A little bit of Mulberry!

Just back after a few glorious but sometimes emotional days in Normandy. Thought a few might be interested in these pics. A section of the Mulberry has been utilised since 1945 as a replacement Bridge. The original was destroyed during air attacks June/July 1944.

 

Well, that's what the Information Board appears to imply, but surely that a metal Bailey Bridge, not a concrete box flooded with water?
I can't see how a Mulberry section would make a bridge!

It must refer to a pontoon bridge surely?

FYI, there is a section of an actual Mulberry Harbour stranded offshore about a mile from the beach at Thorpe Bay, near Southend, Essex

 

The metal section in the photos is, I thought, a section of the road way/pontoon that trucks etc drove over to the shore. Which must be part of the Mulberry harbour as a whole. Hopefully Sapper or someone can explain.!! It most definitely is not Bailey.

 

It's a section of Whale roadway which made up part of the Mulberry construction.

Google 'mulberry whale' and the wiki article will also tell you about Bombardons, Phoenixes (those were the concrete things filled with sand and water and most of what can be seen today at Arromanches), Whales, Spud Piers, Beetles and Goosberries. All good stuff and an amazing feat of engineering.

 

Those are some of the neatest WWII related pictures I've even seen. And I've seen a lot of them!

Thanks

 

And what was going on in the area in 1944:

Berjou

 

good day 51highland,very senior member.yesterday,12:45pm.re:a little bit of mulberry.i dont know who put it up.but i can say they did a brilliant job,it goes back to build british.they use to build to last,great post,regards bernard85

 

A bigger bit of Mulberry:

Arromanches-les-Bains. Trois passerelles de 1944 au site du port artificiel

 

On the cliff top overlooking the Mulberry Harbour aka Port Winston and next to the new Memorial Garden. Well worth a visit.

 

Interestingly not so long ago I was doing some research into Whales (I know, I'm a f'king riot at parties), and was getting very confused. It was actually an element of their construction that I was after.

Either the original documents were confused about what is a Whale (possible) or the name Whale has migrated. Because the items I was looking at were the floating pier heads at the end of the pier.

 

5 years late but where is this bridge if you don’t mind sharing?

 

Near La Martelee on the D256A:

48.8694947, -0.4681575

 

Moved it a fair way then!

 

I think there was/is a five-span Whale bridge in Germany, though closed to traffic.

 

It was somewhere in the region of Clecy. There was a scrap yard nearby which was featured on one of the Combat dealers episodes.