In times of war, secrecy in planning a military operation is an obvious requirement but there are also occasions when it is deemed necessary to suppress any information about the operation long after it has been completed. An example of this was given at a recent meeting of the Bakewell and District Probus Club by club member Phil Spillane, who related the story of World War II’s ‘Operation Tiger’ and its aftermath.
Setting the scene, Phil described how, in planning the 1944 D-Day invasion of Normandy by the Allied forces, it was essential for rehearsals to be carried out and, with its similarity to the likely conditions to be expected on the Normandy beaches, a section of the South Devon coast (known as Slapton Sands) was selected for the purpose. Hence, in 1943 orders were issued for the evacuation of all civilians, their livestock and equipment from the hinterland of the Sands, and the whole area was placed under strict British and American military control.
Landing exercises started in December 1943, with Operation Tiger taking place in April 1944. The rehearsal was to cover all aspects of the invasion, culminating in a beach landing from nine tank-landing ships (LSTs). Thirty thousand American troops prepared for their mock landing, which also included a live-firing exercise. As a result of communication failures between various elements of the military, some of the landing ships came under fire from the land-based forces and suffered many casualties. The next disaster occurred when another flotilla of LSTs was attacked by enemy gunboats. In total, almost 750 American servicemen were killed during Operation Tiger but, due to wartime security, the whole episode was suppressed and ‘forgotten’.
But, as the speaker explained, this was not the end of the story. In 1974, a Devon beach-combing resident, Ken Small, uncovered evidence of the events of 30 years earlier and his attention was drawn to a large underwater object, lying in 60ft of water, ¾ mile offshore. This turned out to be an American Sherman tank. After years of trying, he succeeded in buying it from the US government and arranging its salvage. It now serves as a permanent and official memorial to those who lost their lives in Operation Tiger.
Details of the Bakewell and District Probus Club, including reports of earlier meetings, can be found on its website at www.bakewellprobus.org