Mulberry Harbors and D-Day – A Summary

Posted 6Sep18.

“What is something most Americans don’t know about the D-Day landings?”

The importance of logistics was almost the victim of fragile egos.

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.

As part of the follow-on effort to…