Mulberry harbour built off Normandy after D-Day uncovered on the seabed 69 years later

'These ghostly images reveal the forgotten harbour built off the coast of Normandy that for six months after D-Day became the world's busiest docks.

British scientists have found the remnants of Mulberry B on the Channel seabed, which allowed the Allies to land troops, vehicles and equipment on French soil without having to capture a port first.

The makeshift harbour, nicknamed Port Winston because it was the brainchild of Churchill, was the size of Dover and is considered to be one of the greatest military achievements of all time.

Its development was even described by Albert Speer - Hitler's architect and armaments minister - as 'genius'.

It allowed 220,000 men, 50,000 vehicles and 600,000 tones of supplies to be landed in France and undoubtedly helped win the war.

Experts from the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO), which is part of the Ministry of Defence, have found that its structure still remains remarkably intact just months before the 69th anniversary of its construction.

They fired a 'multi-beam echo sounder' at the sea bed off Arromanches Sur Mer and the 3D images it produced show that large sunken 'beetles', which supported floating roadways, can be found at a depth of five metres.

There are also large chunks of breakwater structures. which protected it from storms.

'It was amazing to discover how much remained despite being pounded by the sea for all those years,' said Chris Howlett, who was leading the UKHO research.'

That’s a great story. There’s always someone who can figure it out. My old seabee buddy, with whom I’m still in contact, always says “Give the hardest job to your laziest worker and he’ll figure out the easiest way to do it.”

Here’s one of my favorites:

On 15 September 1950 U.S. troops landed at Inchon in what has come to be known as one of the most brilliant amphibious assaults in history. Seabees achieved renown as the men who made it possible. Battling enormous thirty-foot tides and a swift current while under continuous enemy fire, they positioned pontoon causeways within hours of the first beach assault. Following the landing, the incident known as the “Great Seabee Train Robbery” took place. The need to break the equipment bottleneck at the harbor inspired a group of Seabees to steal behind enemy lines and capture some abandoned locomotives. Despite enemy mortar fire, they brought the engines back intact and turned them over to the Army Transportation Corps.

Actually I was an AE. I went to AE “A” school. After school I checked in at NAS Corpus Christi and two days later Hurricane Celia hit. The Seabees were sent in from Gulfport to help clean up and rebuild and about 15 of us were assigned to them TAD for what was supposed to be two weeks. Seventeen months later we were sent back to our squadrons. Three of us hated it so bad we requested to be cross-rated. Two were ADRs so it was easy for them. I had to work at it a little harder since I was in a critical rate. After requesting a Captain’s Mast the Skipper wrote a letter on my behalf and sent it to the Bureau of Naval Personel. I’m told I’m the only sailor to cross rate from a critical to non-critical rate. Whether true or not, I’m certainly glad I did it.

Here is what was starting to happen to the military in the 60s and 70s.

http://www.history.navy.mil/library/special/racial_incidents.htm

Thank goodness I never really encountered much of that stuff, I was in from 1975 to 1979, though I did get assaulted by a gang of black guys.

I set this apart, though, and here is why: I was in Cecil Field, walking back from the chow hall one night in between the barracks, and I felt a very sharp, hard kick in the ass. I whirled around to see a black guy grinning at me, and when I asked why he had kicked me, he said "I don't like your hat" (referring to my squadron hat for the VA-46 Clansmen)

I said, "That is too damn bad because you and I are going to have at it" and as I removed my glasses, four other black guys stepped around the corner. They encircled me as I stepped backwards, and not knowing what else to do, I assumed a martial arts pose hoping to buy a few seconds of time with their uncertainty. It worked as one of them said "Ah, he knows karate..." but that only lasted a few seconds until one lunged at me, I took a swing and down I went.

They were kicking the crap out of me, so I balled up and protected my face and vitals as best I could. They were trying to kick me in the nuts and the face, but fortunately for me, they smelled like they had been drinking, and landed more kicks on each other's legs and ankles than they did on me.

It seemed like it went on for five minutes, but I suppose it may have been only 15 or 30 seconds, at which point I saw an opening in their circle, bolted up and shot through it in one motion with all five of them running after me. I jumped on the concrete steps into the barracks, but knew if I grabbed the door to open it, they would be on me, so I grabbed a swab that was sitting in a bucket there and began jabbing and swinging it at them. I think I had been screaming "HELP!" over and over again at the top of my lungs throughout the entire time, but I don't really remember doing it.

They finally melted away, and I went across the street to the hangar and found my boss, who was on duty, AD1 Woods. When I told him what happened, he said: "Do you want to get together a bunch of our squadron mates and go find them?"

That was Woods. A good man. While I searched the face of every black guy I passed on that base for months, I simply could not remember the faces. But that simple willingness of Woods to take my side and stand with me against a bunch of black thugs kept me, I think from developing any long-term hatred of blacks because of it. He'll never know, but I hope to somehow meet him again and thank him in some way.

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