Arromanches Mulberry-Harbour Phoenix-Elements 1 90

The Phoenix breakwaters were a set of reinforced concrete caissons built as part of the artificial Mulberry harbours that were assembled as part of the preparations for the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

during World War II. They were constructed by civil engineering contractors around the coast of Britain. They were collected at Dungeness and Selsey, and then towed by tugboats across the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" ( Cotentinais) or (Jèrriais), ( Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kan ...

and sunk to form the Mulberry harbour breakwaters replacing the initial " Gooseberry" block ships. Caissons were added in the autumn of 1944 to reinforce the existing structure to cope with the harbour continuing in use longer than planned. Mulberry at portland

Several Phoenix breakwaters still exist in Britain: two are part of the harbour off Castletown at Portland Harbour in

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of ...

, and two can be dived in less than 10 metres of water off Pagham in

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an a ...

. There is also a smaller Phoenix Caisson (type C) in Langstone Harbour in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

. A wrecked Phoenix breakwater is also to be seen, broken in two, in the Thames estuary off Shoeburyness in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. It broke while being towed from Harwich in June 1944. To avoid it causing a hazard to shipping in the Thames estuary, it was beached on the mud on the northern edge of the Thames dredged shipping channel. It is about a mile from the beach. It is not quite covered at high tide, but it is topped by a beacon to warn shipping of its presence. Several Phoenix breakwaters were used in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

to plug gaps in the dykes, four of them for a dyke at Ouwerkerk after the North Sea Flood of 1 February 1953. These four have now been converted into a museum for the floods called the Watersnoodmuseum. One can walk through the four caissons. Two of the Phoenix breakwaters were sold to Sweden in 1949, initially towed to

Frihamnen Frihamnen is a neighbourhood of Malmö, situated in the Borough of Centrum, Malmö Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the ...

port in Stockholm and moved on 20 September 1956 to the newly-built heat and power plant in Hässelby where they remain as of 2021.

References

External links

The Mulberry Harbour Units, Portland, Dorset

The Watersnoodmuseum, Ouwerkerk, The Netherlands
{{coord, 50, 34, 16, N, 2, 26, 34, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Breakwaters Operation Neptune Buildings and structures in England

See also

References

External links