Final voyage of incredible hulk
Last D-Day tank landing craft saved
SHE evaded intense German shelling during the D-Day landings only to sink 66 years later in a dock on Merseyside.
Now, after being raised and restored, Landfall, the last surviving Normandy tank landing craft, is ready to make a last journey to her final home – the National Museum of the Royal Navy.
The 59-metre, 300-ton vessel, also known as LCT 7074, was one of 800 such boats which carried tanks and military supplies on to the French beaches as part of the Allied invasion force of June 6, 1944. She narrowly avoided a German shell fire attack, which sank the boat next to her, to offload her first cargo of ten tanks, then spent months ferrying tanks and troops across the Channel.
After the war she became a floating nightclub in Liverpool from the 1960s to the 1980s before being taken to Birkenhead to be repaired, only for the local restoration trust to go bust. Work halted and she sank in 2010.
A £5million rescue operation by the Royal Navy museum saw her raised four years later and restored at the Portsmouth Naval Base. Her final eight-hour journey to the museum in nearby Southsea was due to take place in the early hours yesterday but was scuppered by stormy weather.
Head of Collections Nick Hewitt said another attempt would be made in the next day or two. He added: ‘It’s heartbreaking but I’m so proud. The transformation has been amazing.’
He hopes the public will be able to visit the ship from October.