Exercise Tiger (1944): The "secret" D-Day exercise that killed more US personel than Utah Beach.

I was busy reading Bill Bryson's second journey through Britain at the pub, when I came across some starling information that I had never heard about before (The Road to Little Dribbling: More notes from a small Island. Transworld Publishers: 2015. Pages 162-163). Let's just say it was a dress-rehearsal for D-Day in spring 1944 involving 30 000 American troops and watched by President Eisenhower himself.

According to Bryson:

To the north from here stretches a duney expanse called Slapton Sands, so similar to the beaches of Normandy that they used it for a dress rehearsal for D-Day in the spring of 1944. Amid great secrecy, thirty thousand American troops were loaded on to a landing craft and taken out into the bay to practice coming ashore, but by chance nine German torpedo boats spotted the activity and cruised at will among them, blowing the landing craft out of the water with ease and causing all kinds of mayhem.

(Bryson 2015, page 162.)

To add to Bryson this was called Exercise Tiger and the carnage took place on the night of 27 April 1944 along the coast of Devon. Bryson claims the exact amount of casualties is unknown (650-950 men), but the website I found says:

However, unbeknown to the military, under cover of darkness nine German E-boats (fast attack craft) had managed to slip in amongst them in Lyme Bay. Two landing ships were sunk and a third badly damaged. Lack of training on the use of life vests, heavy packs and the cold water contributed to the disaster: many men drowned or died of hypothermia before they could be rescued. Over 700 Americans lost their lives.

www.historic-uk.com...

I mean wow, was nobody taking notes or keeping record of the deceased men. Nobody counting the notifications to be sent back to families back home: "Your son died bravely during our botched exercise"? Being sarcastic, but hey it's just "toxic" mainly young white males, you know, fighting for everybody's freedoms. A few more or less - who cares? And don't expect any historic sympathy from Hollywood either!

But as both Bryson and the website point out: "Whatever the exact figure, far more Americans were killed that night than died in the actual landing at Utah beach just over a month later. (Casualties were much higher at Omaha beach)". (Bryson 2015: 162-163.)

Few people (including myself) have heard of it, "because news of the disaster was withheld. partly for purposes of morale, partly because of the general secrecy surrounding the invasion preparations". (Bryson 2015: 163.) Which once again makes me wonder if the families of the deceased men were informed at all, and if so, what they were told?

However, as Bryson points out, what is perhaps most astounding is that Nazi Germany (at the time) just didn't catch on:

What is most extraordinary is that the Germans, having chanced upon a massive collection of boats and men engaged in training exercises from the Cherbourg peninsula, failed to recognize that an invasion of northern France was imminent.

(Bryson 2015: 163.)

Or, thinking of The D-Day scenes from Saving Private Ryan, maybe the Nazis did know it was coming, but with Hitler's nutjob war on two fronts, maybe there wasn't much more they could do than employing the existing repelling troops and fortifications to prevent it. I'm speculating here however.

Have ATS members ever heard of Exercise Tiger (the exercise itself began on 22nd April, but the tragedy struck on the 27th April 1944)?
Any thoughts?
Should there be a new movie, or is it best forgotten, along with all those lives who perished in the icy, dark sea?

Well, perhaps as an exercise it ended up saving more lives by drawing attentions to oversights and shortcomings when the "real" battles occurred, and as such it deserves more attention than a historical footnote. Not so?

a reply to: halfoldman

Thanks I have seen a blurb about this in other books and wanted to read more on it. It's funny you mention a movie I think if it was done right it would be awesome. So many backstories from WWII in the right hands would be great movies

Ive always enjoyed the story of the destruction of Germany's heavy water production for their atomic bomb research.

a reply to: halfoldman

LA Times article from 1987.

SLAPTON SANDS, England — The U.S. Army today will honor 749 World War II American soldiers killed in a disastrous rehearsal for the D-Day invasion that turned into chaos when commanders, without informing the troops, decided to use live ammunition to lend realism to the exercis

www.latimes.com...

Which once again makes me wonder if the families of the deceased men were informed at all, and if so, what they were told?

My understanding is that families were informed of the death in the standard means of the time, but not given any further details until after D-Day had begun. Same for any official announcements about the deaths. By the point that info was released, the invasion was in full swing and it was more or less forgotten by everybody other than the families.

If I remember correctly it was so devastating they wanted to re-evaluate everything about the invasion.

a reply to: halfoldman

Great thread.

Great uncle johny Joe, wounded at Utah Beach. Died a couple days later due to being wounded. He was a twin, his sister (my aunt died a year after birth). The book is closed on him.



The death toll makes me think of The Battle of Antietam.. wiki

The Battle of Antietam (/ænˈtiːtəm/), also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the Southern United States, was a battle of the American Civil War, fought on September 17, 1862, between Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Union Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac, near Sharpsburg, Maryland and Antietam Creek. Part of the Maryland Campaign, it was the first field army–level engagement in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War to take place on Union soil. It was the bloodiest day in American history, with a combined tally of 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing.[

~wiki

I visited Slapton sands last Autumn whilst staying at Dartmouth.

Long stretch of sand that is quite similar to the Normandy beaches. Paid my respects to those that gave their lives for our future.

a reply to: Bigburgh

BIG respect to the man and all the men that sacrificed their lives for our freedoms.

a reply to: Cobaltic1978

All of them, thank you kindly

.

originally posted by: halfoldman
I was busy reading Bill Bryson's second journey through Britain at the pub, when I came across some starling information that I had never heard about before (The Road to Little Dribbling: More notes from a small Island. Transworld Publishers: 2015. Pages 162-163). Let's just say it was a dress-rehearsal for D-Day in spring 1944 involving 30 000 American troops and watched by President Eisenhower himself.

This book might be of interest to you, it's written by the local guy who first uncovered the story after regularly finding bits of US military equipment and personal items whilst walking the shoreline. He later campaigned to have one of the submerged tanks pulled ashore as a memorial;

Amazon Link - The Forgotten Dead

a reply to: Motorhead

Thanks so much, I'm definitely going to look out or ordering that one (if our library can't get it).
Unfortunately Amazon has stopped doing business with South Africa a few years back (unless you got a lot of courier money, allegedly) due to our unreliable and thieving postal system.
www.moneyweb.co.za...

a reply to: halfoldman
Don't ask me when or where but I remember hearing of this 20 or so years ago.

I want to say so much but can't find the words that express what is really going on in my thinking area upstairs. Know this though, I understand the importance of carrying a heavy pack and I know what it means to be first and last. It is a shame our military today are throwing these lessons away because of cif and all of their technology wherever it comes from.

Big Bird sorry you didn't get to know him.

reply to: Brotherman

We got hours of reels, hand written letters and photos from that time. My grandmother was the big sister that referred him as the baby. In a way, I got to know him quite well. Thanks for your kind words.👍😊

a reply to: Brotherman

It is a shame our military today are throwing these lessons away because of cif and all of their technology wherever it comes from.

The average approach load right now is a hair under 120 lbs., but please do tell us how much heavier things were in whatever “old days” time you lay claim to. All our technology has to be carried, fed, maintained, and puts more combat power in the hands of more lower level leadership than any generation before could have dreamed of.

🙄