D-Day Practice Landing Ambushed - Slapton Sands Disaster

[@historigraph]

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[@ferrumbellatorwarsmith3342]

Many of those vehicles are visible on the sea floor. Tanks, Trucks, and SPAA that tumbled out of their sinking ships. Many upright as if preparing for a battle. A visible remaider of the preparation for the Liberation of Europe. The sad thing is that the fate of those who died wasn't revealed to their families. They were told they perished during D-Day.

[@DonaldDu6k]

Liberation? More like occupation...

[@GerardMenvussa]

Secrecy during the war is obviously necessary. But it is frustrating to learn about this kind of stories and all the lives lost for nothing.

[@skullsaintdead]

​@@GerardMenvussaWell, they weren't lost for nothing. WWII was remarkable in that it was, effectively, a battle of good (Allies) vs evil (Axis), versus say just a contest over two bickering lords looking to cash in on a land grab. It was: genocidal war criminals, with no respect for human life in those they considered 'other' than themselves (views of the Japanese, Nazis) against/ those who wanted to free Europe & the Pacific from that tyranny (Allies). Sure, those men lost their lives during a training exercise, but their sacrifice is no less than those who died or were wounded on D-day (inc longer term effects like PTSD, chronic pain, depression). A lot of the time, your life & your experience in life just comes down to luck - they were unlucky to be stalked by German ships & not have seen the torpedoes to evade (& conversely, the other ships were lucky to have seen the torpedoes & to successfully evade).

[@Asd-tk2if]

@@skullsaintdead I wouldn't call Allies at the time "good". More like benign or "better" than the other side. Allies had committed numerous atrocities while at war. From Japanese Americans being put into camps to Firebombing to Bombing of Munich to British Raj Famine and many more. Allies weren't the saints most people make them out to be. Compared to the other side maybe but if looked by an impartial person ,without any comparisons to who they were fighting, they would be seen as war criminals.

[@Spaghetter813]

​@@Asd-tk2ifeverything is relative, hence they were good.

[@loungelizard3922]

With so much loss of life, I am surprised that I had never heard of Operation Tiger before. Thank you for putting this one together, I appreciate the fog of war, it gives me a better sense of what the crew must have been feeling. The only thing I would have liked to have seen is a total for the crew of each ship. As they are landing ships they naturally would have had hundreds of men in them, but it's nice to know for sure. Thanks again.

[@kevindavidson8802]

There is a fictional book series set during WWII by James R Benn thats the Billy Boyle WWII mysteries. The main character is a detective working for Eisenhower, the thing I really like about the series is that he is usually involved in big events during the war that are not as well known. One of the books The Rest is Silence involves Operation Tiger and making sure that no D-day details are discovered by the Germans. Other books he meets with French resistance, the Ghost Army, JFK losing PT-109, shuttle flights into Russia and stuff like that. Its a lot of fictional cases mixed in with real events.

[@xxnightdriverxx9576]

People usually dont like to draw attention to their "failures". In addition to that an exercise, even if gone wrong with A LOT of people dead, is almost never as exciting as the real thing.

[@HighlanderNorth1]

The video ended a bit early. What was the eventual result? Were people court martialed later on?

[@nicktamer4969]

It was kept secret at the time, then forgotten in the fog of the war.

[@Pozi_Drive]

@@HighlanderNorth1 It was 'nobodies' fault so this nobodie got the squad.

[@mathewm7136]

The non-crew dead were overwhelmingly combat engineers which is why so few were available in the actual landing. And in his autobio, Ike stated that the loss of the LST's had a much larger impact on Overlord than the loss of life as they were absolutely critical for securing and expanding the beachheads.

[@cjthebeesknees]

a devastating loss in that regard, such experienced and skilled men are riflemen and sappers, high value personnel.

[@atakorkut5110]

As someone who considers himself pretty well-versed in World War II in general and D-Day as well, this is actually news to me. I had not heard about this this much detail I am surprised to be learning new things even though I have stayed on the topic of World War II in general and also specific conflicts within and around the time of the war, Naval and terrestrial side of things. I just wanted to comment how crazy it was that, along with your comment, this video was a real eye-opener

[@xczechr]

Losing more men during training than during the actual beach landing is nuts.

