A D-DAY tank that has been restored after lying abandoned by the banks of a canal in Normandy for years is to be unveiled on the 70th anniversary of the historic campaign.
For years the Centaur tank, used to provide covering fire for Royal Marines during the Normandy landings, has lain abandoned on the bank of the Caen canal, near the famous Pegasus Bridge.
The bridge was the site of one of the most famous assaults in D-Day, when gliders silently landed with fewer than 200 men on board to take two bridges without the Germans destroying them, allowing the soldiers who had landed on the Normandy beaches to move inland and begin the liberation of France.
Pegasus Bridge will be one of the sites where commemorations to mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day are held, including a mass parachute drop, a ceremony at the museum, and a midnight ceremony to mark the actual moment of the airborne landings.
They will also involve the inauguration of the Centaur tank, which has been restored by the museum after lying abandoned on the bank of the canal for decades. Only 80 of the unusual Centaur tanks, specifically adapted for use by the Royal Marines Armoured Support Group in the D-Day landings, were ever made. It is thought that just five remain.