Secret footage unearthed of American troops practising D-Day landings at Devon

[Story]

It was the practise run which would lead to the liberation of Europe from the tyranny of Hitler's Nazi empire. And it took place in Devon.

Secret footage of U.S. soldiers training alongside British troops for D-Day in South-West England have been unearthed from a dusty archive and seen for the first time in 65 years.

The 38 reels - lasting ten minutes each - show a variety of images including tanks rolling across beaches and soldiers wading through waves. In another sequence, troops are lined up in make-shift landing barges.

Wartime leaders Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower are also seen inspecting troops and remarkably there is footage of Russian military staff observing the manoeuvres.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...n-troops-practising-D-Day-landings-Devon.html

 

[DutchIndo]

Was that near Slapton Sands ? If so there was a big cover up due to a huge training accident. It seems a US Troop ship was sunk during a mock beach landing. The dead were secretly buried and added to the D-Day totals.

 

[ethanedwards]

Please excuse my hazy memory, didn't some E-boats also cause many casualties amongst these troops at some point during their training?

 

[Story]

Exercise Tiger, April 1944
http://www.mikekemble.com/ww2/slapton.html

 

[ethanedwards]

That's great, thank you very much.

 

[zetwal]

Amazing!

 

[H.Johnson]

In my opinion the most thorough examination of Exercise Tiger to date is Hoyt, Edwin P. (1987) 'The Invasion Before Normandy: the Secret Battle of Slapton Sands' Robert Hale Ltd., London. Having said that, it's difficult to justify the subtitle, as there wasn't really a battle and it wasn't really a secret - I have spoken to people who, as children, say that they watched the bodies being brought ashore and say that the incident was widely dicussed locally at the time (you can't hide things that happen inshore from fishermen). Anyway, it's a good read and Mr. Hoyt is a journalist as well as a historian, so he makes some quite revealing points.

By contrast, the 'official history' [Harrison, Gordon A. (1951) Cross-channel Attack, Department of the Army, Washington] doesn't give much away so maybe the 'secret' was at official level.

 

[KatieD]

New footage

The new footage is of the north coast of Devon, not Slapton Sands which is on the south coast. Maybe they practised more delicate operations on the north coast which were less likely to be discovered by the Germans? Coming from Devon I was certainly unaware of anything happening on the north coast until this week.

Katie

 

[byronic]

another cover up?

Many years ago a friend of mine-ex Royal Marine Commando- told me that a landing craft full of his comrades was lost in the Irish sea whilst practicing for D-Day (but I think this was due to very rough seas, as opposed to enemy action). This gentleman rarely spoke of his wartime experiences, and was not given to telling tall stories so I have no reason to doubt him, but whereas I'd heard of Slapton sands, this story was new to me- maybe because there were no civilian witnesses? He went on to take part in the landings at Gold beach, and described scenes reminiscent of Saving Private Ryan- but some 5 years before the film was released. Unfortunately I cannot ask him more about this as he passed away some years ago, to join his less fortunate comrades.

 

[Story]

Having said that, it's difficult to justify the subtitle, as there wasn't really a battle and it wasn't really a secret - I have spoken to people who, as children, say that they watched the bodies being brought ashore and say that the incident was widely dicussed locally at the time (you can't hide things that happen inshore from fishermen). .

This is like the old saying "if a tree falls in a forest and no one is there, does it make a sound?".

We tend to forget that 65 years ago, people where not connected to the rest of the world like the current generation. Short of word-of-mouth (which would be by those traveling, either military, government or critical business - all of whom would be wary of the Official Secrets Act) and phone calls (monitored), how would the rest of the world find out?

 

[H.Johnson]

Katie,

Yes - another example of how threads wander...it wasn't originally about Tiger.

