Iv’e always been interested in abandoned places and while living in the UK, Tyneham was one of them. Back in 2010, I was doing some photography work for the Ministry of Defence as they were doing a record of all the buildings in and around Tyneham. I was given access to areas that were out-of-bounds to the public. Tyneham House being one. Found the radar station on the hill with the under-ground bunkers and the army camp in the woods. After doing some research and contacting the RAF (show map) I wanted to know more about Tyneham during the 1940’s up until the present day. Wanted to know more about the radar station but contacting the RAF, they only gave me the map but had no more information. I contacted Bovington camp tank museum for information about Tyneham but no records. With the information from the internet searches I come up with this .
Brief History of Tyneham
Tyneham dates back to William the Conqueror. He gave parcels of land to his brother, the Earl of Mortain. Tyneham was a small village on the coast of Dorset, run by the lord of the manor, the Bond family. The villages were tenants and worked mostly as farm workers. During the Second World War, Churchill needed to train for the invasion for D-Day and looking for areas along the coast that were similar to Normandy in France.
Tyneham was already prepared for war with pill boxes along the coast and a radar station on the high ground that was tracking German e-boats in the channel. Just down the road was Worth Matravers (and St. Aldhelm’s Head) which was the first place radar was tested and also one of the main tracking stations for German aircraft.
19 November 1943, all the villagers were sent letters to leave their homes by 19 December but a promise to return after the war ( they were never allowed to return). They was only compensated for their vegetables as they didn’t own there own homes as there were just tenants.
Tyneham was turned into a training ground. Ready for D-Day of June 1944. The radar station RAF Brandy Bay was built in 1941. The RAF (Royal Air Force) also requisitioned Tyneham House as their administration centre. The radar station was to track German e-boats that patrolled the English Channel. There was a army camp in the woods of Tyneham manned by the Royal Artillery and the Home Guard.
Six weeks before D-Day (April 1944) ‘Exercise Tiger’ or Operation Tiger was one of a series of large scale rehearsals for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. At Lyme Bay Devon started to train as an invasion fleet with was mostly American soldiers (US 4th Infantry Division) and English Navy personnel. Slapton Sands Devon was the landing location - similar to Utah beach in Normandy.
‘Exercise Tiger’ 22nd April 1944 - 30th April 1944.
Friendly Fire Incident.
The first assault took place on the morning of the 27th April and was to prepare troops in mock landings which included live-firing. It included naval bombardment by ships onto the beaches and with a mix up with timings the second wave of troops came under fire, suffering an unknown number of casualties. Some say as many as 450 men were killed.
The Battle of Lyme Bay.
Morning of the 28th April, 8 ships carrying troops set out to practice an assault for the next day and had gone out to get the men used to being out in the sea.
The convoy had been spotted by a German spotter plane and 9 e-boats based at Cherbourg were told to investigate. 90 miles to Slapton Sands. At 1.30am on the 29th April the attack happened and those killed and injured were never known but rough figures seem to say about 749 were killed - 551 US Infantry and 198 Navy personnel.
It is believed that the Tyneham Radar station first reported the e-boats on the 28th near midnight and telephoned Weymouth Navy Base about the boats. From there, was the message sent or stopped as it was an important exercise? The day before, they lost a load of US soldiers landing on the beach with timings gone wrong and lost loads of soldiers under their own gun fire.
General Eisenhower ordered a cover up. 10 army officers were missing in the sea and all had to found as they were carrying battle maps of the invasion and would have halted the D-Day (Operation Overlord) June 6th landings. Divers managed to find all bodies and tags. All dead and wounded were detained until after the invasion. Not even families were told how they died until a diver in the 60’s found a Sherman tank in the sea and the story came to light and a memorial was but up about the accident.
My belief is the Tyneham radar station knew of the e-boats and the whole story was covered up as there is no information about the radar station, who manned it during that time and even now the radar station and the army camp is out of bounds to the public. It took years for the opening of Tyneham to the public and the Tyneham House was knocked down in the 80’s. The land is still owned by the MOD.
I’ve got no proof but why no information at all since 1944?
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