[@fabovondestory]

Either this was a major german succes or DDay was a major allied succes

[@Paulftate]

And this is the A-Team

[@Paulftate]

​@@fabovondestoryit is what it is .... victims of circumstances

[@TheCosmicGuy0111]

Woab

[@Paulftate]

@@TheCosmicGuy0111 not sure about your woab? is compatible to a moab .... just don't get it ..... a case of tone-deafness 🤘

[@tassiehandyman3090]

As a kid, I went along the back of this beach on the bus to school everyday - used to be the Western National No.93 service bus. The Sherman tank at the Torcross end was just another 'thing' on the side of the road as a teenager in the early 90s. Nowadays, I have my own kids, including 2 sons, both late teenagers, and it chills me to think what the parents of these young soldiers went through... Lest we forget...🙏

[@AdmRose]

You neglected to mention the utter panic that this caused at SHAEF. Several officers with operational knowledge of the D-Day invasion plans were on ships in T4 and MIA after the exercise. Until they managed to locate all their bodies D-Day was up in the air in the unlikely, but possible, event that one was captured alive by one of the E-boats.

[@ItsPengWin]

The thought of the life vests flipping them upside down is absolutely terrifying

[@Inucroft]

In preparation of the 2004 commemorations, the summer of 2003 my father was required to survey and record all D-Day Embarkation Hards between Plymouth & Portsmouth. So being the summer holidays, I was dragged along. At the time I was very unhappy, though amused by navigating us over all the chain ferriers in the area. And well, part of the route took us along Slapton Sands.

[@es-dv5ei]

High Command has so many excuses not to investigate the loss, because High Command was guilty in all that chaos.

[@TheDramaKings]

Super video. I am based in Torquay (just around the coast from Slapton) and I volunteer at a musuem based on the site of the coastal defense site at Brixham. We get asked a lot about Exercise Tiger and Slapton. One of the big misconceptions is that the Germans caught the landing craft off the beach rather than out in Lyme Bay. It was great to see your video explain the true events in such detail!

[@alexwilliamson1486]

My wife’s great uncle and aunt, both RAF during the war,told me a little about this? Place was out of bounds for a long time, they themselves were not allowed back to where they lived,for a considerable amount of time? Arthur would talk about the “poor American boys all washing up ashore” Both were sworn to secrecy, during the war, about the whole episode.

[@Mika-ph6ku]

"Damn literally one of our landing ships just blew up and is now ablaze, this training exercise is so realistic I almost want to believe it is actually a real attack!"

[@garygenerous8982]

I’d heard of the disaster of Operation Tiger in passing but didn’t get any details. This clears that up and also makes a lot more sense than what I assumed had happened. Namely that the Germans weren’t involved and that the casualties were caused by landing accidents and friendly fire incidents. Awesome video as always dude!

[@Bandog23]

Gotta respect those s-boots, really crazy to go to Britain like that, thet counterattacked the d-day landings but to limited success.

[@criminy_]

I'm relatively well-read regarding WW2 history, but I only learned about this event recently, and it wasn't until I saw your video that I had a clear understanding of how this disaster unfolded. Thank you for uploading this!

[@GIobeCentral]

Thank you for speaking so clearly. You have convinced me that , although i suffer from hearing difficulty, if people would make the effort to speak clearly, then it would be easy to understand what they say. Or , to put it another way, I need not wear earing aid if people spoke clearly. Thank you again.

[@josephkondrat6478]

MY father was in the practice at Slapton Sands and later with the invasion of Utah Beach. He was in the first wave into Utah Beach.

[@manuelacosta9463]

The tragic irony. Training becomes an actual warzone resulting in heavy casualties. The coverup also happened because Allied high command was paranoid about Operation Overloard being compromised due to many of the fallen officers carrying detailed plans/maps, and the German raiders were apparently observed sifting through the floating bodies in the aftermath.

[@peterhewson3216]

Such officers had the codename of "Bigots" and some were apparently missing after this disaster, with worrying implications as to what the Germans had been able to recover and deduce from it.

