D-Day Landings 80th Anniversary and the New Forest

This year marks 80 years since the D-Day landings and its connection to the New Forest. This page tells you all about the New Forest’s role on that historic day, events taking place to mark the occasion, as well as audio accounts of those who lived through it.

On 6 June 1944, thousands of troops left Britain for the beaches of Normandy, France, from various locations including Lepe Beach in the New Forest. This is known as D-Day, the start of the great campaign to liberate Europe and bring the Second World War to an end.

Many places in the New Forest are now well known for their tranquility, their disconnection from the hustle and bustle of everyday life elsewhere. But for months, ahead of D-Day, the New Forest had been home to thousands of allied troops, their equipment, vehicles and supplies.

The woodlands, heaths, villages and beaches were used for training and rehearsals for an event none of the troops knew anything about. Residents recalled the roads busy with trucks, tanks and jeeps, and temporary camps hidden among the trees. In the north an area had been fenced off and used as a bombing range. No one would have described the New Forest then as tranquil.

However, on 6 June 1944, the once busy New Forest returned to its quieter past as the Allied Forces left the Forest for Southampton, Portsmouth and Lepe, and from there on to the Normandy beaches.

Exploring the Forest today you can still find vivid reminders of our wartime heritage, from brick and concrete pillboxes, abandoned camps marked only by concrete building platforms, to the scars left in the ground from the old runways, now removed.

The Forest and the people that were living here played an important role during the build-up to D-Day, they welcomed complete strangers into their homes, struck up new friendships and supported each other through difficult times.

Events

We have compiled a list of events taking place across the New Forest to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

Book:

The New Forest Commemorates D Day 80 | Culture In Common 

This link takes you to the Culture in Common page where you can view the flip book online.

Blogs:

NPA Chair, David Bence recalls the story of his uncle John’s part in D-Day.

Dan Snow on a Forest at war.

New Forest Remembers

The New Forest Remembers WWII (2012-2018) project aimed to record all the history, archaeology and living memories of the New Forest during the Second World War, and to make the findings freely available via an online digital archive.

Podcast

Episode 1: The Forest in the War

Episode 2: The build-up of troops

Episode 3: D-Day

Video archive

Have you checked out our YouTube channel yet for more videos about the New Forest and the work we do?

New Forest Knowledge

A wealth of historical documents, photographs, oral histories and more documenting the role of the New Forest during both WWI and WWII – as well as other periods and events – is at everyone’s fingertips through the New Forest Knowledge website.