Seventy-five years ago, in the early morning hours of April 28, 1944, a dress rehearsal for the June invasion of Normandy, evolved into a disaster, in which hundreds of U.S. soldiers and sailors lost their lives and hundreds more were wounded.
Termed “Operation Tiger,” the practice-run took place in Lyme Bay, on the coast of Devonshire, England. The coastal area had been cleared of residents. A simulated beachhead with barbed wire and other obstacles had been constructed on the bay’s Slapton Sands for joint Army and Navy exercises, which were scheduled from April 24-30. The site had been selected because of its close resemblance to the Normandy beaches where the D-Day landings would occur in June. Live ammunition would be used in the effort to prepare troops and sailors for situations which they would likely encounter on D-Day.
On April 27, a foul-up in schedules resulted in U.S. soldiers disembarking from landing craft and almost immediately being shelled by British ships. The number of casualties remains unclear.
Shortly after midnight on April 28, eight U.S. landing ships with tanks, dubbed LSTs, moved toward shore in a three-mile-long column. The slow-moving LSTs could carry on their two decks 20 medium tanks, 20 or more Jeeps and trucks, and a substantial number of navy crewmen, infantry and combat engineers. The shallow draught of the LST allowed it to open its bow doors, deploy a ramp, and unload its vehicles directly onto a beach.
A single British corvette protected the convoy. An escorting destroyer had been damaged in a collision earlier in the evening and had to retire to port for repairs.