Post moved from home page of website to here to free up room and refresh site.

The image posted here is a crop of the old banner image. It took me awhile to decide on a image for the banner/header (no longer used), and I decided to use this one which takes us back in time to May 1944. Codenamed “Beetle” it is a pontoon on which a steel road (codename “whale”) was laid  and was used to link the Operation Overlord Mulberry harbours to the land on D Day at Omaha beach and at Arromanches at Gold beach, Normandy, France. Needless to say this one didn’t make it and ran aground on the beach at Aldwick, West Sussex.

There is a part of a Caisson, an actual part of the harbour/breakwater (codenamed “Phoenix) visible at low tide off Pagham beach. The Phoenix name was given to them because they were sunk at sea, off Pagham, to avoid detection and then raised prior to towing to Normandy.