The first weekend of March saw the Society of Ancients‘s annual Armati-by-the-Sea wargames tournament in Bournemouth … after which it has become a tradition to make a group visit to a south coast military museum or heritage attraction. Some travel for the event from overseas (so not everyone’s transport arrangements are completed on the Sunday evening) …
This year, we drove round to Portsmouth, and the D-Day Museum (link)
Children playing on the 3.7″ AA gun
Signposting to the Museum isn’t that great – but it is on Southsea seafront, so you genuinely can’t miss it (drive along the seafront and take the entrance by the AA gun and the Churchill Crocodile). There is a pay-and-display carpark (and, as at Spring 2013, 3hrs cost £3.50, adult entrance to the Museum £6.50 each).
Overlord: the battle for Caen
The Museum is not that big, but has a fair number of exhibits, and as a unique attraction, houses the famous Overlord Tapestry (actually patchwork embroidery) created as a memorial celebration in imitation of the Bayeux Tapestry from 1,000 years earlier.
I include a picture of the superb panel depicting the battle for Caen (my favourite). Click it for a bigger image. The Overlord Tapestry has a special place for my family as it was rescued from mothballing by Whitbreads, who put on display at their then headquarters in Chiswell Street. Although no more than a curiosity, military buffs with needlecraft enthusiasts in their households may find it makes the D-Day Museum an outing that will be of interest for all the family.
D-Day Museum … bigger stuff
By mixing the bigger D-Day story (explaining the war itself) with the history of Portsmouth at war, the museum finds quite a bit to say for itself, and follows that style where you wind through corridors of exhibition cases and display panels which guide you through the topic. I thought most of them were pretty good, the panel information was useful, and the cases were fascinatingly full of objects.
The Map Room at Southwick House
My favourite of the life-size reconstructions is the Map Room at Southwick House (Southwick House) … it’s pretty convincing, yes, but it also begs to be put into action as the control board for the D-Day megagame (or is that just me?) …
Omaha Beach
There are a large number of smaller cases displaying models, sometimes built to illustrate parts of the story (so, e.g. a fascinating model of one of the Mulberry components), sometimes displaying donated collections of variable interest. Amongst these was a small Omaha Beach diorama built as a project by servicemen at Headley Court (good on them) …
Model displays
A lot of this was around the same quality you would see at your local wargames show, but I quite liked the some of the aircraft (it gets you thinking …):
Of course, it is the big stuff that is a real attraction with these places, and you’d have to say that D-Day, Portsmouth, could do with a bit more of it … they have a Churchill, Sherman and a 3.7 outside, and (notably) some jeeps, a Dingo, a DUKW, a Sherman BARV and a Higgins Boat inside. That’s about it (The Tank Museum it isn’t!).
Churchill Crocodile
I did enjoy being able to walk into the Higgins boat. Having spoken at length to one of the many who were delivered to Normandy that way many years ago, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Even so, they’re not big, and they don’t feel very secure. It is almost impossible to imagine being in one pitching and rolling in a rough sea, waiting for the machine guns to open up. Sobering.
Disappointingly, the book shop was a bit short on related military books (I do like to bump museum revenues by spending money in their shops, but, even with a will, it was hard to find anything here*), and we had intended to have lunch if they had a cafe (which they didn’t) … We’d have been happier with a better ‘retail end’, and would probably have increased our spending by around £20/head had they given us the opportunity.
That said, I have to add that I enjoyed visiting the D-Day Museum and am glad I stayed over ‘the extra day’. I would certainly recommend it to anyone already visiting the south coast, or who wants to see the Overlord Tapestry anyway. Those considering a trip from further afield … yes, it’s worth a visit – just bear in mind it isn’t a big one (it took us around 2 hrs at a leisurely pace).
I’d also add that it seems to do a good job with Schools … there was a school party in when we walked around, and another de-bussing as we were leaving (so it felt quite busy, for a Monday morning in March!)…
Positives: good informative displays and well thought-out exhibits; easy to find (if poorly sign-posted); first time I’ve stood in a Higgins boat; clearly gets plenty of youngsters in (who seemed to be having fun). Negatives: could be bigger; you have to pay to park; book shop hasn’t got much military history stock; no cafe …
more big stuff: Canadian built Sherman
*I did get a small book on the Mulberry system, which was ‘on message’, at least …
Didn’t realise they still had the Omaha beach diorama on display. I was one of the servicemen who built it during my recovery while at Headly Court.