A community group has knitted a life-sized tank to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Around 30 volunteers spent eight hours a day for nine months knitting eight-inch squares for the artwork, which was modelled on a Churchill AVRE tank. The stunning creation is now a whopping 24ft (7.3cm) wide and 7ft (2.1m) tall and is covered in the olive green squares that the volunteers knitted. Organiser Stuart Martin, 67, says knitters from the Ripon Community Poppy Project originally planned to create a smaller, scaled down model but changed their mind. He said: "We wanted to do something that will bring attention and extra footfall into our city to try and help businesses.