Robert Lochner (engineer)
Robert Lochner (1904–1965) was the inventor of the Bombardon breakwater, an integral part of the Mulberry harbour, which helped the successful invasion of the Normandy beaches in June 1944.
Lieutenant Commander R. A. Lochner working at Short Lake House in Weymouth, Dorset in April 1944
Mulberry harbours were two temporary portable harbours developed by the British Admiralty and War Office during the Second World War to facilitate the rapid offloading of cargo onto beaches during the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. Designed in 1942 and then built in under a year in great secrecy, within hours of the Allies successfully creating beachheads following D-Day, sections of the two prefabricated harbours and old ships, to be sunk to create breakwaters, were being towed across the English Channel from southern England and placed in position off Omaha Beach and Gold Beach.
View of the Mulberry B harbour "Port Winston" at Arromanches in September 1944. Centre and left are "Spud" pierheads with floating piers of "Whales" and "Beetles". At right is 2000 feet of "Swiss Roll".
Phoenix caissons under construction in Southampton in 1944
Aerial view of Mulberry harbour "B" at Arromanches-les-Bains in Normandy (October 27, 1944)
The remains of the harbour off Arromanches in 1990