​​HM LCT 7074​

​​Manufactured by R. & W. Hawthorn, Leslie & Company, and launched on 4 April 1944, LCT 7074 was one of the 235 mark III models that took part in D-Day. 

​LCT 7074 had two officers and ten ratings, and formed part of the 17th LCT Flotilla for Operation Neptune. In the run-up to D-Day, LCT 7074 arrived at the River Orwell near Felixstowe where one Cromwell tank, two Sherman tanks and seven Stuart light tanks of the 22nd Armoured Brigade were loaded onto the deck for the invasion of 6 June.

​Over several months, LCT 7074 ferried between the south coast of England and the Normandy beachhead, where it delivered massive quantities of vehicles, ammunition and supplies to sustain the Allied advance from Normandy that would eventually come.

​The craft was then converted for service in the Far East, but due to the end of the war in May 1945, it was never deployed there. After its decommissioning in 1947, LCT 7074 ended up berthed in Liverpool, and was even converted into a nightclub in the 1990s.

​Following a grant from the National Memorial Heritage Fund, LCT 7074 was salvaged by the National Museum of the Royal Navy in 2014. After a six-year restoration, the craft was finally moved to The D-Day Story museum in Portsmouth, where it became part of the permanent exhibition The D-Day Story, Portsmouth.