The S-boats find the convoy
Nine German S-boats from the 5th and 9th Schnellboot flotillas had left Cherbourg and moved into Lyme Bay. They found the slow LST convoy in darkness and began manoeuvring for torpedo attacks.
Continue in Exercise Tiger →World War II calendar
WWII On This Day: April 28
What happened on April 28 during World War II? This date brings together 9 events from 1944 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.
1944
LST-507 is torpedoed
A torpedo struck LST-507 around the auxiliary engine room, cutting electrical power and communications and starting fires among vehicles, fuel and ammunition. The loss of power crippled firefighting and lifeboat handling. Men escaped into cold water already spreading with burning fuel.
Continue in Exercise Tiger →LST-531 is hit twice and sinks
Two torpedoes struck LST-531. Explosions and fire spread rapidly through a ship carrying hundreds of soldiers, naval personnel and live ammunition. The LST rolled over and sank within about six minutes. Historic England records 424 Army and Navy deaths from this ship.
Continue in Exercise Tiger →
LST-289 survives a torpedo hit
LST-289 was torpedoed and lost much of its stern, but the ship remained afloat and could still make headway. It eventually reached Dartmouth. The surviving photograph of the damaged ship shows how close the convoy came to losing a third LST.
Continue in Exercise Tiger →The LSTs fire back and scatter
Surviving LSTs used their 40 mm and 20 mm guns as the convoy broke formation and attempted to escape the torpedo tracks. The darkness, mixed radio procedures and uncertainty over where the attackers were made coordinated defence difficult.
Continue in Exercise Tiger →LST-507 is abandoned
Historic England records LST-507 as finally abandoned roughly thirty minutes after the torpedo strike. The burning hull remained partly afloat until around dawn. Its wreck now lies in two inverted sections off Sidmouth.
Continue in Exercise Tiger →Surviving ships return for men in the water
Ships that had escaped the attack began recovering survivors from the cold water as the immediate S-boat threat passed. Rescue was slowed by darkness, scattered ships, fire and the sheer number of men in the sea.
Continue in Exercise Tiger →The scale of the loss becomes clear
The official accounting eventually reached 749 American dead or missing: 551 Army and 198 Navy personnel. The approaching invasion made operational security immediate. Survivors and medical personnel were ordered not to discuss the attack.
Continue in Exercise Tiger →1945
Heinrici is removed as the relief front collapses
By 28 April the northern German front was disintegrating and the relief schemes around Berlin had lost nearly all operational substance. Heinrici and Manteuffel were withdrawing forces to prevent their commands from being overrun while Keitel and Jodl continued demanding counterattacks. Keitel confronted Heinrici over those withdrawals and, after midnight, relieved him of Army Group Vistula. The removal did not restore obedience or a front; it removed the commander who had been trying to reconcile orders with the survival of the troops still under his authority. Inside Berlin, Weidling's earlier…
Continue in The Battle of Berlin →