The Standing with Giants installation has become a regular summer addition to the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer over the past three years and stands overlooking the Gold Beach landing area where troops landed on D-Day.
Standing with Giants consists of 1,475 metal silhouettes – the same number who fell on D-Day – and includes service personnel from all forces.
Running from April to September each year (and hopefully returning in 2027), the installation takes two weeks to set up and take down and has been a welcome addition to the fields below the Memorial with hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
Created by artist Dan Barton, they are known as ‘Giants’ because of the ‘enormity of the sacrifice made by the individuals they represent’.
Each Giant stands just under two metres tall and include soldiers, sailors, and airmen, along with two nurses – Sisters Field and Evershed - who died while saving men from a sinking hospital ship.
Every year there are new additions to the Giants which this year included frogmen, beach masters, a bagpiper, dog handlers, engineers, tank crew, commandos, radio operators, medics, and 50 French resistance fighters – men, women, and children – who can be seen ‘hiding’ in the scrubland to the west of the Giants and Memorial.
The Giants are a must-see exhibit in Normandy, but we can recommend visiting at sunset during late summer when they take on a whole new level in the evening light.
Standing with Giants is a registered charity - more information on their website www.standingwithgiants.co.uk