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Saving The Bayeux Tapestry

Discussion in 'WWII Today' started by GRW, Jun 25, 2017.

  1. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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    I'm sure I've seen this before?
    "SECRET wartime documents reveal how Allied code breakers uncovered a Nazi plot to steal the Bayeux Tapestry to hang on the walls of Heinrich Himmler’s castle.
    Hitler’s deputy sent a coded signal to SS chiefs in Paris in August 1944 ordering that the masterpiece be taken back to Berlin before Paris was reduced to rubble on the Fuhrer’s orders.
    But Bletchley Park intercepted the signal from the Gestapo chief and ensured the French Resistance got to the Louvre first with just 48 hours to spare.
    Four SS members arrived with two trucks and enough spare fuel to get back to Germany but were sent packing by a hail of bullets.
    The fragile strip of embroidered linen was found safe in a crate in the basement when Paris was liberated just days later.
    A long-lost file found in the National Archives has revealed Bletchley Park was intercepting messages to Nazi police stations and SS barracks even before war broke out."
    www.express.co.uk/news/history/820934/second-world-war-bayeux-tapestry-nazi-plot-steal-allies-codebreakers-heinrich-himmler
     
  2. Skipper

    Skipper Kommodore

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    A succesful invasion of Britian was a Nazi wet dream of course. Nowadays the tapestry can be seen at Bayeux. It is considered the oldest strip story of the world.

    [​IMG]
     
  3. Martin Bull

    Martin Bull Acting Wg. Cdr

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    What a coincidence - I saw the tapestry for the first time just over a week ago......I have to say, it was most interesting.
     
  4. Owen

    Owen O

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    In all the galzillion trips you been to Normandy & that was your first time ?
    We had a replica around our school hall in junior school so it was must see on my first Normandy trip in 2005 & again in 2010.
     
  5. jagdpanther44

    jagdpanther44 Battlefield wanderer

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    So Himmler planned to hang the tapestry on a wall in Wewelsburg castle? It would need to have been a very long wall to display the tapestry properly.
    I was surprised as to how big it actually is when I saw it on my second ever visit to Normandy many years ago.
     
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2017
  6. toki2

    toki2 Active Member

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    I was also quite surprised at the length of the tapestry and considering its age, the colours are still so vivid.
     
  7. Martin Bull

    Martin Bull Acting Wg. Cdr

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    Yes - such distractions take up valuable time which can be spent on the battlefield......luckily, it was a quiet day so we were through there pretty quickly ! :XD:
     
  8. von Poop

    von Poop Waspish

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    Known, somewhat archly, among sewing nerd friends as 'The Canterbury embroidery'...
    Nerds are ace.

    I recommend all 272 feet of the Overlord Embroidery to anyone passing through Southsea (and if the museum has finished recent tarting up).
    A commemoration of invasion in the opposite direction, and perhaps surprisingly interesting to those of us more usually drawn to metal things:

    [​IMG]
    THE OVERLORD EMBROIDERY. © IWM (MH 13232)
    IWM Non Commercial Licence
     
    GRW and jagdpanther44 like this.
  9. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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    Saw it two years ago while at Southsea. Amazing bit of work.
     
  10. dbf

    dbf Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    Puts me in mind of the inscription on the war memorial at Bayeux...
    Nos a Gulielmo victi victoris patriam liberavimus
     

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