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
Dick Pirrie VFA. He enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy during World War II. Temporary Sub-Lieutenant Richard Perrie was the first member of the Australian Navy to be killed in action during the landings at Normandy on D-Day (6 June 1944). He was mentioned in dispatches (MiD): Dick Pirrie Richard Michael Pirrie (6 June 1920 – 6 June 1944) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League (VFL). The son of Richard Francis Pirrie (1879-1962), and Isobel Agatha Pirrie (1897-1982), née McGuire, Richard Michael Pirrie was born in Hawthorn on 6 June 1920. He attended St