If you drive along the coast road from the historic South Devon coastal town of Dartmouth, it will lead you through the village of Stoke Fleming, along a narrow and winding stretch of road with tantalising glimpses of Blackpool Sands and on towards the village of Strete. Beyond the village the road becomes straighter as it leads you towards the long stretch of shingle beach known as Slapton Sands. On the other side of the road is Slapton Ley a fresh water lagoon and nature reserve. There is little to remind the casual visitor of the tragedy that took place here almost a lifetime ago until they reach the village of Torcross where a surprising monument, a Sherman Tank stands close to the beach .

In 1943 the residents of Slapton and the surrounding area were forcibly evacuated by the British government. This caused a lot of sadness and resentment because some of the 3000 people had never left their villages before. What was to happen at this remote spot was a closely kept military secret. The area had been chosen for Exercise Tiger a full scale practice for the D Day landings. Slapton Sands was chosen because it was similar to Utah Beach, a shingle beach with a lake behind it. Utah Beach was the code name for one of the planned landing beaches in Normandy.

The exercise was to take place from 22nd to 30th April 1944, it involved 30,000 troops on board nine large tank landing ships. The first practice assaults on 27th April were uneventful, but tragedy struck on 28th April. A German E boat patrol spotted a convoy of 8 large tank landing ships in Lyme Bay, one boat was torpedoed and sank, a second caught fire and was abandoned and a third caught fire but managed to limp back to the coast. 638 military personnel died, 441 were from US army and 187 from US navy. Sadly some of the deaths from drowning were caused because the men were not used to being at sea and when they abandoned ship they did not put their lifebelts on correctly. When they jumped into the sea the weight of their backpacks flipped them onto their backs and forced their heads under water.

The Exercise went on and sadly loss of life continued. General Eisenhower who was the Supreme Allied Commander ordered that the men should experience real battle conditions. So when the remaining boats landed at Slapton Sands they were exposed to live shelling on the beach and 308 men died from friendly fire.

A lot was learned from the ill fated practice at Slapton Sands and changes were made that led to much more successful landings on D Day, with only about 200 fatalities at Utah Beach. However there was considerable official embarrassment about the blunders and everyone involved was sworn to secrecy. It is believed that the bodies were buried in mass graves in the surrounding fields.

Even after the war the graves of these men were not marked and there was no memorial. A local resident called Ken Small felt strongly that there should be a memorial to these men whose lives had been sacrificed in training for what proved to be the turning point of the war, but the UK and US military were unhelpful. He persisted and in 1970’s he was able to buy the rights to a submerged tank that he had located. With local support he was finally able to recover the tank in 1984 and it now stands as a memorial on a plinth provided by the local council. A plaque was erected to commemorate those who died, but there is still no memorial listing the names of the victims. Mr Small who died in 2004 was rather belatedly supported and honoured by the US military, but it took a determined man who refused to be ignored to give the men who perished in Exercise Tiger the recognition they deserved.

Image via Wikipedia