Slapton Sands op was tragic D-Day precursor

TODAY marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day – the largest amphibious invasion in military history that turned the tide of the Second World War. A 1,200-plane airborne assault preceded a sea assault involving more than 5,000 vessels at Normandy, France. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on 6 June, and more than two million Allied troops were in France by the end of August.

- JOEL COOPER

Just two months earlier, a training exercise to prepare for this momentous operation ended in disaster here in Devon, claiming the lives of nearly 800 men.

The troops were preparing for the invasion at Slapton Sands in South Devon when they became victims of what is now considered one of the most tragic events in Devon’s history. The exact details of what transpired on that fateful day remain shrouded in mystery, but in the days following April 28, 1944, the bodies of hundreds of young American servicemen washed up along the entire Lyme Bay coastline.

The tragedy occurred during Exercise Tiger – a week-long mock invasion in preparation for D-Day. Until that night in April, everything had gone according to plan.

The first stage began the previous year when 3,000 residents in the small villages around Slapton were given six weeks to evacuate their homes, farms, pubs and shops, leaving behind ghost towns.

Then, in the spring of 1944, thousands of American soldiers arrived. These were the GIs who would lead the assault on the Normandy beach-heads on D-Day. The entire operation was cloaked in secrecy. Before the actual invasion, there would be a dress rehearsal at Slapton, chosen for its steep shingle beaches which closely resembled the conditions the invading forces would face on Utah, one of the Normandy invasion beaches.

The tale of the two major invasion practices that occurred on Slapton Sands in the spring of 1944 has been recounted numerous times.

The first of these – Exercise Tiger – turned into a disaster that remained a secret for three decades following the D-Day landings.

On that fateful night, German torpedo boats patrolling off the Devon coast intercepted Allied radio traffic and spotted eight vessels sailing in a line in Lyme Bay. The nine German E-boats were also detected by the