D-Day 80: Momentous moment as first Giant is installed at British Normandy Memorial
The first Standing with Giants silhouette has been installed at the British Normandy Memorial to mark the upcoming 80th anniversary of D-Day.
The figure of a WWII soldier with his Lee-Enfield Rifle No. 4 slung over his shoulder was put in place at the memorial with help from TV presenter and paralympian Steve Brown.
There will be 1,475 figures in total - each one representing a member of the Armed Forces who died during the Normandy Landings.
The huge installation will cover an area of approximately 38,000 square metres between the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer and Gold Beach, where many British soldiers landed on 6 June 1944.
It is expected to take a team of up to 30 people about 15 days to install the silhouettes, with each figure standing just short of 6ft 6in.
In addition to the silhouettes representing fallen soldiers, two bespoke figures have been created to represent two nurses - Sisters Evershed and Field - who died while saving 75 men from a sinking hospital ship.
Posting on X, the British Normandy Memorial said: "A poignant moment... as the first giant was installed at the Memorial."
A convoy of four lorries carefully transported the hand-made figures from the Standing with Giants workshop in Stanton Harcourt in Oxfordshire to Normandy.
The 'giants' were packed inside 18 metal crates, with the bases covered in 22,442 knitted poppies – made by The Women's Institute – to represent the total number of fallen British soldiers who died on D-Day and during the subsequent Battle of Normandy.
Standing with Giants is a community project that creates large-scale art installations using recycled building materials and provides meaningful spaces for people to visit and reflect.
The For Your Tomorrow installation will be on display as part of the D-Day 80 commemorations until the end of August.
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