by David R. Hubbard, HQ ADV SECT COMM ZONE SIG

The U. S. Assault Training Center, Woolacombe, Devon, England played a very valuable part in beach landing exercises to be used in the upcoming invasion of fortress Europe, but was not without some very tragic events. We learned of the men being killed when live ammunition was being used to shoot over men after landing on beaches and crawling beneath barbed wire. Some machine gun tripods had been set on unstable soil, and tilted downward. Also, an attempt was made to attach flotation devices around our tanks, so that they could be deployed further out from the beaches. Unfortunately, the devices failed, and the tanks, along with the men inside, were lost. The most horrific incident, however, was not known by any of us until after the war ended. Exercise Tiger was massive in scope, involving 21 Landing Ship, Tank (LST); 28 Landing Craft, Infantry (LCI); and 65 Landing Craft, Tank (LCT); plus nearly a hundred smaller vessels, and escort of warships. All the top brass were watching from shore, including General Eisenhower. Soldiers filled the landing craft scheduled to hit the beach the next day.

At about 2200 hours, nine small German E-Boats—similar to our P. T. boats—left Cherbourg. The E-Boats were undetected until they entered Lyme Bay, but by then they had begun inflicting mortal damage to our LST’s. One torpedo struck a LST carrying nearly 500 men, and two other LST’s were torpedoed. While the men were equipped with life vests, these proved to be more hindrance than help in many cases. These resembled a bicycle inner tube and were wrapped around their lower chests. Many drowned because the tubes caused them to enter the water upside down. The final death toll: 198 sailors and 441 soldiers—greater than the number who died landing on Utah Beach five weeks later. The edict went out from Headquarters that this event was to be kept secret. I imagine it was ordered by General Eisenhower himself. The fear was that perhaps some of the men had seen or might have been in possession of Operation Overlord information.

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The Assault Training Center’s mission was complete, so on 22 May 1944, I was transferred in grade (T/4) and ordered to report to Headquarters Detachment, Advance Section Communication Zone (ADSEC), Bristol, England, reporting to the Commanding Officer. This was a relatively new organization being formed in an abandoned bakery building. ADSEC was the spearhead to provide all logistical support for the advancing troops, beginning on D-Day. When I arrived on April 23, I joined possibly a hundred or more men being given duty assignments in order to complete staffing of close to a thousand men. My assignment placed me in the Signal Section, Plans, Training & Operations Division (P. T. O.). We were to begin implementing Operation Overlord, issuing orders to Signal Units that were to provide communications beginning on D-Day. Orders had been received to the effect that no one was to gain access to Overlord documents without first being cleared for security beyond TOP SECRET. Those of us in this part of Signal Section were checked and received TOP SECRET B-I-G-O-T designation. (Derivation of this acronym, and reason therefore is printed at the end.) The document, of course, contained very sensitive information, even giving unit departure dates beginning with D-Day. I learned that my unit was to cross the channel on D plus 14. I had scrounged a signal unit radio and learned about D-Day listening to BBC broadcasts. The ensuing storm after D-Day delayed things by a couple of weeks. Most of us were assigned to be billeted in pairs in private homes. About June 28, a Military Policeman came to my location around midnight, with orders to be ready for pickup in half an hour. Arriving at Hq, I was assigned to a two and a half ton truck loaded with bales of invasion money – the very first to be delivered to Normandy to pay the troops. I slept on these bales of currency (printed in French Francs) for three nights, and turned the truck over to another authority in an apple orchard, the day after our July first landing at Utah Beach. We then moved through Carentan and made camp in a Catz, France pasture. I set up my field desk in an abandoned chicken house.

The Germans took a stand at St. Lo, preventing departure from Normandy until after August first. Andy Rooney of Sixty Minutes fame was attached to ADSEC, and spent most of his time in the field reporting for The Stars And Stripes news. He received the Bronze Star Medal for his coverage of the battle to dislodge the Germans from St. Lo, and also linking the story of Major Thomas D. Howie’s death before entering St. Lo. Major Howie was a Citadel graduate and wanted to be the first to lead his troops into St. Lo. His commanding General gave permission for his body to be placed on a jeep and driven into the ruined city, to be placed in the ruins of a church. I took a picture of this church when we passed through shortly thereafter. In typical Andy Rooney style, Rooney described the Bronze Star as follows: “That falls in rank somewhere between the Medal of Honor and the Good Conduct Medal.” He had already been awarded the Air Medal for making five trips on bombing raids. The Eighth Air Force bombed St. Lo relentlessly and in so doing, dropped bombs on our own troops, fatally wounding Lt. General Leslie McNair. Aluminum chaff was dropped to alter the aim of the German Radar, and much of it fell on our area back at Catz.

We followed close behind General George Patton, with brief stops in Le Mans, Etampes and Reims, France; Namur, Belgium; Bonn, Germany, and finally ending up at Fulda, where we celebrated V-E Day. Along the way, I was promoted to T/3 (Staff Sgt.) July 10, 1945, and sent back to Reims and stationed in “The Little Red School House”, where the Germans had surrendered May 7, 1945. This was then Hq. for Assembly Area Command, the center for tent cities around the area, where troops were assembled to await transfer to the Pacific, or back home. More G.I.s were concentrated in these tent cities than in any other spot on earth. I witnessed V. J. Day there, resulting in many thousands of very happy and hung-over G.I.s. The war was over —we were going home.

My service: Continental U. S. A: one month, 11 days; Foreign Service: two years, 10 months, 25 days.

Note: Portion of Exercise Tiger information taken from Article: “Exercise in Tragedy”, contained in May/June, 2014 issue of WWII Magazine.

BIGOT information: There are several derivations given for this Acronym. One being reversal of British Officer’s orders to Gibraltar or: “To Gib”; another is one attributed to Churchill: “British Invasion of German Occupied Territory”. The list of personnel cleared to know details of Overlord was known as the BIGOT list, and the people were known as “Bigots”. The details of the invasion plan were so secret, adherence to the list was rigidly enforced. Note: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia