THE 75th Anniversary of D Day was commemorated at the Mulberry Harbour Stone on Conwy Morfa by the town's council.

The Service was led by Rev David Parry with the Mayor of Conwy cllr Goronwy Edwards, who paid tribute to the men of Conwy who lost their lives in the Battle of Normandy, followed by a reading by Deputy Mayor Cllr Emma Leighton Jones., on Sunday June 9.

Between 1942 to 1944 Conwy Morfa was the site of the construction of three of the prototypes for the Mulberry Harbour and three component parts of the Harbour used at the D Day landings.

Mulberry harbours were temporary portable harbours installed to offload cargo onto beaches during the invasion of Normandy. Two Mulberry harbours were towed across the Channel in prefabricated sections and put in place as soon as the beachheads were secured.

The Mulberry harbours were heavily used until French ports were captured repaired after being sabotaged by the Germans

One of the Mulberry harbours was constructed off Arromanches on the British Gold beach, the other was further west on the American Omaha beach. This Mulberry was devasted by a north easterly storm on June 19, 1944, the worst to hit Normandy in 40 years.

In 1942 H Iorys Hughes, a Civil Engineer who had been brought up in Bangor and educated at Friars School, was requested by Winston Churchill to design a floating harbour for landing the troops on the French Coast. Tribute was paid to his work during the commemorations.

He designed, and built on the Morfa, three huge concrete caissons with roadways on top, named Hippos and Crocs. These were towed to Scotland and tested there alongside two other prototypes. In the eventuality the Hippos and Crocs were not used.

However, part of the chosen design was built on the Morfa and three of the Pierheads were towed to France for the landings and were an integral part of the whole plan. H Iorys Hughes was also involved in the design of the breakwater around the floating pontoons, called Phoenix.