The Longest Yarn

We arranged a pre-Christmas meet-up with Cathy's aunt and uncle and they suggested visiting The Longest Yarn, an exhibition in Tewkesbury Abbey. 

The Longest Yarn is an 80-scene knitted diorama of events around D-Day, including the beach invasions in Normandy, paratrooper landings, various battles and some re-creations of scenes from the film The Longest Day. 

The crafting on display was incredible. Some of the scenes are surprisingly graphic. There is one just called 'Dead Horses' featuring equine casualties. There are also some very moving scenes - the family with a baby born during the bombardment; a young girl giving flowers to a liberating American soldier moments before a shell struck and killed her; a dropped helmet on the beach.

I watched The Longest Day several times as a kid, even though it was a very long film and was in black and white. Several key scenes are recreated on the exhibition. A paratrooper snagged on the bell tower in St.Mere Eglise; Lord Lovat in his white jumper arriving at Pegasus Bridge; the nuns walking into the battle to bring medical assistance to the Free French forces at Ouistreham; an American platoon and a German platoon walking right past each other in the middle of the night. 

We had a personal connection to some of the events through Cathy's Grampy, Jim. He was in an airborne unit, although he ended up in one of the beach landings instead of being in a glider. (Because apparently they didn't have enough gliders.) It felt strange to think he had been through some of this and saw it for real. 

I didn't really know what to expect from this exhibition and the concept of knitted dioramas. But it turned out to be a very thoughtful tribute to the men and women of D-Day.