A warship which sailed from Portland for D-Day could be returning to France next year to join in the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings.

HMS Medusa - described as an "incredible survivor" - entered service as ‘Harbour Defence Motor Launch’ (HDML) 1387 and out of nearly 500 vessels in its class is the only one remaining in the original condition.

The volunteers who keep it ship-shape plan to return to the scene of Medusa's finest wartime mission next June - but the crew need to raise around £30,000.

D-Day in June 1944 was the biggest seaborne invasion in history. Allied forces left England’s south coast - including Weymouth and Portland - for France where they began to liberate the continent from the Nazis.

On D-Day Medusa was among the first vessels across the Channel – and in fact set off from Portland before the invasion was delayed.

The ship returned, waited, then set off again on June 5 to mark a precise spot on the edge of a German minefield off Omaha beach for the following day’s invasion.

It stayed as a beacon for the minesweepers so they knew where to cut a passage to the beaches, and as a marker for the invading force.

72ft-long Medusa carried the most advanced navigation equipment. The kit was so precious the vessel was fitted with demolition charges so it could be destroyed rather than let the equipment be captured.

For 30 hours it stayed in the same location, allowing ships and landing craft a safe passage through the water to the beaches.

Dorset Echo:

After the landings, Medusa, which turns 80 this month, worked off Scotland as an escort to a minesweeping flotilla and in May 1945 went to the Netherlands.

It was sold by the Admiralty in 1968 and was intended for the breaker’s yard, but a group led by Mike Boyce in Weymouth spent 18 years restoring it.

In 2002 a trust was formed to look after Medusa it is now based at Gosport, Hampshire.

Dorset Echo: Medusa's present captain Alan Watson said: “We’d love to go to France next year and think it fitting, but costs have risen.

“On top of the £20,000 a year we need just to keep her in a seaworthy condition we need another £10,000 and most of that is fuel costs.

“Many ships that took part in D-Day will be marking the anniversary in UK waters, but we think Medusa should be in France."

Dorset Echo:

He added: “She was built in Poole on the site now occupied by (yacht firm) Sunseeker.

“None of her D-Day crew are alive today but in their memory we’d like to take her across the Channel."

Donations can be made through the Medusa Trust’s website: https://www.hmsmedusa.org.uk/