D- Day plans could have been changed by near miss, naval research reveals
An ill- fated rehearsal for the No r mandy l a n d i n g s t h a t resulted in the deaths of 749 American troops could have been more devastating and may have changed the shape of D- Day, according to research.
Exercise Tiger – a secret mission to prepare for the Allied invasion of Normandy – took place in Lyme Bay, off the coast of Devon and Dorset, in late April 1944.
More than 700 US troops were killed when the convoy carrying them was attacked by heavily armed German motor torpedo boats known as S- Boats. Research, based on eyewitness accounts and military records, has revealed how the death toll could have been far greater.
This i s because a second group of Allied invasion ships, making its way along the English Channel, narrowly avoided becoming embroiled in the disaster.
If that had happened, it could have resulted in a greater loss of life and the destruction of several t ank l anding ships ( LST) that were crucial for the planned Normandy invasion.
Dr Harry Bennett, associate professor of history at the University of Plymouth, discovered the findings during an investigation into Exercise Tiger.
Records show that, on the night of April 27 to 28, US ship LST 51 was part of a convoy codenamed Obstacle, making its way from Falmouth in Cornwall to Portland on the Dorset coast.
Dr Bennett analysed records kept by the US, British and Germany navies to correlate each ship's position in the Channel.
He discovered that, as the Germans made their escape from the attack on the convoy, they were pursued and eventually fired upon by the British destroyers.
The German S- boats and the British destroyers converged – with the British opening fire at exactly the point when they met the Obstacle convoy heading towards Portland.
In brief moments of confusion, the British destroyers opened fire towards the Obsta
cle convoy thinking the shadows of the ships were the Germans.
The potential friendly fire attack was swiftly averted,
with no damage done, but not before the Germans had successfully fled.
"The potential for the tragedy of Exercise Tiger that night to
have assumed even bigger proportions is obvious," Dr Bennett said.