PUBLISHED: 19:00 21 September 2019 Oliver Sullivan The former HMS Woolverstone will feature in an exhibition at Portsmouth Museum, commemorating its role in the D-Day landings Picture: RCAHMS/CROWN COPYRIGHT/PA PA Archive/PA Images The ‘vital’ role played by a Suffolk village during D-Day is to be honoured in film at an exhibition at Portsmouth Museum. Ipswich High School head Oona Carlin being interviewed as part of the D-Day film for Portsmouth Museum Picture: PROMINENT The film will help tell the story of HMS Woolverstone’s role in securing the Normandy beaches in northern France as the allies pushed back against the German tides. Its feature is part of a wider film tracing the history of a D-Day landing craft 7074 tank – the only remaining landing craft tank from the invasion left in the UK. The commanding officer inside the 59-metre tank received his final orders for D-Day from HMS Woolverstone. On June 7, 1944, it carried 10 tanks from the 7th Armoured Division to Gold Beach in Normandy. But this was not the only vital role played by the Suffolk base. Between May and June 1944, the base took part in Operation Quicksilver – a successful mission in deceiving the Germans, making them believe the D-Day landings were in fact a diversion from the “real” invasion at Pays de Calais. Local historian Simon Pearce explained: “The idea was to construct a fleet of dummy landing craft which would be moored along the south-east and east coast. Woolverstone Park, with access to… [Read full story]
Leave a Reply