Mulberry Harbours - Rhinos, Whales, Beetles, Phoenixs and Spud's against the Axis
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- Опубликовано: 12 июл 2022
- Today we take a look at the artificial harbours designed, built and then installed on the Normandy beaches in 1944.
Many thanks to @thinkdefence3350 for finding and collating so many images and letting me use them! Follow them on Twitter or on their website for more interesting articles!
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Pinned post for Q&A :)
Hi drach,
What is your opinion of Admiral Yamamoto? I've been reading about him lately and the most recent pieces seem to make him out as a nationalistic, war hungry lunatic who thought the Japanese could just march into Washington. I always thought of him as a solid professional officer with a touch of the Warp in how accurately he predicted the course of the war.
Is there any chance we could get a Wednesday special about him?
What is your opinion on the naval
aspects of the Russo-Ukraine War?
@@BHuang92 i feel like that's a bit out of drach's area of expertise.
Drach, those apostrophes in the title are an atrocity to grammar!
Two-part question. Number one were the ships that were used for the breakers old transports, or were they just decommissioned military ships? Part 2: what was the majority of the AAU used during this time on this harbor? Would it be british, or American?
I cracked up at this line. "Taking a collection of mad scientists, garden shed inventors, young troublemakers, pyromaniacs and cat herders and giving them all a warehouse full of interesting spare parts and after locking them up in there telling them if they came up with something interesting to help them beat the Nazis there might be a second or possibly even a third warehouse in it for them."
Reminds me of people I knew who went to MIT.
I definitely missed my calling in life. I would have fit right in.
@@MeduseldRabbit between them and the Ghost Army it sounds like a rollicking good time for us weirdos.
Reminds me of the scientist in "Independence Day"...... "They don't let us out much." 😆
@@lancerevell5979 Brent Spiner actually using a conjunction!
The Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development (RN) and the Ministry of Defence/Army agency MD1 (intially MIRc,) were parallel organizations, both of which were staffed with collections of mad scientists, garden shed inventors, young troublemakers, pyromaniacs and cat herders. MD1 developed the Limpet Mine, the Blacker Bombard spigot mortar, a remarkably wide range of mechanical detonating devices for engineers, saboteurs, and boobytrappers, and the PIAT. DMWD were the people who developed the Hedgehog forward-throwing anti-submarine weapon, the Squid anti-submarine mortar, and the first practical system for degaussing ships as a defense against magnetically-detonated mines. DMDW also developed the Holman Projector, which was, as for as I know, the only steam-powered anti-aircraft weapon ever used in naval warfare, and so-called "plastic armour," which were hollow steel panels filled with gravel and bitumen, intended to provide splinter protection to critical areas on merchant and fishing vessels taken into government service, as well as on lighter vessels such as landing craft produced without any armor.
Drach, we know you're an engineer at heart. So are many of your viewers. If you want to do the six hour extended version of this video, we will watch it!
Amen
Well, maybe break it up into an easily digested series, but the idea is warranted.
Yes, please do. A 6 hour monster would be no problem to get through. Love this shit.
I'll agree to a "drach deep dive"
I know I'd watch it! Even when it sometimes takes me half a week to finish, I enjoy every minute of every drydock.
I have always loved how the British do inventors. Most countries have these misunderstood geniuses who overcome naysayers with hard work. Britain has lunatics with sheds.
Colin Furze
And flatcaps, don't forget the flatcap!
The crazy inventors really come into their own during wartime, and worth their weight in gold.
And then organising them under groups such as "The Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Development". Brilliant. While credit is due to the Americans, they didn't generate the same hilarious stories as a bunch of mad cap British eccentrics throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks
Well, that explains Colin Furze.
My grandmother was a Wren serving in Lord Mountbatten's staff and she would have confirmed that it was a blast working for him. He treated his staff excellently and she was very sad when her tour came to an end. My father has a signed and messaged book he gave to my grandmother as a leaving gift.
Mountbatten described his Combined Operations Headquarters as "The only insane asylum in the world run by the lunatics"
@@colbeausabre8842 Later the US Capitol took on that mantle. 🙄
@@colbeausabre8842 Tell that to the dead Canadians at Dieppe.
Given Mountbatten's known - ahem - "popularity with the ladies" I wonder if your grandmother censored the reason she was so sad when her tour ended ...
I'm glad he treated your grandmother well. But he was a piece of s*** pedophile. He spent a lot of time in Ireland because that's where he would find boys. He was actually warned by MI5 to stay out of Ireland because of the danger of the IRA. He ignored them went anyway and they killed him. I'm glad he treated his staff well but he wasn't a good person. None of these royals are
One of my neighbors growing up had been the CO of an LCT during the great storm. She was blown ashore and had to wait for weeks to be salvaged. Due to fear of Luftwaffe attacks, no lights were to be shown at night and they were to lie low. Then, one night, it happened. Around dusk, first one ship, then another began firing, soon grounded vessels and Army AA batteries joined in. Artillery roared, small arms rattled and tracers sped into the night. Off shore, even the battleships and cruisers were giving their all. Flares and star shells illuminated a surreal scene. Convinced the Germans had broken through, and were headed to the beach, my neighbor sounded general quarters and rifles and submachine guns were issued to all hands not manning a gun. My neighbor strapped on his 45, determined to "take one with him." Then it occurred to someone to look at the calendar when making an entry into the log and yelled the news. That's how my neighbor and thousands of his brothers in arms celebrated July 4, 1944.
Literally lol.
......This sounds very different to the D-Day my grandfather hardly talked of.
@@m8rshall July 4, 1944 was a full month after D-Day proper--your grandfather was probably well inland by then.
"This is a huge, open beach. What are they gonna do? Bring their harbors with them?"
"....Oh"
I've heard of some German accounts that surrendered during D-Day when they saw the vast amounts of men and equipment that were coming onshore, they knew absolutely that the war was lost.
@@BHuang92 In the book and movie "The Longest Day." There is the raction of the German artillery officer seeing the fleet off shore. 😱
Side note: This was the first movie I remember where German and French was spoken with sub-titles, rather than having the actor speak English with an accent(Look at you "Sink the Bismark."
@@BHuang92 I've also heard of German commanders reacting with shock when told the allies didn't have any horses with them.
@@delurkor I can remember a parody where the Japanese spoke in English with Japanese subtititles
German officer: "Vell... Scheiße".
I visited the Normandy beaches years ago and was fortunate to see the remains of the Mulberry harbor during low tide. Those things were enormous!
And one on the Hamble at the Elephant boat yard, still used as an office by aptly, a shipping agent. There is also a big beast still on sinah sands in the entrance to Langstone harbour. It’s clearly visible on Google earth.
They are still there and as enormous as ever! The whole coast is worth a visit to remember this vital battle. NB - using similar technology, there were also cast concrete barges made for inland British waterways, so as to not use up steel, and three are still to be found partially submerged next to the Manchester Ship Canal at 53.39110160483134, -2.4954362884492767 - a good vid from a local lad about them can be found here: ruclips.net/video/ExKPh9mszFE/видео.html
@@Simon_Nonymous They actually built a few sea going ships in the US during World War II. I would not want to be onboard one of them.
@@johnmcmickle5685 wow, that's a great bit of knowledge, and no, I'd rather not be on one either!
Visiting that area is still on my bucket list.
My father was in the Royal Engineers (being an engineer in civilian life before joining). He landed on the first day at D Day and after being initially deployed to remove beach obstacles worked on the assembly, construction and rescue of Mullberry B working with Sainsbury to secure the pontoons and to ready for the storm. He further went on to many adventures through and beyond the Rhine crossing. He would still say to me many years later that the Mullberry harbours made the D Day landings a possibility and not the disaster that the majority feared. The whole concept being bold, innovative and took the Germans entirely by surprise and he felt that the German high command did not realize how the allies could supply so many men and they did not respond fast enough as they determined that the level and logistics they faced would be so much a smaller problem. He also use to mention the laying of Pluto within weeks of the landing supplying fuel. Kind regards
I think you can really see the truth of this in the German high command's continued obsession with port denial through 1944. Wrecking Cherbourg, leaving garrisons all over the French coast, swallowing Fortitude and the threat to Calais, dumping half their V2s on Antwerp...
Your Dad made it Possible .
@@lllordllloyd …. To be fair this had never been tried. Plus the Germans lacked knowledge of amphibious landings. In other words they couldn’t believe Allied forces could be supplied without first taking a French port. Lack of imagination on their part.
The ETO Allied forces also tended to not talk much with their US Navy Sea Bee counterparts from the Pacific and Southwest Pacific theaters... the US Navy Sea Bees included in being a bit parochial.
Many of the Pacific island landings were on long shelving beaches with rather large tidal ranges, and the USN solutions were very similar to the Spuds, Beetles, and Whales, but used the Rhino pontoons rather extensively. Some of the Pacific storms were also quite intense, if possibly a bit less chilly in temperature than the Channel "Summer" weather.
Communications between Hawaii / California and the UK weren't what they might have been, and there appears to have been some reinventing of wheels.
There was also a general shortage of trained engineers to go around, and experienced engineers had to be found and then help out the junior engineers... many of whom were like my great uncle - a watchmaker/jeweller who got commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers - quite proficient after training in setting up bridging and treadway equipment, but not trained at all in pump selection and operations on the scale required for the Mulberrys.
Still, the guys muddled through, and were quite successful in the end.
@@chemech …. Difficult to imagine how the engineers in the invasions did their jobs on a shoestring
Christ, the amount of effort and thinking just put into one aspect of D-day is mind boggling. It's handy to point to stuff like this whenever you encounter someone who thinks Sealion was viable.
Sealion had the advantage of the British having left most of its hardware in France.
But yes. The royal navy wouldn't have allowed that, and the Germans wouldn't have been able to land the quantity of stuff needed
The Germans thought that allied invaders would need a port with exactly the logic you present. Ports were garrisoned and held, some for the duration! The Mulberry’s were critical to D Day! Great video!
