Large rectangular/octagonal craft stranded on rocky beach opposite Garlieston. One of several relics from Mulberry Harbour testing (1942/43) in the Scottish Solway. In poor condition and suffering from sea action. Comment by AndyN HER reference = MDG25454 The remains of 2 'Beetle' sections of prototype Mulberry Harbour lie on the shore on the north side of Garlieston Bay. Scheduled by Historic Scotland (ref 12937) in April 2011 Information from David Kirkman December 2014 Garlieston and the surrounding district played an important in the preparations for Operation Overlord during the latter part of World War 2. In the spring of 1941, after eighteen months of war, the greater part of Europe was in enemy hands, and planning was in progress to carry out an assault across the English Channel. A major part of the planning concerned the means of landing and maintaining a large force under hostile conditions. The Germans had transformed the harbours into fortresses and were ready to destroy the main installations if overrun by the allies. If getting the troops ashore was a problem, getting their supplies to them would be more so. The planners concluded that an artificial harbour could be pre-fabricated and then taken across the channel for installation on the chosen landing beach in Europe. Support for the harbours came from on high. Winston Churchill, in his letter to Lord Louis Mountbatten on 30 May 1942, specified the use and form of floating harbours: “they must float up and down with the tide; let me have the best solution worked out; don’t argue the matter, the difficulties will argue for themselves”. Lord Mountbatten transmitted the problem to the representatives which constituted the combined operations. A number of schemes were received and evaluated and it was decided to carry out full scale trials on three of the schemes to decide which was most suitable. The three chosen comprised a fixed pier and pierhead, a floating roadway and a floating bridge and pierhead. In January 1943 a unit was formed with the task of developing the prototypes and training in their use. It was decided to build a prototype of each project to be tested in March 1943, in order to determine which was to be the most satisfactory. The codename MULBERRY was assigned being the next on the list of available codenames. The area chosen for the development was the stretch of coast on the west side of Wigtown Bay, where there was reasonable access to the beaches; the area was sufficiently remote for discrete operations; the harbour at Garlieston was available to bring in equipment; and the bay was not already being used for military operations. In addition to Garlieston Harbour, Rigg Bay about 1 mile to the south of Garlieston was utilised for testing, and still further south Cairnhead at the Isle of Whithorn was used for testing and billeting soldiers. |
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Image | Date | Caption | User |
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12/12/2014 | Garlieston Bay, close up of the crocodile base | DavidKirkwood | |
12/12/2014 | Garlieston Bay, 1943, testing of floating roadway | DavidKirkwood | |
12/12/2014 | Garlieston Bay, a 'bettle' washed up during a storm in 1943 | DavidKirkwood | |
12/12/2014 | Garlieston Bay, four 'beetles' abandoned as surplus to requirements | DavidKirkwood | |
12/12/2014 | Garlieston Bay 1943, close up of the caissons, with a 'crocodile' linking them | DavidKirkwood | |
12/12/2014 | Garlieston Bay 1943 caisson being tested at Rigg Bay | DavidKirkwood | |
12/12/2014 | Garlieston Bay, the demolished caisson | DavidKirkwood | |
12/12/2014 | Garlieston Bay, the demolished caisson as a heap of rubble in April 2006 | DavidKirkwood | |
12/12/2014 | Garlieston Bay, the caisson while still intact at Rigg Bay | DavidKirkwood | |
12/12/2014 | Garlieston Bay, the partially demolished caisson November 2005 | DavidKirkwood | |
14/02/2014 | Mulberry structure low tide Nov 2012 | coombey | |
14/02/2014 | Mulberry structure 2 | coombey | |
14/02/2014 | Mulberry structure | coombey | |
23/02/2013 | Wreck 1 - Corrosion, looking SE | nigeljoslin | |
23/02/2013 | Interior - Wreck 2, looking W | nigeljoslin | |
23/02/2013 | Wreck 2, looking N | nigeljoslin | |
23/02/2013 | Wreck 1, looking W | nigeljoslin | |
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795 | 23/02/2013 | nigeljoslin | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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