1 of 3
by kind permission of the Dartmouth Museum
A Sherman Tank drives onto Slapton Sands
2 of 3
Damaged LST
3 of 3
by kind permission of the Dartmouth Museum
Exercise Tiger - Landing at Slapton
Dartmouth in the Second World War
April 2014 marks the 70th Anniversary of Exercise Tiger – a tragedy on the South Devon coast that contributed directly to the success of D-Day, the greatest invasion from the sea in history.
But the debacle that was Exercise Tiger nearly stopped D-Day from happening – and only a miracle allowed it to continue.
In fact, ten BIGOTS at Exercise Tiger nearly scuppered D-Day.
It’s a phrase that might sound a little strange – but it is true.
Exercise Tiger resulted in the deaths of nearly 1,000 American servicemen - 300 died after a friendly fire incident on Slapton beach and more than 600 died after a convoy was attacked by German E-Boats in Lyme Bay.
A catalogue of simple errors – many of them communication problems –resulted in the deaths.
On April 27, the plan was for cruisers to shell Slapton beach with live ammunition from 6.30am for thirty minutes, and for landing craft to drop off the troops they were carrying at 7.30am, simulating a real invasion.
The Landing Craft were delayed and the cruisers were told to delay the shelling – but no one told the landing craft. As a result soldiers were running up the beach as the shelling went on, and 197 men were killed.
Despite the loss of life it was decided to continue with the exercise. The next part was a convoy of LSTs – Landing Ships for Tanks – who would sail into Lyme Bay accompanied by two British ships for protection. They would then land at Slapton. The overnight convoy was attacked by a group of nine German E-Boats. The confusion of a nighttime attack by fast-moving boats was compounded by the fact that due to a clerical error the British and American ships were on different radio wavelengths.
One of the two accompanying ships had been damaged and returned to port, without being replaced. It meant that there was less protection for the LSTs and no-one could coordinate how to defend the convoy. Soon three of the LSTs had been hit and two sank – many of the sailors were trapped below decks and went down with the ships. A huge amount of fuel gushed into the sea and caught fire – men were jumping overboard into a flaming sea. None of the seamen had been taught how to put on the lifejackets on board the LSTs – and if used incorrectly they could actually drag a man under the water. On top of all this the confusion and lack of communications meant there were a number of friendly fire incidents in the darkness. Shore based teams could have rescued many survivors, but were ordered not to help to retain the secrecy of the exercise. 749 men died that night.
Ten of those men could have caused the cancellation of D-Day.
They were BIGOTS - or men with the highest clearance possible within the military command. They had detailed knowledge of the planned landing sites of the Allied forces on D-Day itself. The Acronym could come from two places – either it stands for “British Invasion of German Occupied Territory”, or is a reversal of the shortening of a previously planned invasion of North Africa from Gibraltar – those with detailed knowledge of the scheme were flown direct to the area – and their documents were stamped ‘TOGIB” which then came to mean anyone with detailed knowledge of the invasion plan. BIGOTS became those in the know on big military plans – King George VI was apparently not allowed onto a ship because the sailor guarding the entrance to the ship ‘hadn’t been told he was a BIGOT’.
Ten men on LSTs during Exercise Tiger were BIGOT level clearance and knew the names and locations of the four beaches in Normandy due to be attacked. If one of those men were to be captured, it could have compromised years of planning and the vital element of surprise.
In the confusion of the channel, hundreds of bodies floated – a major operation was needed to recover them whilst still retaining secrecy. Eisenhower and the entire command of D-Day were informed of the crisis, and discussed the postponement of the operations should the men – or their bodies – not be found.
Miraculously for the D-Day plans - though tragically for the families of those concerned – the bodies of all ten BIGOT cleared men were recovered.
Exercise Tiger was a tragedy it is difficult to quantify – nearly 1,000 men killed due to bad communication, bad luck and lack of training. All these things helped planning and preparedness for D-Day – but if outrageous fortune had not seen the bodies of ten men recovered, all those lessons would have been for nothing.
First published By The Dart March 2014