[@untruelie2640]

One small nitpick: It looks like one of the german commander's first name is "Freiherr". However, this was actually part of his last name, as Freiherr is a noble title similar to Baron or Baronet. After 1918, the german nobility was abolished and the former nobles took on their former totles as part of their last names. So the guy's actual name would be "[First name] Freiherr von Mirbach".

[@justandy333]

Jeez!!! That is crazy! More people lost in the practice, than of the real landings. And D-Day was no picnic! That aside, One of the things I love about WW2 history is, just as you think you've read all there is to read on the subject, a few weeks later another event pops up on your radar. This is one of those. I consider myself fairly well read around ww2 history, but this is a new one on me. I knew they did practice landings, but I never knew of this dreadful tragedy. May they rest in peace.

[@v44n7]

i told my brother that not even a entire life dedicated to the study of world war 2 is enough to understand and be expert in world war 2. and looking at his video is even more clear that is the case

[@peterhewson3216]

I read a book about this many years ago - a man from my home town recovered a Sherman wreck and details of the disaster were emerging. However, in about 1969-70 one of the series of small "Commando" type booklets had as well as the fictional story, a final section with a true one, and this was about Slapton Sands and these events. This was as far as I know years before it became well known or possibly publically acknowledged as an event.

[@zarrck]

Awesome video as usual. If I may offer a small suggestion: Keeping the timestamps on the bottom left longer (or maybe even the entire time) would help with following along the timeline of events

[@Genesis25hotg25]

LET'S GO NEW HISTORIGRAPH VIDEO

[@uzyek]

RAHHHHHHHHHHH

[@Paulftate]

​@@uzyek🤘

[@coyote4237]

Another fantastic video. Thank you for the knowledge.

[@erichluepke855]

I remember reading about this and being absolutely shocked. Glad someone is covering it!

[@shitpostgrotto2982]

Hey, great video, but small error at 5:15. Both flotillas are marked as the '5th flotilla',

[@raf530i]

Wow! Excellent research and clarification of this lesser-known war operation. I've never heard of Operation Tiger before, thank you

[@pierQRzt180]

So many factors can go wrong and mess things up it is incredible.

[@iain-duncan]

Disaster is a good word for this. A completely and utterly moronic series of decisions leading to little to no escort forces during a night training mission with no overhead air support all for the sake of the immersion of the soldiers on board... staggering

[@tonystone1016]

Thats for the video. Ive never heard of the operation.

[@nugget0428]

This is nuts, I've never heard of this before today!

[@adamfoster8435]

I have never heard of this before!!!! Thank you historigraph for this video!

[@Spackentim]

Again you bring us a story i never heard of before. Thank you!

[@Bishop1664]

Wow, I'm dong a presentation on this event next week, good timing! Nice video. Also it's worth noting that nearly 300 US infantry were killed during a friendly fire incident (beach naval bombardment) crazy times

[@Vaenn]

Wow, I'm really surprised I never heard about this. Makes me wonder what else didn't get much attention. Great video.

[@HistoryHaty]

I love Historiograph videos. You deserve Millions of subs.

[@ForOurGood]

Interesting video. But I have to admit, I had trouble understanding how the losses were so high, just seems insane. Maybe a breakdown could have been useful to piece this puzzle together. Thanks for the video!

[@Dmooreslotreviews]

I've been to Slapton sands. It's a nice beach.

[@Meatful]

So interesting, and I’ve never heard of it

[@66kbm]

There is book called "Channel Firing" by Nigel Lewis that covers this and the other Exercises in great detail. Well done on your video sir.

[@sebastianrosenheim6196]

Its incredible how many mistakes and losses were caused by just bad communication.

[@m2hmghb]

I remember reading about it in the 90s. I can't remember the name of the book, but I remember the cluster that was this operation.

[@jaimemanerodelpino634]

Soldiers that day were like: wow this drill is so well organised it feels so real

[@jarenmanpk]

You should consider your sponsors. There are serious privacy risks with My Heritage.

