Boundaries of the U.S. Assault Training Centre reservation were drawn early in 1943 by Lieutenant Colonel Paul W. Thompson. His mission was two-fold. Firstly, to produce a doctrine for assaulting a heavily defended enemy coastline. And having done that from scratch, he then had to train combat troops in those principles. This needed a lot of land.
All good training areas in Britain had already been claimed by the British so Thompson had no choice but to accept the Atlantic coast around Woolacombe. Ironically a coastline the British rejected, judging it too rough and stormy for training. The perimeter of the land he required here for full-scale military manoeuvres followed the railway line south from Mortehoe Station to Braunton, and the River Caen to the Taw and Torridge estuary. Every acre to the west of this line he needed for exercises and rehearsals using live ammunition, explosives, tanks, artillery and air support.
But nestling in this region were several picturesque Devon villages - Croyde, Putsborough, Georgeham and Saunton. The task before Thompson at this stage included not only the neutralisation of enemy beach defences, but also the fight inland off the beaches, and these settlements were in his way. They would have to be evacuated along with all the farms and smaller settlements, and Thompson told the American High Command there was no other option.
Amidst British indecision about giving him the land, Thompson’s mission was unexpectedly reduced. No longer was he to teach troops to fight their way inland past the enemy beach defences, just get them through the coastal fortifications. In his words . . . “the fight for the first thousand yards”.
There were several reasons for this dramatic change. The American High Command had found an alternative area where amphibious-landed troops would assume the beach defences had been overcome, and could practice establishment of a bridgehead and moving inland. That region lay just behind Slapton beach in South Devon. A more sinister reason for dividing Thompson’s initial two-fold mission was the higher command estimates of casualty rates which they believed would leave the assaulting units fully spent after the assault, and establishment of the bridgehead would have to rely upon rapid reinforcement.
Beaches within the reservation were ideal for basic and advanced amphibious exercises despite the fierce Atlantic surf, and Woolacombe Sands was soon found to be identical to “Omaha” in nearly every respect of sand quality, beach gradient, and tide range. Anyone who has seen Omaha beach will instantly notice an uncanny resemblance to Woolacombe and Saunton.
Within the reservation boundaries areas that would see action had boundaries drawn around them and were letter-coded.
The existing road network of narrow country lanes was assessed for movement of troops, trucks and tanks, and for ease of navigation road junctions were numbered, and where no roads existed new temporary tracks were constructed.
