Giant silhouettes of D-Day fallen travel from Oxfordshire to Normandy for 80th anniversary

Standing with Giants art installation Credit: PA Archive/PA Images

A convoy of lorries carrying 1,475 giant silhouettes representing the servicemen who died on D-Day has set off to France.

The figures, designed by Dan Barton of the Standing with Giants charity, will be installed to mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy invasion.

The silhouettes are being transported from Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, via Fort Nelson in Portsmouth – where the silhouettes have previously been displayed – before they travel by ferry to France.

They will then be displayed at the British Normandy Memorial which overlooks Gold Beach, which was one of the key landing points.

As well as the silhouettes representing the personnel from all three services, two bespoke figures have been created to represent nurses Sisters Evershed and Field, who died while saving 75 men from a sinking hospital ship.

The 18 stillages containing the 1,475 giant silhouettes from the Standing with Giants installation Credit: Standing with Giants/PA

Also, figures representing 50 French resistance fighters are to be placed around the French Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer.

Project co-ordinator Janette Barton told the PA news agency: “Since we started the project, the public response has been incredible.

“It resonates with the public, everybody has a story and something to relate to with the soldiers.

“We really want the younger generation to know why they have the freedoms they have today – it’s all about passing on that baton of remembrance.”

Four lorries with flatbed trailers accompanied by more than 200 Harley-Davidson remembrance riders are taking part in the convoy.

The lorries contain 18 stillages created and designed by Standing with Giants to carry the silhouettes.

These have been decorated with 35,782 knitted poppies made and donated by members of the Women’s Institute.

They also feature recreations of letters written by fallen servicemen of the Normandy campaign.

The giant silhouettes will be transported to the British Normandy Memorial in France Credit: Standing with Giants/PA

On arrival, a team of 30 volunteers will spend two weeks installing the silhouettes.

The display will be open to the public throughout the summer and during the D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations.

To support the project, the public can sponsor a plaque in honour of a loved one for £150, which will be placed in front of a giant and remain at the memorial site for at least five years.

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