Qualla: Torcross

Torcross: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sarah Charlesworth, CC BY-SA 2.0. There is a Sherman tank in the car park at Torcross. It came up out of the shallow water of Start Bay in 1984, raised at the private expense of a local hotelier named Ken Small who had spent fifteen years convinced of what was down there. The tank now stands at the south end of Slapton Sands as a memorial to the American servicemen who died in the early hours of 28 April 1944, during Exercise Tiger - the live-fire rehearsal for the Utah Beach landings, on this beach, six weeks before D-Day. At least 749 men were killed across the whole operation, with some estimates running as high as 946. Most were killed by friendly fire on a beach they were practising to take. Torcross remembers them.

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Image: Sarah Charlesworth | CC BY-SA 2.0

Torcross: A Village on a Beach

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Josheganwyer, Public domain. Torcross sits at the southern end of Slapton Sands, a remarkable shingle bar nearly three miles long that separates the freshwater lake of Slapton Ley from the open sea of Start Bay. The first written mention of the village comes from the manorial court rolls of 29 March 1602, wh...

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Image: Josheganwyer | Public domain

Torcross: The South Hams Cleared

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jim Linwood, CC BY 2.0. In late 1943 the British government emptied the South Hams. About three thousand civilians from Torcross and the surrounding villages were given six weeks to leave their homes - farms, churches, shops, schools, cottages where families had lived for generations. The Allies needed ...

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Image: Jim Linwood | CC BY 2.0

Torcross: Exercise Tiger

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michael Dibb, CC BY-SA 2.0. Exercise Tiger was the largest of those rehearsals. Early on the morning of 28 April 1944 a convoy of LSTs - tank landing ships - approached Slapton Sands from the Isle of Portland to put men ashore in a full simulation of Utah Beach. Nine German E-boats, alerted by the heavy rad...

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Image: Michael Dibb | CC BY-SA 2.0

Torcross: Ken Small and the Tank

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Lew747, CC BY-SA 3.0. Ken Small ran a hotel at Torcross. From the early 1970s he could find shell casings and shattered equipment along the beach after rough weather. Local fishermen knew there was a Sherman tank out in the bay - one of the new amphibious DD tanks that had been sent to shore that nigh...

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Image: en:User:Lew747 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Torcross: The Sea Coming Back

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nigel Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0. Slapton Sands is retreating. The Channel storms that have always battered this coast are arriving more often and with more energy. On 4 January 1979 enormous waves washed clean over the roofs of the seafront houses. A new curved seawall went up afterward. On 11 and 12 January 200...

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Image: Nigel Chadwick | CC BY-SA 2.0