This week marks the anniversary of an WWII tragedy that remained secret for nearly 50 years.
On April 28 1944 a total of 749 US soldiers and sailors died after three ships involved in a training exercise were ambushed by German torpedo boats just off Slapton Sands near Stokenham on the Devon coast.The full scale of the tragedy remained hidden for almost 50 years because of a secrecy order issued by General Dwight D Eisenhower, the supreme commander of the allied expeditionary force, who feared news of the disaster could destroy morale or tip off the Germans.
A full-scale rehearsal with all 23,000 US soldiers, in preparation for D-Day, the operation was named "Exercise Tiger".
Shortly before 2am on April 28, disaster struck when the convoy was discovered by nine German E-boats. One of them fired off two torpedoes which hit the landing ship LST 507. As it started to sink, the 447 soldiers and sailors on board struggled to survive in the cold channel waters.Fifteen minutes later LST 531 was hit, leaving injured men screaming for help after they were thrown into the burning oil floating on the water.
At 2.30am LST 289 was hit in the stern, but the crew managed to keep it afloat.
The commander responsible for the six surviving ships ordered them back to port, but the skipper of Mr McCann's ship refused to abandon the 1,000 survivors in the freezing waters, and the 15-year-old coxswain was ordered to mount a rescue.
With orders to pick up only the living, he set off into the darkness, moving through a sea of bodies and wreckage.
"There were just so many bodies in the water," he told the Guardian this week from his home in Washington state. "Everything was happening so fast, but it was quite a while before any other boats were put into the water to look for survivors. When I found out we had picked up 45 men I was astounded."
But there was nothing Mr McCann and his crew could do for the other men, a number of whom drowned because they had not been given proper instructions on how to wear their lifejackets. Most were found with their heads in the water and their feet in the air, top heavy from not putting the belts around their chests before inflating the jackets.
When reports of the attack reached the Eisenhower's headquarters an order - never rescinded - was sent out that it should remain secret. Doctors were told to ask no questions as a stream of burnt and injured soldiers arrived at military hospitals, while the men who survived the exercise were held in sealed camps until D-day six weeks later.
The 60th anniversary of D-Day will be commemorated later this year. The full story continues to emerge piecemeal, as many documents have only been released recently.
This was the battle of Norway, right?
*cough*