Artists remember the fallen as they create silhouettes on D-Day beach

Jamie Wardley and Andy Moss, from Bradford, came up with the idea of The Fallen to mark Peace Day on Saturday and together with a team of volunteers they travelled to France to create thousands of stencilled drawings in the sand at Arromanches to represent the civilians, German forces and Allies who died.

Nine thousand silhouettes of the fallen were drawn on the beach at the rate at which they fell only to be totally erased by the incoming tide, as their own lives were.

Mr Wardley said: “The Fallen is a sobering reminder of what happens when peace is not present. The idea is to create a visual representation of what is otherwise unimaginable – the thousands of human lives lost during the hours of the tide during the Second World War Normandy landings on June 6 1944,” .

The outlines of thousands of bodies drawn into the sand on the beach was a stark reminder of the lives lost in just one day during the Normandy landings.

Veterans and families, including some who have lost family members in more recent conflicts, have been involved in the project.

Each individual taking part worked in a team to make a person using a stencil and filling in the outline by raking the sand to create a distinctive figure. The use of stencils meant that anybody could participate in the project which was created over five hours in an event to raise awareness of Peace Day and Peace One Day.

Mr Wardley and Mr Moss are behind Sand in Your Eye, which creates ice sculptures, sand drawings that can be animated, and even images made out of light. Earlier this year a test was carried out on Filey beach to gain perspective on what The Fallen may look like.

Last year Sand in Your Eye worked with Aardman animation, which produces Wallace and Gromit, to create the largest animated film in the world.