d day tours from portsmouth

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The D-Day Story

The D-Day Story, Portsmouth

Discover the personal stories behind the epic day...

Visit The D-Day Story including Landing Craft Tank 7074

How do you get an army across the english channel and into france when your enemy is well armed, well trained and expecting you, find out how at the d-day story, portsmouth.

Told through the personal accounts of people who were there and brought to life through stunning audio-visual presentations alongside iconic objects from the museum’s collection; this is the story of D-Day.

Please note: the museum will be open throughout the D-Day 80 week but there will be some road closures in place, as well as changes to car and coach parking. See our information page for all the details. There will also be two late openings – until 19:00 on 5 June and 18:00 on 6 June.

Keep up to date with all the plans as we commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

Explore our collection of vehicles, uniforms, medals, documents, maps and recordings of veterans in our online collection .

Support The D-Day Story and get a keepsake of your visit with an item from our online shop. We have books, gifts, homewares, games and more.

Discover all about LCT 7074 , part of The D-Day Story visitor experience.

Browse through 80 fascinating objects from a host of national museums that tell the story of D-Day.

Coming soon...

D-day 80: veteran livestream.

Monday 3 June 2024

15:30 - 16:15

Normandy veterans will be available to answer questions in our online livestream.

D-Day in 80 Objects Evening Talk

Wednesday 12 June 2024

Discover more about D-Day in 80 Objects, including how it was curated and some of the stories it tells.

The Polish D-Day Story

Saturday 15 June 2024

10:30 to 16:30

Discover the important role of Poland’s military during the Normandy landings at this special anniversary event.

The D-Day Story

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The D-Day Story, Portsmouth

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You are here: Things To Do > The D-Day Story

The D-Day Story

Type: museum.

Tel: 023 9288 2555

The D-Day Story is the only museum in the UK dedicated to the Allied Invasion in June 1944. It tells the unique personal stories behind this epic event.

The museum contains many exhibits not previously displayed to the public, in galleries that feature the words and perspectives of those involved - from both a military and a civilian viewpoint. There are also spaces for learning, events and interactive displays.

The museum's unique and dramatic film show uses archive film to bring back memories of the wartime years. There are also extensive displays featuring maps; uniforms and other memorabilia; several vehicles and even a real LCVP landing craft.

In 2021, the last survivng Landing Craft Tank from D-Day - LCT 7074 became part of the D-Day Story, taking pride of place under a purpose built canopy next to the museum.  Included as part of the museum ticket, visitors can now explore this fully restored craft and marvel at the sheer size of these vessel, visit the officers quarters and command bridge.  Restored by  National Museum of the Royal Navy  (with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund), this is a great addition to Southsea seafront.

At the centre of the museum sits the Overlord Embroidery, which was commissioned by Lord Dulverton of Batsford (1915-92) as a tribute to the sacrifice and heroism of those men and women who took part in Operation Overlord. The embroidery is 272 feet (83 metres) in length, and is the largest work of its kind in the world.

The D-Day Story is full of personal stories of courage and determination, comradeship and sacrifice, secrecy and deception, innovation and tactics. It is a story in which ordinary people worked together to achieve an extraordinary outcome, exemplifying ‘the epic made personal; the personal made epic’.

Portsmouth Visitor Information Service is located in the museum. The museum’s shop sells a range of items relating to the Second World War.

Please note - museum staff reserve the right to search bags and all visitors must agree to this as a condition of entry to the museum.

Book Tickets

Guide prices.

Concessions Disabled adult visitor (personal assistant/carer receives a free ticket): £12.70 Disabled senior visitor (personal assistant/carer receives a free ticket): £10.20 Disabled child visitor (personal assistant/carer receives a free ticket): £6.40 Portsmouth Leisure Card 40% discount on full price Veterans of the Second World War: Free Serving members of the Armed Forces: £12.70

Accessibility

• All Areas Accessible to Disabled Visitors
• Disabled Parking
• Disabled persons toilet
• Facilities for Hearing Impaired Visitors
• Facilities for Visually Impaired Visitors
• Guide Dogs Permitted
• Induction Loop System
• Parking Areas for Disabled Visitors
• Ramp/Level Access
• Toilets for Disabled Visitors
• Wheelchair user accessible

Audio Commentary in Foreign Languages

• French audio guide
• German audio guide
• Spanish audio guide
• Cafe - April - Sept
• Catering for groups - with prior booking with the cafe.
• On-Site cafe/restaurant
• Picnic area - on communal parkland
• Picnic Site

