Overlord Embroidery

Stephen Brooks and E. Eckstein: Operation Overlord: History of D-Day and the Overlord Embroidery,  Stephen Brooks and E. Eckstein: Operation Overlord: History of D-Day and the Overlord Embroidery, 

Sometimes also known as the Overlord Tapestry, the Overlord Embroidery is a series of embroidered panels commemorating the Allied D-Day invasion of France in June 1944. Lord Dulverton of Batsford (Frederick Wills, 1915-1992), inspired by the Bayeux tapestry, commissioned the embroidery in 1968. Sandra Lawrence created the design.

Overlord was the codename for the Allied invasion of France in 1944 during the Second World War (1939-1945). The various sub-themes of the Embroidery include wartime planning, the Blitz, entry of the United States into the war, the planning and preparation of the invasion. The majority of the work depicts the crossing of the English Channel by the invasion fleet and combat on the French coast. The embroidery ends with a scene of German troops retreating across the river Seine.

The embroidery took twenty embroiderers from the Royal School of Needlework five years to complete. There are 34 panels, each measuring 2.4 m x 0.9 m, giving a total length of 83 m, making it ten metres longer than the Bayeux tapestry. The techniques used for the panels are a mixture of appliqué and decorative stitching. Over fifty different materials were incorporated into the design to ensure accurate colours, including cloth taken from original uniforms and headgear.

Since 1984 the embroidery has been housed in the D-Day Museum in Portsmouth, England.

A book about the tapestry was published in 1989:  Stephen Brooks and E. Eckstein: Operation Overlord: History of D-Day and the Overlord Embroidery,  Ashford, Buchan & Enright. ISBN 1852530987.

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Last modified on Thursday, 05 January 2023 19:24
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