Gold Beach, Longues-sur-Mer Battery and Mulberry Harbors

Not much remains of Gold Beach as it was in 1944. Today there are vacation homes, beach huts and a hot spot for tourists in the summer. Things were much different in 1944. Gold Beach was the center assault area for the British Army and Royal Navy . ~2,000 German troops from the 352nd Infantry Division and the 716th Infantry Division were the immediate threat, while artillery support came from Longues-sur-Mer battery.

Naval bombardment began around 05:30am with cruisers Ajax and Argonaut scoring direct hits on 3 of the 4-152mm cannons at Longues-sur-Mer. Casement #4 continued to fight sporadically throughout the day and surrendered on 7 June.

Looks like a direct hit to me!

Casement with 152mm cannon

Another casement with impact damage

The British objectives were to establish a beachhead, flank to their right and capture Arromanches (future site of the Mulberry Harbors) and proceed on to capture Bayeux. All this on D-Day!

Say hello to my little friend…..

Pretty good shot. I’d give that a 10!

The beachhead was established and Arromanches captured, Bayeux however did not fall until 7 June. By the end of the day on D-Day, ~25,000 men had landed at Gold Beach!

Before WW2, Arromanches was a small fishing village that just started to become popular with tourists. Of course, once Germany invaded, the tourist industry took a nose dive. Once the Allies captured Arromanches, the tourists came back. This time in the form of thousands of troops and millions of tons of equipment. Because the Allies needed a port and the German’s weren’t quite ready to give one up, they came up with this plan. Lets tow massive concrete foundations from England to France, sink them in the harbor and build a road on top of them. Called “Mulberry Harbors”, remnants of the ones at Arromanches remain there today.