Training
Camp Swift, Texas
"Construction began for Camp Swift in 1941. Out of flat lowlands and hilly uplands, a camp came together that would house 90,000 troops at one point. In 1942, the camp opened its doors with 2,750 buildings and accommodations for only 44,000 troops. It would become a major combat infantry training camp for World War II troops. It was named after General Eben Swift. He had led troops in World War I as a commander, and later he became a recognized author of several military books.
Training activities at Camp Swift included tank maneuvers, weapons firing, personnel and cargo air drops, small arms firing, combat engineering skills, infantry skills, helicopter operations and other types of training environments for the field.
The Army helped to construct all of the buildings at Camp Swift including warehouses, training facilities, recreational facilities, artillery ranges, barracks, gas stations, storage tanks and more.
The camp reached 90,000 troops during World War II. The 95th, 97th and 102nd Infantry Divisions; 10th Mountain Division; the 5th Headquarters; and the 116th and 120th Tank Destroyer battalions were all stationed at Camp Swift during the second World War. In doing so, it became the largest transshipment and US Army training camp in Texas. Eventually it would also house over 3,500 German prisoners of war". [1]
North Devon, England
Some, but not all, "Members of the 146th Engineer Combat Batallion . . . were transported to the UK on the Mauretania, a sister ship of the ill-fated liner Lusitania that was sunk in the Great War" [3]
"To prepare the 1st US Army to the upcoming D-Day landing, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Williams Thompson had the mission to train the assault troops in the crucial "fight for the first thousand yards".
To do so, the 1st Army Assault Training Center was created in the South of England in the Devon county. To keep the secret of D-Day well hidden, the villages of Putsborough, Croyde, Saunton and Georgeham were evacuated. The evacuation was necessary in order for the 1st US Army to train without "local" troubles.
The Assault Training Center was chosen because of the remote environment, its discretion and was sufficiently far away from potential enemy eyes: Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine but more so because Woolacombe beach and Saunton Sand were lookalikes of Omaha and Utah beach." [2]
Exercise Tiger, or Operation Tiger, was one of a series of large-scale rehearsals for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, which took place in April 1944 on Slapton Sands in Devon. Coordination and communication problems resulted in friendly fire injuries during the exercise, and an Allied convoy positioning itself for the landing was attacked by E-boats of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, resulting in the deaths of at least 749 American servicemen.
Because of the impending invasion of Normandy, the incident was under the strictest secrecy at the time and was only minimally reported afterwards.