They expected an assault on Calais. A lot of disinformation was used to maintain the illusion. Mulberries were great. What I like about British attitude was their out of the box think farms. There was a lot less red tape blocking ideas. Americans were less flexible about unorthodox means to ends.
A marvelous piece of engineering and a brilliant idea!
Watching this I can imagine the generations of happy aquatic life that have enjoyed these structures wherever they were discarded. .
Drach, I'm not much of a comment leaver on You Tube videos. However, THIS video is an outstanding piece of work on your part. Thanks to you and your in depth research and masterful presentation (no, I'm not looking for a job). Well done sir, well done.
I love your description for the Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Development.
As crucial as R&D is, I imagine it gave the admiralty a massive headache in dealing with all the crazy ideas coming out of that place.
can you imagine "I've got an idea, it's an iceberg, with engines, made from sand 🤪"
There is an excellent book called "Secret Weapons of WWII" by Gerald Pawle. It is an excellent account of the Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Development.
I would love to work with them. Of all those many duties such a huge war might bring, my experience and skills from chemical industry and my slightly unhinged desire to experiment would make me very happy member of DoMWD considering the dire situation.
@@LordInter Assuming you're talking about the proposed HMS Habakkuk built from Pykrete, it wasn't sand, it was some form of woodpulp,sawdust or even paper.
@@mortisCZ It's only now, I realise, that the acronym of the departement can also mean : "Departement of Massive War Destruction", or other wordplay of the sort. ^^
27:31 WOW, Centaur, AA Mk I - only 95 were produced.
Yes, the Luftwaffe was much less of a threat than had been anticipated. The Centaur AA and CS were the only members of the family that saw combat. A troop of four AA tanks was in the HQ squadron of each tank regiment and the Royal Marine Armored Support Group operated 80 95mm gun armed Mark IV Close Support tanks. Centaur was the Liberty engined member of the Centaur-Cromwell family and Cromwell was the Meteor (derived from the Merlin) engined version - which was much preferred. tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/gb/A27L_Cruiser_MkVII_Centaur.php en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Marines_Armoured_Support_Group And try the Sherman BARV - the only Army vehicle with its own diver en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_armoured_recovery_vehicle
Interesting note about the spuds: even today, in the US, work barges with long legs like that for holding them in place are known as spud barges, and the legs are known as spuds. They’re quite common for construction and offshore work.
Indeed, part of my job is inspecting and surveying the 'spud cans' (legs and feet) on Jackup type oil rigs, using an ROV.
I worked in the 1980's for one of the civil engineering contractors who had built some of the Phoenix caissons. Both during my interview & first day of work, I was informed with almost reverence ''This is a company that was involved with the building of the Mulberry Harbours''.... Even 40+ years on at that time, it was still a proud & highly important part of the company's history.
I later found out there was a fulfilled request for some of the company's civilian site staff & tradesmen to travel with the caissons they had constructed, mainly to operate standby pumps & keep an eye on timber chocks & bracing that kept the seawater valves firmly closed. (not sure if that was just to the staging point within UK waters or whether they actually went across the Channel also)
The Bureau of Miscellaneous Weapons Development sounds like a great place to work.
These harbors are just one more example of the incredible effort it took to save the world from tyranny during WW2. Thanks for this video.
To all those who saved the world, thanks guys.
at 8:10 Drach nails the best way to deal with the British eccentric: incentivise them with the offer of a slightly bigger shed.
Used to sail round the broken Phoenex in Langstone Harbour years ago. Very informative video and great pictures. Loved your description of the Miscellaneous Weapons folk:-)
Hi Andrew there is a Phoenex opposite the Pagham Sailing Club ,It is uncovered at LW.
My grandfather had to move them about with his small tug in Goole docks.
Our family have donated alot of old photos to the museum near Goole marina.
Sometimes being OCD and making sure everything was done right makes you a hero.
One thing that wasn't mentioned. Having a large number of small craft perpetually assigned to ferrying equipment ship-to-shore would have meant they would be unavailable for use in other amphibious operations such as Operation Dragoon, Walcheren & the Rhine crossing and (in the case of LSTs) the PTO.
US invasion of Saipan 15 June 1944. US France Operation Dragoon 15 August 1944.
"Undismayed by the destruction of their artificial harbour, the Americans applied to the development of the Omaha and Utah anchorages their tremendous talent for invention and organization. In defiance of orthodox opinion they beached coasters (LST's) and unloaded them direct into Army lorries at low tide... during July the Americans here handled more than twice the tonnage which passed through the British Mulberry."
Chester, Wilmot , The Struggle for Europe page 387
mean that's the nature of things, You always need twice as much as you've got, and that's a good day, you'll always have to weigh your options to attempt to use what you've got where it's most needed, whatever that might be, and whatever scale of priorities you might use,
in this example having too few resources for amphibious operations, but maintaining the supply chain to the capacity it's required to keep general operations going would be the priority as you can win the war without the first, but you'll absolutely lose if the second breaks down
@@nickdanger3802 They may have been able to do that, but at risk of damaging the sea going vessels. The Americans tended to be more wasteful of equipment than the British or Canadians.
