Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 11, 1993 TAG: 9311110509
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VICKER LENGTH: Long
The American veterans who landed in Normandy on D-Day will always remember June 6, 1944, as the Longest Day.
But Vance C. Martin of Montgomery County and other veterans of Exercise Tiger remember April 28, 1944, as the longest night.
On Veterans Day, Martin, a 68-year-old retiree, thinks back to the German torpedo attack he survived off the southwest coast of England, in a simulation of D-Day that went terribly awry.
It has even more resonance this time as next spring will mark the 50th anniversary of that night and the invasion of Europe six weeks later.
Most of his fellow veterans are in their 60s and 70s, including Oakley M. Lytton, who lives in Prices Fork, and Curtis T. Inge Jr. of Lynchburg. Martin and his wife of 47 years, Allie Yates Martin, think its important for people to hear about Exercise Tiger from a veteran, especially since accounts of the disaster were secret during World War II and didn't become widely known until 10 years ago.
Martin, then a 19-year-old sailor, was manning a 20mm gun in a four-man turret above his ship's fantail when a torpedo struck and demolished the stern, or rear, just below him.
The explosion, which killed 13 sailors and wounded 21 other men, blew up a smoke machine, spewing oil over the turret.
Stunned by the impact, Martin felt the slippery wetness all over his face.
``I said, `Lord I'm cut all to pieces,''' Martin recalled. But he wasn't. He cut himself out of the turret and went down to help guide the stricken ship, which lost its rudder but not its propellers in the hit - it could go in circles but not steer.
``I was lucky, I guess,'' Martin said.
More than 700 Americans died early that morning when nine German S-Boats (``S'' for Schnellboote, or fast boat) from Cherbourg, France, crossed the English Channel and attacked a convoy of eight lightly armed and largely undefended American transport ships, known as LSTs, for Landing Ship-Tank.
Allied commanders, who had designed Exercise Tiger as a trial run for the landing at Utah Beach, lost more men off the English coast than the 200 killed on D-Day at that beachhead.
The convoy was a follow-up to the first landings of men and equipment that occurred near the village of Slapton Sands on April 27, 1944. That part of the exercise was marred by communications errors and friendly fire mistakes. The entire operation involved 30,000 men.
The exact death toll of the April 28 attack is a matter of dispute among historians, journalists and veterans - some say more than 900 men perished.
The swift, deadly German attack boats sunk two Landing Ship-Tanks and hit, but did not sink, Martin's ship, LST 289.
``We'd dogged [sealed] the hatches, that's what saved us,'' Martin said.
Though some men on the two other ships, LSTs 507 and 531, died in the\ initial explosions and fires, most of the soldiers and sailors died of hypothermia or drowned because they didn't know how to use the inflatable life belts they'd been issued, according to accounts included in a 1990 book, ``Exercise Tiger,'' by Nigel Lewis.
The snafu, conducted in the strictest secrecy offshore from Devonshire near Plymouth, England, didn't become widely known until the 40th anniversary of D-Day approached and a series of articles, a television documentary and a piece on ABC News' 20/20 program focused attention on it.
The shroud of secrecy extended down to the men involved. ``We didn't really know what we were doing, it was all secret,'' Martin said.
To guide the stricken ship, the commander of LST 289 lowered a smaller lifeboat. But it caught fire and Martin and three other men set out in a second small boat. Martin took over as coxswain, or helmsman, from a sailor from North Carolina who was wounded.
The small boat steered LST 289 with a 300-foot rope, responding to red and green flashlight signals to head to port or starboard, Martin said.
``You had to have a light or something, you couldn't holler,'' he said.
The ship's compass had been knocked out in the explosion and the commander steered by the stars.
LST 289 made it back to port in Dartmouth later that day. The ship's commander, Lt. Harry A. Mettler, commended Martin for his ``cool, efficient conduct'' during and after the torpedo attack, and for volunteering to guide the smaller boat, according to a memo Martin received April 30, 1944.
Mettler also kept Martin on a skeleton crew that piloted the damaged boat to Belfast for repairs. Though he missed the D-Day landing, Martin and LST 289 transported troops and equipment to France in later landings.
The Martins, both retired from the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, went to a reunion of Exercise Tiger veterans several years ago in St. Louis and hope to attend another reunion next spring.
``It's something to meet [the men] you were on a ship with 40 years ago,'' Martin said. ``After we got to talking, it all came back, what had happened.''
There are monuments to the men of Exercise Tiger in New Bedford, Mass., and in Slapton Sands, England. Allie Martin, for one, would like to see the Virginia General Assembly pass a resolution making April 28 a day of remembrance.
``It seems to me that since we had quite a few boys from Virginia in it, it should be recognized,'' she said.
by CNB