1943 Disaster Conspiracy

This is the story according to Paul W. Thompson, Engineer Lieutenant Colonel.

issuu.com...

"It turned out we were lucky beyond measure, the surf, the tide, firmness of sand and flatness of beach of those northern Devon beaches bore an uncanny similarity to the same qualities of the Normandy beaches over which we would ultimately launch the invasion."

'Lucky beyond measure' sounds like he's overplaying it to me.

This is the story according to a ninety year old man I was talking to in a nursing home a few days ago.

"As they came round the point they flipped over one after the other. Many men drowned and it was kept out of the news."

www.assaulttrainingcenter.com...

One local witness recalls :- " against local advice from the coast guards (US Navy) were attempting practise landings in amphibious DUKWs in appalling conditions, known to the locals as the black east wind which brings high seas and lethal under currents. Three of the DUKWs started too drift towards the rocks and when they turned parallel to the beach in an attempt to rectify the situation, they were almost instantly rolled over and capsized killing most of the troops on board. It is recorded in “Spirit of the Sands” book, an incident when 14 men were killed and another incident when several were killed . The local memory all put the figure to be between 50 to 60 men drowned

Many verbal accounts have been presented to me, all of which stated there were “many” fatalities at the “Red Barn”. These differing versions suggests there may have been more than one incident. Having researched Exercise “Tiger” I have found and proved the U.S. Army adept at manipulating casualty figures and I would suggest the larger incident mentioned above sits in that same category. Local rumour has long suggested American servicemen have been buried on Morte Point. Expert analysis of aerial photographs taken in 1946 confirms that there is indeed an area of disturbance to the ground adjacent to what was an access track used by the American military. Size, shape and configuration is identical to that found in south Devon casualty burial trenches.

This closely matches what I was told a few days ago. The locals said don't do it. They did it and many drowned.

Truth the first casualty of war. Who would have thought it.

We need to bear this in mind when reading anything about our ongoing wars. FOB Falcon for example.

a reply to: Kester
It's not a conspiracy it really happened. They thought the sea conditions were negligible, they weren't. A very big fubar and it has only been recently declassified. Locals were saying bodies were washing up for ages afterwards.

a reply to: crayzeed

It's not a conspiracy it really happened.

Please look up the definition of conspiracy.

Conspiracies happen all the time, me and my friend conspired to steal a cookie out the cookie jar once. The government conspires to tax us in every way possible, everyone conspires at least once in their life, everyone has committed a conspiracy, just because something happened doesn't mean it's not a conspiracy...lol.

I think you are confusing conspiracy theories versus conspiracy facts.


@ OP, it's too bad they didn't take the advice, a lot of people died needlessly because of their superior's ignorance. They did in fact conspire to keep it out of the news it seems for the most part.

here we go training at the beach,

i,ll dig out the newsclip link showing the lst,s and dukws landing.

Today I told the Elder I'd researched the issue and written it up. He got very serious.

In retrospect I would have done well to call this thread, 'Unmarked Mass Grave Of American Servicemen In North Devon'.

It seems most likely several incidents were rolled into one and downplayed.

If anyone wants to follow it up, find the aerial photographs taken a year or two after and you'll see the disturbed ground. The exact location must be known to some. It seems disrespectful to leave it unmarked.