@@markfryer9880 Dieppe
Actually visited Normandy a few weeks ago and saw the remains of these massive constructions. Great vid as always :)
I knew some of the information presented but the historical and background information was new to me. Thank you!! It saddens me the current generation was never taught or told about the trials and error that went into this engineering endeavor. Incredible that this was done with the technology of nearly 80 years ago! Seems the youngsters want to work at Amazon, Microsoft or Google and not be the one to get their fingernails dirty. Thank YOU for continuing to educate us.
My Uncle Frank, who was about my mothers age worked at Mather and Platt in Manchester for the duration of the war. Of course I recall conversations of why Frank wasn’t doing his duty like the other siblings. After D day he explained he was a draftsman designer of many parts of Mulberry. Being inland I suspect most of his efforts were on pumps and design of the concrete structures. He later moved to Canada in the paper industry.
I wonder what he really did from 1941 to 44. He never said a word until it was all over.
Ellsbergs book “ the far shore” is a fascinating perspective on this, and a cracking read.
Excellent book!
"I crossed the Channel for the invasion of Normandy aboard a 6,000 ton block of concrete at the end of a long towline, moving at all of three knots astern a laboring tug. The crossing took over thirty hours - no very swift passage. We - that is, the squadron of some ten similar chunks of concrete - had the protection of no convoy of our own; we were much too slow for any convoy to stay with us. But by keeping in the main stream of invasion traffic bound for France, we had the benefit of the occasional presence in our vicinity of destroyers passing us accompanying faster groups, mainly troop carriers."
Edward Ellsberg, The Far Shore, 241.
Speaking of which, @Drachinifel - it would be fascinating to hear your take on Ellsberg's efforts in Massawa - especially the repair of the HMS Dido...
I second that, and the efforts at Massawa, which I’ve never seen referenced outside of the book “under the Red Sea Sun”
@@Connorisreal me too. A great pity, it’s far too easy to get fed history from one perspective. I think WSC said that history was kindest to those that write it. Personally I was quite shocked by Ellsberg’s story, that not all Americans were behind the war effort, that even then corporate America was on the fiddle, and in his account of events in Algeria, plainly not all France was that pleased to be liberated. I’m in France at the moment, meeting French friends. I’ll try to discuss this point and get the French perspective for balance.
His books are a great read, from the salvage of the S-51 to WWII, there's a website with his much more open letters to his wife from the WWII period around too.
His books: "On The Bottom", "Under The Red Sea Sun", "No Banners, No Bugles" "The Far Shore", and many more.
Dad volunteered to run the engine room on one of the breakwater ships. He said the holds were loaded with rock. When the Royal Coast Gauard signaled they were in position, the skipper called everyone to the bridge where he counted the skeleton crew and then threw a big knife switch the set off the scuttling charges. The crew then clambered onto the Royal Coast Gaurd Cutter and and dad went back to Portsmouth to take a load of jeeps to the beachhead
In the end, it's always about logistics.
Agreed. If there is one thing Britain and the US excelled at beyond all others in WWII, it was logistics.
"Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals study logistics.”
- Gen. Robert H. Barrow, USMC (Commandant of the Marine Corps) noted in 1980
I think it's really impressive how the components of the mulberries were adapted to so many uses after their original purpose was fulfilled. Impressive, adaptable engineering.
Thank you for mentioning the DMWD. No one ever mentions their successes in countering German tech (like figuring out how to degauss ship hulls to allow the rescue of troops at Normandy --Sir Charles Frederick Goodeve) Hedgehog depth charges, radar deflectors and decoys etc. they instead only remember the failures like the Great Panjandrum. Their work on the artificial harbors was essential.
Hi Vincent And don't forget Hobart's Funnies, the flail tank , the floating tank,etc , a book you might be interested in is A HARBOUR GOES TO WAR it was made by the people of Garleston where the Mullberry's were tested. Cheers
They changed the way wars were won. Adapting new technology to adjust for your enemy is now seen as a staple (yes I mean Ukraine) Only Jan "One Eye'd Zizka was more innovative and inventive. Thank you, I will check out the book, sounds like it is right up my ally.
The line between genius and insanity is often erased during wartime. No one in their right mind would ever think of something like this.
Just the Mulberry's show just how unrealistic the German plans for Operation Sealion were.
Thank you. That struck me as one of the most accurate yet concise documentaries about the Mulberry harbours I've seen ot heard. Thank you.
Thank you for a great history lesson. Amazing how the engineering of WWII is still used today. And I appreciate the humor you weave into your stories.
Hey Drach, I’ve been waiting 3 years for you to cover the mulberry harbours, so thank you! It’s one of my favourite subjects from WW2 and often gets overlooked. Feel free to dig deeper on specifics in the future, I’m sure they’d be a hit.
Thank you Drach at 3:15 i finally saw why the Ducks were built in such large numbers
This was AMAZING. Thank you, Drach, for covering what I've only ever meagerly pondered. MORE PLEASE.
