Opened in 2000 and recognized by Congress as the country's official World War II museum, the National World War II Museum tells the story of the second world war and America's involvement in it. Its exhibitions combine first-hand accounts, photographs, artifacts, and unseen film footage to tell the stories of the European landings that made victory possible. The Louisiana Memorial Pavilion presents essential instruments of the war effort, including the famous Higgins landing craft. More than 20,000 of these boats were designed and built in New Orleans and used in all of the war's amphibious landings. Other artifacts include a Sherman tank, jeeps, half-tracks, and a fully restored C-47 aircraft. Permanent galleries, located on the second and third floors of the museum, are divided into four areas: The Home Front, Planning for D-Day, The D-Day Beaches, and The D-Day Invasions in the Pacific. The Malcolm S. Forbes Theater features alternating films focusing on the D-Day invasions at Normandy and in the Pacific, The Price for Peace and D-Day Remembered. Special exhibitions draw on museum collections and relevant traveling exhibitions to further explore and illustrate World War II. Additionally, the museum has recently begun a $300 million expansion that, when complete, will create a six-acre campus of exhibition pavilions, the 4-D Victory Theater, Stage Door Canteen, and a research and conference center in downtown New Orleans.

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