IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF GIANTS
Work begins next week on a major D-Day art installation using recycled signs to honour the 1,475 military personnel under British command who died on June 6, 1944. MARTIN PHILLIPS reports exclusively on a remarkable endeavour
SOUTHERN Britain was already a hive of feverish yet secretive activity this time 80 years ago, as the biggest amphibious invasion force in the history of warfare was beginning to take shape. The Allies’ Operation Overlord would eventually involve the use of more than 5,000 ships and landing craft, as well as airborne forces, to launch more than 150,000 troops on to five beaches in Normandy in a major assault on Nazi-occupied France.
Today, as we approach the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings on June 6, a new shadowy “army” has been growing steadily in a remote location in central England, in preparation for those solemn commemorations.
Now those stalwart figures are about to be mobilised.
In the coming days, four lorry loads of them will be boarded on to ferries that will carry them across the Channel, bound for the beaches of Normandy.
For months, volunteers have been helping the Standing With Giants charity to create 1,475 imposing metal silhouettes to represent the 1,475 military personnel who died under British command on D-Day itself.
They will be moved with military precision next week from Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire to Fort Nelson, Portsmouth, then to a Channel port from which they will be ferried to France and driven to the British Normandy Memorial near the village of Ver-sur-Mer.
There, an advance party of volunteers, working in rotation, will combine forces for two weeks to erect the figures in the wildflower meadows around the memorial, in order to create a poignant backdrop to this summer’s remembrance ceremonies.
The silhouettes are the brainchild of husband and wife Dan and Janette Barton, who created similar installations that have graced Fort Nelson, the Falkland Islands, Hampton Court Palace, Blenheim Palace and Aston Rowant, among other places, to commemorate the First World War, the war in the South Atlantic, the Dambusters and Ukrainian resistance to Russia’s invasion.
Historical restoration expert Dan, 54, who has taken four years to plan and create the art installation – called For Your Tomorrow – said: “I am humbled and honoured that it will be part of the Normandy commemorations.”
Their Normandy 80 venture has been a remarkable endeavour.
WEEK after week, up to 15 volunteers at a time, from 80 different charity groups and organisations, have been descending on Dan and Janette’s Oxfordshire base, near Witney, to help create the individual silhouettes from recycled metal road signs, donated to the charity.
Dan and other volunteers cut out the silhouettes, each in the shape of one of 14 different military roles involved on D-Day, and prepared other components.
Then the groups helped join up the components and paint the “soldiers”, “sailors”, “airmen” and other figures black.The volunteer groups have included military personnel, scouts, school children, Harley Davidson remembrance riders, Women’s Institute members, Falklands War veterans, NHS workers, office staff, search and rescue volunteers and the D-Day Darlings junior choir.
Retired firefighter Nick Borritt, a former Royal Marine who now volunteers as a search and rescue operative with the humanitarian charity Serve On, lives close to Dan and Janette’s workshops and jumped at the chance to help construct the silhouettes.
He said: “When they are all in position it is going to be very impressive and very moving.
“I think it will be a fitting tribute to those who lost their lives and it was a privilege to be involved in putting them together.
“I thought it was brilliant that something so special could be created with recycled materials – old road signs – and it will mean so much.”
Falklands veteran Dave Atkinson, 68, and others who served on HMS Sheffield during the South Atlantic conflict, volunteered for the Normandy 80 project after getting involved in a StandingWith Giants display to mark the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War two years ago.
Dave said: “It’s going to be a marvellous tribute and an incredible sight.
“Even for those of us who were involved in conflict, when you hear the statistics of casualties repeated enough times, it just becomes a number. When we actually saw the placement of the silhouettes for each of the 258 who actually died in the Falklands it really put it into perspective and you think, ‘My God, we really did lose that many people!’
“So, in Normandy, to see the 1,475 silhouettes, each for an individual person who died on that single day, all standing in that meadow, it is going to be mind-blowing and very emotional.”