Your description of The Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Development is precisely what I imagined such a department would have as a mission statement and the exact staffing criteria I would have expected.
❤
Among the staff was famous author Nevil Shute Norway (On the Beach, A town Called Alice, Requiem for a WREN) who headed up the Great Panjandrum project ruclips.net/video/KEF1hMUEikM/видео.html
According to my late father, who was a boy throughout WW2, it was learning about the Mulberry harbours which led to him persuing his career in not just civil engineering, but specialising in the aspects of that which had to do with water, from damns to culverts and from bridges to breakwaters.
He finished his career taking early retirement on the abolishion of the Great London Council in Mad Maggie's fit of pique at London voting Labour, as Chief Rivers Engineer and the last in the line of London Engineers which originated with Sir Joseph Bazalgette. His role was to deal with all drainage and flood prevention and alleviation across the considerable area of Greater London, obviously as the head of a fairly large team. He did do a bit of consulting after that when asked, and travelled to a number of countries in pursuit of that, although I don't have many details of where or on what projects.
Whenever someone goes on about the Chinese invading Taiwan, this comes to my mind. The sheer logistical hurdles they would face and have to overcome leave me shaking my head.
I'm sure every vital Taiwanese resource like the TSMC foundries are rigged to blow too
yes and no, Taiwan is an island, so the logistics side can be handled much easier, as you don't need Millions of soldiers, Tanks and other stuff for it, Mulberry was designed to spearhead the invasion of France and the European Mainland, where Germany could potentially send multiple army groups to deal with the invasion,
but yes China would need extensive logistics networks in the form of auxiliaries and transport helicopters to facilitate that invasion as it'll be a long and brutal fight, and for the short of it, they don't have the experience nor the capabilities as far as I'm aware to make that work, even without any external factors
@@Voron_Aggrav An island with a standing army of 300.000 and 3.000.000 reservists. So, yes, you need a million-sized (or close) invading force
@@salvadorsempere1701 yes, but they don't need to support that army moving halfway into France and Belgium, most of the fighting will be for the beachheads, moment they're established it's pretty much over, so the logistics strain wouldn't be as massive
@@Voron_Aggrav Don't forget that Taiwa consist of two kinds of landscape. Urban areas and mountainous terrain. If the defenders are determined they can inflict heavy casulties even if they are ultimately doomed to be destroyed.
12:00 this happened to my home town! The coast is dangerous and lacks natural harbours so in the early 1900s and a massive concrete wall was built jutting out into the ocean so there was a sheltered area for shipping. There's no longer any shipping but the new beachs are nice!
really makes you want to see the whole operation unfold, as truly Normandy was one of the most impressive operations of the entire war, just in the scale and complexity of everything involved, answering the age old question of how do you land an army on a foreign beach in such a way you can also win a war to the best capacity,
Loved the description of the group of people put together for this. “ Cat herders?” 😂😂😂😂
Thank you, Drachinifel.
My Dad crewed some of the scuttled block ships. Thank very much.
10:19 Metal Bawkses !!
There is a winery near me called Mulberry Vineyards. Very good wine but I never go there without thinking about these.
Fascinating subject - I knew about the harbors of course but hadn't really looked into the details. So really appreciated this video!
Drach sounded like he REALLY liked writing this one up. Very cool in all ways. sm
This was probably one of the most entertaining Wednesday Specials for awhile now. As someone with a particular penchant for military logistics, I've heard of the Mulberry Harbours before, but hadn't heard much detail about them. As with so many off-beat ideas of WWII, I'm delighted at what a ragtag bunch created such a grand invention, thinking so far out of the box and yet finding such a logical solution.
There's just one thing that surprises me: that there wasn't more input specifically sought by two groups of mariners in the Mulberry's design. The first was barge towmen, particularly those of the Mississippi River and harbors like New York where single tugboats pulling and pushing massive strings of sometimes up to half a dozen giant steel barges was already a common sight. The second was train ferry operators, both the carfloat men of New York, who specialized in moving hundreds of loaded railway cars a day across the Hudson River on barges, and the self-contained train ferries of the Great Lakes, San Francisco Bay, and even the Channel ports; who would know better about moving colossal amounts of heavy equipment across open water than the captains and engineers who regularly took the railways out to sea, or the design teams that made such carfloat tech happen?
Or maybe I'm just an old romantic who wants to see something the size of a small ocean liner disgorge a hundred truck's worth of supplies straight out to the beaches and on along temporary tracks to the front.
We all love those deep dives into ship history but for me this is some of the most fascinating stuff of all. I honestly didn't even know these were a thing until this video, and it's such an incredible feat of engineering and sheer human willpower to tame the seas despite the odds. Thank you for the wonderful content!
See also PLUTO, another vital part of the logistical system. It had it's genesis in it's inland counterpart (in the UK) & that (upgraded) system is still used today.
Having spent 3 years constructing a caisson breakwater in Baja, Mexico I find it astounding how this was achieved under fire in weeks! I guess the health and safety was not quite so stringent! Great video thanks
Well, it also helps a lot if the goal is to have something that will last for three months. If you want it to last for decades, that's going to take longer to design and build.
