D-Day

Western Morning News | Apr 26, 2014
Exercise Tiger proved to be the most deadly training incident in the whole of the Second World War.
The similarity between the Start Bay area and the Normandy coast prompted its use for several full-scale battle practices. Slapton Sands was thought to be a perfect place to simulate landings for Utah Beach in France as part of Operation Overlord on June 6, 1944.
In the early hours of April 28, 1944, eight landing ship tanks (LSTs) full of American servicemen and equipment converged in Lyme Bay and made their way towards Slapton Sands for a D-Day rehearsal. Four German E-Boats, alerted by heavy radio traffic, intercepted the three-mile convoy of vessels and the heavily laden, slow-moving LSTs proved easy targets for the torpedo boats.

A series of tragedies, including the absence of a British Navy destroyer assigned as an escort and an error in radio frequencies, led to three of the LSTs being hit by torpedoes. More loss of life was caused by life jackets being incorrectly worn and the extreme cold of the sea. A total of 749 American soldiers and sailors died.
The loss of life was greater than that later suffered by the assault troops during the initial attack on Utah Beach.
Allied commanders, fearing the news might make its way into German hands and reveal the intentions for the D-Day landings, immediately ordered a communication blackout. Approximately 12 weeks before the military exercises, many of the villages surrounding Slapton Sands had been evacuated. The soldiers and sailors who survived were ordered not to speak about the incident and many did not talk about it until 50 years later.
It remained a secret until Ken Small, then a Torcross hotelier, was told about a Sherman Duplex Drive tank that was resting on the sea bed three-quarters of a mile out from the shore.
After negotiations over several years, he bought it from the US Government for $50, finally recovering it from the sea in May 1984. Thanks to his efforts, the Sherman Tank Memorial was officially recognised by US Congress and acknowledged by the addition of a bronze plaque.

I think this story is in the most recent WWII History magazine. I had never heard of it until a couple of years ago. Terrible tragedy. I can't imagine how the troops trapped on those ships felt.

I will be off to Normandy on the 3rd of June with some of the Veterans to remember the 70th anniversary of D-Day on the 6th of June. This will be the last "official" visit as the Normandy Veterans Association will officially disband at the end of this year. The youngest veteran that we have in our branch (Cardiff South Wales No15) is 88 and the oldest is 94 and sadly they get fewer and fewer every year. There are 900 people going from the UK but less than half of that number will be veterans, the rest are family and carers but I can guarentee that those veterans who can march on the parades will do so and those that can't will take part in there wheelchairs, they are all very proud men and we should be very proud of them.
I have attached a couple of pictures of the Slapton Sands Memorial for our friends accross the pond who are unable to visit it themselves, to many lives lost, but that is war...

I invite your attention to "History of United States Navel Operations in World War II, Vol. 11, The Invasion of France and Germany 1944-1945" 1957, by Samuel Eliot Morrison, pp. 64-67.

Morrison recorded that 197 sailors and 441 soldiers were killed in the action when the convoy was attacked by 9 German E-boats. The crews on the escort vessels and LST's were alert and engaged the Germans so they weren't completely surprised.

I suppose that the resurgence of interest in World War II has brought about a resurgence of Johnny-come-lately authors and readers that are just getting around to the story. I think there was something on the Slapton Sands incident on the History Channel several years ago, but the History Channel and the illustrated history magazines are in the same situation with writers that are interested in selling their writing and are unwilling to let historical facts get in the way of selling the story, so hyperbole is the order of the day.

This incident is one of many training, accidental, and combat casualties that is the tragedy of war. So many deaths in a training exercise are especially tragic because it was purposeless.

Deaths in a training exercise are certainly tragic, but just as certainly were not purposeless. Without this and the years of training that the invasion forces underwent, deaths on June 6 and beyond, one can only imagine what they would have been.

DDAY
On this seventieth year one early morning battle on DDAY gets forgotten about, and that of Merville Battery, and the sacrifice these men made.
Hope you find the story of what 9 PARA did in the early hours an eye opener. They believed there were 150mm guns in the battery looking down on the beaches which would have caused untold casualties, far greater than what we all received as countries. As it turned out, there were large guns in the casements but not as big as "Intelligence" predicted, but nevertheless, under strength and under armed they took and held the position until the beaches were secured

The Merville Battery

Yes just ask Bomber Command boys about accidents in OTU's higher than the enemy action at times