IT was a secret visit which aimed to show Britain’s wartime monarch the massive scale of the invasion that was about to be launched.

King George VI made a hush-hush trip to the New Forest just days before the D-Day landings.

The king sailed down the Beaulieu River and inspected more than 300 ships and landing craft anchored in the Solent area.

Now, details of the day he viewed the huge invasion fleet have finally been revealed after almost 70 years.

The Queen visited last year’s New Forest Show and was told about a project being undertaken by the National Park Authority (NPA), which is researching previously untold stories of life in the Forest during the Second World War.

She agreed to release a diary kept by her father in which he describes his trip to a naval training base at Exbury, near Beaulieu, in 1944.

It reveals how he visited HMS Mastodon – now Exbury House – and watched the invasion preparations from the deck of the command ship HMS Bulolo.

Letters from the era tell how some of the Wrens based at Mastodon sneaked into the shrubbery to catch a glimpse of the king.

His diary will go on show to the public for the first time today when the NPA opens an exhibition in Lyndhurst.

The Exbury entry lists all the senior officers he met and adds: “I must have seen over 300 landing craft and other ships attached in the command.

“I spent a most interesting day.”

Guests at today’s ceremony will include, former pilot Arthur Poore DFC, who was diverted to Beaulieu Airfield as he returned from a bombing raid.

He will be joined by former showgirl Brenda Logie, from Southampton, who was interrupted mid-concert with the news that the war was over.

NPA chairman Julian Johnson said the authority was recording the personal reminiscences of Forest residents, who experienced the war.

He added: “Thanks to the New Forest Remembers project these memories will be kept for posterity so that future generations can understand how people lived and experienced those bygone days.

“The Forest played a vital part in defending the south coast from an ever-present threat of invasion.

“Later on it became the launching ground for D-Day when a massive concentration of Allied troops and naval personnel were accommodated in the Forest.

“It is our responsibility to keep these memories alive.”

The exhibition at the New Forest Centre runs until April 28.