The solution was known as the Mulberry harbor, one of many brilliant innovations brought out for D-Day. Without it, their troops would be thrown back into the sea.
Normandy ship construction how to#
They had to solve the problem of how to create a harbor sufficient to supply the invading army. In the meantime, they got busy pouring a lot of concrete of their own.
But they exploited Hitler's assumption by mounting a successful diversionary campaign: they made it appear the port of Calais would be their target. The Allies chose to land on the beaches of Normandy precisely because there was no major port there. Phoenix caissons in construction, Weymouth UK April 1944 Photo Credit: Wikipedia By early 1944, they more than doubled the monthly amount of concrete being laid in defense works. As the war dragged on, the Germans intensified their construction. This assumption would prove to be a fatal miscalculation. Otherwise, how could the Allies expand any breach into a major thrust into Europe? They'd need a port's facilities to supply their invasion force. Hitler was convinced an Allied invasion would have to strike at a significant port. Gradually, this plan would involve pouring over 17 million tons of concrete to build massive gun emplacements and defense works stretching from France to Norway. So German planning shifted to defending Europe's long Atlantic coastline. The Honors College at the University of Houston presents this program about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.īy 1941, Hitler'd given up on the idea of invading Britain.