the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Sep 30, 2024
Every June, the U.S., British and French governments solemnly celebrate D-Day, the largest amphibious battle of World War II, and they pay homage to the soldiers killed. However, what is never mentioned is that more than a thousand soldiers were killed during the D-Day rehearsal, just months earlier. And for decades they kept the true story of this bloody disaster secret.
In 1944, Slapton Sands in Devon, England, was chosen for a series of military rehearsals, code-named “Operation Tiger.” The site was selected due to its resemblance to Utah Beach and Omaha Beach in Normandy. The operation involved around 30,000 American and British troops, simulating the conditions they would face on D-Day. But what was meant to be a routine exercise turned into a disaster.
On April 27, a fatal miscommunication occurred. A last-minute delay in the landing order was not received by all landing crafts, leading to a situation where troops came ashore during an active bombardment. Despite the presence of a designated safe zone, many soldiers were hit by friendly fire, resulting in the deaths of at least 300 Americans.
The following day, April 28, German boats intercepted a convoy of landing crafts. The convoy was supposed to be protected by two British ships, but one had remained in port for repairs. Worse still, American and British forces were operating on different radio frequencies, making communication impossible during the attack.
British forces detected the incoming German ships but were unable to warn the Americans in time. The chaos led to approximately 750 soldiers and sailors being killed. Rescue operations were delayed, and many soldiers drowned or died from hypothermia, as poor training in the use of life jackets left them unprepared.
The total death toll from this single training exercise reached over 1,000. (How many we will never know, since those numbers have been kept secret.)
One survivor, Master Sergeant Jake Larson, later recalled the horrific events: “Four hundred of us were laying on the floor vomiting and breathing through our wet handkerchiefs ... When we got out of that landing ship, a full bird colonel came up and swore us to secrecy that we wouldn’t say a word. We couldn’t talk about this even to our commanding officers when we got back under penalty of court-martial. Over 40 years this was a secret. My family didn’t even know about it.”
The military’s priority after the attack wasn’t the recovery of soldiers but securing secret D-Day plans carried by officers. The dead were buried in haste, and survivors were threatened with punishment if they spoke of the events.
For decades, this tragic rehearsal was hidden from public knowledge, buried under layers of secrecy. Only after an English fisherman found a lost tank at the bottom of the sea in the 1980s were investigations begun and former soldiers finally came forward with testimony about what happened.
Operation Tiger exposes the brutal truth that, to military leaders, soldiers’ lives are expendable. Like workers in factories exploited by their bosses, soldiers are treated as nothing more than tools, to be discarded when convenient. The military’s callous indifference to human life mirrors the ruthless disregard of capitalist employers.