The objects in the foreground and background are remnants of "Mulberry B," aka Port Winston, in Arromanches, France. Mulberry B was a huge floating harbor towed across the English channel, in pieces, to this site during the D day invasion. This harbor, and a similar one used at Omaha Beach that was ultimately washed away in a storm, were created to provide the port facilities necessary to offload the many thousands of men, vehicles and supplies necessary to sustain the Allies in the Battle of Normandy.

There is a plaque at Arromanches that proclaims Port Winston as "the key of the liberation of Europe."