UK Police have launched an investigation after a series of swastikas were spray-painted across a Twyford Woods, Lincolnshire - one of the targets being a commemorative D-Day bench - 9th - 10th June
The site was used as an airfield in the Second World War for aircraft to take off for Normandy ahead of D-Day - law enforcement are appealing for witnesses to come forward.
The vandalism follows the destruction of military gravestones in Yorkshire in the days leading up to D-Day’s 75th anniversary - several, including some specifically provided by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for the anniversary, were smashed at Hirst Wood, Shipley, in what police have branded a "mindless act of destruction."
— Lincolnshire Police (@lincspolice) June 10, 2019
The Commission said it was "deeply upset" by the incident, in which six of the eight war graves at this site were targeted, and would ensure the graves are “returned to a state befitting their sacrifice and continue to care for them now and always”.
Nationwide Campaign
While the attacks were obviously launched in order for maximum symbolic - and perhaps press - impact, there has been a wider trend over 2019 for swastikas and Nazi-related graffiti to be daubed across the UK.
In April, swastikas were daubed across a Plymouth beauty spot, Mount Wise redoubt, with one even burnt into the information board. The same month, the Nazi party logo appeared in a roundabout underpass in Doncaster - a local councillor described the act as “very worrying”.
— Oliver Denton Lieberman (@politicoli) May 22, 2019
Swastikas have also literally graced the UK’s corridors of power in recent years - a lift in parliament in had to be replaced in May after someone scratched the symbol into the paintwork.
