Full Description
27 April 1944. Exercise Tiger. German E-boats intercept rehearsals for the D-Day landings...
On a dark night in 1944, a beautiful stretch of the Devon coast became the scene of desperate horror. Tales began to leak out of night-time explosions and seaborne activity. This was practice for Exercise Tiger, the main rehearsal for the Utah Beach landings.
This fiasco, in which nearly 1,000 soldiers died, was buried by officials until it was almost forgotten. That is, until Ken Small discovered the story, and decided to dedicate the rest of his life to honouring the brave young men who perished in the disastrous exercise. Pulling a Sherman tank from the seabed, Ken created a memorial to those who died and started to share their story, and his, with the world.
This updated edition of a bestselling classic is a gripping tale of wartime disaster and rescue in the words of the soldiers who were there, and of one man's curiosity that turned into a fight to ensure that they would never be forgotten.
Contents
Acknowledgements
1 The Forgotten Dead
2 Exercise Tiger
3 Attack!
4 A Slow, Cold Death
5 A Question of Blame
6 Early Days
7 How to Buy a Tank
8 The Recovery Begins
9 Ashore at Last
10 The Memorial Service
11 Relatives and Friends
12 The Missing Graves
13 The Next Crusade
Afterword
Survivors' Stories
The German Perspective
A Note on the Author
The Roll of Honour
Index
