First victim of D-Day immortalised in bullets for anniversary artwork
HE WAS the first of 4,414 Allied servicemen who lost their lives on June 6, 1944 – D-Day.
Back home in Smethwick, Birmingham, his wife was eight months pregnant with their daughter, Margaret. Now 75, she watched yesterday as a sculpture of him began a week-long national tour.
Lt Denham Brotheridge was 28 when he and his comrades from D Company, 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, took part in a surprise raid on bridges in occupied France – landing in gliders in advance of the seaborne troops.
He died in the attack which secured the bridge at Benouville, and is recorded as the first casualty of Operation Overlord.
The sculpture of him, commissioned for this summer’s 75th anniversary commemorations, incorporates more than 4,000 replica bullets, one for each of victim of the day.
The Welsh artist Alfie Bradley, known for his Knife Angel made from 100,000 knives surrendered during amnesties, created the sculpture. He said: “This has been such a meaningful project.
“Den Brotheridge was 28, the same age I am now, when he died. I can’t even begin to imagine how terrifying it would have been to land on the beach in Normandy that day, and the more I’ve read up on D-Day over the last few months, the more I realise how grateful we all should be for their heroic sacrifice.”
Margaret Brotheridge, whose mother remarried when she was four, did not know of her father’s role until she was in her 30s.
She has said of him: “I’m so proud of my father, not just for his heroism but because he was a normal person. He was proud of his group of men and he led them from the front. He was one of them.”
Jane Barnard from the D-Day Story museum in Portsmouth, said: “We hope everyone finds solace in the story of Den and the unbelievable amount of bravery all the servicemen showed during D-Day.”