D-Day

In the build up to D-Day and the invasion of France, in early 1944 a US Army Motor Transport Maintenance Organisation set up a base on the Hamble foreshore. For 7 days a week they brought in lorry loads of rubble obtained from the blitz in Southampton, to form two slipways with a larger hangar/workshop on the shore. Tugs and barges were hauled up the slipways for repair.

Larger craft, used to carry fuel, were also repaired. A US tanker ship, a 600 ton Y-17 was repaired here and was hit soon after by a mine. A wall plaque in rememberance of her crew can be found in St. Andrews church. Today on the foreshore, an anchor and plaque have been erected to commemorate the US naval forces in Hamble Le Rice.

The shipyards along the banks of the Hamble River from Hamble Le Rice to Warsash and up river to Bursledon all gave magnificent support during the war years with construction and repair facilities. One of the more unusual repairs carried out was on a Landing Craft Infantry (small) vessel, LCI (S) 506 which returned to the river for repair with a tree trunk sticking up through her bilges, a souvenir of the beach obstructions on the Normandy beach!

Just after D-Day PLUTO lines (Pipe Lines Under The Ocean) were laid across the Channel from Hamble le Rice's BP terminal to Cherbourg, via Lepe and the Isle of Wight, to get fuel to the Allied forces. The pipelines were laid by means of giant drums fitted to the sterns of converted barges. These strange vessels could be seen at work from the shore at Hamble.

The TS Mercury...