Wave-dashed as they are today, Slapton Sands have an even more dramatic past. During WWII, thousands of American servicemen trained here for D-Day using live ammunition. On one rehearsal in 1944, Exercise Tiger, a German torpedo boat, sank several landing craft; 639 American servicemen died. One of the tanks that sank during the exercise has been winched from 20m of water just offshore. Painted black, it now sits beside the car park at Torcross as a memorial.
Signs alongside outline the remarkable role this area played in WWII; from 1943 the residents of seven local villages, including Slapton, were evacuated from their homes for a year while the D-Day rehearsals took place.