CAPTION: The service will take place by a WW2 tank, which was salvaged from the sea 40 years ago and serves as a memorial to those who died (Photo with permission from Exercise Tiger Memorial Ltd)
Service to Mark 80th Anniversary of Devon’s D-Day Exercise Tiger Tragedy
A special service of commemoration is to take place to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Exercise Tiger tragedy off Slapton Sands in South Devon.
The service will take place at the Torcross Tank memorial at 2pm on Sunday 28 April.
The memorial is dedicated to 639 American soldiers and sailors who died when their vessels were attacked by German E-boats during a rehearsal for the Normandy landings as they were sailing from Lyme Bay to Slapton Sands.
Torcross Memorial
The Sherman tank itself celebrates a special anniversary this year, having been recovered from the sea off Slapton Sands in May 1984, thanks to the efforts of local man, Ken Small.
Slapton had been chosen for Exercise Tiger because its topography resembled Utah beach in Normandy where D-Day was to take place.
The Exercise Tiger Memorial in Stokenham church
The service will be lead by the Rev’d Mark Neave, Priest-in-Charge of the Start Bay Mission Community, with contributions from members of the Royal Tank Regiment Association.
“The impact of the exercise on the local community has become embedded in local history.” Rev’d Mark Neave
It will be attended not only by local dignitaries and military personnel, but also by representatives from the USA, from the families of those who were killed and injured during Exercise Tiger.
Rev’d Neave said “This commemoration is a poignant prelude to the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings that will be celebrated later this year.
“With the passing of the years, this may be the last time that our American friends are able to visit Torcross to mark the loss of their countrymen. But having an American tank at the site is an enduring reminder of the special relationship between our two countries, that continues despite the many changes that have happened over the past eighty years.”
Impact on Local Community
Slapton was chosen as the location to rehearse the D-Day landings because its topography is similar to Utah beach in Normandy
There is a memorial to those who died in St Michael’s Church, Stokenham, which incorporates an American ‘stars and stripes’ flag which once flew over the White House, along with a standard from the Royal Tank Regiment.
Thousands of residents of the South Hams villages and farms near Slapton were forced to evacuate from 1943 onwards to enable the D-Day preparations to take place.
Rev’d Neave said “Had the exercise not gone so horribly wrong, then it is unlikely that Exercise Tiger would be remembered as a military operation in its own right.
“But the impact of the exercise on the local community, with over three thousand residents having to lock up and leave their homes, farms, schools and churches, with only a few weeks’ notice, not knowing when they might be able to return, has become embedded in local history.
It’s hard to imagine that we would be quite so compliant today.”
You can read more about Exercise Tiger here.