Dad-of-two Dan, who over the years has used his artistic talents for other charity events, said: “Standing With Giants is a great way of using art to value life, to understand and appreciate why we have our freedom, and to remember and pay tribute to those who have fallen so we can live the lives we have today.
“I call the silhouettes ‘giants’ because of the enormity of the sacrifice made by the people they represent and having the installation there will allow people to go and pay their respects, even if they cannot be at the actual ceremonies on June 6.”
Dan said the idea of the installation first came to him after smaller soldier silhouettes were produced by the Royal British Legion to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the First World War Armistice in 2018.
Unable to buy any for his local village of Stanton Harcourt in time, he made some himself, raised sponsorship of £1,200 and donated that to the Legion, then held a “Freedom Party” on the village green.As villagers sat round fires and sung wartime songs, he discussed the importance of celebrating the 101st anniversary – and the following year he made 101 silhouettes himself and got permission to display them on a hill overlooking the M40 motorway.
“That was going to be my retirement from 30 years of charitable work, but the amazing reaction I got from people was why I have kept this going... it has been completely and utterly life-changing.”
Dan says of his various installations: “Once you have had dozens and dozens of people crying in your arms and telling you some incredibly sad stories of things that have happened in their lives and how the installations help, and you have heard stories of bravery by their relatives and the part they played in the liberation of Europe, it becomes an amazing journey.
“I know from personal experience, from the reactions that we receive from the public over and over again, that there is a need within us to give thanks for our freedom.” After coming up with the idea for the Normandy 80 installation, Dan explained: “I thought that if I just got on and made the components and got people together to
‘I call them “giants” because of the enormity of the sacrifice made by the people they represent’
assemble them that the British Normandy Memorial people would say ‘Yes’, and I’m very glad that they did.”
But Dan said it has been an “emotional roller-coaster” because, in spite of the good that the installations do, they do not fit regular funding models so there has been very little backing, meaning Dan and wife Janette have shouldered most of the extra costs.
Nevertheless, he said: “It is very special that it will be part of the 80th anniversary commemorations. It’s going to go down to the wire, but we will make it.”
The 18 ornate stillage crates that will carry the silhouettes across to France will be decorated with more than 22,000 poppies after
Toni Briggs, secretary of the Apple Blossoms Women’s Institute at Kingston Bagpuize, near to Dan and Janette’s workshops, took on the task of encouraging her fellowWI colleagues to start knitting and crocheting the red remembrance flowers.
Since then, WI colleagues up and down the country have been knitting and crocheting thousands of poppies, which represent the 22,442 servicemen and women from 30 different countries who served under British command and fell
during the Normandy campaign, from June 6 to August 31, 1944 – and whose names have been inscribed together for the first time on the British Normandy Memorial.
The remembrance site at Ver-sur-Mer also includes a French Memorial, dedicated to the memory of French civilians who died during the campaign, and the Standing With Giants silhouettes will also include recognition of the part played by French Resistance fighters. The combined weight of all the silhouette figures is more than 30 tonnes and they are made with 25 miles of steel.
Dan’s wife Janette said: “The installation will take 20 to 30 people around 15 days to set up: it’s truly epic. Dan set this whole project up so that others could get involved and make it ‘The People’s Tribute’.”
Once the silhouettes have been transported to Normandy, volunteers working in shifts aim to erect 120 of them a day and they will be anchored in place against the wind using 10,000 metres of strong but thin nylon paracord.
There is now an opportunity to sponsor the individual “giants” and have loved ones’ names engraved on tribute plaques at the British Normandy Memorial, by the silhouettes.
The silhouettes will be in a wildflower meadow so will not be directly accessible, but visitors will be able to read the plaques in front of the installation.
The installation will be available to be seen at the British Normandy memorial from April 21, and will remain in place throughout the June 6 commemorations until late August.
The hope then is to use the silhouettes as a mobile tribute to the fallen of D-Day.