Bootprints mark D-Day disaster

That whole beach is pretty much monument filled. A lot of people (myself included) did not know that the English civilians gave up their homes and moved into relatives homes so that our forces could have the area for practice, etc. There is a nice memorial there to that, as well.

Sherman Tank? I know they were no match for the Tiger and Panzer. Could you explain the "during training" part. Sounds interesting and I've never heard the story.

Thanks.

The bottom line is that loaded troop ships were at Slapton Sands, UK, doing training to rehearse for the upcoming Overlord op. They were practicing loading and unloading. For reasons that always continue to escape people, the USA for some retarded reason, loves to train *during wartime!* with empty guns. The ships were therefore loaded with guns and people, but not a single bullet among them. E-Boats attacked them and they were unable to fire back - again - due to being empty. The loss of life as you can imagine, was heinous as troop ships with paper-thin armor were raked from stem to stern by machine gun, light canon and torpedos. The "official" post-war casualty count is usually 998 or 1001 dead, with amazingly no wounded or missing.

The secrecy was kept a little too well. This makes me (and others) feel that perhaps 1000 dead is too small. Only German records document how many E-boats sortied, came back with no bullets, etc. Post-war, most amphib ship records were sent to various places of the Navy and no one can really (for certain) pin-point who was where or at what time with 100% certainty. The Sherman was okay as the allied air umbrella would be the do-all for the allies. Much like the German Army used the Luftwaffe (Stukas) as pin-point artillery during the early days of the blitz.