D-day story is a recently opened museum in Portsmouth located on Southsea Common, close to Southsea Castle. It is a bit too far to walk from the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard area (1.5 miles), and parking in the area was difficult on the day I went (but that may have been because there was some sort of music festival happening on the common – although it sounded a bit more like someone was strangling cats in front of a microphone).
The museum is centred on the restored vessel LCT 7074 – apparently the last surviving landing ship from D-Day. The ship was used as a ‘night-club’ post war. It was originally going to be restored by the Birkenhead trust, but they went bust and she sank in Birkenhead dock. The National Museum of the Royal Navy subsequently took it over and completed the restoration, and she opened as a museum in 2020.
The restoration has been very well done – she is in great condition, and you have full access throughout the ship. She has been reverted pretty much to WW2 configuration (sans engine) – including a couple of tanks on the tank deck. You can’t help but admire the simplicity of the design, which enabled so many of these ships to be built so quickly.
The attached D-day Story museum is also very well presented, rich in artefacts, and with high quality displays. They have an additional small landing craft inside the museum.
There is a well-stocked gift shop, with a good range of books.
Links:
Fox, D, 2021, The resurrection of Landing Craft Tank 7074, Warship International, 58 (1), pp37-38.
Fox, D, 2023, LCT 7074 - The last survivor, Warship World, 18 (2), pp36-39.
