Empire ship the Normandy invasion depended on the successful construction of the Mulberry ports. These were prefabricated ports, constructed at Southampton, Gosport, Portsmouth, Tilbury Docks, and even as far north as Birkenhead and Hartlepool. Two hundred tugs then took three months to tow the components of the harbours from where they were constructed to assembly areas on the South Coast. Between 7 June 1944 and the end of July, the tugs towed the materials across the channel to Normandy. Before D-Day, sixty old merchant ships and four old warships were selected as blockships, to be scuttled in a line to give protection
HMS Hydra (J275) naval part of the D-Day landings at Normandy on 6 June 1944. She was mined in the approaches to Ostend on 10 November 1944. She was towed to Sheerness but declared a constructive total loss and not repaired. She was sold for scrap and arrived at the yard of Thos W Ward in Grays, Essex to be broken up in 1947. HMS Hydra (J275) HMS "Hydra" was a reciprocating engine-powered built for the Royal Navy during the Second World War. She was badly damaged during the war and was scrapped in 1947. The reciprocating group displaced at standard load and