On the morning of 6 June 1944, 25,000 British and Commonwealth troops landed on Gold Beach, the central of the five Allied landing beaches. Among them were soldiers from the East Yorkshire Regiment, the Green Howards and the Devonshire Regiment, supported by specialised armour of the 79th Armoured Division. By nightfall, the British had pushed further inland than any other Allied force on D-Day — but it was what happened in the days and weeks after the landing that made Arromanches truly historic.
The Mulberry Harbour — Port Winston
The Allies knew that capturing an intact port would be difficult and time-consuming. Their solution was one of the great engineering feats of the 20th century: two prefabricated harbours, code-named Mulberry A (American, off Omaha Beach) and Mulberry B (British, off Arromanches), were constructed in Britain and towed across the Channel in pieces. Mulberry B — nicknamed Port Winston in honour of Churchill — became fully operational within two weeks of D-Day.
At its peak, Port Winston handled 7,000 tonnes of supplies per day. Over the ten months it remained in operation, it processed more than 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles and 4 million tonnes of supplies and equipment. The harbour that held at Arromanches even survived the Great Storm of June 19–22, 1944, which destroyed the American Mulberry at Omaha entirely.
Today, concrete caissons from the original harbour still sit in the bay at Arromanches, visible from the beach at low tide — a permanent and extraordinary monument to what was achieved here.
Musée du Débarquement
The Musée du Débarquement in the centre of Arromanches-les-Bains is built directly overlooking the remains of Port Winston. Its circular main room frames a panoramic view of the bay and the surviving harbour sections. The museum traces the logistical story of the Mulberry harbours — from their design and construction to their assembly offshore and their vital role in sustaining the Allied advance. Scale models, original equipment, archival film and photographs bring this remarkable chapter to life.
Arromanches 360°
On the clifftop above Arromanches, Arromanches 360° is a circular cinema with nine screens arranged in a full panorama. The 20-minute film The Price of Freedom interweaves archive footage of the D-Day landings and the Normandy campaign with present-day images of the same landscapes and communities — a quietly powerful meditation on the cost and legacy of the liberation. Tickets are €7 per adult. The clifftop location also offers superb views over the bay and the Mulberry remains below.
Getting There
Arromanches is approximately 1 hour 30 minutes from Château de Flottemanville by car, heading south via the D974. The town is easily combined with a visit to the Canadian Cemetery and memorial at Bény-sur-Mer or the Bayeux Tapestry, which is 10 kilometres to the south.