The 80th anniversary of Exercise Tiger is being remembered with a new song dedicated to the tragic Second World War disaster.

An estimated 946 US servicemen lost their lives during a training exercise at Slapton Sands, in Devon, whilst preparing for D-Day. 

However, many never reached their destination as they were killed off the coast of Portland whilst in their landing crafts. German motor torpedo boats sunk the vessels on their way to Devon, a tragedy that had long been forgotten. 

It came just a day after a 'friendly fire' incident saw many soldiers die in the training exercise at Slapton Sands.

With D-Day approaching, service personnel and medical staff were sworn to secrecy about the tragedy.

The anniversary, which falls on April 27 and April 28 will now be marked with the release of a Nashville recorded song to remember those that made the ultimate sacrifice.

A poppy tribute and memorial service is also taking place on Portland, on Friday, April 26 to remember the brave sailors and soldiers who lost their lives off the Dorset coast.

The new song, `Slapton Sands (Exercise Tiger)` by the Charlesys, was written by English songwriter Mike Charles.

To give the song authenticity Mike wanted his song to be sung by an American so he arranged for it to be recorded in Nashville.

He said: “ I wrote the song because I was deeply moved by the loss of the American troops and I wanted them to be remembered as the heroes that they were.

“There was no memorial to the troops until the 1980`s when a local hotelier by the name of Ken Small, rescued a Sherman tank from the Slapton sea bed. It now stands as a monument to the loss of life on the Devon coast”.

`Slapton Sands (Exercise Tiger)` by the Charlesys will be released on Monday, April 22 and will be available on services such as Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Deezer, Amazon via this link: https://artists.landr.com/slapton-sands-exercise-tiger

There is also a Youtube video whereby actual footage of Exercise Tiger training is set to the music of Slapton Sands (Exercise Tiger). It can be viewed via this link: https://youtu.be/aqDt7M2yez0.