Let Us Also Remember...

I don't have much of anything useful to say in commemoration of the June 6, 1944 Normandy Invasion and the amazing men who risked (and often lost) their lives that day, but I did think it appropriate also to remember another group.

Sherman Tank is a website devoted to remembering the tragedy of Exercise Tiger:

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. Their purpose to take part in Exercise Tiger, the realistic rehearsals for the D-Day landings in Normandy. The night turned into tragedy as a group of patrolling German e-boats discovered and attacked them. At the end of Exercise Tiger 946 American serviceman had lost their lives.

The Sherman tank pictured above was on one of the LST's that went down. It was eventually discovered and recovered by Ken Small and placed by him at Slapton Sands, the location of the practice D-Day landing, as a tribute to those soldiers and seamen lost in this unfortunate incident.

In the Some-Things-Never-Change Department, a flurry of accusations about a sinister U.S. Army cover-up of the incident flaired up in the mid-80's, ironically enough started by Mr. Small's ill-informed, but nonetheless sincere interest in the matter and fueled by some apparently malicious members of the press. However, according to this article, the alleged cover-up was so much bunkum, easily dispelled by some fairly basic research.

As we remember the guys who hit Utah and Omaha and the other beaches of Normandy today, let's also remember those who never made it.