Brockenhurst – 70th Anniversary of D-Day Commemoration
70th Anniversary of D-Day Commemoration
Residents and visitors joined together on 21 June to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings with a full day of activities and entertainments in both Brockenhurst and Lymington.
For this event a walk through history was created taking you to nine locations around Brockenhurst to find out more about what heppened here during WWII. You can download this walk leaflet here.
Brockenhurst high street, Brookley Road, was the site for some very imaginative WWII window displays encompassing a children’s history treasure hunt. Vintage vehicles lined the road and many local organisations set up stalls to sell WWII memorabilia and local produce. The ladies of Scarlet Swing and the Friday Girls sang songs from the era and Lindy Hop dancers kept everyone enthralled with their Jitterbug Jive and other moves. Children from Brockenhurst Primary School dressed as evacuees and, accompanied by Cadets from Brockenhurst College, travelled by train to Lymington to view the WWII boats berthed there for the day.
At Brockenhurst Railway Station the Lymington-Brockenhurst Community Rail partnership had organised a fine display including many vintage vehicles, local producer’s stalls and a variety of singers and dancers. The Lymington Band, performing on Platform 4, was enjoyed by those departing and arriving by train to and from Lymington. The occasion was completed in Brockenhurst with a showing in the Village Hall of the 1962 film ‘The Longest Day.’
In Lymington, HMS Medusa, a boat used in the D-Day landings berthed at Berthon Marina and enabled visitors to view the only remaining example of a harbour defence motor launch vessel. At Lymington Railway Station a day of events included live music performances and a display of vintage motor vehicles There was a guided history walk to Lymington Yacht Club and a ceremony at Lymington Quay commemorating the wartime role played by the Essex Regiments’s 2nd Battalion. A blue plaque was unveiled to mark the departure from Lymington of the Regiment on 3 June 1944 when they sailed to join the main fleet waiting in Southampton Water for Operation Overlord to begin.
You can find out more about the New Forest’s vital role in D-Day from Mulberry Harbour, to holding camps, road widening, advanced landing grounds, PLUTO and Embarkation by visiting our main page on D-Day in the New Forest.