Robert Lochner (engineer) major element, the Mulberry Harbour. One of the major challenges facing the D-Day landings was to secure a European port for the delivery of essential supplies, but instead of capturing an existing port, the Allies decided on an audacious plan to build temporary harbours off the coast of Normandy. The big challenge in the rough seas of the English Channel was to create a breakwater to protect the concrete landings from the vicious waves and Robert Lochner was the man chosen by Churchill to lead a group of scientists known as The Wheezers And Dodgers to solve this challenge. The
Scuttling of the French fleet at Toulon the French fleet would be largely disarmed and confined to its harbours, under French control. The Allies were concerned that the fleet, which included some of the most advanced warships of the time, might fall into enemy hands and so the British attacked the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir on 3 July 1940 and at the Battle of Dakar on 23 September 1940. On 8 November 1942 the Allies invaded French North Africa (Operation Torch). It may be that General Dwight Eisenhower, with the support of President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, made