Plea to raise £75k to save last D-Day landing craft

A fresh plea to raise £75,000 has been launched to protect a landing craft tank used during D-Day.

The National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) has just two months to plug the funding gap in the £4.7m project to restore LCT 7074 and is now desperate for the public’s help.

LCT 7074 is the last surviving landing craft used during the pivotal Second World War invasion of France 76 years ago, according to the Portsmouth News.

It had been hoped work to restore the huge 193ft, 300-tonne behemoth would be completed by May and that the tank could be moved to its new home near Southsea’s D-Day Story museum.

But the coronavirus outbreak ruined these plans leaving the project with a huge black hole in its budget.

“When the lockdown happened, we were just coming to the end of the conservation of LCT 7074 and were on track to move the ship to its new home at The D-Day Story in Southsea in May. However, all of that work had to be paused,” Nick Hewitt, head of collections and research at the NMRN, told the Portsmouth News.

“The project had to be delayed because of the coronavirus crisis, it was a difficult decision but essential to ensure the safety of the teams working on her.

“However, unfortunately the delay has bought additional costs on a project that was already reliant on the generous donations of the public. We now find ourselves having to raise an additional £75,000 to help us plug the Covid-19 gap by the end of August.”

The situation was revealed on Saturday, the 76th anniversary of the June 6 invasion of Normandy.

It’s stored inside a ship hall at Portsmouth Naval Base, where refurbishment work has been carried out. Among the work includes the completion of the ship’s original disruptive pattern paintwork used to camouflage the vessel.

Over the coming weeks, the restored funnel, replacement guns and rocket launchers will also be reattached ahead of the internal fit out of the ship.

Donate to the fundraiser online.