D-Day 80: Servicemen silhouettes en route to Normandy

Handmade silhouettes of almost 1,500 servicemen are being transported to Normandy for an art installation to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

The figures will depart from the Standing with Giants workshop in Stanton Harcourt, near Witney in Oxfordshire, in four lorries on Friday.

A farewell event will be held at Fort Nelson, near Fareham, before they cross the English Channel from Portsmouth.

They will be installed at the British Normandy Memorial from 6 April.

The art installation, entitled The People's Tribute, has taken Witney-based artist Dan Barton four years to plan.

On their way to Portsmouth, they will travel via Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire - the birthplace of war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Talking at Blenheim Palace, D-Day veteran Stan Ford said the figures were "marvellous", adding that it was a "wonderful thing to honour the guys who never came home".

"My ship was torpedoed off of Gold Beach, and we lost 31 of the crew and that is the reason when people say to me, 'Why do you keep going back to Normandy?', I say, 'I've got 31 reasons'," he said.

Paul Harris, whose grandfather George Henk took part in D-Day before being killed in August 1944, said: "It's such a powerful visual display of so many young lives lost - people with their hopes and dreams ahead of them, and they gave their lives so that we can enjoy what we have today."

Mr Barton previously told the BBC he was "humbled and honoured" to be able to install the silhouettes across the wild meadow fields at the memorial.

"People can pay their respects to those that have given us our freedom," he said.

The 1,475 silhouettes represents the number of fatalities under British command on 6 June 1944.

About 80 local groups including veterans, NHS workers and guides, helped assemble the figures ready for their journey to France.

Each lorry will contain metal crates, or stillages, created and designed by Standing with Giants that will transport the silhouettes.

The bases of the stillages are decorated with a total of 22,442 knitted poppies, made by the Women's Institute (WI), representing the total number of fallen service personnel on D-Day and the Battle of Normandy combined.

The convoy will also include 200 Harley Davidson Remembrance Riders.

Once at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, it will take about 30 volunteers approximately two weeks to install the figures, after which the public will be able to see the installation until the end of August.

The memorial overlooks Gold Beach, where many British troops landed almost 80 years ago.

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