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In March 2018 I had the honour of attending this Museum twice once with the First Deputy Mayor of Caen and her entourage on their visit to Portsmouth which was to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of twinning between Portsmouth and Caen. The second visit was as part of the City Tour Guides and Portsmouth Ambassadors.
The Museum opened to the public on Good Friday 2018, Friday March 30th.
It was officially opened by HRH The Princess Royal on Friday May 11th 2018.
Stephen Morgan MP was present and has given me permission to publish his photos and some words here on his behalf.
"Pleasure to be at the official opening of The D-Day Story with HRH Princess Royal. Proud my grandfather was a D-day veteran from Portsmouth and proud our city has this fantastic international asset as a legacy of all those who served as part of Operation Overlord."
Since it has opened I have visited on some more occasions. With the dignitaries from Caen and Duisburg on Mayor Making in May 2018 and to speak to Museum Curators with various specific themes in mind. Portsmouth and Caen Twinning's Peace Garden is being replanted right in the grounds of this museum. On May 15th the Lord Mayor and a representative of the Mayor of Caen M. Pimont planted an Olive Tree in this newly forming peace garden. An article about this event can be found here.
The Museum's Website can be found here:
Visit Portsmouth has a very good guide to the D-day Story Museum here.
There is a quick and easy printed guide in large print for the visually impaired. This guide exists also in French. These are available from the front desk or from shelving placed at intervals throughout the museum's displays.
Many people helped the new museum renovation by giving advice on the displays, including people representing the blind and visually impaired, the hard of hearing and those with learning difficulties or on the autistic spectrum. There are days planned with specific needs in mind, these are known as chilled out museum days, where the sound is reduced and the lighting is turned up.
Each area in the museum has its own map of displays for ease of finding the way. These are colour coded. The museum has much detail about access for all visitors to the museum here.
On Entry to the Museum there is a movie which is well worth watching as it sets the scene for the whole museum. Here we begin with the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk. The movie is subtitled for the deaf and is audibly clear enough to be understood by the visually impaired. Here there is seating to be found, which is apparent throughout the museum.
For the visually impaired and blind there are braille and tactile models peppered throughout the museum in front of many of the major displays.
Including, in the first part of the museum, the BARV (Beach Armoured Recovery Vehicle), the Duck and the Atlantic Wall. This one is the largest tactile models, which allows anyone who wishes to touch and understand how the obstacles had to be overcome to allow access to some of the landing beaches. A similar part of the landing beaches to that portrayed in the Hollywood Blockbuster 'Saving Private Ryan' starring Tom Hanks. You also here have a perspective of life in occupied Normandy including some of the propaganda which was circulating from both sides of the war.
Then moving through the museum you arrive at another movie studio with seating, where different people recount their perspective of the coming events before D-day itself. You hear from among others British, German, Canadian and American Soldiers as well as French Resistance Fighters.
In the next part of the museum, you will experience D-Day itself with a tactile map of the crossing from the UK South Coast to Normandy. Here there is a landing craft, onto which from time to time, a 3D 'holographic' movie is projected which gives a very good impression of how the soldiers on board may have been feeling as they were approaching the Sword landing beaches near Caen-Ouistreham.
You then turn to a model of the Normandy Coast with many items displayed which can be traced back to their presence on D-day itself on the very beaches at which they are displayed in the model.
Behind this model a movie plays with various images and anecdotes from D-day itself.
As you leave this section for the next part, you can see the occupying forces perspective of D-day and front page headlines from the UK, USA, Norway and Canada. A tactile model of a hero of World War 2 a messenger in the form of a carrier pigeon is also present.
In the last part of the Museum the battle for Normandy and of course our twin town of Caen (the first major French city to be liberated after D-day) is presented. Again varying displays and items from many areas and nationalities.
Once you leave this part of the museum you enter the lobby where there is a café/coffee shop serving various drinks and food items.
There is the gift shop and Portsmouth Tourist Information Centre as well. You cross this section to view the Overlord Embroidery Section.
This embroidery, inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry (also really and embroidery) has been cleaned and displayed in a newer state of the art glass casing, with much thinner but stronger glass. This glass is far less reflective than the original glass casing. Also the new LED lighting is far more efficient. This all goes together to give a much more vivid embroidery. If you have ever seen the embroidery before, you were seeing the VHS version, now it is in 4K High Definition...
On the opposite walls to the embroidery, there are many touch screen booths. These contain many interviews with veterans of World War Two and D-Day recounting their own stories about returning home after the war and many other topics.
In the central area there is a whole room dedicated to the story behind the making of the embroidery, again with interactive booths featuring footage of the embroidery being made and interviews with its makers and clips from the documentary made about the embroidery. There are also more tactile displays with materials and a chance for children or indeed the young at heart to have a go at something more 'hands-on'.
Speaking to one of the curators of the museum. I am told they are going to add Audio Guides for the Blind and the Visually Impaired towards the end of 2018. They are also working towards adding more languages to their repertoire of information guides.