Slapton Sands, Devon. Site of the infamous Exercise Tiger.
In April 1944, large-scale rehearsals for D-Day took place on Slaptop Sands – the beach was chosen for Excercise Tiger because it closely resembled Utah Beach.
During these rehearsals, at least 749 American soldiers and seamen would lose their lives.
The main loss of life came from a disastrous attack from German E-Boats who stumbled upon the exercise and took the opportunity to sink 8 landing ships and a corvette.
More lives were lost throughout the rehearsal landings due to Eisenhower’s insistence that live-fire ammunition be used (to acclimatise the servicemen to the eventual realities of the Normandy landings.)
What struck me most walking around Slapton was how the memorials don’t just immortalise the servicemen who died in Excercise Tiger. They also pay tribute to the thousands of local people who were forcibly evicted from their homes so that the rehearsal landings could go ahead.
One such memorial (the obelisk featured in the photos above) was presented by the US army authorities, and it thanks the people of Slapton for their sacrifice too, because the rehearsals – whilst costly – did provide Allied command with vital learnings which proved invaluable to the success of D-Day.
(This is a repost from Instagram from July 28th, 2024)