Children & Infants

• Baby changing

Establishment Features

• Audio Commentary in Foreign Languages - For the Overlord Embroidery only (English/French/ Dutch/Spanish/German)
• Event Venue
• Groups by arrangement - Tours of D-Day Museum and / or Overlord Embroidery available by arrangement for pre-booked groups (fee applies).
• Groups welcome
• Open all year round
• Out of Hours Visits

Parking & Transport

• Coach parking
• On site parking close by - Fees apply
• Parking (charge)
• Railway station within 5 miles

Payment Methods

• Approx length of visit - 1.5 - 2 hours
• Delta accepted
• Groups Accepted - Please download our Group Travel Guide for more information.
• Maestro Accepted
• Min group size - 15, to qualify for group rates.
• Open by appointment outside normal opening times - For groups only. Extra charge, available on application.
• Special group rates - Adult: £5.50 Senior: £4.50 Child: £4.00

Specialist Features

• Educational Groups
• Marketed Towards Families
• Marketed Towards Senior Citizens
• Marketed towards student/youth

Tours and Demonstrations

• Educational Visits Accepted - Most suitable for Key Stages 2 & 3. Tours of D-Day Museum and / or Overlord Embroidery available by arrangement, for pre-booked groups (fee applies).

TripAdvisor

Map & directions.

Click here to view the map.

Road Directions

M27 or A3(M) to M275 to Esplanade.

If you require any information for your visit, please contact the museum directly.

Public Transport Directions

Nearest stations are Portsmouth & Southsea or Portsmouth Harbour.

Opening Times

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• Defence and armed forces
• Military awards and commemorations
• Remembrance

D-Day veterans gather in Portsmouth as 80th anniversary events begin

Dozens of veterans of the Normandy Landings gathered at Southwick House in Hampshire today as a week of events marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day begins.

Veterans of D-Day gather in the Map Room at Southwick House

D-Day veterans met for afternoon tea and a formal dinner at the mansion near Portsmouth which served as the allies’ forward headquarters for the D-Day beach landing operations.

The visit is thought to be the largest meeting of surviving D-Day veterans this year, as some are not well enough to make the journey to Normandy for the 80th anniversary. 

Many of the veterans will travel to Normandy on Tuesday morning, while others will remain in the UK to attend the national commemorative event in Portsmouth on Wednesday. 

Southwick House is a Grade II-listed Georgian mansion house that was the nerve centre of D-Day. 

Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight Eisenhower and Commander of the Allied Ground Forces General Bernard Montgomery made the monumental call to launch D-Day from Southwick House.

Veterans meet for tea in the Eisenhower Room, where the D-Day general gave the order to invade Normandy

Veterans gathered in what is now named the Eisenhower Room, where the fateful decision was made. 

The veterans will be at the heart of commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy Landings this week.

The gathering at Southwick House began a week of commemorations in the UK and France.

The city of Portsmouth will host the Ministry of Defence’s national commemorative event on Southsea Common on the morning of 5 June.

The event will be broadcast live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer and will feature appearances by members of the royal family, military musicians and a flypast by the Royal Air Force’s Red Arrows.

The commemorations will continue in Normandy on Wednesday evening with a moving vigil and light show at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Bayeux War Cemetery. 

Southwick House is still a working military base, and is home to the Defence School of Policing and Security.

On Thursday 6 June, the date of the 80th anniversary, the Ministry of Defence and the Royal British Legion will host the UK’s national commemorative event at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, France. 

Southwick House is still a working military base and is now home to the Defence School of Policing and Security.

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Mon 3 Jun 2024

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I went on an e-bike tour of D-Day landing beaches – and saw a fading history

As the 80th anniversary of the normandy landings approaches, a slow tour of those pivotal beaches offers a deeply moving perspective.

So many hues of grey. Gunmetal surf slaps and jostles my boat. Pearly foam sluices over the bow, spray stinging my cheeks beneath a silverish sky. Ahead, a low, misshapen concrete slab: German bunker Wn47 , glowering across the sandy crescent. I leap from my craft into grizzled shallows. The undertow sucks at my ankles as I splash ashore on Gold beach.

'My home in France costs just £60k - my life would be unaffordable in the UK'

It would, of course, be both disingenuous and disrespectful to compare kayaking off the Normandy coast to the experiences of more than 150,000 Allied troops who landed here on 6 June, 1944, 80 years ago this week.

Clearly, paddling on to Asnelles beach bears no resemblance to Saving Private Ryan . But it does offer an immersive alternative perspective on that first pivotal step in Operation Overlord, the campaign to liberate France from Nazi Germany and is the centrepiece of an e-bike tour of those Normandy beaches.