A friend's father served as a mechanic on one of the ocean going tugs on D Day. He said that he didn't see D Day as he was below decks keeping the engine going, but he sure heard it! The tug's job on that day was to pull or push disabled larger vessels out of the way.
In the run up to D-Day nearly all of the code names appeared as crossword clues causing panic amongst the security services.
The Great D-Day Crossword Puzzle Scare
Todd DePastino
On 2 May, a British intelligence officer doing the London Daily Telegraph crossword puzzle noticed No. 17 across: “One of the U.S.” The answer, he knew, was “Utah.” Ordinarily, nothing remarkable about that.
But this was 1944, a month before D-Day, the largest amphibious invasion in history. And the answer to No. 17 across was the code name of the beach assigned to the American 4th Infantry Division A coincidence, or something more?
Two years earlier, the same newspaper had dropped a crossword puzzle clue, “French port,” whose answer was “Dieppe”-the very location of an Allied raid scheduled for the next day. British counter-intelligence, the MI5, ruled it a coincidence. Now, here it was again, but this time the clue leaked far enough ahead of the operation that it might alert German high command.
A quick scan of other recent crossword puzzles in the Daily Telegraph revealed more codewords: “Juno,” “Gold,” and “Sword,” all secret names for Allied landing beaches.
Then, two weeks before D-Day, the Daily Telegraph‘s crossword puzzle issued more codewords:
May 22, No. 3 down: “Red Indian on the Missouri” (answer: “Omaha”)
May 27, No. 11 across: “Big Wig” (answer: “Overlord”).
May 30, No. 11 across: “This bush is the center of nursery revolutions” (answer: “Mulberry”)
June 1, No. 15 down: “Brittania and he hold to the same thing” (answer: “Neptune”) For 40 years, this was the end of the story. The Great D-Day Crossword Puzzle Scare stood as the biggest coincidence in world history, an example of what can happen if you allow the natural human instinct for pattern-detecting get the better of you.
It turns out, however, that there was a pattern, as well as a secret. But the final twist to the story wasn’t known until the 40th anniversary of D-Day in 1984.
That year, the Daily Telegraph ran an article about the D-Day Crossword Puzzle Mystery, and one of Dawe’s former students, a man named Ronald French, came forward with an astonishing claim. He told his story exclusively to the Telegraph. veteransbreakfastclub.org/the-great-d-day-crossword-puzzle-scare-of-1944/#:~:text=The%20Great%20D-Day%20Crossword%20Puzzle%20Scare%20stood%20as,was%20a%20pattern%2C%20as%20well%20as%20a%20secret.
When anything gets handled, from one mode of transport to another, it is not only slow and laborious but always incurs damage.
I'm reminded of a story from (I think it was) Ken Burns "The Civil War" about Confederate soldiers were ordered to attack a Union-held railroad tunnel and how one of the soldiers complained it would be useless because the Yankees were so rich, they probably had spare tunnels, too.
Drach, very impressed and delighted with the detail amd delivery in this video. My father was 11 months old when my country was attacked. His parents *Never* trusted anyone even vaguely oriental after that, nor did they forgive.
More to the point, the ‘lunatic in a shed’ building stuff stuck with our family. Due in some large part, finding out what mankind *can do* when properly motivated from History-Channel programs in my youth cemented my-own career goals in engineering.
I do really wish that my father had lived to see your videos - especially this one. I am absolutely certain he would have watched more than once.
Another very interesting show Drach. Unaware of the post war uses of the various components till now.
Cheers mate 👍👍
5:14 "It would yield a mined half demolished death trap that is also on fire."
In reality, not necessarily in that order and with extra surprises inside. Talk to your Captain about your next objective and the guided tours through the ruins. Group rates are available if you order now.
Excellent video, thank you, Drach! I hadn't known that the Mulberrys were quite so complex - they're even more impressiv than I'd thought!
For some reason, I have been aware of The Mulberry Harbours, what they did and how they did it, since I was quite a small boy. 65+ years ago. Either my dad (an Engineer) or my Grandad (WWI vet) had clearly told me. However, it wasn't until about ten years ago that my friends and I rounded off a trip to Belgium, by racing southwest and spending a day and a night in Arromanches. The Mulberry museum there absolutely fascinated me and one exhibit there has become, for me, the single most significant artefact of not only the museum itself, the whole Mulberry harbour concept, but indeed the whole war. The other one was Bletchley Park, Alan Turing and the Ultra project.
On the wall in an insignificant corner of the Mulberry museum there is a monochrome 8x10 aerial photograph. At first glance it is little more than just a nice, comprehensive image of Mulberry B (Arromanches) in its first few days at maximum capacity - about 10,000 tons per day. Around 15th June 1944. Then you look more carefully and realise this photograph was taken BY THE GERMANS from no less than 11,000 METRES up. Therefore, the aeroplane must have been a jet aircraft - (probably an Arado 234) nothing else could have evaded allied aircraft or defenses.
