NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM D-DAY ARTEFACTS
The National Army Museum’s Ian Maine profiles some of the historic pieces from its collections that are on show in the build-up to the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
With a vast array of unique items of historical importance at its disposal, the National Army Museum in London is famous the world over for its breath-taking displays and exhibits.
When thinking about what to have on show, the museum team keeps in mind significance anniversaries, and they don’t come much bigger than the 75th of the Normandy landings and the subsequent campaigns to free Europe in 1944/1945.
The museum is making available many items that document those momentous days in a number of ways – physically at its impressive Chelsea home, as well as through digital activity, a travelling exhibition and loans to The D-Day Story at Southsea, Hampshire. These objects illustrate the huge variety of activity the army undertook prior to the landings, on the day itself and in the following months.
Many exhibits tell the moving stories behind those that served. For example, Lt John Arthur Groom’s medal group is on show. He was awarded the Military Cross (MC) for covert beach reconnaissance of the Normandy coa…
