D-Day tribute defeated by ‘blown sand’
A D-DAY re-enactment on a beach where soldiers trained for the Omaha landings has been cancelled after conditions were deemed too risky.
Organisers pulled the plug on the event in Devon, saying “blown sand” and “surface water” made the site “outright dangerous”.
A spokesman said: “It’s with a heavy heart that we have to cancel Saunton D-Day and Devon D-Day on 5th and 6th June this year over safety issues.”
But locals expressed surprise and sadness that current natural peacetime conditions are so bad to force a cancellation. One said: “How ironic that the beach is deemed too dangerous for a re-enactment considering what it was used for before D-Day.
“They obviously don’t want any accidents and you can understand they need to be careful.
“But you can imagine a few of the soldiers who trained there for the real thing scoffing at the decision.”
The annual re-run of one of the biggest Second World War battles attracts thousands to Saunton Sands and its Braunton Burrows dunes.
This is where 10,000 US troops trained before the assault on beaches codenamed Omaha and Utah in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944.
Organisers Assault Training Center Friends, which preserves and promotes the base where GIs prepared, apologised and explained: “Having inspected the tracks on Braunton Burrows, they are in such a poor state they are downright dangerous.
“Add to that the surface water everywhere that simply won’t drain away – four feet deep at the concrete landing craft yesterday.
“Access everywhere is so poor even the military have restricted vehicle activity. None of these problems can be rectified in time and we don’t want you or your vehicle damaged so we have to look forward to next year. Our sincere apologies.”
Due to the pandemic, the event was last held in 2019 to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day and the 76th anniversary of the Assault Training Center where GIs were stationed in North Devon from September 1943 to April 1944.
The re-enactment features vintage vehicles and living history encampments, including US troops from First Wave 44 and the Germans of 304th Panzer Grenadier Regiment.
Braunton Burrows was key to how the D-Day invasion played out.
In 1943, Lieutenant Colonel Paul W Thompson was tasked with training the US army for their assault on the heavy Nazi defences on the Normandy beaches.
The Devon coast was ideal for amphibious exercises despite the fierce Atlantic surf and the nearby sands were found to be a good match for Omaha in every respect – including sand quality, beach gradient and tidal range.