Page 75 - History of War - Issue 05-14

A virtual-reality representation of the
Mulberry B artificial harbour at low tide

along with insight gained from photographs 20,000 of these plywood boats being built, none enough condition for the designers to work from
and interviews with veterans, allowed them to have survived to this day. to create an accurate, virtual 3D landing craft.
rebuild a virtual 3D model of the glider, capturing These shallow-hulled barges were also known By bringing one back to life, though, insights
every rivet, strut and inch of seat covering. as Higgins boats, after their designer Andrew were discovered that weren’t apparent just from
They then put this virtual aircraft into a Higgins, a boat builder and entrepreneur from studying the blueprints or photographs.
simulator and recreated how the plane handled, New Orleans who had a background in designing Following the plans, designers ensured that
and how hard it would have been to land in a craft that could be used in the shallow waters the boat had a second, smaller rudder, and that
Normandy field in the middle of the night, even the two panels that made up its bow weren’t
simulating a crash to discover what kind of DESPITE OVER 20,000 OF flat but more closely resembled the shape of
injuries the men inside would have suffered. a shallow, inverted “V”. When they put the 3D
More than just a gimmick, this provides modern THESE PLYWOOD BOATS craft into the simulator, they could see why. Both
historians a unique, if terrifying, insight into modifications helped the craft to manoeuvre
the past. The flimsy fuselage clearly offered BEING BUILT, NONE HAVE better when it was withdrawing backwards from
little or no protection from trees, hedgerows the beach – which they would have done time and
or indeed Rommel’s Asparagus – the name SURVIVED TO THIS DAY again in the choppy water to collect more troops.
given to the million or so five-foot-high wooden
spikes the German Field Marshal erected all Virtual masterpiece
over the Normandy countryside to thwart glider of the Mississippi river. His boats were seen as As incredible as the work on the glider and the
assaults. As US military historian Professor so vital to the Allied victory that General Dwight landing craft undoubtedly is, Dassault Systèmes’
John McManus has pointed out, “Landing in D Eisenhower, who oversaw the invasion, virtual masterpiece is the recreation of the giant
a WACO glider would have been extraordinarily described him as “the man who won the floating harbour that was assembled off the
dangerous. You basically landed out of control!” war for us”. Adolf Hitler, meanwhile, grumpily
acknowledged him as “the new Noah”.
“The new Noah” Luckily, Higgins’ original blueprints for the
Of course, the majority of men who landed on boat still exist – having been salvaged from New
D-Day came in by sea, and the LCVP landing craft Orleans after the Hurricane Katrina disaster of
brought in well over 100,000. Again, despite over 2005. For the most part, they were also in good

The 3D reconstruction shows the
scale and details of the operation
A WACO glider’s flight is
accurately simulated

Allan Beckett’s kite anchors
moored the floating structures

HISTORY WAR 75
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