Hello, Last week had some time on my hands due to my cancelled trip to France so I decided not waste the time and whent to Slapton Sands for the day (I also had to go to Bristol for a speed awareness course, I got caught 37 in a 30 ) On the 28th of April 1944 during practice exercises for the D-Day invasion the US amphibious force was attacked at sea by e-boats resulting in a lot of casualty’s This picture was taken in 1944, this beach is Blackpool Beach Today (well last week) A veiw back towards Slapton Sands, Slapton Sands beach is the beach in the distance I walked for about a mile further to a pud called the Green Dragon for a few pints of liquip refreshment, oh and then walked back again This Sherman DD was recovered from around a mile out at sea the next day I whent to Bovington tank museum, a post follow soon
a couple years ago we covered this at length and since that time I have run across some very interesting info's on the Schnellbooten side of things. go here as I helped put the Km thing together with Mike http://www.mikekemble.com/ww2/slapton.2html which appears to be totally off line. this was a multipage site, possibly the best on the action on the web. thanks for posting gents........ E ~
While doing research about the 4 Servicemen from our small church KIA during WW 2, I discovered one was KIA during Operation Tiger. Roy Mckinnon was one. He served with the Quatermasters of the Army. If I recall he was the highest ranking NCO killed during this regretful operation. His brother, Irvin McKinnon was later KIA during the Battle For Iwo Jima, 5th Marines. Mr. & Mrs. McKinnon lost their only children to WW 2. May they both rest in peace. Best Regards,
Just a quickie for any American lurkers...indeed for any British lurkers getting confused with pic of Blackpool beach and wandering what this has to do with Slapton when you type it into a search engine. This Blackpool beach is one of the best beaches in UK, located near Dartmouth. And not the one with a tower in the North West of the country, sorry Pegasus just want to make sure folk are aware if looking from States.
Some detail photos of the slapton sherman which was a very late model with 75mm gun, with large drivers and co-drivers hatches similar to the M4 Hybrid and 76mmgun and 105mm howitzer types. In case anyone gets upset with a disrespectful Razin standing on a Memorial, I had special permision by the man who recovered it. Looking down from the turret View attachment 5933 Detail of Co Drivers hatch View attachment 5934 Interior the large square thing is the 75mm gun breach View attachment 5935 view toward the ammuntion bin View attachment 5936 View attachment 5939 Officially the Sherman was lost due damage to the Canvas Skirt however the real reason was the engine access plate had been removed -probably to access the lower spark plugs to clear a hydraulic lock- and was not replaced. This of course was not aparent to the officers on the landing craft, although I wonder if the technician chucked the plate away before anyone realised For those who are upset by dead bodies the beach scene in Post#2 is part of an exercise to test casulaty evac. Couple of books that may be of interest Channel Firing: Tragedy of Exercise Tiger: Nigel Lewis: Books The Invasion Before Normandy Edwin P. Hoyt ~Steve
The German E-Boats that caused all the damage, were they on a routine patrol and the ships involved in Operation Tiger were a "target of opportunity," or was the Kreigsmarine actively trying to interdict allied shipping in anticipation of the cross channel invasion? Those E-Boats were awfully close in, and a long way from home base.
Hi Urgh, yes the same name but thats where the similarties end I have now been to both of them and I know which one I prefer, thats the one near Dartmouth, sorry if any one lives near the other one
That's amazing that the E-Boats would hold up and wait like that along the English coastline. They wouldn't do that during daylight-right? I mean combat air patrols and patrol boats would surely spot them, not to mention local fishing boats. Sorry if I the questions I ask seem silly, but this is an aspect of the war that I have little to no knowledge on. I have heard about the incident at Slapton Sands/Operation Tiger, but I thought that area was farther to the east, around the Isle of Wight area until I located it on google earth last night. I live in Louisiana, and the U-Boats would cruise the gulf coast and the mouth of the Mississippi River and wreak havoc on coastal shipping right after our entry into the war, but nothing like this. There also must have been a lot of small boat action in the English Channel as well.
Slapton is further East like you say mate. The Slapton incident happened at night. Post No. 7 is an account by a survivor and his story starts at 0130hrs. Most of my info on the E-Boats comes from my father who has a keen interest in WW2 Maritime history, being a officer in the Merchant Navy after the war it figures. My family is from London/Kent so his stories of E-Boats relate to the Robert Montgomery and that area of the coast. He told me that they would come in on the tide at night and sit against cliff faces camoflaged during the day and do a run on a ship coming in or out of the Thames Estuary when the light and tide was right and run back to their ports. It would be in my opinion, knowing the Isle of Sheppy and the terrain around the cliffs fairly well, quite hard to spot these boats if they did what he says. Cheers
Razin, There are some sites that say she grounded and broke her back. Some list her has being bombed and I've seen others stating it was a E-Boat. I've never looked any further than that as I've never had cause too. One local site suggests she was carrying the first nuclear weapon/bomb from America and that is why she has never been moved or had her cargo taken off. There seems to be quite a few urban myths surrounding her history with only one thing for sure....If ever she blows up experts reckon most of Sheppey will too. Regards
Yes the urban legend seem to abound from small incidents that are based in fact. In south Louisiana, WW2 urban legends has it that U-Boat crews would come ashore and obtain provisions from coastal communites and return to their boats nearby. Most of the people in that area spoke only French, and supposedly some of the Germans had some crewmembers who spoke French which made their task easier. Other stories had it that several U-Boats were sunk just off the coast, and debris from the wreckage would wash up or would be picked up by fishing boats. Some of the debris would be wrapping and packaging of locally produced bread, coffee and foodstuffs, according to urban legend of course. I'm sure that there are many similar stories from the English Channel coastline areas. And that sunken transport with the explosives, can't the navy demolition teams do something with the wreckage? Seems that something like that would be a bit of a problem with divers and fishermen.
I read Ken Small's book The Forgotten Dead some time ago and found it moving. There's a article in No.44 After the Battle called the other D-Days.
The boat is surrounded by bouys, signs etc warning people to stay away. You can't dive on the ship....I think it has a net or something around it. Anyway it's well known in the area to stay away. On a regular basis the ship was dived on to check the stability of the explosives and it has been deemed to unstable to risk moving. (The Royal Navy may still dive on it to check-I don't follow the news down that way anymore.) Cheers
Drew5233 The maratime and Coast guard site is well worth a quick read. The general accepted cause of loss was a grounding while most of the crew were ashore for R&R the jury crew could not prevent the grounding. The breaking up of the ship may have been due the unbalance removal of the ammunition in the holds causing the forward section to sag breaking the ship in a classic way that became apparent during consistant losses of ex liberty ships in the late 1950s and early 1960s, these ships suffered vertical stress fractured midships. The survey of the Montgonery shows this type of damage, there is no sections missing on one side as would be the case of a toredo hit from an Eboat. Considering its cargo had SS richard Montgomery been hit by a toredo the result would be similar to the loss of the Liberty ship SS John Burke lost to a Kamikaze off Mindoro Island in The Philippines. www.metacafe.com/watch/293228/ww2_ammunition_ship_explodes/ View attachment 5946 View attachment 5947 I agree that such an explosion would be bad news for the thames Estuary towns even today there is sufficent to do massive damage. Not disimilar to the loss of the Mont Blanc at Halifax NS in WW1- the largest convention explosion in war time. ~Steve
Tiger...anniversary http://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2013-04-27/70th-anniversary-of-wartime-disaster/?
