D-Day for allied landings 'harbour'

But prototype pontoons that helped make the D-Day landings a success and end the Second World War could be destroyed next month as part of plans to improve ferry services in southern Scotland.

The concrete and steel pontoons still stand on the sea bed in Loch Ryan, off the Dumfriesshire coast, and were the forerunners of the Mulberry harbours used by Allied forces to establish a bridgehead on the Normandy coast in June, 1944.

Heritage experts are calling on ferry company Stena to help preserve the pontoons, which have been lying neglected for most of the last 65 years, as the last examples of the structures that proved so important to the Allied landings.

Stena, which runs ferries to Northern Ireland from Cairnryan is planning to build a new terminal and wants to remove the pontoons to develop the site. Although it says it has agreed plans with Historic Scotland to try to save at least one of the four pontoons, they may all break up once removal operations start. The structures were made in Motherwell.

Stephen Raeside, of the Clyde Heritage Trust, which is campaigning to save the pontoons, said: "The D-Day landings were one of the largest and most important battles in 20th-century history. Without the Mulberry harbours, the D-Day landings could have been a failure.

"They provided vital supplies without which the Germans could have beaten them back to the sea.

"I know they don't have the glamour of a Spitfire or a tank, but they are important to our heritage. There is a snobbishness when it comes our industrial heritage – people are quick to save a Titian or a Turner, but it is often a case of 'to hell the bread and butter parts of our heritage'."

Raeside said Stena's agreement to try to save one of the four pontoons would be "meaningless" without the others.

"Historic Scotland have not made it obligatory to save all four of the pontoons, they just want one to be retained and in doing this they are letting Stena off the hook."

The trust's campaign to save the pontoons has received support from across the region.

Dr Christopher Mason, chairman of the Clyde Maritime Trust, said the fact that they had been ignored for so long said more about government neglect than the pontoon's lack of historic value.

He said: "It is a matter of regret that the Scottish Government and the Westminster Government are not willing to take a lead role as a matter of course when it comes to preserving national heritage.

"In France, if the government of the republic were to decide that these items were to be preserved, then it would happen. We don't have that system and it's a great shame."

He said that it was not necessary that the pontoons be kept in Scotland as they formed part of a wider British military and civil engineering heritage. If they were restored and presented properly, they would be an asset to any museum.

North Lanarkshire Council Museums said the connections to Motherwell's industrial heritage alone was justification enough for conservation.

A council spokesman said: "They represent the vital role played by Scottish companies in this unprecedented engineering project and the often forgotten role of those who worked in reserved occupations."

Historic Scotland said it recognised the importance of the Mulberry harbour complex, and had been in touch with Stena's environmental consultants. They had assured the agency that the planning guidelines for preserving part of the structures were being followed.

Nigel Tilson, Stena Line's UK communications manager, said that until now little interest had been shown in the pontoons.

He said: "We fully realise the Mulberry harbours are an important part of the history of the Loch Ryan area, but the pontoons are in an extremely poor condition.

"We will do our best to ensure that we salvage at least one of them for posterity. However, while we will take great care in moving the pontoons, there is no guarantee they will not break up once they are removed from the seabed. After all, they have been there for over 60 years."