# Spud Pier 449 Arromanches



## godzilla73 (Jun 6, 2011)

Okay, so when I went to Arromanches two years ago (reported on here http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=11231&highlight=Arromanches) I couldn't get out properly to Spud Pier 449, because of the tide and because at the time, the entrances were a bit too high. However, several hundred tidefalls and two years later, its now a bit more accessible, and so thought it was ripe for a revisit.

In the D-Day Landing plans, each part of the artificial harbours constructed to support the Allied Landings on the 5 Normandy Beaches (Juno, Gold, Sword, Utah and Omaha) had a different code name. Mulberry for example, was the actual harbour wall that was constructed to shelter the landing sites, Mulberry "A" being at St Laurent Sur Mer -Omaha Beach - and Mulberry B being here at Arromanches. The components of Mulberry were carried in special"block" ships (which were deliberately scuttled afterwards) , codenamed Corn Cobs and were subsequently connected to "Spuds" which were piers that rested on the sea bed , but were designed to move up and down with the tide. Troops, vehicles and other materials were unloaded at the spud pier

On with the photos. Spud Pier 449 is by far the largest beached structure at Arromanches, though it probably isn't bigger than some of the bombardons that are still anchored out at sea. It has entrances at both ends, because it was designed to fill with water as it rose and fell on the tide.
Needless to say, it reeks, because of the large amounts of rotting seaweed and sealife trapped within it!


















A quick look inside at either end reveals a lot of rust and some quietly undisturbed shellfish....
















Thanks for looking....
GDZ


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## Snips86x (Jun 6, 2011)

That's so cool!


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## dobbo79 (Jun 6, 2011)

I visited Arrowmanches back in my school days. Its a really nice place...did you go in the museum? we never got chance to see these as the tide was right in so you could only see the tops of them...

Great pics and thankyou - they brought back memories of a place i would love to go back to


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## godzilla73 (Jun 6, 2011)

dobbo79 said:


> I visited Arrowmanches back in my school days. Its a really nice place...did you go in the museum? we never got chance to see these as the tide was right in so you could only see the tops of them...
> 
> Great pics and thankyou - they brought back memories of a place i would love to go back to



I last went to the Musee de Debarqument there sometime in the 80's. The thing is that there's a real museum industry round the landing beaches now, with each beach having its own museum (the Omaha one for example is run by the Canadian government as a permanent concern), the Pegasus Bridge, the Caen Memorial and even the Paratroopers who blew up the bridges over the River Orne all having museums - this is of course brilliant in one way in that it is absolutely right to commemorate the extraordinary feats of D-Day, but also means that there is less and less genuine derelict remains and more and more tourist trai l 
GDZ


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