Diverse activities are commemorating the 80th anniversary during this month’s D-Day Festival , ranging from parachute drops, camp reconstructions, re-enactments and parades to talks, concerts and swing dances. That’s on top of special exhibitions and events at the region’s 94 museums, memorials and cemeteries.

There’s no shortage of tours, too, and it’s easy to take in key locations by hire car or public transport. Better still, though, pedal the well-signed Vélo Maritime cycle route for the freedom to pause, detour and delve deeper.

Normandy’s enduring memory of D-Day was evident even as I collected my e-bike at Ouistreham ferry terminal , packing my panniers alongside a memorial to Royal Navy and Royal Marines crews in the harbour car park.

Two blocks west, I passed the hulking concrete monolith of Le Grand Bunker – the Museum of the Atlantic Wall , named for the system of German defences stretching 1,670 miles from Arctic Norway to France’s border with Spain. Soon after came the D-Day 70th Anniversary Memorial overlooking the eastern-most sector targeted by Allied forces, predominantly British troops, codenamed Sword Beach.

First stop was Courseulles-sur-Mer’s innovative Juno Beach Centre , where interactive displays encourage young visitors to ponder the motivations and experiences of Canadian troops who landed in this zone.

Its pioneering green initiatives include a low-carbon tariff that’s proliferated across Normandy: simply show your public transport ticket, or a photo proving you’ve arrived on foot or bike, for a hefty discount.

Beyond Ver-sur-Mer and the eastern edge of Gold beach, I cut inland to the British Normandy Memorial , where 1,475 silhouetted servicemen, and a number of nurses, comprise the Standing With Giants installation. This is a powerful reminder of the human cost of the assault – yet represents only the fatalities under British command on D-Day.

The overall tally of casualties during the Battle for Normandy was far higher – probably more than 550,000, plus civilians.

Such an ambitious operation required planning on a scale never seen. Among the most audacious schemes was the installation of two vast temporary Mulberry harbours, focus of the recently reopened D-Day Museum in Arromanches . Today, surviving elements are the decaying but still colossal “beetles” and concrete-filled cylinders ( caissons ) scattered across the bay like so many gargantuan Lego bricks.

Secret letters from the Holocaust reveal defiance in the midst of chaos: 'Be brave and cope'

The following morning, I paddled out to inspect these barnacle-pimpled blocks with Valentin Fessard, who guided me inside one of the hollow chambers. As He explained that these concrete reminders of the project are gradually crumbling: “Some years ago I watched as one collapsed, vanishing all at once,” he recalled. “Probably in a few decades there will be almost nothing to see.”

On I rode, west past the formidable cliff-top battery at Longues-sur-Mer, its monstrous guns’ rusted barrels still aimed towards Gold and neighbouring Omaha beach, the US landing sector that was my last stop.

At Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, beneath the expansive American Cemetery and the gleaming wings of Anilore Banon’s sculpture Les Braves , I swapped my road cycle for an electric fatbike to roam Omaha with Laurent Guerin.

Etching diagrams in the sands, he mapped out the action and explained how underwater ridges and runnels proved fatally challenging to so many troops driving or splashing ashore.

Finally, he led me to a new memorial to a pair of formerly unsung heroes.

Naval Ensign Lawrence S Karnowski and army engineer First Lieutenant Joseph J Gregory formed an unlikely partnership, battling to clear obstacles thwarting US forces from taking the beach in the first minutes of the landing. Under heavy fire, they not only opened corridors for advancing troops but also tended to injured men; while doing so, Gregory succumbed to his own wounds.

Laurent and I fell into a respectful silence, recalling the bravery and tenacity of these men and the other 2,400 casualties sustained on Omaha alone. Hearing such untold stories on the sands where they unfolded is a privilege indeed.

Getting there Return fares on Brittany Ferries, Portsmouth–Caen/Ouistreham, from £98, brittany-ferries.co.uk Where to visit Roulez Jeunesse rents e-bikes from €30 per day, roulezjeunesse.bike/en . Kayak tours around the Mulberry Harbour cost €40pp, charavoile-asnelles.fr/kayak-paddle . Four-hour e-fatbike tours along Omaha Beach cost €100pp, velomaha.fr . D Day Festival, to 16 June, ddayfestival.com . La Velomaritime runs along France’s Channel coastline, lavelomaritime.com Juno Beach Centre, junobeach.org D-Day Museum Arromanches, musee-arromanches.fr/en More information britishnormandymemorial.org en.normandie-tourisme.fr calvados-tourisme.co.uk

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