![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() 51, which adopted Colonel General Alfred Jodl’s recommendation for a “strategic pivot” from the eastern front to the west, where a decisive blow against Allied forces in the event of an invasion might decide the outcome of the war in Germany’s favor. In November 1943, Hitler had issued Directive No. The Royal Navy’s other possible escorts had their work cut out for them elsewhere on the Channel and in the Atlantic, where the German navy redoubled its efforts in anticipation of an Allied invasion. The men of convoy T-4-including the 4th Infantry Division’s combat-ready engineers-were afforded only two escorts. Wilkes, USN, to ensure the servicemen’s readiness for this realistic and therefore dangerous exercise, for which the Royal Navy contributed destroyers, corvettes, and trawlers as escorts and covers. Navy control over the exercise, but Royal Navy Admiral Ralph Leatham retained, in his words, “overriding control, should there arise circumstances which render it strategically necessary for me to cancel or curtail the exercise.” It then fell to Rear Admiral John E. Cruisers and destroyers would exchange live fire over the heads of the trainees as they landed at Slapton Sands, the rehearsal location on the English side of the Channel, with the very same vessels Force U would use on D-Day.Īllied Supreme Headquarters finalized plans on 19 April 1944 and established U.S. Moon headed the force, which by 27 April counted 221 vessels in and around Lyme Bay on the south coast of England.īecause the exercise had to provide Force U with the realistic experience of combat, it included all the equipment, fully loaded, that the men would later bring onto Utah Beach. ![]() With only one escort and no meaningful radio capabilities, Convoy T-4 stood little chance.Įxercise Tiger was supposed to ready Force U for landing at Utah Beach, in Normandy, in spring 1944. Tank landing ships (LSTs)-slow, unwieldy, and cavernous-were ideal targets for fast torpedo boats, which patrolled those areas that the German admiralty determined most likely to host enemy convoys and training exercises. It was the product of an effort by the Germans to disrupt preparations for the invasion of northwestern France, and it happened as a result of actionable intelligence from the Luftwaffe and Germany’s B-Dienst. The disaster that befell Convoy T-4 was not a fluke. Some of them succumbed to blast injuries and burns, others to drowning or hypothermia. The attack, which happened in the midst of an Allied dress rehearsal for the Normandy landings, killed hundreds of men. Eckstam, a medical officer aboard the first of two tank landing ships to be sunk by German S-boats off the southern coast of England on the night of 27/28 April 1944. “We sailed along in fatal ignorance,” writes Lieutenant Eugene E. ![]()
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