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An impressive 1,475 statues have filled the landscape alongside a D-Day monument overlooking France’s Golden Beach in honor of each of the servicemen who fell during the historic mission.
The Standing with Giants silhouettes are part of the For Your Tomorrow installation at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-Sur-Mer, France.
In a striking nod to the servicemen who fell on D-Day itself, almost 80 years ago, the fields within the British Normandy Memorial campus have been filled with two-metre-high statues of soldiers, representing all three military services.
In addition to the 1,475 silhouettes, the project will also install custom-made ‘giants’ to represent the only two women at the Memorial, nurses Sisters Evershed and Field.
The two heroic women died while saving 75 men from a sinking hospital ship.
The Standing with Giants silhouettes are part of the For Your Tomorrow installation at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-Sur-Mer, France.
The staggering number of silhouettes represents the number of fatalities under British command on June 6, 1944.
Statues of some 50 French resistance fighters will also be placed around the French Memorial.
Images of the project, which launched this spring and will open next summer, show lush green fields dotted with figures casting long shadows across the grass as the sun sets in the distance.
The somber atmosphere captures the deep emotion and tragedy behind the project as statues of helmeted men with weapons strapped to their backs stand proudly in the French landscape.
The staggering number of silhouettes represents the number of deaths under British command on June 6, 1944.
According to the British Normandy Memorial website, the instillation will be available to visit throughout the summer of next year.
Standing with Giants is a community project created in 2019 by Oxfordshire community artist Dan Barton and a group of local volunteers.
They create large-scale art installations using recycled building materials and provide meaningful spaces for people to visit, reflect and remember.
Since February, families and organizational groups have been invited to take part in the preparation of the 1,475 statues in a workshop in Oxfordshire ahead of their installation in Normandy, which will take place this month.
According to the British Normandy Memorial website, the instillation will be available to visit throughout the summer of next year.
The British Normandy Memorial records the names of the 22,442 servicemen and women under British command who fell on D-Day
Those who lost a loved one at the historic mission also have the opportunity to commemorate them with a memorial plaque next to one of the statues.
The British Normandy Memorial said: “Plaques ordered before 6 May 2024 will be displayed alongside the Standing with Giants installation during the summer of 2024, allowing ‘your giant’ to stand among his peers.”
The plaques will remain on the premises for a minimum of five years.
For £150, people will be able to dedicate a black plaque with an inscription printed in white, attached to a 1.2m stake which will be placed in the wildflower meadow of the British Normandy Memorial in the summer of the 80th anniversary of the landings. Day D. .
They will also be offered the opportunity to have their badge feature the silhouette of a soldier, sailor or pilot.
The British Normandy Memorial records the names of the 22,442 servicemen and women under British command who fell on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944.
This includes people from over 30 different countries.
Inscribed in stone, their names have never, until now, been reunited.
The site also includes a French Memorial, dedicated to the memory of French civilians who died during this time.