Mulberry Harbour construction site – Morfa, Conwy

The first prototype Mulberry Harbour was assembled at the Morfa near Conway, prior to being tested at Garlieston in Scotland.

The use of Mulberry Harbours was vital to the success of the Day Landings as they allowed thousands of tonnes of vehicles and goods to be put ashore in Normandy each day. They enabled the Allied forces to disembark at a faster rate than was possible directly over the beaches. These artificial harbours were constructed by the Allies in many sections at various sites around the coast of the UK. After D-Day, tugboats towed the harbour components across the Channel before they were assembled off the Normandy coast. Two harbours were built in total: ‘Mulberry A’ was constructed at Omaha Beach and ‘Mulberry B’ at Gold, though they were soon damaged by a storm, and only one harbour (that at Gold Beach, off Arromanches) was kept operational. Each harbour required a vast 140,000 tonnes of concrete to build.