best for REAL LIFE
Tansy Forster is leading an army of knitters to craft an incredible 80-metre military topper from wool, to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings
When I told my husband Mike I wanted to knit a modern-day version of the Bayeux Tapestry to commemorate the D-Day landings, he raised his eyebrows, thinking it was just another one of my daft ideas.
Who could blame him? While I was an enthusiastic knitter, having been taught by my Auntie Bessie when I was 11 years old, I preferred crocheting simple blankets for the dog basket, not following complicated patterns.
So knitting an 80-metre topper depicting key scenes from WWII, complete with 3D soldiers, tanks, battleships, Jeeps and artillery, did sound somewhat ambitious.
Especially as I also wanted to make this an accurate historical record – and 10 metres longer than the Bayeux Tapestry. I had never done anything like this before. Then again – neither had anybody else!
Initially I thought it would give me something to think about, apart from looking after my elderly parents who live next door, which is allconsuming and was starting to affect me mentally. I needed a project to distract me – little did I know it was about to take over my life.
As a baby boomer, I’d always been influenced by the wars. My grandfather was a dispatch rider in the Great War and my father’s older brothers were both pilots in bomb command in WWII. On my mother’s side, my grandmother was in the Auxiliary Territorial Service and my grandfather built Sunderland flying boats and was an ARP warden all through the Belfast blitz.
My military interest continued when Mike and I moved from our home in Sunningdale, Berkshire, to live in Normandy, France, 23 years ago. We were right in the heart of the one-time American drop zone, and ran a vacation rentals business, hosting American, English, French and even German veterans. Sadly, we had to close, because of Covid.
But the shared recollections and fascinating stories of our many guests gave me a great insight into the events during the D-Day landings on our nearby beaches.
So in their honour, I thought I’d crochet a topper for my gate to mark the 80th anniversary. The idea grew into a cover for the garden wall. Then came the brainwave to knit 80 one-metre panels, depicting all the key scenes from the beach landings on 6 June 1944 to properly commemorate this pivotal historic battle.
For research, I watched the war film The Longest Day six times over one weekend, did a st
