Exercise Tiger

Exercise Tiger was the code name for two different military exercises held in the United Kingdom during the Second World War. The first, conducted in 1942, was an Army-level exercise by Commonwealth forces and the largest ever held in the UK up to that point in time. The second, in 1944, was a practice for the invasion of Normandy, during which several hundred American troops were killed due to enemy attack.

1942

In April 1941, when General Montgomery became commander of South-Eastern Command in the UK, he conducted the largest military exercise to date in the UK, Exercise Tiger, in May 1942, a combined forces operation involving 100,000 troops. Troops participating in Tiger noted that it was particularly gruelling for the infantry involved, who marched over 100 miles during the course of the exercise.Stacey, C.P. Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War: Volume II, Six Years of War: The Army in Canada, Britain and the Pacific.

1944

Plaque_commemorating_those_killed_in_Operation_Tiger.JPG, commemorating those who perished]] A second exercise by the same name was also conducted in 1944; this was an eight-day practice run for the Utah Beach landings of the D-Day invasion. During the Exercise, an Allied convoy was attacked, resulting in the deaths of 749 American servicemen.

History

Landing exercises in the area of Slapton had started in December 1943. Exercise Tiger was one of the larger exercises that would take place in April and May 1944. The make up of Slapton beach, gravel in front of cliffs was similar to that of Omaha beach.

The exercise was to last from 22 April until 30 April, 1944, at the Slapton Sands beach in Slapton, South Devon, United Kingdom. On board large Tank landing ships (LSTs), the 30,000 troops prepared for their mock beach landing.

Protection for the exercise area came from the Royal Navy. Two destroyers, three Motor Torpedo Boats and two Motor Gun Boats patrolled the entrance to Lyme Bay and Motor Torpedo Boats were watching the Cherbourg area where German E-boats were based.

The first practice assaults took place on the morning of the 27 April. On the night of 27 April, nine E-boats who had left Cherbourg on patrol spotted a convoy of 8 LSTs carrying vehicles and combat engineers of the 1st Engineer Special Brigade in Lyme Bay and attacked. One transport caught fire and was abandoned, a second sunk shortly after being torpedoed, a third was set on fire but eventually made shore. The remaining ships and their escort fired back and the E-boats made no more attacks.

The attack resulted in nearly 800 casualties, compared to only about 200 in the actual Utah Beach invasion. 749 servicemen were killed, including 551 US Army and 198 US Navy personnel.

Aftermath

Worried about leaks just prior to the real invasion, all survivors were sworn to secrecy by their superiors. Ten missing officers involved in the exercise had Bigot-level clearance for D-Day, meaning that they knew the invasion plans and could have compromised the invasion should they have been captured alive. As a result, the invasion was nearly called off until all ten victims were later found.

Several changes resulted from mistakes made in Exercise Tiger:

Radio frequencies were standardised: the British escort vessels were late and out of position due to radio problems, a signal of the E-boats presence was not picked up by the LSTs
Better life vest training for landing troops
New plans for small craft to pick up floating survivors on D-Day

The casualties statistics from Tiger were not released until August 1944 along with the casualties of the actual D-Day landings themselves.

Nearly forty years later, there was still very little documented in official histories about the tragedy. Some called it a cover-up, but the initial, critical secrecy about Tiger may have merely resulted in longer-term quietness.

External links

Footnotes

World War II Western European Theatre | Military exercises and wargames | Military training | Opération Tigre | Exercise Tiger