Anchor Memorial Hits 25th Anniversary

Yesterday (4/28) marked the 25th anniversary of the Landing Ship Tank Anchor Memorial at the Audrain County Courthouse, which is part of the Exercise Tiger Memorial. Of course, yesterday was also the 81st anniversary of “Exercise Tiger” with a ceremony held at the Anchor Memorial yesterday afternoon.

The ceremony recognized the World War II “Battle of Exercise Tiger,” which was a secret naval operation to rehearse and prepare for the World War II D-Day Invasion.

The operation was doomed from the start. Communication errors led to tragic friendly fire deaths of as many as 450 troops on April 27th.

Then, the next day, on April 28, naval fleets were en route to a landing area to continue the operation when radar issues left the fleets unaware of German S-boats in the area. According to the Naval History and Heritage Command, it’s unknown exactly how many soldiers and sailors died, with estimates between 400 to 900 deaths, when U.S. ships were hit by German torpedoes, sinking and killing hundreds of soldiers.