How Brit codebreakers saved the Bayeux Tapestry from falling into the clutches of the advancing Nazis… with just hours to spare
Gestapo chief wanted to prove artwork was an 'Aryan' masterpiece and ordered the SS to nick it
THE Bayeux Tapestry is set to leave France for the first time in 950 years when it goes on display on our side of the Channel.
One of the world’s most famous artworks, the 70-metre long embroidery, depicting the events leading to the Battle of Hastings in 1066, is expected to visit Britain around five years from now.
However, without the efforts of our World War 2 codebreakers, the historic artwork could have left France 70 years ago - under less friendly circumstances.
Declassified wartime documents tell the incredible story of how Allied code breakers uncovered a Nazi plot to steal the tapestry from the rubble of occupied Paris.
Gestapo boss Heinrich Himmler wanted the masterpiece for his castle, back in western Germany, so ordered SS plunderers to grab it from the Louvre before the city was razed by Hitler’s forces.
But Brit codebreakers and fighters in the French Resistance prevented the priceless treasure from falling into the clutches of the Nazis, who looted historic works from every city they conquered.
Himmler's eyes on the prize
It was in August 1944, with Allied forces marching on France, when Himmler set his eyes the tapestry, planning to hang it as a decoration in his medieval fortress back in North Germany.
The Nazi chief’s message read: “Do not forget to bring the Bayeux Tapestry to a place of safety”, meaning the heart of the Reich.
But codebreakers at Bletchley Park intercepted the coded signal to the SS in Paris in the nick of time, tipping the Allies off that the tapestry was a Nazi target.
French Resistance fighters made it to the Louvre with just 48 hours to spare, and sent a squad of four SS plunderers packing in a hail of bullets.
Arty Nazis
The tapestry had earlier been taken off display by the French, around the time Hitler’s forces invaded Poland.
It had been transferred to a zinc-lined crate and sent into the Louvre’s cellars for safekeeping, where the historic artwork was wrapped in sheets and dusted with moth powder.
After France fell, a special research unit of the SS was set up by Himmler to establish the Tapestry’s credentials as an “Aryan” artwork - as the Normans were descended from the Vikings.
With Allied forces close to liberating France, Himmler decided he had to strike before Paris was reduced to rubble.
But the Bayeux Tapestry was saved from becoming just another piece the Nazis’ vast collection of plundered artworks, collected with the aim of one day opening up a National Socialist art museum.
Saved from Hitler's clutches
Hitler’s ambition of curating a Nazi art gallery was never realised, but his cronies did get their hands on thousands of stolen artworks from across Europe.
The code-breakers opened the dossier on this Nazi looting operation after learning about it in police decodes sent from Russia in the closing months of 1942.
Now declassified, we know how French fighters risked their lives to defend the treasured artwork, and how Brit codebreakers cracked the message which tipped them off.
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A year later, in November 1945, the Tapestry returned to exhibition at the Louvre to coincide with Churchill’s visit to Paris, before being returned to Bayeux where it has been preserved ever since, in a purpose-built exhibition centre.
On the surface, the artwork tells the bloody story of a historic war between the French and the English.
But, the truth is that the Bayeux Tapestry only endures today thanks to the alliance between the two countries, which can only be strengthened when the artwork crosses the Channel and arrives in Britain.