Project Tiger

[Rich Walker]

Hi all,

I thought this would be a great place to put a link up to a project I've been working on for the past few years.

It's Project Tiger, and is all about documenting and recording the wrecks associated with Exercise Tiger in WW2. The two wrecks so far dived are LST 507 and LST 531 in Lyme Bay.

You can see the blog here:

GUE Project Tiger (http://gueprojecttiger.blogspot.com/)

which is a bit of a work in progress, but we'll be building it over the coming months. 2013 dates are booked with Scimitar diving, and we're looking forward to getting back for more survey, video and photography.

The FB page is here:

http://www.facebook.com/ProjectTiger1944

Rich

[The Duck]

Hi Rich,

Was there any further developments on the destroyer? Or has it been thought that this one might be a bit of a red-herring?

[Rich Walker]

Ahh the destroyer - ;)

My suspicion is a red herring, but I really should chase it up and see what is on those marks.

Rich

[damianb]

Project Tiger looks absolutely fantastic. It must be incredible get get on some of these previously undived structures.

[Chris Grosart]

LSTs 507 and 531 were dived by Nick Chipchase's team some time ago and they did a good job of documentation. (The same chap incidentally just helped discover 'The Frozen Deep' - largest cave chamber in the UK in Cheddar gorge.

There were however a few loose ends to tie up - not least that wrecksite was claiming the wrecks were the other way around. Having dived both wrecks, we could confirm that Nick Chipchase was correct and wrecksite had them mixed up.
The most interesting part of the story is an LST (I'll dig up the correct number at some point - I forget right now) which got damaged, was moored next to 507. There is a theory that all the troops and trucks and jeeps etc would have been off loaded from the stricken LST and at the last minute loaded onto 507. This would have increased the death toll significantly when 507 was torpedoed.
Richard Bass had a theory that there was plenty of space on 507 and as it was a last minute decision, the loading sheets would not have been altered in time.
Nobody knows what happened to the troops or trucks on the stricken LST which didn't sail - whether they got loaded onto 507 and died in Exercise Tiger, or whether they were deployed elsewhere, possibly to perish at Normandy.
So, it would be very significant to find some evidence of some armament (sp) belonging to another LST (and not on the loading sheets for 507) to prove the troops were indeed swapped over.
Having dived LST 507, I reckon I have more chance of winning the lottery twice than finding anything identifiable as evidence.
But it's a nice story and a fun project.
This programme was quite good - but I'm not convinced by conspiracy theories myself.
The Secret D-Day Disaster: Revealed | Revealed | Channel 5 (http://www.channel5.com/shows/revealed/episodes/the-secret-d-day-scandal-revealed)

[Rich]

Yup, me neither. Am spending Friday with the historians to find out more.


Rich W

[Rich Walker]

Hi all,

I just updated the Project Tiger blog. Some interesting stuff starting to develop for this years project!

GUE Project Tiger (http://gueprojecttiger.blogspot.co.uk/)

Rich

[JackMac]

Ahh the destroyer - ;)

My suspicion is a red herring, but I really should chase it up and see what is on those marks.

Rich

It would be interesting to find out... Is there definitely 'something' in this position? I can't remember the story behind the marks :)

[Marky Mark]

Enjoyed your presentation last night Rich.

Many thanks

MyM