Slapton was chosen, of course, because of its strong physical resemblance to the invasion beaches in the US sector. That obviously had advantages as a practice area, but equally any German with a Channel navigation chart could see the resemblance, and would draw conclusions. Emphasis on Slapton alone would have negated the enormous efforts that were being put in to lead the Germans to believe that the invasion would be in the Pas de Calais area. The joint training of US and British (or were thay Canadian?)troops in the film would perhaps imply that it wasn't Utah Beach they were training for.

Equally, there were so many US troops training in the South of England that they couldn't all have trained at Slapton. The authorities were worried about the social implications of having so many US troops in one area - there was considerable unrest and some incidents (including a riots in Bristol and a gunfight centred on a pub in Kingsclere in Hampshire in which two US soldiers and a civilian woman were killed) so spreading out invasion training made good sense. There is a thread on this somewhere in the Lounge.

Back on thread - interesting new footage!

Added to above - the 'Tiger' attack actually took place in Lyme Bay, some 30 miles off Slapton, within sight of land and off a more populated area than Slapton. Although it was dark, it is inconcievable that the action (a number of rounds of 40mm tracer were fired and there were a number of torpedo explosions) wasn't observed from shore. Also, bodies were washed up on beaches all along that coast and the wounded were ferried in truck and ambulance convoys (in daylight) to the Royal Navy hospital in Portland, Dorset. Slapton may have been a sealed and evacuated area, but to call what happened 'a secret' is stretching a point, I feel! Also, one of the E-boat commanders reported in his debriefing that their targets were landing craft, which would indicate that an invasion exercise was underway, if not the location of the planned invasion.

The new footage is of the north coast of Devon, not Slapton Sands which is on the south coast. Maybe they practised more delicate operations on the north coast which were less likely to be discovered by the Germans? Coming from Devon I was certainly unaware of anything happening on the north coast until this week.

Katie

 

[Bill Owens]

As a child living at Milford Haven, I can confirm that your friends facts are true. It was common knowledge at Milford at the time but I do not believe that there was any attempt at a cover-up. There were two landing barges involved and apparently it was blowing half a gale at the time. The landing should never have taken place. The bodies are buried at the cemetary at Milford Haven.

Many years ago a friend of mine-ex Royal Marine Commando- told me that a landing craft full of his comrades was lost in the Irish sea whilst practicing for D-Day (but I think this was due to very rough seas, as opposed to enemy action). This gentleman rarely spoke of his wartime experiences, and was not given to telling tall stories so I have no reason to doubt him, but whereas I'd heard of Slapton sands, this story was new to me- maybe because there were no civilian witnesses? He went on to take part in the landings at Gold beach, and described scenes reminiscent of Saving Private Ryan- but some 5 years before the film was released. Unfortunately I cannot ask him more about this as he passed away some years ago, to join his less fortunate comrades.

 

[H.Johnson]

This thread (which I am interpreting in a slightly wider way) prompted me to read Ken Small's book 'The Forgotten Dead' (Bloomsbury 1988) again after many years. As a piece of research, I have revised my opinion of it to some extent. My original problems with the work include those attending any 'word of mouth' reconstruction of an incident that took place long ago, based on the narrative of someone who may or may not have been there in the first place.

For instance, Mr Small does not believe the lady who told relatives the uncorroborated story that she saw a large number of dead GIs being buried in a mass grave on a farm (she apparently used to charge 50GBP for interviews).

However, Mr. Small believes a man who says that he was aboard a Royal Navy warship that shelled practice invasion beaches as part of 'live firing' and observed lnumbers of US troops being 'blown up'. He also believes a statement by an ex-RSM that Excercise Tiger is used as an example of 'how not to organise a live firing excercise' during British Army officer training. The fact that both of these reports are denied by the authorities appears only to intensify Mr. Small's belief in them. This is, of course, a common problem when trying to establish 'the truth' of history.

Anyway, I now (exactly 20 years after first reading it) feel that the anecdotes that he collected from local people and from GIs and US sailors who were involved is a useful contribution to knowledge of the practices leading up to D-Day in Devon as many of the people who gave them are now dead.

Just my opinion. of course.