DUNCANNON FORT will officially unveil a brand new exhibition this coming Monday, April 22, at 10 a.m.

Focussing on various wars the exhibition will remain on view at the fort during normal opening hours (10 a.m. to 5.30 p.m.) thereafter.

The World at War Exhibition will give visitors to the fort an insight into what it was like in the trenches during the Great War and will be Ireland’s only Great War Trench Experience.

A spokesperson for the fort commented on the exhibition to The Echo and said: “We have reconstructed a section of First World War frontline trench from the Western Front in the year 1917.

This section is typical of the vast system of trenches that extended for almost 700 kilometres from Nieuwpoort, in Flanders, on the Belgium Coast, to the Swiss Border.

“Imagine the unimaginable, the horror allied soldiers faced as they fought to free France from the grip of Hitler’s fanatical storm troopers,” said the spokesperson.

D-Day will be represented by a typical Normandy farmhouse.

“The allies have come ashore and the Germans are fighting rear guard, in the farmhouse we have Germans and an injured American Paratrooper who parachuted into France only to be captured by the Germans.”

The spokesperson went on to outline the setting: “They have been totally surprised by Operation Bodyguard which started at 6.30 a.m. Surprise was achieved due to inclement weather and a comprehensive deception plan implemented in the months before the landings.  The key to success was to convince Adolf Hitler that the landings would actually take place to the north at the Pas-de-Calais.”

Among the other aspects of war represented in the exhibition will be the Regimental Aid Post which, in reality, was located a few metres behind the front line.

Visitors will also get to see troops preparing to go ‘over the top’ into ‘no man’s land’ including the Royal Munster Fusiliers Irish Men fighting for the Crown.

“The 2nd Battalion, now numbering 20 officers and 630 other ranks, took part in the final Allied attack on the German Lines at Passchendaele,” said the spokesperson. This attack was documented in an epic track from rock band Iron Maiden called ‘Paschendale’.

“This attack brought an end to the campaign,” said the spokesperson.