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Wardaggers.com
is located on the South Coast of the United Kingdom
and has been trading and dealing in mainly German
authentic military collectables online for over 5
years. I am a UK citizen and have personally
collected Third Reich daggers and related edged weapons and
accessories for over 30 years. We offer a free
valuation and assessment service and we are always
interested in purchasing German Officers WWII
daggers, German WWII knives and swords and Authentic
German Militaria.
Due to our location on the South Coast, the area was
fortified during WWII and was often the target for
Luftwaffe bombing and strafing runs. It was also a
strategic offensive location as the war progressed
serving as a base for British and American troops in
the lead up to the Normandy Invasion. Many of our
local ports contributed fishing
boats, yachts and cruisers who aided in the Dunkirk
evacuations.
The following two pages recount moments from history
of a small fishing port's involvement during WWII
and is dedicated to the Men and Women of the local
Parish who served, fought and died for their
Country.
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| This website, the
owner an all persons associated with it's upkeep
bear no affiliation to any hate groups, political
organisations or outlawed parties. The site's
purpose is to aid the collecting community and
individuals with an interest in Military history and
in no way condones, approves or supports Nazi
ideology. |
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Page 1 ( Allied ) |
LOCAL WW2 ALLIED MILITARY HISTORY |
Page 2 ( Axis ) |
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US Troop Embarkation June 4th 1944 |
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LOCATION -
Brixham
Harbour, Torbay, South Devon, United Kingdom
DATE -
June 4th
1944
This picture taken on June 4th 1944, two days before the Normandy beach
landings and was shot in a small fishing port (
pop 17,000 ) called Brixham on the South Devon
coast. It was a typical scene repeated up and
down the South coast as US and British troops
embarked on the channel crossing and to the
beaches of Normandy. The US LST pictured here,
number 499 was to sink four days later as a
result of enemy action. Originally
the Brixham section of LST group 32 consisted of
LST's US 499, US 289 and US 507 but less than
five weeks prior to this picture being taken, a
convoy of two sections of LST's out of Brixham
and Plymouth, participating in Operation Tiger (
Practice beach landings ) was attacked in Lyme
Bay by nine U-Boats operating out of Cherbourg.
The US 507 was sunk along with a Plymouth based
LST the US 531, the 289 returned fire but was
also torpedoed and badly damaged barely making
it to port ( picture below ). Another LST from
Plymouth was badly damaged by friendly fire in
the confusion. 638 servicemen where killed, 441
from the US army and 197 Navy personnel.
There is more information regarding Operation Tiger listed below but back
to the picture above. I can only assume that
because two of three Brixham based LST's had
been sunk 5 weeks prior, that number 380, 284
and 382 shown above loading supplies and troops
where replacement craft drafted to assist LST
499 which had escaped unscathed from Op Tiger
but was to succumb four days later on the
beaches of Normandy.
Directly behind the mast of LST US 284 you can see an area of grass and
undergrowth, this part of the coast was heavily
fortified with bunkers, searchlights and two 17
foot 4.7" Mark V guns that overlooked the Bay
with a range of 7 miles. Also 37mm & 40mm anti
aircraft guns. Also note the barrage balloon. To
the right and out of shot in this picture is a
3/4 mile long stone breakwater that protects the
inner harbour completed in 1916.
Out of interest, if anybody can identify what is
sticking out from the rear of the truck on the
far left, I would love to know please.
Originally black and white, this picture has been colourised by me and as
such is not to be used without my express
permission please.
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Normandy - June 6th 1944 |
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LOCATION -
Normandy, France
DATE -
June 6th 1944
After hours of searching online and trawling through period pictures of
the Normandy beach landings, the three pictures
above show the US LST's 284 & 499 along with a
motor launch from LST 284. The first picture
showing wounded being loaded into ambulances was
probably taken on the 7th or 8th June, the motor
launch 284-4 can be seen in the background along
with the 284-2 in the upper right picture. The
US LST 284 survived the Normandy campaign and
the invasion of Southern France in August and
September 1944 and was then assigned to the
Asiatic-Pacific theatre and participated in the
assault and occupation of Okinawa in May and
June 1945. She was decommissioned in March 1946
after performing occupation duty in the far East
and earned three battle stars for WWII service.
The US LST 499 shown in the lower right picture was taken on June 6th off
Utah beach along with other craft and barrage
balloons, she was to sink two days later on the
8th June as a result of enemy action. She had a
short career and was commissioned on the 10th
January 1944 earning one battle star for WWII
service before having her name struck from the
Navy list on the 22nd August 1944. I was unable
to find any information regarding the casualties
or indeed the details regarding her sinking
although several references state that she
struck a mine.
The other two US LST's 380 and 382 originally
shown above moored in Brixham harbour survived
the Normandy landings, they where commissioned
within three days of each other from the same
shipyard ( Bethlehem Steel Co ) in February
1943. They both participated in the Sicilian
campaign in July 1943, the Salerno landings
September 1943 and the Normandy landings in June
1944. Both earned three battle stars for WWII
service and survived the War.
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Operation Tiger 22nd-30th April 1944 |
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LOCATION -
Slapton
Sands, South Devon, United Kingdom
DATE
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April
1944
The left picture above, I believe is
looking down onto Blackpool Sands, Salcombe,
Devon during Operation Tiger and the US practise
beach landing. The right picture was taken on
Slapton beach itself which is a mile further
around the coast and can be seen in the upper
left corner of the first picture.
