D-Day Museum, Portsmouth

The D-Day Story is a museum in Southsea, Portsmouth. It first opened in 1984 as the D-Day Museum and was officiated by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. It tells the story of the invasion and battle of Normandy, through the perspectives of the people involved using objects, interactives, and video.

D-Day Museum underwent a period of refurbishment and re-opened as the D-Day Story in 2018. The museum was designed by renowned architect and World War II veteran Ken Norrish.

The story of D-Day at the museum is told in three sections: Preparations, D-Day and the fight for Normandy, and Legacy. The story is told on the Overlord Embroidery. The Embroidery, an echo of the 900-year-old Bayeux Tapestry, relates the story in 34 hand-stitched panels 273 feet long.

The Embroidery was formed by twenty members of the Royal School of Needlework after seven years of stitching. It is not a tapestry, which is woven on a loom. An embroidery is made by stitching onto a background fabric. Technically, the Bayeux Tapestry is also an embroidery. The Overlord Embroidery makes more use of appliqué shapes stitched.

There are film clips of veterans, a Sherman tank and a Churchill tank, and LCT 7074, the last of the D-Day landing craft. Other vehicles and amphibious trucks are on display. There is a reconstruction of the operations room of Southwick House. The exhibit includes even the pencil used to sign the order to naval forces at Gold Beach on D-Day.