Will Normandy be busy in August?

Did the loss in a storm of a Mulberry Harbour during the Normandy invasion lengthen WW2 in Europe?

• I recently asked a question about whether the Second World War in Europe could have been won in 1944. Answers suggested that this was prevented by problems in supplying the troops as they advanced on Germany. When they landed in Normandy in June 1944, the Allies set up two articificial Mulberry Harbours. However, one was lost in a storm ten days later. Did this lengthen the war? There are at least two issues here:- 1. Did the loss of a Mulberry Harbour delay the breakout from the Normandy beach head? 2. Would the second Mulberry Harbour have enabled enough additional suppies to be landed to have enabled the advance across France in August 1944 to continue to the German border and beyond?

• Answer:

  No, the loss of the Harbour didn't really delay the war that much as once the Allies made a bridgehead their first objective was to take and hold nearby ports so they wouldn't have to rely on the MUlberry harbours. The Mulberry harbours were really only a small stepping stone, they were needed to get supplies and heavy armour across so that then we could move into Fracne and take ports so we could get a proper supply line. Moreover, I doubt the loss of one Mulberry harbour really meant that the war was slowed down by much, the lack of supplies didn't last long and the Allies managed to transfer more supplies on to the remaining harbour. What did slow the Allies down were things like the the town of Caen which took the Allies much longer to take than they expected because the Germans held it so while, also things like the brilliant German Tiger Tank which all the Allied Tank crew feared, and also the failure of Operation Market Garden in Holland and failed crossings of the Rhine River.