Once the photograph had been processed and passed to the OKW, the Germans should have realised - had they been rational, logical opponents - that the Allies had brought with them TWO PORTS THE SIZE OF DOVER! Therefore; there was no way they could be defeated and every week spent trying to stop them, would mean more and more of their own casualties and destruction. Negotiated cease fire was imperative. But they weren't rational and logical, were they?
From more detailed study of the Mulberry Harbours, I have learned the Americans never liked the idea. For a number of reasons - none of them good, military or practical - one of which Drachinfel elaborates. They all had to be built in Britain and second; they were all designed in Britain, by Brits and thus; 'Not invented here'. It is no accident Mulberry B survived and operated until almost November 1944 and it was BECAUSE the Americans OFFICIALLY disregarded British advice and instructions to anchor the bridges and Spuds securely. They always preferred their DUKW ferry method, because it was their idea.
It is true Britain could not have won WWII on our own or without the Americans, but it is equally true that it was almost as conceivable that we could have lost it with them. Thank you Drahinfel and thank you Mulberry B, about which few people know or remember, or realise just how important it was.
"We found that the waves at the American harbour were significantly larger than those at the British Mulberry - although both experienced waves larger than they were designed to withstand. This goes a long way to explain why the American harbour failed whilst the British one narrowly survived."
University of Oxford The storm that struck the Mulberry Harbours page
"Undismayed by the destruction of their artificial harbour, the Americans applied to the development of the Omaha and Utah anchorages their tremendous talent for invention and organization. In defiance of orthodox opinion they beached coasters (LST's) and unloaded them direct into Army lorries at low tide... during July the Americans here handled more than twice the tonnage which passed through the British Mulberry."
Chester, Wilmot , The Struggle for Europe page 387
Project Habbakuk: Britain's secret attempt to build an ice warship
mean at that point in the war it was clear to both sides that there could be nothing but total victory, and as more and more evidence of the crimes against humanity the Germans had done that became more and more the focus, the German regime needed to be stopped and removed as there'd be no peace without that
The Americans seem to have form with turning up late and then ignoring the advice and experience of those who have already learned the hard way. You can add the early North Africa campaign and daylight bombing as well as some ww1 activities as examples. Their contribution was invaluable, but they could have saved themselves a lot of effort and lost lives by just accepting that people who have already been at it for a few years might actually know something about it.
Another tour de force, Uncle Drach! Waterlogged topic buoyed by much dry humour! Outstanding!
1975, I camped two nights behind the landing grounds. There was far more there and about five PLUTO, Petrol Line Under The Ocean, came ashore at Calais, a month later. Some nine pipes in all.
I spend 8 summers in normandie in youth camps of the german wargrave comission. We worked on a german war cemetery and did international exchanges with french and russian youth.
As part of the program we also did a costal tour. One of the stopps was Arromanches and the remains of Mulberry B were clearly visible.
This was truly a crazy project. And for me it puts into perspective the utter impossibility of operation "Seelöwe" succeding. Germany just didnt have anywhere near this level of logistics ready in 1940.
These are one of the greatest feats of engineering in history in my opinion. The scale and nature of them is honestly hard for me to grasp. The Allies needed a port able to supply an invasion force of as much as two million men, but they were all to heavily defended to be easily captured. *So they built one from scratch.*
The English managed to weaponize autism before it was a thing. One of the the tanks they sent in carried huge rolling tubes with weights chaied to them to destroy a huge path through landmines, they did not want to be slowed down at all. The Americans were very resistant to every idea the English had to the point of not even wanting to use some of the inventions, at least until they heard reports on how well they worked.
That was fascinating. I had visited Normandy in 1989 and saw the remains of the Mulberry Harbour. The fact that pieces of the harbour were used to help the Dutch with the flooding in the 1950SaaS also interesting.
Wow! All my questions about port logistics answered. Operationally, I'm quivering. I had an opponent who conducted D-Day at LaRochelle'44 in a GDW game( 2 Mulberries; good weather). Looks like we calculated the port capacities and off-loads fairly well.
This is a fascinating collection of photographs of Mulberry and related matters. By coincidence, I am reading Guy Hartcup's book about Mulberry for the second time. This video adds a significant amount of detail. Weymouth being my home town I was also aware of the arrival of the two Phoenix caissons to act a wind breaks for Portland Harbour's Q pier.
Great video Drach
After five hundred or so hours of entertainment I think it's time I subscribed.
Duck runs over a mine and gets the death-scare of their lives. Goes to shore to be rewarded a bottle of Scotch for "mine-spotting" efforts. Spiffing good, Sir.
I think the best part is that, having received their reward for what had happened by accident, they volunteered to go do it again.
Having worked with British engineers in the auto industry for seventeen years, I found them very creative and open to new ideas. I preferred the company of the "poor British cousins", as they called themselves, to the American of German engineers. I'm glad you explained why Mulberry A only lasted four weeks...Thames estuary has a lovely Mulberry harbor stuck on a sandbar 1 mile off of Shoeburyness, a local attraction for mudflat walkers.
