D-Day Portsmouth 2004

In commeration of the 60th anniversary of one of the most significant battles in the 2nd World War, Portsmouth played host to a symbolic departure of ships from Portsmouth Harbour to the Normandy Beaches.

On the morning of 6th June 1944, Allied troops began landing on the beaches of Normandy in France.
So began the greatest seaborne invasion in history, and with it the eventual liberation of Europe and the end of the Second World War.

5 JUNE 2004 - D-DAY 60TH SYMBOLIC DEPARTURE FROM PORTSMOUTH

HMS GLOUCESTER lead the formation of British and Allied ships out of harbour on passage across the channel. She slipped from her Fountain Lake berth at 0835 on Saturday 5 June and waited between No.3 buoy and Fountain Lake berth until MV NORMANDIE slipped at 0845 from the Commercial Ferry Port (with Veterans embarked). The formation then continued out of the harbour, at slow speed, in the order

	D96	HMS Gloucester	Type 42 Destroyer (batch 3) stretched	1x Lynx	X????
	N/a	MV Normandie	Non-Mil	N/a	N/a
	D614	FS Cassard	Cassard class Air Defense Frigate	1x Lynx	Not Embarked?
	DDG71	USS Ross	Arleigh Burke class Multirole Destroyer (Flight I)	1x SH-60	Not Embarked?
	FFH339	HMCS Charlottetown	Halifax class Frigate	1x CH-124	Not Embarked?
FS Cassard leaving Portsmouth © Nick Newns	A389	RFA Wave Knight	Wave class Fleet Oiler	N/a	N/a

Following these large vessels out of harbour were a group of D-Day historic and representative craft (total 10 in number) using the Main Channel throughout. Nine of these joined the flotilla astern of RFA Wave Knight from the vicinity of No.3 buoy with the STEAMSHIP Challenger joining from Haslar Creek.


HMS Gloucester © Steve Wright	MV Normandie © Steve Wright	FS Cassard © Steve Wright

USS Ross © Steve Wright	HMCS Charlottetown © Steve Wright	RFA Wave Knight © Nick Newns

HMS Gloucester - Lynx © Steve Wright

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