[@mattheweagles5123]

Apparently there were further deaths as a live fire artillery barrage hit a practice beach as troops landed, rather than minutes before

[@vagnhenning]

What a terrible tragedy.

[@curtisevans8346]

My father was a combat medic in the 4th Medical Battalion of 4ID. He was on LST 289, and stayed on board with 4 other medics to care for wounded. The five of them received the Bronze star with V for Valor - the first members of the 4th Infantry Division to be combat decorated in WWII. He landed on June 6 on Utah Beach in the 3rd wave, and was in combat all the way through St. Lo, Paris, Hurtgen and the Bulge. Always said Hurtgen was the worst❗

[@rodmaknouni]

Cherbourg is in Normandy, not Brittany. Great video as always!

[@fabovondestory]

1. Why have we never heared about this? 2. Crazy to thing that this killed more soliders than the actuall thing

[@NeptuniaMorgan]

Because WW2 (and every other war) has tons of those kinds of little „skirmishes“ and „stories“, be it tragic or heroic. We only remember the most „relevant“ ones.

[@theoriginaldylangreene]

There was the 80th memorial at South Hams near Slapton this year to commemorate the dead. Many people attended, so many do know about it.

[@Bishop1664]

It was kept quiet at the time due to how close it was to the actual d day landings. Then, once d day ‘kicked off’ it wasn’t exactly top of the news stories

[@TrickiVicBB71]

Political and military figures would rather bury deep in some file cabinet. It would be a blow to the war effort and moral. Saw a documentary about the disaster a decade ago. Interviewing those there. One sailor witnessed a soldier cartwheeling 100ft through the air from an exploded LST.

[@copter2000]

Not a morale boosting story before the largest invasion in history.

[@Fnidner]

“Wow guys, this exercise is very realistic..!”

[@greygalah]

that's a great episode. Thanks

[@buonafortuna8928]

Very good vlog. I seem to remember Leslie Thomas wrote a novel about this back in the day - of course I could be wrong, I often am.

[@tcsmagicbox]

The excercise was so real, the torpedoes shot at us actually explodes!

[@joshkent4888]

Thank you for this video. I thought I knew a lot about D Day. Turns out I know very little.

[@j41500]

Simulating the time of transit seemed like the absolute dumbest idea.

[@aaroncabatingan5238]

Its actually important to see how soldiers would react when, after several hours of being stuck in a ship with hundreds or thousands of other soldiers, and how they would perform once they disembarked (are they gonna fill dizzy? Would they be able to run steadily?)

[@marvinthemartian9584]

In the movie Ike: Countdown to D-Day with Tom Selleck, this event was talked about 20 minutes into the movie.

[@HatredOfMephisto]

The amount of incompletence on the allied side is astonishing.

[@greggoes]

Good history report. 👏

[@robertlavery6896]

Made it so realistic that someone called in the U-boats to help out

[@hunormagyar1843]

Wasn't clear to me whether it was all torpedo boats or there were U-boots too

[@sjonnieplayfull5859]

​@@hunormagyar1843only MotorTorpedoBoats. U-boats would not enter the narrow and undeep Channel voluntarily, they would head for the Atlantic

[@titouancolombe7156]

At 4:30, Cherbourg is in Normandy, not Brittany.

[@paulwestwood4417]

I knew about the torpedo attack taking place, but I’ve never seen a graphic replay of the attack before. 😊

[@robert48044]

All the D Day material and this is still left out of the major productions

[@medievalgaming8754]

I love these videos

[@wedgeantillies66]

And this is a prime example of why a convoy should always have a large and efficient escort to protect it even in friendly waters. Seems like training for dday had a bit of a curse associated to it, this, floatable tanks that sunk when dropped short in a bay in first

[@wedgeantillies66]

In a bay in Dorset and a few other mishaps here or there.

[@heavensent7183]

@historigraph any chance of a Battle of Dogger Bank video? Would love to hear your overview of it!

[@olddeuteranomaly5112]

Cherbourg is not in Brittany (4:26). It's in Normandy.

