Slapton Sands

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  Tom! TSL (guest)Tom! TSL (guest)

  This is where i'm goin!

  18 years ago | reply | hide comment
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  Mikeymoo (guest)Mikeymoo (guest)

  In November 1943, 3,000 residents were evacuated from the villages around Slapton Sands. Dick Strawbridge meets one of the residents, John Hannaford, who was a teenager at the time. One of the biggest offensives of the Second World War was the D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy. Aerial picture showing Slapton Sands, the training area that resembled Utah BeachUtah beach was one of the main beaches to be attacked by the American forces. To provide a battle training area a similar location was needed - Slapton Sands. The simulation of the D-Day landings was codenamed Exercise Tiger - but one particular exercise went drastically wrong. This tank is a memorial to Exercise TigerSurvivor Steve Sadlon, a former radio operator of the US navy, gives an account of what happened. As his craft made its way to Slapton, they were attacked by German torpedo boats. The Germans were spotted by a British fleet - but radio warnings never made it to the convoy. The official death toll for this day, the 28th April, was 749.

  18 years ago | reply | hide comment