story continued...

At the ceremony Luke and Tom Hutton from luketom.com were proud to have on show for the first time a history panel produced by the Slapton Line Partnership and designed by luketom.com. The panel provides information regarding the story of Slaptons’ evacuation, Exercise Tiger and the history and salvage of the Sherman Duplex Drive Tank recovered by Ken Small in May 1984.

Three American Veterans travelled to Torcross on Slapton Sands, South Devon for what is thought to be probably their last visit to the service of remembrance to commemorate the servicemen who died in Exercise Tiger. Laurie Bolton from Kingsburg, California, lost her Uncle in Exercise Tiger.  She brought the group of three veterans, together with their families and friends, to attend the 65th ceremony on Sunday 26th April, at the Tank Memorial, Torcross, South Devon, England.   

(Tom Hutton is pictured here with 85yr old Paul Gerolstein the eldest member of the returning survivors, together with Lt Jim Correia currently stationed at Dartmouth Royal Naval College.) 

Organised by the Royal Tank Regiment Association, Devon & Cornwall Branch, the ceremony was held to remember the fateful day of April 28, 1944, when German E-Boats attacked US servicemen on the exercise for the D-Day landings.

The wreath laying and sounding of Last Post at the Tank Memorial, was followed by a Church Service at St Michaels and All Angels Church, Stokenham and for those involved in the services, a reception held at Stokenham Village Hall.

Seven hundred and forty nine American servicemen lost their lives that day in an episode which remains one of the least-known Allied disasters of the Second World War.

Laurie Bolton explains:  “This is the second time I have organised a visit to Slapton Sands.”

“My uncle, Sgt. Louis A. Bolton, (U. S. Army, 607th Graves Registration Co., 1st Platoon), was killed on board LST 531.”

“His body was never recovered.  He was newly married, but had no children.  I was born on his birthday eight years after he died.   His name is on the Wall of the Missing at Cambridge American Cemetery in England, along with many others never found. Those whose bodies were recovered are buried there.”
Paul Gerolstein was on board the LST 515 whose captain disobeyed orders and went back to rescue over 100 men.

Paul Gerolstein was accompanied by his son, and Nathan Resnick by his wife, Shirley. Also there were two sisters, who lost a brother on LST 531, along with another visitor who also lost his brother on the same ship.  Accompanying the group was a widow and her three children, whose husband survived that night after LST 531 was destroyed, but died a few years ago. As mentioned previously, Laurie Bolton lost her uncle on LST 531 as well.

The Exercise proved to be the most costly training incident in lives lost in the whole of World War Two.

The similarity between the Start Bay area and the Normandy coast prompted the use of the area for full scale battle exercises.   Slapton Sands was thought to be perfect to simulate practice landings for the launch of Operation Overlord on 6th June, 1944, the D-Day landings on Utah Beach, France.

In the early hours of the 28th of April, 1944, eight Landing Ship Tanks (LST’s), full of American servicemen were in Lyme Bay, off the coast of Devon, England, making their way towards Slapton Sands for Exercise Tiger.

A group of nine German E-Boats, alerted by heavy radio traffic in Lyme Bay, intercepted the three mile long convoy of vessels.

The heavily laden, slow moving LST’s were easy targets for the torpedo boats which set about the unprotected rear of the convoy.

A series of tragedies including a British destroyer assigned as an escort being ordered into port for repairs, life jackets that pitched men forward because they were wearing them around their waists, rather than their armpits, and an error in radio frequencies, led to three of the LST’s being hit by German torpedoes and 749 American soldiers and sailors died that night, 946 in total during Exercise Tiger.

The loss of life was greater than that later suffered by the assault troops during the initial attack on Utah Beach.

When the news reached the allied commanders it greatly worried them that so many lives were lost and that the news might make its way into German hands revealing the intentions for the D-Day landings.

All the villages surrounding Slapton Sands had been evacuated.  The survivors were warned not to talk about the incident and many did not talk about it until 50 years later.  Local man, the late Ken Small, then a Torcross hotelier, learnt about a Sherman Duplex Drive tank and after a long battle, managed to raise it from the sea in May, 1984.  After long negotiations, he bought it from the US Government for $50.  Thanks to his efforts, a plaque and a bronze memorial stand as tribute to the sacrifices made by the young servicemen.

Today, his son Dean Small, still looks after the tank and together with another local man, John Casson, have set up a website dedicated to the tragedy of Exercise Tiger and to Ken Small - www.shermantank.co.uk

Dean and his wife, Sarah, met and are accompanying Laurie and the Veterans on their visit.  He said:  “My father campaigned tirelessly for a memorial to ensure that the sacrifices made by these young men were recognised and for those who had lost a loved one, there was somewhere to go and think of them.   I have met many of the survivors and their families over the years and have never ceased to be impressed by their courage and determination to remember their colleagues who never returned.”

Dean and Sarah are now hoping to raise sufficient funds for a memorial naming all those who lost their lives.”lection from Paul Gerolstein pictured above as a young naval gunners mate 2nd class.