[@DaveSCameron]

An absolute tragedy that sadly was a list of ongoing errors that created this disaster. #LestWeForget ⚓️🇺🇸📚🇬🇧🙏

[@the3rdid485]

Imagine having multiple hours of warning about an impending attack on a defenseless convoy, with the entire allied home Naval and Air Force at your disposal and doing nothing.

[@louisavondart9178]

There is an aspect to this tragedy that is never mentioned. The lack of training in how to wear a lift belt properly. Most of those men who drowned had their lift belts around their waists, not under their armpits. This effectively pushed their heads underwater. Secondly, many who jumped from the ships had their helmet strap under their chin. When they hit the water, the helmet broke their necks.

[@bowenisland100]

Enlightening: thanks!

[@davidcave7986]

Well this is unexpected

[@christopherhanton6611]

very good video i have heard of this story. also, the last know e boat s 130 is being restored and cool facts is it was in this ambush on this Lst convoy

[@KingAlanI]

Apropos subject with the 80th anniversary of D-Day in a few days

[@maineiacman]

The fact that such a mass of critical landing ships had nearly no escorting defensive ships is astounding

[@hom7998]

isn't this also the operation that was only revealed in like the 80's or 90's (or hell maybe even later?) because some diver found a tank off the coast of a beach when, well, diving

[@mosesracal6758]

Who thought that a single Flower class was enough to protect a convoy?

[@bigsarge2085]

The vicissitudes of war.

[@maximt165]

Pretty realistic 👌

[@ComfortsSpecter]

Incredible History Immense Terror Great Topic Good Work Inept Bureaucracy Pitiful Logistical Failure Horrific Inefficiency The Comfort Of Man Know’s No Bounds

[@gstormcz]

Hard on the training ground, easy on the Battlefield. Those soldiers didn't know how realistic they get it. Live ammo not only as background. The biggest enemy of soldiers is not well organized enemy but incompetence of own leaders. This example has even its own Scimitar not ready to respond.

[@prosandcons-fl2cc]

how did so much go so wrong

[@edwardlees4585]

'Cherbourg in Brittany'. That's living dangerously!

[@elgringo8585]

Feels like the germans could have smoked the whole convoy but somehow didnt

[@Jokertk0]

You have to realize the Germans were in the dark and didn't know what they stumbled into or if other ships were in the area to respond, so hit and run is much safer

[@Zircillius]

@11.28 are those MLRSs (rocket launchers) onboard LST-289?

[@summitap1]

What a crappy comparison to Utah beach, which was

[@drakZes]

You said it was German torpedo boats, is that the same as U-boats/Subs or not?

[@zauru192]

no, torpedo boats are surface vessels. Its like a very small destroyer

[@elijahFree2000]

E Boats. Somewhat similar to American PT Boats but more deadly.

[@husky560006]

4:35 Cherbourg isn't in Brittany. Nice video anyway

[@pauldufay6744]

Love your videos from France, just a small error : Cherbourg is in Normandy not in Brittany at 4:30.

[@andersschmich8600]

Honestly didn’t realize the Kriegsmarine could still pull off anything by this point in the war.

[@darkdill]

I'm taking a wild guess that the main reason most people haven't heard of this one is due to it being covered up.

[@spitfire184]

I mean, there's a memorial there.

[@RenanBecker]

Isso que é realismo! Até convidaram a marinha inimiga a participar

[@jonashton873]

There is a sherman tank in memorial at Slapton sands.

[@samdumaquis2033]

Interesting

[@GarkKahn]

Never heard of this event And by practice i thought reading the title you meant as in a minor invasion before normandy, like north africa was a year before the real slaughter began in europe

[@KainWT]

Historigraph posts, I watch. Y u mad bro.

[@gj1234567899999]

The British really screwed up. They couldn’t defend their coast.

[@jackmulford2661]

I live near there, I think there's an old Sherman left there as a memorial, could be wrong

[@Trashcansam123]

Well, Utah was a fairly uncontested beach, at least compared to Omaha, so calling this disaster “deadlier than Utah beach” isn’t saying much really

[@WeyounLP]

hey man, please be aware that the "myheritage" sponsor was literally a flashbang. going from a dark blue map to a completely white screen is really irritating