OPERATION TIGER

6th ENGINEER SPECIAL BRIGADE

In the early part of 1944 the Southeastern part of Devon County, England all along the English Channel was ordered to be evacuated for use by the Allied Armies The town of South Hams., Chillington, East Allington, Stokeham, Slapton Sands and others were to be evacuated of all people, animals and personal belongings. Many of these people had been born in these towns as had their families before them. They did not want to leave their homes but the Allied Armies were to hold Amphibious maneuvers on the beaches of Slapton Sands. Live ammunition was to be used by aircraft, naval vessels and the armies. It was later discovered that these beaches were similar to the ones used on D Day on the Normandy Coast of France.

The exercises started in January of 1944 and each one was larger than the last, increasing in both the number of troops, types of troops, equipment and the number and types of boats used. More aircraft were used each time. This was to prevent any confusion that could be caused by using all troops from the beginning. Also each type of troops learned their phase of the final operation a piece at a time along with consolidating with other troops until at the end it would all come together.

Finally on 27 April 1944 the largest and what was to be the last full scale exercise before D Day was began and Included over 250 lending craft of all types, numerous naval  vessels and aircraft in what was a full scale dress rehearsal of an assault on a beach. This was given a code name of Operation Tiger used three convoys departing from three different ports meeting at sea and were to make an assault at daybreak on the beaches of Slapton Sands.

The first convoy left Start Bay and proceeded east along the coast to Lyme Bay and then turning southeast towards the port of Portland at which time it was to be met by the other two convoys. The second convoy departed from the port of Plymouth proceeding directly towards Portland. The third convoy sailed from Dartmouth moving east towards Portland and meeting the other two convoys where they all made a 180 degree turn and proceeded towards Slapton Sands. The speed of the three convoys was only 3 to 4 knots per hour so this turn alone took around 45 minutes to complete and everyone to get back in position again. None of the Allied craft were equipped with radar or radios, leaving visual contact as the means of communication between craft with the larger craft having signal lights operated by, naval people. The naval people had never sailed in these waters before and only a few of the British on board had been here before and as it was totally dark, with everything  blacked out,

It was quite an ordeal to keep all the boats in line and properly spaced. Having met and made the turn and being properly aligned, the combined convoy then proceeded towards the beaches of Slapton Sands and for a landing at 0600, 28 April 1944.

   The convoy was to have been escorted by two British Warships but but due to foul up in communications they were late in leaving port. Heading West, the two ships met the eastbound convoy at approximately 0200 or four hours before the landing was to take place. They then had to turn back east and position themselves on the Seaward side of the convoy for protection.

       During the night nine German E boats departed from the port of Cherbourg, France to patrol the English  Channel looking for Allied Supply Ships or war ships. These E boats attain a speed of 38 to 40 knots per hour and are armed with heavy machine guns and torpedoes. They were also equipped with radios and radar. The E boats spotted what appeared to be a small group of boats and headed towards them to identify them. As they had only spotted the advance part of the convoy they thought it to be a small exercise so they closed in at top speed making a series of torpedo runs and machine gunning  the small landing craft. At the time the two British War ships were just completing their turn from west to eastbound and were completely out of position. One of the British warships was hit by a torpedo and two LSTs ( 507 & 531) were hit and eventually sank and a third LST was set afire. For some reason the Germans never spotted the main body of the convoy. Having no contact with each other and due to total darkness, the convoy was unaware of what was happening. Other Allied Ships started firing what weapons they had, mainly light machine guns and some of them even fired on our own boats and in the confusion. The Germans then broke off the attack and sped off into the darkness  as the warships were coming into position to be able to fire on them.

   Fuel from the sinking and damaged LST's spilled into the water and caught fire adding to the confusion the second of the element of the convoy unaware of what had happened came upon  the burning fuel and sinking ships with man and equipment on fire and going over the sides thought the attack was still underway and proceeded to open fire into the darkness also hitting Allied craft and men. All the men were equipped .with life preservers and  due to no training in their use were wearing them under the belt line and around their waist instead of under the arm pits. Due to the heavy equipment they were wearing, when they inflated the life preservers  they immediately became top heavy and turned head down In the water. The next day during rescue operations many men were found to have drowned.

Due to the invasion scheduled only about 5 or 6 weeks away the Allied Armies thought that this would hurt the morale of their Armies and also give the Germans confidence so the bodies that were recovered were buried and men who had seen this were sworn to secrecy. D Day eventually came end the war went on and in all the confusion of try to end the war soon as possible and the publicity given D Day and succeeding battles the Operation Tiger disaster was forgotten and never published.

Even after the end of the war when all the books were written never a word about Operation Tiger and the loss of American troops before the actual invasion. It has been estimated that over 750 Allied soldiers and sailors lost their life in Exercise Tiger on 28 April 1944. These include all but six of the 234 officers and enlisted men of the 3206th Quartermaster Co. This reduced our battalion onefourth and when the 3207th was assigned to the lst Brigade we were at onehalf strength on DDay. This was reason we were split into smaller units and doing twice the work. Most of these men were 19 and 20 years old and never lived to hear a shot fired in battle. In as much as only 179 men lost their lives during the assault on Utah Beach on D Day this exercise was over 4 time more costly than Utah Beach.

This all came to light when in the early 1980s some English people who had taken up beach combing uncovered some coins and jewelry and remnants of American Army uniforms along to beaches of Slapton Sands. Divers found a Sherman tank which had been on one of the LSTs and with the help of an ex R A F man named Ken Small they raised the tank and brought it ashore and cleaned it up. He finally got the American and British armies to acknowledge what had happened during the morning of 28 April 1944

Ken Small took the recovered. Sherman tank and built a monument to the men who lost their lives during the exercise. He Placed 749 stones around the tank in memory of the men.

D Day was almost postponed due to this disaster and yet in all the writings after the war nothing was mentioned about Exercise Tiger.

In 1987 the U.S. and British governments acknowledged and finally honored the men who gave their lives in Exercise Tiger.

Four books have been written since. The Magic Army by Leslie Thomas, Exercise Tiger by Nigel Lewis, The Forgotten Dead by Ken Small and The Invasion Before Normandy by a Robert Hale. A reenactment appeared on the Discovery Channel under the title of "Sands of Silence".

It was 43 years later that a permanent monument was dedicated on the beaches of Slapton Sands.

The end