'll have to embiggen this one (following) for a panoramic of the sweep of the harbour.. by the by.. you can also see why the Allies picked this coast for the invasion - at low tide huge sweeps of sand are revealed..
So how successful was it in in it's designed role? This Mulberry was used for ten months after D-Day, and landed over two million men, four million tons of supplies and half a million vehicles before it was fully decommissioned. Against that though the Americans (whose Mulberry was damaged beyond repair in storms) landed their supplies direct to the beaches. There is an interesting graph in the Wiki Mulberry article below that shows they were landing more on Utah beach alone than the Mulberry by DDay+30.. having said that - in the period up to then, when quick reinforcement was paramount, the Mulberry was key...
Very much recommended!
More reading:
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Laters, as the young people are want to say... hopefully not as long this time.. 😏
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