Page 77 - History of War - Issue 05-14

Advanced 3D technology is used to
reconstruct working digital replicas Submariners paved the way
for the Allied armada on D-Day

Dassault Systèmes’ immersive-
technology 3D cave

The X men’s most watched them through the periscope playing football
on the beach. They had no idea what was coming!”
dangerous mission As night fell, though, under cover of darkness and
– all under fire. Incredibly, the American forces in wild seas, X 23 surfaced, raised its antennae and
listened in to the BBC’s 9 o’clock news bulletin. A coded
managed to get theirs up within three days Part of the project to document the D-Day landings on message in the broadcast would reveal if the invasion was
of the landings; the meticulous British took their 70th anniversary involved marine archaeologists imminent. It wasn’t. Bad weather had caused a 24-hour
a slightly less impressive week. The harbours’ exploring the Normandy coastline in mini-subs. For one of delay, and the X men had to spend another perilous day
durability was then tested almost immediately. the dives, they were joined by 93-year-old veteran Royal waiting underwater.
Navy submariner Jim Booth, who had played a pivotal role Then, on 6 June, the submarine re-surfaced, set up
Freak storm in the success of the invasion. an 18-foot-high beacon and shone a green light towards
On the night of 2 June 1944, Jim’s crew left the Isle of
Between 19 and 22 June, a freak storm howled Wight in their midget sub X Craft 23. Measuring just two England. Visible up to five miles northwards, it was
through the Channel, causing 800 ships to metres by 15, it was powered by a diesel engine taken undetectable to the Germans, who couldn’t have dreamt
either sink or wash up on the beaches – more from a London bus. With another X Craft – the X20 – to what was steaming towards them.
“It was a spectacular sight,” Jim says, remembering
than the Germans managed to sink during the their starboard, they slipped quietly across the English the D-Day armada as if it were yesterday. “After the
entire campaign. It was the worst summer storm Channel. On 4 June, the X Craft fixed their positions just beach had been pulverised by air attacks, we watched
in over 40 years, and modern meteorologists off the Normandy coast – X 23 off Sword Beach, X 20 the ships appear over the horizon. Then the first huge
suspect that the huge amount of human activity off Juno. During the day, they remained submerged. wave of landing craft passed in front of us. It was dawn
in the waterway, as war raged across Normandy, “We were so close to the enemy,” Jim recalls, “that we by then. We’d seen them safely in.”
may well have played its part. Whatever the
cause, Mulberry A did not survive. In their
eagerness to get it operational, the Americans remained in service for nearly ten. At its peak, development, the simulation can already be
had cut corners when it had come to securing 9,000 tons of supplies were coming in via its used in conjunction with new 3D headsets that
the whales properly, and the roadway broke up makeshift motorway every day, and by the time allow the user to take a virtual stroll through
in the heavy seas. it was decommissioned, 2.5 million men, half the harbour and enjoy a 360-degree view of the
Mulberry B survived, however, and became a million vehicles and four million tonnes had enormous structure, just by turning their head.
the principle point of supply for the invasion until passed through it. As marine engineer Tim Beckett, son of the
Antwerp was eventually taken six months later. The remarkable virtual reconstruction Dassault genius who invented the Mulberry harbours
Although only designed to last three months, Systèmes has created to tell this story allows told History Of War, “It really is an astonishing
Mulberry B (which was the size of Dover harbour!) the user to not only look at the Mulberry harbour experience. It truly is like stepping back in time.
as it was, but to actually immerse themselves What would my father have thought? I think he
in it. It’s impressive enough when viewed on a would have found it fascinating.”
flatscreen TV or computer monitor, but the 3D Part video game, part living museum, this could
experience allows the viewer to use their own well be the future of history.
imagination to give a much more powerful insight To find out more about Dassault Systèmes’
into what they are looking at. Although still in D-Day project, visit www.3ds.com/dday/. w

Dassault Systèmes’ lab specialist
Nicolas Serikoff (left) with
Allan Beckett’s son, Tim

The amount of attention
that goes into recreating the
D-Day machinery is incredible

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