It is hard to believe that June 2024 will mark D-Day’s 80th anniversary. This anniversary is special to the family of Carroll Villa Hotel and the Mad Batter because their founder and patriarch, Harry Kulkowitz, was a member of the forces that landed on Utah Beach. He returned for the 60th anniversary to a hero’s welcome and was mentioned in then-President Obama’s remarks on the 70th anniversary.
Continuing Ties to France
Harry’s son, Mark, has maintained contact with the families they met in France on that trip and has returned multiple times. As the 80th anniversary approached, he became involved with a project creating an 87-foot-long three-dimensional crochet tapestry to be on display in the Notre Dame church in Carentan, France, on June 6, 2024. The project’s creator, Tansy Forster, has reached out and has people creating scenes from D-Day in yarn from England, the United States, and as far away as New Zealand!
The Longest Day
The project is called “The Longest Yarn,” a riff on the knitted and crocheted figures, and the movie, “The Longest Day,” about the battle of Normandy. There will be 80 panels, each a re-creation of an important scene from D-Day. The scenes depicted are either taken from original photos or scenes from the movie. The final creation will be displayed in the Notre Dame church in Carentan for a month surrounding D-Day on June 6, 2024. Historians curated the scenes for accuracy, ranging from Eisenhower’s preparatory meetings to parachute drops over French churches.
The Longest Yarn
The Longest Yarn project is operated totally by volunteers and sponsors. The amount of wool alone boggles the imagination, with 136 pounds of yellow wool used for flowers to cover the walls and trees. The detail of each figure and scene is worth noting; each soldier has a unique personality. One will smoke a cigarette, while another will learn French with a phrase book—a garrison of 55 soldiers and a ship with tanks and infantry landing on the shore. All of these figures have been created lovingly by many hundreds of volunteers.
The original inspiration for the project was the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The creator, Tansy, is a niece of a soldier killed in WW2 combat.
Finishing Touches
Although much of the work is in process, the most challenging phase lies ahead, with the completion of the final display. Each panel is 1 m long (3.2 feet) and 55 cm wide (21.6 inches), with a maximum height of 55 cm. The 80 panels will be displayed on tables with a 528-foot-long skirt. The skirt is made of flowers usually associated with memories: yellow and red poppies and cornflowers. A plexiglass cover will protect the handiwork of more than 100 volunteers. If you would like to volunteer, contribute, or sponsor a panel, contact Tansy through the Facebook page.
The Continuing Connection to Cape May
The Kulkowitz family will be in Normandy to celebrate this important anniversary. As the living survivors of D-Day dwindle to less than a thousand, it becomes more and more vital that we recognize the significance of D-Day’s 80th anniversary and the anniversaries that follow. In fact, the owner’s mother was a Holocaust survivor; a recent video documented her journey. The Carroll Villa Hotel and the Mad Batter remain two of the legacies of a WW2 hero. There is a fund raiser planned within the next several months to defray some of the costs of the work for this display, make sure you watch facebook for more information.
Photos courtesy of Tansy Forster
