On this South Hams coast, 3,000 local people had been forced by the Admiralty at Christmas 1943 to leave their homes with no explanation. Farmers had to sell their animals and dig up their crops, move inland. People had to pack up their belongings and leave their homes, find somewhere to go. Was an enemy invasion imminent?
In The Kid on Slapton Beach, by Felicity Fair Thompson, twelve-year-old Harry is devastated. It’s his world. His beach. His father is missing in action. His mother can’t cope. His little sister is too young to understand. Harry and American GI Mike White make friends in the lead up to the exodus. But wait - Harry’s most treasured possession, the one photo of his father, is left behind. Harry will go back for it. When Exercise Tiger, the ill-fated secret D-Day rehearsal happens on Slapton Sands, Harry and Mike will both be on that beach.
Start Bay is wide - and picturesque. But it closely resembles the coast line of Normandy in France. The young US Servicemen flooding into Britain were completely new to war. Concerns over their battle hardness meant rehearsing what going into combat was like was essential.
Wars have many secrets and the D-Day rehearsal on Slapton Sands was one of the darkest.
Exercise Tiger - nearly 30,000 men took part in this secret full-scale rehearsal for the landings in France. But everything went wrong!
In the darkness of the April 27/28 1944 the ships gathered out in Start Bay and headed towards the coast. One of two Navy vessels accompanying the convoy returned to port with slight collision damage. Its replacement arrived late - to find the unguarded rear of the convoy had been attacked by enemy E-boats. Two of the Landing Ship Tanks, carrying tanks, equipment and nearly 1,000 men each, were torpedoed and sank. Another was severely damaged.
Typing errors in the radio frequencies meant there was no communication between the ships. Because of the e-boat attack, and then the second destroyer's late arrival, the two destroyers bombarding the beach was delayed for an hour. Remember - no communication.
The decision was taken by General Eisenhower to use live ammunition, to be fired over the heads, and in front of the invading troops to show these new young US men what war was really like. Now they were running up the beach into a hail of live bullets - and being bombarded from the sea.
Nearly a thousand men lost their lives. Of course, it was all hushed up. Those who had been there were sworn to secrecy. The D-Day landings were imminent - due just five weeks later.
Have you read The Kid on Slapton Beach?
What people say: “My 13-year-old son was moved to tears.” “What makes this story so powerful is the events unfolding through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy” “What secrets this Devon coastline holds!”
As President Harry Truman said: 'The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know.'