"The lack of attention to the correct mooring procedures was also thought to be a contributing factor to the damage on the roadways but much of this was also caused by free-floating landing craft, 5 of which were actually British."
"The construction force and a number of US officers with relevant experience of salvage and Mulberry construction thought it could be repaired but more senior officers differed. The decision was made to salvage what could be used on Mulberry B to aid in its reinstatement."
Think Defence The Mulberry Harbours page
"We found that the waves at the American harbour were significantly larger than those at the British Mulberry - although both experienced waves larger than they were designed to withstand. This goes a long way to explain why the American harbour failed whilst the British one narrowly survived. We also found that a storm of the severity of the 1944 storm would only be expected to occur during the summer once in every 40 years. The Allies were clearly very unlucky to experience a storm this severe only a couple of weeks after D-Day."
University of Oxford The storm that struck the Mulberry Harbours page
You realise now you need to cover PLUTO in depth now Drach?
An excellent commentary. I was aware of and have done reading about the b-day temp harbours but never fully understood them until your presentation. Thank you. mrg
We probably used some of the same concepts in our (occasionally) floating bridges here in Washington State, USA. With the same partial success rate as Mulberries A and B too.
These things are so fascinating for me, for some reason lol probably because they're so, (clearly,) brilliant. 👍
i read a history of this effort that talked about a US Navy Captain involved in the Phoenix program. He was responsible for Phoenix sections that would be sunk off the UK shore, and re floated, towed to the Normandy beaches, and sunk again,
he was tearing hus hair in frustration, His Navy day job was marine salvage, and getting sunken vessels re floated. He felt, correctly, that the planners had not correctly estimated the difficulty in getting the Phoenix sections re floated for towing. There was am enormous amount of suction to counter when re floating that the planners had not factored into their plans.
Local response to his concerns took the form "You want to tell the _Royal Engineers_ they don't know what they are doing?" "In ytis case, eas, because they don't!" Once he got to talk directly to them. they looked at his calculations and concerns, and decided he had a point and plans needed to be changed/
While in my head, I knew something like this had to be done, hearing about it is fascinating! Thanks :)
Fantastic episode. 🇨🇦 Veteran
This is the result when you turn a roomful of outside of the box thinkers loose on a problem. And, the PowerPoint presentation in the washroom... perfection.
I've visited the Mulberry harbours in France and still impressive to this day and there's a sunken Mulberry harbour section a few miles off from Southsea it's in about 12 metres or so and makes a great artificial reef and is a popular easy dive site.
Thanks for the info on this, I remember reading history books on this as a kid and they typically nonchalantly talked about towing or building a harbor and was baffled as to how that would work.
ONE OF THE BEST TALKS ABOUT HOW , WHY THEY GOT THERE .
These constant tidbits like a British General having more knowledge about American Baseball than the Americans provide clear mental images for all your documentaries as to what it was like to actually be there.
Once again you have covered something I hadn't ever thought about let alone was aware of.
The success of this project might have been the source of Hitler's hand tremors.
It is important to remember that brothers often fight as practice for when the outsider shows up.
I was able to search through your channel history and counted you saying "Square Cubed Law" 4,793 separate times. Love it!
Another fascinating watch, Drach. Well done.
I read somewhere that Stalin kept whining about the delay in starting the second front, because he had no idea what it entailed. This video gives us an idea.
Everyone involved did one heck of a job solving one of the single largest logistical problems of the war.
I would be more inclined to say "largest logistical problem ever".
Outstanding episode. You have excelled yourself Sir!
Hi Drachinifel! Love your videos and your thorough and well-developed analysis you present! Just wondering as to how the Wednesday weekly videos got the moniker ‘Rum Ration’? Keep up the great work! Regards, Oscar
"Undismayed by the destruction of their artificial harbour, the Americans applied to the development of the Omaha and Utah anchorages their tremendous talent for invention and organization. In defiance of orthodox opinion they beached coasters (LST's) and unloaded them direct into Army lorries at low tide... during July the Americans here handled more than twice the tonnage which passed through the British Mulberry."
Chester, Wilmot , The Struggle for Europe page 387
10:00 My Mother was on Mountbatten's staff during the War. She loved that time in her life :-)
Well done, Drach!
I've seen a few other documentaries of the Mulberry Harbours, but they focused more on the construction - concept to ready-for-use - than deployment and use.
That was so VERY INFORMATIVE ! ! ! WOW - THANKS so much ! ! ! Simply Fascinating ! ! !
🙂😎👍
People never understand how important supply and logistics are. It's not glamorous, but it's critically important. Gasoline, beans and bullets are what it takes to win a war.
Spoken like a true supply officer. As a former U.S. Army Quartermaster officer, I salute you.
This is really a very interesting presentation.👍
Nice video!
My Great Uncle was a Colonel in the Royal Engineers and responsible for one of the harbours. Lovely old boy, and when I use to stay with him in the 70's in the wardrobe of the 'guest' room was his Dress Uniform and service revolver. He'd also served in WW1, and was sent back initially from France as he was discovered to be under-age, but then went out later once old enough.