HMNB Portsmouth the military and naval units destined for Sword Beach on the Normandy coast as a part of Operation Overlord and the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944. Troops destined for each of the landing beaches left from Portsmouth aboard vessels such as the armed merchant cruisers HMCS "Prince Henry" and HMCS "Prince David", escorted by the Canadian destroyers HMCS "Algonquin" and "Sioux". The majority of the naval support for the operation left from Portsmouth, including the Mulberry Harbours. Boathouse 4 (built around the start of hostilities) contributed to the construction of landing craft and support vessels as well as more
Britannia Fields Engineers of the U.S.A. 82 Airborne Division who were housed and trained here from Feb to June 1944 prior to the D Day landings. They often trained and played baseball on the field. Some of the survivors’ visited the site in June 2004 for the 60th D Day Anniversary. A number of temporary wood huts were erected as barracks for the troops which after the war were used as temporary housing up to early 1950s when they were finally demolished. In 1951 these buildings were converted to a territorial barracks for D squadron Prince Albert’s own Leicestershire Yeomanry which used