Origin of Mulberry Harbours

American forces realized that one of the only ways they were going to be able to successfully get an army together was by using artificial harbors off the German islands.



The early idea was first made by Winston Churchill in 1917, but nothing really happened until 1942 when the idea was picked up again and people began giving it attention. Hugh Iorys Hughes had submitted a design concept of the artificial harbors to the War Office, which got the ball rolling.
At a meeting shortly after the Dieppe Raid, leaders came to a conclusion that if a port could not be captured, then a port was to be taken across the Channel, and near the coast of Germany.

In 1943, building trials were held with vast amounts of attempts at building the most effective temporary harbors that were tested in US waters. Many different models succeeded in some ways but failed in other ways, and all the different designs enabled leaders to finalize a structure that would work past the challenges and succeed.



In order for the ports to be used near the beaches, extensive information needed to be known about them so that the operations using them could be done carefully, safely, and successfully. After this information was acquired, Americans were all set to build and use them. On the afternoon of D-Day, about 1.5 million tons of equipment and parts set sail for the creation of the ports.