Tragedy and Secrecy Collide: Exercise Tiger and the Shaping of D-Day Memory

It’s surprising, but it is estimated that more men died in training for the D-Day invasion than on D-Day itself. One reason for this was the disaster of Operation Tiger, practice exercises at Slapton Sands, England, where more than 700 Americans died—in a calamity hushed up for many years.

Learn what happened at Slapton Sands—and what it meant—with John D. Long, Director of Education at the National D-Day Memorial.

John D. Long is an alumnus of Roanoke College and the University of Virginia. A museum professional for more than twenty years, he currently holds the position of Director of Education at the National D-Day Memorial Foundation in Bedford, VA. He has written extensively on both World Wars and on regional history, and taught history at Roanoke College, Radford University, and Virginia Western Community College. Long is also author of Murder in Roanoke County: Race and Justice in the 1891 Susan Watkins Case and serves on the Board of Directors of the Virginia Association of Museums.

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