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Dear Partners,
Welcome
to the month of June and a great selection of figures that bring
together four very different series of King & Country 1:30
scale miniatures.
Appropriately
enough for the month of June let’s begin with the story behind
what we are calling ‘The GOLD BEACH Collection’…
Back
in early 2025, I was contacted by the former BBC journalist and
Royal Correspondent, Nicholas Witchell who was
visiting Hong Kong and had discovered our K&C shop in Pacific
Place. There Nick had seen some of our D.Day figures and
fighting vehicles and been impressed by them.
During
a brief phone conversation he told me about ‘The
British Normandy Memorial’ and the amazing story behind
its creation and how King & Country might be able to help
support it.
We
then arranged a longer meeting up at K&C Head Office and I
heard the whole story and here it is…
June 6, 1944 remains one of the
best known and most important dates in world history.
On
that date, some 60,000 thousand British soldiers and marines came
ashore on the two British beaches – ‘GOLD’ and ‘SWORD’
on the Normandy Coast.
They,
along with their American, Canadian and other Allies on three
more beaches were part of the greatest invasion force in history
that began the liberation of German – occupied Western Europe.
Among
all of the countries who took part in this mighty task Britain
was the slowest to build a national memorial to all those Britons
who gave their lives in Normandy during that summer of 1944.
By
the summer of 2015, a year after the 70th Anniversary of
D.Day, Mr. George Betts, himself a D.Day
veteran began pressing, with other British veterans, for Britain
to build its own national memorial in Normandy. It was then
he met BBC broadcaster Nicholas Witchell.
Nick
resolved to try and do something about it and helped set up the Normandy
Memorial Trust bringing together other key players
including a noted British architect.
Just
over a year later, the group found the perfect site for the
memorial, on farmland just above ‘GOLD BEACH’.
In the following years backing and support was secured from
both the British and French governments with the land being
purchased and the memorial itself being designed. The site
was then jointly inaugurated by the British Prime Minister and
French president in 2019.
Construction
work now began with the Memorial being formally opened by the
then Prince of Wales, now His Majesty King
Charles Ⅲ on June 6, 2021.
THE
WINSTON CHURCHILL CENTRE
Nearby
the Memorial can be found the WINSTON CHURCHILL CENTRE where
visitors can purchase a small select group of special mementoes
that help fund the ongoing upkeep of this unique and memorable
tribute to the British men and some women who gave so much to
liberate Europe.
KING
& COUNTRY’S ‘GOLD BEACH’ COLLECTION
When
Nicholas Witchell and myself met up in Hong Kong Nick told me how
much he liked our own British D.Day ‘Tommies’ however
he also noticed that all their regimental shoulder titles and
divisional patches were of troops that landed on ‘SWORD’ Beach
on June 6, 1944. He asked whether we could produce a small
selection representing some of those soldiers who landed on ‘GOLD’ Beach
where the Memorial is located.
I
happily agreed with this suggestion and began my own research
into finding a suitable regiment and division to ‘miniaturise’.
Fortunately,
for all of us, we chose men from the 69th Infantry
Brigade of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division.
Not only that but the Infantry regiment we decided on was
the 6th Battalion of ‘The Green
Howards’ in whose ranks was the only Victoria
Cross winner of the entire D.Day Operation… Company
Sgt. Major Stanley Hollis of that same
regiment.
And
so, without further ado, here are our special D.Day ‘Tommies’ in
action on ‘GOLD’ Beach itself courtesy of and
with the support of The British Normandy Memorial.
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