COMMENT: Landing craft will be star of historic show for D-Day Museum

Fantastic news that the world-famous D-Day Museum in Portsmouth has secured £4.7m to add to its historic collection.

The cash, from the Heritage Lottery Fund, will enable the full restoration of a landing craft that transported tanks to Normandy as part of Operation Overlord in June, 1944.

The 300-tonne vessel, which had a chequered career after the war, including a spell as a floating nightclub in Liverpool, will take pride of place outside the revamped D-Day Museum on Southsea seafront.

The museum, home to the Overlord Embroidery telling the story of the events that became a major turning point in the second world war, attracts visitors from all over the world.

Commemorations are already being planned for the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019, and that can only mean more visitors will want to visit the new museum in Southsea.

The craft acquired for Southsea is one of only three remaining in the world and one of only 10 survivors from the 7,000-ship contingent involved in D-Day.

We echo the sentiments of Sir Peter Luff, chairman of the Heritage Lottery Fund, that it is important for future generations to appreciate the human and technological endeavour that made D-Day such a success for Britain and for world peace.

Just as HMS Victory, the Mary Rose, and Warrior are jewels in Portsmouth’s crown, so LCT 7074 will be the star of the show at the new D-Day Museum.

Portsmouth played a central role in this pivotal moment in world history, and it is only right that we should have a world-class museum to reflect that.

NOTE: The vessel will be on loan to the D-Day Museum and is owned by the National Museum of the Royal Navy