Sherman Tank rescued by Ken Smalls out on display at Slapton Sands (c) R.Griffith
Sadly Ken has now passed away but his struggle to highlight the losses of 'Exercise Tiger' (approx USA 1000 dead + UK & others dead) has now been recognised by this memorial to all that perished on 27th April 1944 in this practice for D-Day. It is located at Slapton Sands Devon. Read his his book 'The Fogotten Dead' (1989 Bloomsbury). He kindly autographed my copy when I visited the site, a true gentleman.
RIP.
Slapton Sands Sherman Tank (Unedited) Clip # 1
Unedited footage of the Sherman Tank memorial at Slapton Sands for Joe.
WWII Slapton Sands disaster remembered (UK) - BBC News - 28th April 2019
75 years on, the disaster of Slapton Sands, which saw more than 700 U.S. serviceman training for D-Day were killed (many of them drowning), when fast German patrol boats caught them and errors by the Royal Navy meant the tragedy was larger than it should have been. The incident was hushed up at the time for morale issues, etc., as this was close to D-Day itself.
Slapton Sands Devon - WW2 Tank Memorial
Slapton Sands Sherman Tank (Unedited) Clip # 2
Unedited footage of the Sherman Tank memorial at Slapton Sands for Joe.
Training, Amphibious Maneuvers, Slapton Sands, England, 3/17/1944 (full)
Freely downloadable at the Internet Archive, where I first uploaded it. Extracted from United States Naval Photographic Center film #1631. National Archives description: 1) AVH-Pan LCTs & LSTs underway & on beach, trucks, LVTs & markers on beach-SV.2) AVO-Pan LCIs, LCs off shore & on beach-SV.3) AVO-Pan AKs, LSTs, LCTs, LCIs off shore.4) AVO LCs circle in rendezvous area, APs BG.5) AVO-Pan Wave of LCs underway, LCs on beach.6) AVO Camouflaged British cruiser underway.7) AVL LCs silhouetted in sunset.8) AVH-Pan LCPs underway, British cruiser. National Archives Identifier: 76109
The LST Shipmates honoured at Cambridge Memorial Cemetary
This tragedy happened just off the coast of England a few weeks before D-Day and the actual Normandy Landings.
Exercise Tiger involved Top Secret practice beach landings taking place in South Devon at Slapton Sands in preparation for Operation Neptune.
This was to be the seaborne invasion which formed part of Operation Overlord and would lead the allies to eventual Victory in Europe.
The first practice assault took place on the morning of 28 April and was marred by an incident involving friendly fire.
H-hour was set for 7:30 am, and was to be preceded by a live firing exercise to acclimatize the troops to the sights, sounds and even smells of a naval bombardment. During the landing itself, live rounds were to be fired over the heads of the incoming troops by forces on land, for the same reason. This followed an order made by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, who felt that the men must be hardened by exposure to real battle conditions.
The British heavy cruiser HMS Hawkins was to shell the beach with live ammunition, from H-60 to H-30 (i.e. 6:30 to 7:00 am) giving the beach masters half an hour to inspect the beach and declare it safe.
Several of the landing ships for that morning were delayed, and the officer in charge,decided to delay H-hour for 60 minutes, until 8:30.
This message was received by Hawkins, but not by a number of the landing craft, with the result that troops were landing on the beach at the same time as the bombardment was taking place.
British Marines on one vessel recorded in its log book (the only log which has since been recovered from any of the boats) that men were being killed by friendly fire.
On the beaches they had a white tape line beyond which the Americans should not cross until the live firing had finished. But the American soldiers said they were going straight through the white tape line and were getting blown up.
The disasters that happened during Exercise Tiger were concealed from the World for decades until Ken Small retrieved a sunken Sherman tank from Lyme Bay in May 1984 and continued researching the Exercise Tiger war records.
He presented this tank to Slapton Sands and the World as a monument and tribute to all the US Military and Naval men that lost their lives during Exercise Tiger.
vimeo.com/100015902
He then went on to uncover many of the hidden secrets and facts during the 1980's which allowed this tragic story to unravel over the next 30 years.
