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Exercise Tiger: Difference between revisions

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{{Campaignbox Atlantic Campaign}}
On the day after the first practice assaults, early on the morning of 28 April, the exercise was blighted when Convoy T-4, consisting of eight LSTs carrying vehicles and combat engineers of the [[Engineer Special Brigade#1st Engineer Special Brigade|1st Engineer Special Brigade]], was attacked by German [[E-boatsboat]]s in [[Lyme Bay]].{{efn|One of these E-Boats was ''S-130'', now in [[dry dock]] in [[Plymouth, Devon]].<ref>{{cite web |date=7 November 2004 |title=Schnellboot S130 |publisher=British Military Powerboat Team |url=https://www.bmpt.org.uk/boats/S130/index1.htm |access-date=6 August 2016}}</ref>}} Nine German E-boats had left Cherbourg shortly after midnight, avoiding the British [[Motor torpedo boat|MTBs]] watching the port area and patrols in the [[English Channel]].{{sfn|Margaritis|2019|pages=359-360}}
 
Around 0130 hrs six E-boats of the 5. S-Boot Flottille (5th E-Boat Flotilla) commanded by [[Korvettenkapitän]] [[Bernd Klug]] saw eight dark ships and split into three pairs to attack with torpedoes: first [[Squad|''Rotte 3'']] (''S-136'' & ''S-138''), then ''Rotte 2'' under [[Oberleutnant zur See]] Goetschke (''S-140'' & ''S-142''), then ''Rotte 1'' (''S-100'' & ''S-143''). The final three E-boats of the nine, S-Boot Flottille commanded by Korvettenkapitän [[Götz Freiherr von Mirbach]] (''S-130'', ''S-145'' & ''S-150''), saw the red flares for attack (or may have heard the contact report sent at 0203 hrs) and joined the attack. After, within the ''Rotte 1'' pair, ''S-100'' collided with ''S-143'' and damaged its superstructure, the boats decided to leave, masking their retreat with smoke while sending another contact report. ''S-145'' attacked the ships with gunfire. The attack ended circa at 0330 hrs. The Germans had been puzzled by the strange-looking ships which did not look like merchantmen. They estimated that they were some type of American landing ship with a shallow draft as the initial torpedoes from ''Rotte 3'' and ''Rotte 2'' seemed to miss.{{sfn|Margaritis|2019|pages=359-360}}