Heading for Normandy’s shore, a silhouette for each soldier (and the 2 women) who died on D-Day
ONCE in position, they will make a moving sight in time for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
And yesterday, the 1,475 silhouetted figures began their return to the shores where they landed during the Second World War – as two farewell events were held to mark their departure.
The figures, just shy of 6ft 6in, represent each of the servicemen who died serving under British command on June 6, 1944.
They are due to arrive in France by ferry this morning, where a team of 30 volunteers will spend two weeks installing them in the fields of the British Normandy Memorial, which overlooks Gold Beach, one of the key D-Day landing points.
The memorial, at Ver-sur-Mer, was opened in 2021 thanks, in part, to the donations of Mail readers after a campaign by this newspaper. It is where the main British ceremony for the 80th anniversary of D-Day will take place on June 6.
The silhouettes were designed by Dan Barton of the Standing with Giants charity, who has spent four years planning the installation from the charity’s workshop in Stanton Harcourt, near Witney, Oxfordshire. An artist’s impression shows how they will look when set up.
Yesterday, they were taken by four lorries to the first of the send-off events, held at
‘Important to know D-Day story’
Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, the birthplace of Britain’s wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill. A military band played and prayers and a blessing were conducted by the Vicar of Stanton Harcourt, Reverend Jo Hurst.
Mr Barton hopes the figures will help to allow people to ‘pay their respects to those that have given us our freedom’.
Most of the ‘giants’ remained inside the 18 metal crates created to transport them. The bases of the crates have been decorated with 22,442 knitted poppies – made and donated by The Women’s Institute – representing the total number of fallen service personnel serving in British units on D-Day and during the subsequent Battle of Normandy.
As well as the silhouettes of servicemen representing the three military services, the project will also install two 8ft figures to represent the only two women named on the British Normandy Memorial.
They are Sister Dorothy Field and Sister Mollie Evershed, who died while saving 75 men from a sinking hospital ship. Silhouettes of 50 French resistance fighters will also be installed.
The lorries, accompanied by more than 200 Harley-Davidson remembrance riders, then headed to Portsmouth, where tens of thousands of soldiers began their journey across the channel in Operation Overlord, codename for the invasion of Normandy.
The event at Fort Nelson in Portsmouth included a piper and a military wives choir, before the convoy set off for Portsmouth Harbour to catch the ferry.
The silhouettes, once installed, can be visited through this spring and summer as part of the D-Day 80 commemorations.
Former head of the Army General Lord Dannatt, who is chairman of the memorial’s trustees, yesterday said the anniversary is a time to reflect on Britain’s ‘ongoing interest in the collective security of Europe’.
He said the King is expected to attend the memorial site in Ver-sur-Mer if he is well enough, as he continues treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer, alongside fellow heads of state including French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Joe Biden.
The King will also open the new Winston Churchill Centre for Education and Learning on the memorial site, Lord Dannatt said, adding that it is important ‘future generations, particularly children and young people, know the story of D- Day’ and understand Britain’s role in the war.