The World could finally learn just what had taken place at Slapton Sands in April 1944.
Two Tiger Veterans Floyd Hicks and John Casner Jnr and Families representing their lost ones from America were able to help with the making of this film whilst visiting Britain for the 70th Exercise Tiger Memorial Services held on the 27th - 28th of April 2013 and 2014.
Text
Photos
Link
Video
Event
Poll
CeeVisK
Shared publicly - 21 Jun 2015
This tragic loss of life happened during WWII just weeks before D-Day.
As the top secret exercises for the Normandy Landings took place and the organizing and staging of an allied attack against the enemy on main land Europe was approaching.
The pressures and logistics of such a massive operation, caused errors and mistakes on such a gigantic scale.
It led to a thousand or so young Service Men loosing their lives on April 28th 1944 during Exercise Tiger, in what should have been safe and protected waters around Britain's coast.
I dedicate my film to all the Service Men who lost their lives on the 27th and 28th of April 1944, may they rest in peace and forever be our heroes.
Text
Photos
Link
Video
Event
Poll
CeeVisK
Shared publicly - 21 Jun 2015
This tragic loss of life happened during WWII just weeks before D-Day.
As the top secret exercises for the Normandy Landings took place and the organizing and staging of an allied attack against the enemy on main land Europe was approaching.
The pressures and logistics of such a massive operation, caused errors and mistakes on such a gigantic scale.
It led to a thousand or so young Service Men loosing their lives on April 28th 1944 during Exercise Tiger, in what should have been safe and protected waters around Britain's coast.
I dedicate my film to all the Service Men who lost their lives on the 27th and 28th of April 1944, may they rest in peace and forever be our heroes.
Memorial for the 75th anniversary of the Exercise Tiger Tragedy on Slapton Sands
Joint Army & Navy Amphibious Maneuvers, Slapton Sands, Devon, England, 02/14/1944 (full)
Freely downloadable at the Internet Archive, where I first uploaded it. Naval Photographic Center film #1545. National Archives description 1) LS MS Wave LCMs hit beach, ducks & LCMs BG-SV.2) GV Cub plane passes over men on beach, tanks on beach LCMs BG.3) GV 2 LCIs, shore BG. LS-Pan LCI, LCMs & ducks underway.4) MS LCI passes, duck & LCI BG. LS Wave of LCPs.5) MS LCT with tank, tank fires, shore BG.6) LS Phosphorus smoke shells burst on beach.7) LS Beach, man on tank with binocs.-SV.8) GV Water-proofed tank leaves beached LCT over barbed wire.9) LS 3 water-proofed tanks leave beach in surf, (dirty & scratched). National Archives Identifier: 76060
British landing crafts on Slapton Sands D-day practice beach landing
These are two state of the art landing crafts from hms bulwark, part of the royal naval fleet. The video was taken at the famous slapton sands, the beach where so many died in the d-day practice landings. However this visit is less adventurous as the troops were on a 24 hour 'R and R' and were going to the pub. Even the locals were exited, I was just visiting devon on holiday and was lucky enough to see these land but was 3 miles away at the opposite side of the beach so couldnt film there approach. I was Told that the ship HMS Bulwark was within 125 miles of the two crafts, so it would have been in a nearby bay, probably on a practice mission. This video was taken at around 9:20pm on Sunday 24th July 2011.
Thanks for watching : ) thumbs up
Joint Army Navy Amphibious Maneuvers, Slapton Sands, Devon, England, 02/14/1944 (full)
Freely downloadable at the Internet Archive, where I first uploaded it. Naval Photographic Center film #1546. National Archives description 1) LS Smoke on beach, dirty. MS Men on tank aboard LST.2) MS Med. tank aboard LCT, smoke columns on shore BG.3) LS Tank, aboard LCT fires 75MM.4) LS Rocket ship fires, rail FG.5) MS LCT backs up to LST, bow, jeeps & trucks transfer forward.6) GV Jeeps & trucks in LCT.7) GV Truck & jeeps exit LCT on beach-SV. National Archives Identifier: 76061
Slapton Sands Road (The Line) 16/02/2014 Is open The big clean up with bulldozers after the storm.
