It was a bit of a wet, windy and all-round dreary day when I set off for Stokely Farm Shop. (Precisely the sort of day I love in England, incidentally; I’m working at being stoic.) Farm shops are the best way of sourcing local, fresh produce. A good farm shop will get you your fruit and veg, meat and poultry, deli items and specialty products, even beer from a local brewery. I was actually there for the pop-up yarn shop ‘A Little Bit Crafty’ to meet with Sue; I’d got it into my head that I wanted to learn to crochet and Sue reckons she can make my fingers perform miraculous manipulations that will turn yarn into granny squares. Make enough granny squares and, well, I guess you get a blanket. But I digress…..
Before going to Stokely I thought I’d take in lunch at the Start Bay Inn in Torcross. This 14th century inn has a long-established history of fishermen launching their boats from the beach in front of the pub. Naturally, the inn specialises in a range of locally-caught seafood including scallops, crab and lobster. It proved to be a well-patronised, warm and cosy spot with the log fire burning, the fish & chips excellent, and an Australian gap year student behind the bar.
If you need the Gents, turn left after the straws 
I then took a walk along a section of the South West Coast Path which goes straight past the pub as well as the Slapton Ley National Nature Reserve. The ley is the largest freshwater lake in south west Devon and is an ideal spot for birdwatchers. Stake out a spot in the bird hide and you might spot terns, chiffchaffs (don’t you just love that name?), kingfishers and warblers.
Something you won’t see along this coastline is Hallsands, the village lost to the sea (even though it remains marked on maps). In 1891 Hallsands was a village of 37 houses, a chapel and a pub. Soon after that, dredging began offshore to provide sand and gravel to expand naval dockyards near Plymouth. The dredging ultimately destabilised the village’s beach and storms started to wash away the sea wall. Houses and roads were damaged. After villagers and council mounted an argument to decision-makers, the dredging eventually stopped but the damage was done: by the end of 1917 only one house remained habitable in Hallsands.
But the Bay has a much more tragic tale to tell……..
In preparation for the Allied D-Day Normandy landings in 1944, rehearsals took place at various points in Devon. (I guess when you are planning the largest seaborne invasion in history, you might not want to rely on just winging it.) The area around Slapton Sands was selected by the British government for some of these exercises as it bore a resemblance to Utah Beach on the French coast. (Despite its name, Slapton Sands is a narrow strip of land and shingle beach which separates Slapton Ley from Start Bay).
In 1943, some 3,000 local residents in the areas around Slapton, Torcross and beyond were evacuated from their homes so that the American military could take up residence to carry out exercises as part of the D-Day prep. Keep in mind, this is farming territory: animals, machinery, even crops that were still in the ground were uprooted and moved out.
Exercise Tiger began on 22nd April 1944 and was due to run for 8 days. Landing craft loaded with 30,000 soldiers, tanks and equipment were deployed along the coast to practise a mock landing, including a live-firing exercise. On the morning of 27th April, coordination and communication problems resulted in friendly fire deaths. Rumours immediately circulated that some 450 soldiers had been killed. But it was about to get worse…..
The next day, under cover of darkness and unbeknownst to the American military, nine German torpedo boats had managed to slip in amongst the Allied convoy in Lyme Bay and attacked. Two landing ships were sunk and two badly damaged. Over 700 Americans lost their lives: many drowned because their heavy packs flipped them upside down; or they died of hypothermia before they could be rescued. (Ironically, only 200 men were killed during the actual landing at Utah Beach).
Official embarrassment, fears of the impact on morale, as well as secrecy surrounding the impending invasion meant that everybody involved was sworn to secrecy and the terrible loss of life was not revealed until long after the war. (As it was, the Germans deduced the purpose of the exercise given the similarity of terrain between Slapton Sands the coast of lower Normandy).
In the early 1970s, a Sherman DD tank was discovered submerged off the beach. It was raised and now stands as a memorial to the incident along with a plaque in memory of the men killed.
A detailed account of Exercise Tiger can be found in Ken Small’s book The Forgotten Dead. And more recently, the two US amphibious craft which were sunk, are to be added to the National Heritage List for England https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-52505122?fbclid=IwAR2TcqW1FnFa3YfecJAvt9PL_mzjxx1LM93xsu_iSZ8S00Gc46UvqZUZNMU
