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 doctrine for assaulting a heavily defended enemy coastline. And having done that from scratch, he then had to train combat troops in those principles. As Commandant of the only American establishment tasked with training soldiers for the anticipated invasion of Europe, he soon realised that the very success or failure of the American D-Day landings lay fully upon his shoulders.
All good training areas had already been claimed by the British so Thompson had no choice but to accept the Atlantic coast around Woolacombe. A coastline the British deemed 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.
After weeks of frustrating inactivity it seemed to Thompson that the British were dragging their heels, depriving him of precious time to activate his training base and several of his urgent memoranda prompted no response whatsoever. He was being pressed to establish the Assault Training Center, but without confirmation he could use the land he wanted, he could make no plans.
Unexpectedly he was advised that his mission had been reduced. He no longer had to teach troops to fight their way inland past the enemy beach defences, just get them through the coastal fortifications.
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 area 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.
The mission reduction however was a tactical relief for the ATC staff who could now concentrate their efforts to provide training programmes, lessons, exercises and practical problems for the infantry and engineers in their individual and combined tasks to hit the enemy shore and break through the crust of beach defences.
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.
Training troops to successfully overcome enemy beach defences required ranges for all weapons that would be used in the assault to ensure proficiency in handling, accuracy and repeated exercises in tactics of the new doctrine against accurate replicas of what they would encounter on the enemy shore.
Construction of these ranges and training aids - mostly replicas of German pillboxes - had to be done quickly as the training schedule already drawn up had the first units arriving in North Devon on 1st September 1943.
To build them U.S. Army Southern Base Section had assigned the 398th Engineer General Service Regiment who had only just arrived in England ... “ On August 7th we located ourselves on a hill a mile west of Braunton, North Devon. In fields bounded by stone walls, we pitched our pup tents for the first time on European soil. At night we learned that English soil was no softer than that found in United States on bivouac problems. With issuance of construction missions, Companies were scattered in all directions. Companies C and E were located one and two miles, respectively, west of Braunton. Company D established itself one mile north of Bideford. Company F set up camp a half mile south of Croyde. And Second Battalion Headquarters operated from Saunton Sands”.
With winter looming, a permanent camp was needed to supplement the tented encampments at Lincombe, Woolacombe, Croyde and Braunton. Just outside Braunton the 398th constructed ... “ 505 Nissen huts for quarters, dispensaries, showers, ablutions and mess halls to comprise a camp capable of housing 4250 men. We laid 5000 feet of sewer line and 8700 feet of water line. “
The overall reservation boundaries remained as originally drawn but now, after the mission reduction, contained areas not needed by the military, so only those 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, some being so narrow for military traffic they were designated one-way. For ease of navigation road junctions were numbered, and where no roads existed new temporary tracks were constructed.
The Assault Training Centre had a progressive, fluid policy based on the early receipt of intelligence on German beach defences so they could immediately produce counter tactics. As a consequence of this constant up-dating, layouts of some training aids were altered, some added to, others removed or even abandoned between September 1943 and March 1944.
The majority of training aid sites on Braunton Burrows and Baggy Point are pillbox “faces” - solid concrete blocks of pillbox dimensions with a sculpted or painted embrasure as an aiming point.
Most concrete constructions have been destroyed by modern British armies or lie buried beneath shifting sand dunes and vegetation, but there are still some indications of military activity. Short stretches of wire mesh held in place by steel pegs and rods show where once a road crossed the soft sand. Crumbling barbed wire can still be found perched on rusty steel spikes, which, once located, can by searching reveal a line or pattern of what was once a formidable obstacle to assaulting infantry.
Despite the most thorough ordnance clearing operation of Braunton Burrows in 1947, dangerous ammunition and mines are still being found so the reporting of suspicious objects with an accurate location is earnestly requested. Some areas are fenced off for livestock grazing experiments and these boundaries are to be respected. Prospecting with metal detectors is not tolerated and even possession of spent small arms ammunition is illegal as well as dangerous.