Operation Tiger was a D-Day training exercise
that ran from 22nd - 30th April 1944 under the
command of Admiral Don P Moon. It proved to be a
disaster and human tragedy and resulted in the
deaths of 946 servicemen from both the US Army
and Navy contingent. The loss of life came in
two stages and was blamed on poor communications
and planning and it is alleged that the tragedy
ultimately led to Admiral Moon shooting himself
with a .45 calibre pistol three months later.
The incident was hushed up for forty years with
personnel and hospital staff under threat of
court martial for speaking of the tragedy.
The first stage involved a surprise attack on
two LST sections of 32 group out of Plymouth and
Brixham and part of the T45 convoy destined for
Lyme Bay, by a group of nine S-boats of
the 5th and 9th Schnellboote Flotilla's
operating out of Cherbourg. This attack resulted
in the sinking of two LST's ( 507 & 531 ) and
severely crippling another, the US LST 289 which
can be seen below pictured shortly after the
attack.
The US LST 507 lost 202 men and the US LST 531
which was torpedoed twice lost 424 and sank
within 6 minutes, the LST 289 managed to limp to
port after taking a direct frontal hit with the
loss of 13 lives. Further information regarding
this incident can be read below and its taken
directly from WIKI.
The second stage and far less publicised incident that followed involved
the practise landing itself on Blackpool and
Slapton Sands. A further 308 lives would be lost
from friendly fire following an order from
Dwight D Eisenhower to use live ammunition in an
attempt to harden the troops and expose them to
real battle conditions. A tragic loss of life
and one that luckily did not affect the outcome
of Operation Overlord, the actual D-Day Normandy
beach landings in which a further 4414 personnel
would die. |
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Memorial to Operation Tiger - Slapton Sands |
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OPERATION TIGER - April 1944
Landing Operations
In late 1943, as part of the war effort, the
British Government evacuated approximately 3,000
local residents in the area of Slapton, now
South Hams District of Devon. Some of the
residents had never left their villages before
being evacuated.
Landing exercises had started in December 1943.
Exercise Tiger was one of the larger exercises
that would take place in April and May 1944. The
make up of Slapton Beach was selected for its
similarity to Utah Beach, namely a gravel beach,
followed by a strip of land and then a lake. The
exercise was to last from 22 April until 30
April 1944, at the Slapton Sands beach. On board
nine large tank landing ships (LSTs), the 30,000
troops prepared for their mock beach landing.
Protection for the exercise area came from the
Royal Navy. Two destroyers, three Motor Torpedo
Boats and two Motor Gun Boats patrolled the
entrance to Lyme Bay and Motor Torpedo Boats
were watching the Cherbourg area where German
E-boats were based.
Battle of Lyme Bay
The first practice assaults took place on the
morning of 27 April. These proceeded
successfully, but early in the morning of 28
April, nine German E-boats that had left
Cherbourg on patrol spotted a convoy of eight
LSTs carrying vehicles and combat engineers of
the 1st Engineer Special Brigade in Lyme Bay and
attacked. One transport (LST-507) caught fire
and was abandoned. LST-531 sank shortly after
being torpedoed while LST-289 was set on fire
but eventually made it back to shore. USS
LST-511 was damaged by friendly fire. The
remaining ships and their escort fired back and
the E-boats made no more attacks. 638 servicemen
were killed - 441 United States Army and 197
United States Navy personnel. Many servicemen
drowned in the cold sea while waiting to be
rescued. Soldiers unused to being at sea
panicked and put on their lifebelts incorrectly.
In some cases this meant that when they jumped
into the water, the weight of their combat packs
flipped them onto their backs, pushing their
heads underwater and drowning them. Dale Rodman,
who travelled on LST-507, commented "The worst
memory I have is setting off in the lifeboat
away from the sinking ship and watching bodies
float by."
Of the two ships assigned to protect the convoy,
only one was present. HMS Azalea, a corvette was
leading the nine LSTs in a straight line, a
formation which later drew criticism since it
presented an easy target to the E-boats. The
second ship which was supposed to be present,
HMS Scimitar, a World War I destroyer, had been
in collision with an LST, suffered structural
damage and left the convoy to be repaired at
Plymouth. The American forces had not been told
this. When other British ships sighted the
E-boats earlier in the night and told the
corvette, its commander failed to inform the LST
convoy, assuming incorrectly that they had
already been told. This had not happened because
the LSTs and British naval headquarters were
operating on different frequencies. British
shore batteries defending Salcombe Harbour had
seen silhouettes of the E-boats but had been
instructed to hold fire so the Germans would not
find that Salcombe was defended.
When the remaining LSTs landed on Slapton Beach,
the blunders continued and a further 308 men
died from friendly fire. The British heavy
cruiser HMS Hawkins shelled the beach with live
ammunition, following an order made by General
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied
Commander, who felt that the men must be
hardened by exposure to real battle conditions.
British Marines on the boat recorded in its log
book (the only log which has since been
recovered from any of the boats) that men were
being killed by friendly fire. "On the beaches
they had a white tape line beyond which the
Americans should not cross until the live firing
had finished. But the Marines said they were
going straight through the white tape line and
getting blown up".
SEE PAGE 2 ( AXIS ) FOR INFORMATION ON THE
GERMAN CREWS |
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