Exercise Tiger

28 April 1944, Lyme Bay, off Devon and Dorset

German success; two landing ships sunk and about 750 Americans killed

American troops rehearsed the Utah Beach landing at Slapton Sands in Devon in late April 1944. In the early hours of 28 April a convoy of eight tank landing ships carrying engineers and vehicles was crossing Lyme Bay with only the corvette Azalea as escort; the destroyer Scimitar, which should have been there too, had been damaged in a collision. Nine E-boats from Cherbourg found the LSTs strung out in a line. LST-507 and LST-531 were torpedoed and sunk, and LST-289 was set on fire. About 750 American soldiers and sailors were killed, many drowned for want of knowing how to wear their life jackets. The E-boats escaped untouched. The disaster was kept secret before D-Day, and ten officers who knew the invasion plans were missing until all their bodies were found.