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I just saw a very interesting documentary on the Smithsonian channel about Operation Tiger, which took place at Slapton Sands (sp?) in Devon. I think this is one that really needs to be remembered. I had never heard anything about this before now, so I'm wondering if any of my RC Tank buddies that live a little closer to ground zero have heard of this, and if it's common knowledge among Brits.

Basically it was a huge training exercise that went horribly wrong and was then covered up, perhaps with the knowledge of Eisenhower himself. It's one of those incidents that makes me want to build something to commemorate the event. The only way history doesn't repeat itself is if we remember it.

Yep know about that. Nine LST and more then 30,000 troops.The landing craft where sighted by German E boats and they caused havoc. I think over 900 or more lost there life's.they covered it up so as not to frighten the troops that were in place for the D day landings. Brian...

Gary, Hi, Yes it is quite well known in the UK, It was like so many things in war time where happenstance interferes,
The final rehearsal of a US naval assault on a beach using territory that had a remarkable similarity to the planned target area in Normandy, Unfortunately a pair of German Navy "E" Boats came upon this exercise in the half light of dusk and did what "E" Boats were good at doing,
It compares with a brace of Ferrets in a Rabbit burrow.
Mayhem.
Bodies were washing up through the morning and were initially discovered by a dog walker,
Almost certainly because the British coastline was an exclusion zone 2 miles deep except to residents with permission this would never have got out except this fellow was a civilian and of course he reported it to the civilian authorities, The area was quite remote meaning that the military authorities could not get to the area before the news got out,
Everyone was sworn to secrecy but because civilians were involved the word finally got out but not until the "D" Day invasion was long past.
From a purely military point of view that's why you have rehearsals, But perhaps a destroyer screen on reflection might have been a good idea.
Shaun.

Prior to the E-boat attack, sadly there was a friendly fire incident. To give the troops experience of landing under fire, the beach was to be shelled for an hour, stopping 30 minutes before the landing. A decision was made to delay events for an hour. Unfortunately the message did not reach some of the landing craft, who attempted the landing at the same time as the beach was being shelled. I believe 946 US troops sadly died.

Yep there a memorial at Slapton, the Sherman & the memorial are on the car park
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The First casualty of war is truth, according to the saying, Gary, and this is but one example. More jaw-dropping is the loss of over 4,000 souls (mostly evacuated soldiers) on the RMS Lancastria, which was sunk off St Nazaire during a supplemental operation (codename 'Ariel'), intended to evacuate remaining units and nationals out of France after Dunkirk had fallen. The UK Government was still hush-hushing details of the tragedy as late as 2007, it seems.
The loss of so many people, eclipses almost every other infamous nautical tragedy by some margin, and certainly all British ones: Titanic (ca. 1,500 passengers lost,1912); Lusitania (ca. 1.200 passengers lost,1915) combined, for example; but with the little known exception of the german vessel MV Wilhelm Gustloff
sunk by a Russian torpedo in the Baltic, in January 1945, with the loss of over 9,000 civilians: the greatest loss of life on the seas EVER-in history- in a single event....part of, as Shakespeare put it, 'the 1.000 shocks that flesh is heir to..'

This has been a learning experience so thanks, Guys. It's good to see that there's a memorial for the guys that got hit by the E Boats, and a bit sad to see that the guys who died by friendly fire are kinda swept under the rug. They were also part of Operation Tiger, correct? I think it's important that both be remembered and in a way I guess it's up to guys like us not to forget.

This also may have hit close to home because there are websites that will tell you that the U-52 came through the war with no casualties, but I would beg to differ. Max was mortally wounded during some sort of weapons test, taken to hospital in Kiel, and two weeks later he died of his wounds. I would say the U-52 had suffered a casualty.

But on the bright side, I also just learned about the Makah Tribe of Native Americans, and they've had people serve the U.S. military in every conflict since WWI and so far every single Makah that has served has returned home alive. Excellent! I don't know if George Patton really said it but George C. Scott said, "No poor dumb bastard ever won a war by dying for his country - he won it by making some other poor dumb bastard die for his" and I truly hope that every Makah makes it home alive from now until the end of time.

Gary, you should read Max Hastings.

Beautifully written books, but not shy on criticism or all sides, calling out a lot of stuff I've never heard of.

Related to Tiger, My sons went to a science based preschool near West Point. A bunch of the Dads were from the Point and three days a week I'd make small about Sunday's NFL game or some other nonsense while dropping them off. At the end of the year, there was a family picnic type deal and I mentioned in passing I was reading a book about Op Tiger. Turns out the guy I was talking football with all year long was a professor of military history at West Point whose area of specialty was Torch. I could have been picking his brain for 9 months.