[Carruthers]

More than 600 US sailors and soldiers died in the April 1944 rehearsal for D-day.

Families of American sailors and soldiers who lost their lives in a disastrous second world war exercise off the British coast will this weekend join veterans, dignitaries and local people to mark the 75th anniversary of the tragedy.

More than 600 personnel lost their lives in Exercise Tiger, a rehearsal for D-day, on 28 April 1944, but the botched operation was covered up for decades and only came to light 40 years later when a hotelier located a Sherman tank lost in the exercise on the seabed and hauled it to shore.

On Sunday, 29 relatives of the Americans who died will gather around the tank at Slapton Sands in Devon alongside military officials, politicians, diplomats and residents, including some who remember having to leave their homes so that the exercise could be conducted in secrecy.

It is the biggest commemoration of the Exercise Tiger disaster, which is still not well known in the UK or the US.

Dean Small, whose late father Ken recovered the tank, said it was vital the tragedy was remembered. “One of the main reasons my dad wanted to set up the tank on the beach was to create a tangible memorial, somewhere for people to gather.”

Small said his father had been intrigued when he moved to the area and found bits of shrapnel, bullets and tunic buttons on the beach. A fisherman told him a strange object was lying on the seabed three-quarters of a mile offshore. Ken Small persuaded the fisherman to dive to the object, and they were shocked to discover it was a tank.

Small researched how it had come to rest on the seabed and the hidden story of Exercise Tiger emerged. “It troubled dad that the story and the sacrifice so many had made had been covered up,” said his son.

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