While at Dover Castle I came across ‘A Last Appeal to Reason’ by Adolf Hitler in the secret war tunnel reception area. What stuck me was the the title – appeal to reason – Adolf Hitler? An oxymoron?

Of course, I had to read it and found part of it here. Which lead me on a bit of an interesting journey – seems this site is one of those ‘there was no holocaust’ sites with all the usual nonsense about how the pictures of concentration camps are fakes. As you can see here, they have many interesting posts on different historical events. The write up on the Battle of Britain is interesting as is the essay on the treatment of POWs by the Allies (Sadly – barbarism during war is never one sided – so this is not that much of a stretch to believe).

The write up ‘Something of an enigma’ is practically interesting as it claims that much of the WWII footage is a fraud:

THE SICKEST FRAUD OF ALL

One of the sad and sickest frauds of the wartime movie makers is the celebrated footage of the D-Day landings. This was doctored for US General Eisenhower. This footage was filmed during ‘training exercises’ at Slapton Sands in Devon when during the landings American troops opened fire on their own compatriots struggling ashore from landing craft. It is estimated that just fewer than one thousand GIs were killed during this exercise. The US infantrymen’s bodies seen by cinemagoers floating in the waves were killed by their own side, not by German troops.

Jerome Kuehl, the leading television producer and author, an associate producer on the Thames Television World at War series, has revealed many wartime film frauds. He admitted that even he has been taken in by film footage and believes that film from the Battle of Stalingrad was stage-managed after the Russian victory.

A quick search of the web found the following explanation:

The Memorial

Although peaceful today, the area around Slapton sands and the Ley (lake) behind were a battle training ground in preparation for the 1944 D-Day landings. Many of the farms and villages in the area were vacated by the inhabitants from 1943 to allow the US army to train.

On the beach at Slapton sands stands a granite memorial to men killed during a training session which went disastrously wrong when it was attacked by German boats. The inscription reads;

Dedicated by the United States of America in honor of the 749 men of the 4th Infantry Division, the 279th Combat Engineers, and the 70th Tank Battalion, United States Army, who, along with crew members of the eight landing ships, U.S. Navy, perished off the coast of Slapton Sands, Torcross, while participating in Operation Tiger, April 26-28 1944. A training exercise in amphibious landings, Operation Tiger was a prelude to the invasion of Europe on June 6, 1944. This joint rehearsal by British and American forces resulted in a military tragedy in which the support convoy was attacked during the early morning hours by German schnellboots. The surprise attack resulted in the loss of several fully loaded and manned landing craft.

May these men rest in the knowledge that the lessons of this tragedy added significantly to the ability of the Allies to carry out the successful invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. May these soldiers and sailors be remembered for their supreme sacrifice for the Allied cause in World War II.

Interestingly enough, the village tourism site makes no reference to the tragedy.

The web is one interesting place.