Exercise Tiger
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Exercise Tiger (also called Operation Tiger) was the code name for an eight-day practice run (April 22 - 30 1944) for D-Day, on 1944, at a beach in Slapton (Slapton Sands), South Devon. The operation was a dress rehersal for the Utah Beach landings. During the night of April 27, things turned tragic. The American troops were about to practice for a landing in large LSTs, when nine Cherbourg-based German E-boats on patrol spotted the ships in Lyme Bay and attacked, sinking two transports, and setting another on fire, killing 749 military personnel. Just six weeks before the 'big show', the mock operation involved 30,000 men and 300 ships. The 749 killed included 551 Army and 198 Navy personnel, all of them Americans. There were also about 300 wounded, for a total of about 1,000 casualties.
Aftermath
Worried about leaks just prior to the real invasion, all survivors were sworn to secrecy. Ten missing officers involved in the execise had Bigot clearance for D-Day. The invasion was nearly called off until all ten victims were later found.
Several valuable lessons were learned from Tiger, that helped save lives later on D-Day:
- Radio frequencies were standardized: the British escort vessels were late and out of position due to radio problems
- Better life vest training for landing troops
- New plans for small craft to pick up floating survivors on D-Day
Some forty years later, not much was documented in official histories about the tragedy. Some called it a cover-up, but it is more likely the initial, critical secrecy about Tiger lasted longer than intended.
See Also
External links
- Exercise Tiger at The Naval Historical Center (http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq20-1.htm)
- Exercise Tiger UK Memorial Site (http://www.exercisetiger.co.uk/)
- Exercise Tiger U.S. Memorial Site (http://www.exercisetiger.org/)
- Slapton Village Tiger Page (http://www.slapton.org/indextiger.htm)
- An extensive research about the event (http://www.mikekemble.com/ww2/slapton.html)
- History of Exercise Tiger from the West Virginia State Archives (http://wvmemory.wvculture.org/exercisetiger.html)
- Biographies of West Virginians Killed During Exercise Tiger (http://wvmemory.wvculture.org/tigerbios.html)