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
The 6:41 to Paris The 6:41 to Paris The 6:41 to Paris is a short novel by Jean-Philippe Blondel. It was originally published in French as "06H41" by Buchet-Chastel in 2013. This English translation by Alison Anderson was published in 2015 by New Vessel Press. "The 6:41 to Paris" is a novel set on a train traveling to present-day Paris told through the individual memories of two characters in a dual narrative. It is an account of a past romance between Cécile Duffaut and Philippe Leduc twenty-seven years ago when the two were both twenty. The two encounter one another unexpectedly on a train