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Trivia Time - Normandy Invasion related!

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NutmegCT

NutmegCT

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Who is it? What is it? And how did it help enable the Normandy Invasion?

Calculator.jpg

On June 5, 2019 - inquiring minds want to know!

And on June 5, 1944 - inquiring minds *needed* to know!
 
His friends called him "Art." His "predictions" were crucial to allowing the D-Day invasion to happen. I know who it is and what it is, but I'll not give too much away. :angel2:
 
Is it a type of weather station? PJ
 
I also know but my lips are sealed.
 
It is located in Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, England. I spent a whole day looking over all the displays, buildings, etc.
 
I'm not familiar with WHO, but I beleive the machine is a tidal calculator for determining which days and times would have offer tides most favorable for a landing, and ensuring that subsequent tides would be lesser and not wash the army off the beach the next cycle.
 
YakkoWarner said:
I'm not familiar with WHO, but I beleive the machine is a tidal calculator for determining which days and times would have offer tides most favorable for a landing, and ensuring that subsequent tides would be lesser and not wash the army off the beach the next cycle.
Click to expand...

Bingo!

One of the Doodson/Lege tidal calculators. This one was used prior to the landings to forecast tides for the Normandy beaches.

Getting data for specific areas wasn't exactly easy - British secret mini-subs had to survey the area to get the numbers.

https://blog.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/2015/08/tide-predicting-machines-restored-and-re-displayed/

http://noc.ac.uk/news/d-day-starting-point-modern-uk-oceanography

The photo is Arthur Doodson:

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbm.1968.0008

Regarding Bletchley Park, altho' the Tidal machine resembles the decoding machines used at Bletchley, they're not related.
 
Ah, the Bidston Observatory, just along the hill from the Windmill. I was up there a couple of years ago, and in a previous life in the Merchant Navy, with Liverpool my home port, I saw it many times. Very nostalgic.
 
I couldn't see the picture very well, thought maybe it was the "enigma machine" to break German code, I forgot about the tide calculator.
 
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