Slapton Sands Road (The Line) 16/02/2014 Is open The big clean up with bulldozers after the storm. Plus interviews with local folk
For more videos check my website!
Tel Mobile 07956141090
Home 01803834216
Sherman Tank
Sherman Tank, Torcross in South Devon.
slapton sands
Slapton Ley and Slapton Sands.
Slapton Ley is a lake on the south coast of Devon, England, separated from Start Bay by a shingle beach, known as Slapton Sands.
It is the largest natural freshwater lake in South West England.
It is 1.5 miles long and is made up of two parts (the Lower Ley and the Higher Ley).
The site is a National Nature Reserve and a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
In late 1943, as part of the build-up to D-day, the British Government set up a training ground at Slapton Sands, Devon, to be used by Force U, the American forces tasked with landing on Utah beach. Slapton Beach was selected for its similarity to Utah Beach: a gravel beach, followed by a strip of land and then a lake. Approximately 3,000 local residents in the area of Slapton, now South Hams District of Devon, were evacuated. Some had never left their villages before being evacuated.
Landing exercises started in December 1943. Exercise Tiger was one of the larger exercises that would take place in April and May 1944. The exercise was to last from 22 April until 30 April 1944, and covered all aspects of the invasion, culminating in a landing at the Slapton Sands beach. On board nine large tank landing ships (LSTs), the 30,000 troops prepared for their mock beach landing. The landing also included a live-firing exercise.
Exercise Tiger, or Operation Tiger, was the code name for one in a series of large-scale rehearsals for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, which took place on Slapton Sands or Slapton Beach in Devon. Coordination and communication problems resulted in friendly fire deaths during the exercise, and an Allied convoy positioning itself for the landing was attacked by E-boats of the German Kriegsmarine, resulting in the deaths of 946 American servicemen. The incident was under the strictest secrecy at the time due to the impending invasion, and was only nominally reported afterward; as a result it has been called forgotten.
Filmed with a DJI Phantom Quadcopter , GoPro Hero3 Black Camera and a cheap no brand name brushless gimbal.
Filmed at 1080p , 60fps.
World War 2 - Secret of the UK: Operation Tiger Revealed
Operation Tiger - the disastrous USA amphibious landing training exercise in Lyme Bay involving the loss of 749 men. Location - Slapton Sands on the A 379 about 10 miles south of Brixham..
shermans recovered from sea
Exercise Tiger Hit US Soldiers Hard Prior to D-Day landings
Commemorations for the D-Day landings that began of the end of World War Two have been extended over the past year to honor those who took part in the daring invasion of France.
Many tactical manoeuvres were top secret. Over the years some details have been released, while others still remain military secrets.
One secret that was kept from the general public for years was the unintended death of almost 750 troops in practice preparations for the D-Day landings.
►2nd Channel:
PLEASE hit that LIKE button to support the show and make future videos possible.
►Read the Full Story at:
►Check out my Website for more info and stories
►TWITTER:
►INSTAGRAM:
►FACEBOOK:
►GOOGLE PLUS: google.com/+Joedemadio
►STEAM GROUP:
►TWITCH:
Slapton Sands (Operation Tiger)
From:-
Exercise Tiger, or Operation Tiger, was the code name for one in a series of large-scale rehearsals for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, which took place on Slapton Sands or Slapton Beach in Devon. Coordination and communication problems resulted in friendly fire deaths during the exercise, and an Allied convoy positioning itself for the landing was attacked by E-boats of the German Navy (Kriegsmarine), resulting in the deaths of 946 American servicemen. The incident was under the strictest secrecy at the time due to the impending invasion, and was only nominally reported afterward; as a result it has been called forgotten.
For More Infomation:-
On Slapton Sands
An impromptu interview on Slapton Sands, South Hams in Devon
Slapton sands Sept 2011 004.AVI