IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - April 2021 - 61

History Column:

DOI. No. 10.1109/MAES.2021.3054639

PLUTO-The Pipeline Under the Ocean
Hugh Griffiths , University College London, London WC1E 6BT, U.K.

The second in this History Column series covers some
remarkable, but underappreciated pieces of engineering
associated with the D-Day landings in Normandy, France,
in June 1944. There are many books, articles, movies, and
websites, which record the landings themselves. Those
who have watched the first 20 minutes of the 1998 film
Saving Private Ryan will not easily forget them. But just
as important as the landings were the means by which the
Allied Forces were supplied with fuel, provisions, and further men and equipment in the months following the landings. This was made possible by ingenious prefabricated
concrete harbors ( " Mulberry Harbors " ) and a pipeline
(PLUTO), which supplied fuel.

At the height of their operations, the pipelines were
delivering almost 4000 tons of fuel per day, equivalent to
almost 1 million imperial gallons (4.5 million liters). In total,
by VE Day over 781 000 cubic meters (172 million imperial
gallons) of fuel were pumped to the Allied forces in Europe.

Map showing the PLUTO and DUMBO pipelines.

The PLUTO Pipeline, showing the layers of armored protection
(image courtesy of www.combinedops.com).

PLUTO ran from Shanklin on the east of the Isle of
Wight just off the south of England to Cherbourg-a distance of about 130 km. The English Channel is relatively
shallow, with an average depth of about 120 m. It was laid
by unrolling the pipeline from a large-diameter drum, and
ensuring that the pipe did not kink or otherwise suffer
damage as it was laid was quite a feat. The pipeline itself
had a diameter of 3 in (76 mm), armored and protected
with mild steel. As well as the pipelines, pumping stations
were built on the English mainland.
A second set of pipelines, called DUMBO, was later
laid across the Straits of Dover from Dungeness to Ambleteuse, near Boulogne.

Author current address: Hugh Griffiths, University
College London, London WC1E 6BT, U.K. (e-mail:
h.griffiths@ucl.ac.uk).
Manuscript received January 8, 2021; accepted January
11, 2021, and ready for publication January 23, 2021.
Review handled by Peter Willett.
0885-8985/21/$26.00 ß 2021 IEEE
2021

The Mulberry Harbors were made of prefabricated concrete pontoons which were built in England, towed to France
in the days following D-Day, and assembled in situ to make
the harbors. There were two harbors: Mulberry A at Omaha
Beach was destroyed by a severe storm on 19 June 1944; but
Mulberry B at Gold Beach was operational for 10 months after
D-Day, and over 2.5 million men, 500 000 vehicles, and
4 million tons of supplies were landed during its lifetime. The
remains of some of the Mulberry B concrete pontoons at
Arromanches Beach are still very obviously visible to this day.
Further information may be found at:
https://www.combinedops.com/pluto.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v¼sgMCvEDBEFY&t¼6m28s

Aerial photograph of the Mulberry Harbor at Arromanches
(Sgt. Harrison, No.5 Army Film Photographic Unit, Public Domain),

IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE

https://www.orcid.org/0000-0002-9947-5553 http://www.combinedops.com https://www.combinedops.com/pluto.htm https://youtube.com/watch?v¼sgMCvEDBEFY&t¼6m28s

IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - April 2021

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