Volunteers set up D-Day installation at fort

A smaller installation in 2023 commemorated those who died in the Falklands conflict

Scores of volunteers are helping set up an art installation dedicated to the British servicemen who died on D-Day.

The collection of nearly 1,500 silhouettes, created by Oxfordshire charity Standing with Giants, was visited by more than 200,000 people at the British Normandy Memorial in France.

Now the tribute, created by artist Dan Barton, is being reinstalled at Fort Nelson in Portsmouth.

The exhibition - For Your Tomorrow - will be open from 22 October to 30 November.

Lizzie Puddick said the fort was inundated with offers of help

The 1,475 statues represent the servicemen under British command who gave their lives on D-Day.

Hundreds of people volunteered for the two-week operation to set up the figures.

Lizzie Puddick, public engagement officer at Fort Nelson, said: "We've been absolutely inundated - we put a call out out which we had to take down less than 24 hours later.

"Fifty people were here yesterday and that's pretty much the same for the rest of the two weeks."

Janette and Dan Barton are working with volunteers to install the silhouettes

Fort Nelson was among 27 venues that offered to host the exhibition at short notice, following an appeal on the BBC, after the original intended venue fell through.

Project co-ordinator Janette Barton said: "We were in Normandy dismantling and the giants had nowhere to go.

"It would have broken our hearts if our giants were in storage over Remembrance for this VJ Day year so it's just incredible to be here with the amount of help, the amount of volunteers."

It will be the first time the D-Day installation has gone on display on the south coast.

A similar tribute of 258 silhouettes was installed at the fort in 2023 to represent those who died in the Falklands conflict.