Les Mlakar knew his uncle Albert was killed during World War II. But when his other uncles discussed it — which was rare, if ever — they only did so in Slovenian.
For quite a long time, most Americans did not know the truth of what happened April 27 and 28, 1944, off the coast of Devon, England.
Over the course of a disastrous pre-D-Day training exercise, an estimated 450 troops were killed by friendly fire. And two landing craft were sunk by German naval boats.
Albert Mlakar, a native of Penn Township’s Claridge neighborhood, was aboard LST-507, operating in the English Channel’s Lyme Bay when a German E-boat, armed with machine guns and torpedoes on a reconnaissance mission from Cherbourg, France, opened fire on the boat and its convoy, striking it with a torpedo and setting the boat aflame.
Mlakar, 78, said his grandparents were originally told Albert was killed while returning home on a troop transport ship.
“Everyone involved had to sign a nondisclosure agreement, subject to court-martial, at the time,” he said.
In preparation for the Allied invasion of Normandy, France, called Operation Overlord, American troops were deployed to England to take part in Exercise Tiger, one of a series of large-scale rehearsals for the D-Day invasion at Utah Beach.
The exercise would culminate in a beach landing at Slapton Sands in Devon, England, and the exercise would include live fire from naval vessels offshore.
On April 27, the plan was to simulate an English Channel crossing by taking a roundabout route through Lyme Bay and arriving on Slapton Sands at first light.
But miscommunication resulted in friendly naval forces firing on nine LST landing craft that arrived early, accidentally killing more than 400 U.S. servicemen.
The next day, a flotilla of eight LSTs in the Lyme Bay was planning another landing at Slapton Sands when they were spotted and attacked by German E-boats.
In addition to Mlakar, Arnold native Lester Atlee Myers was aboard LST-507, which was sunk along with LST-531.
Other Western Pennsylvania natives aboard the ships were Lester H. Levy of McKees Rocks, Michael Mance of Turtle Creek, Joseph L. Ostrowski of Pittsburgh, William H. Schreiber of North Braddock, Ray E. Seibert of Hampton, John L. Stanesic of Versailles and Alvin C. Unger of Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood.
“My uncle was probably burned to death,” Mlakar said. “They found his remains, and he’s buried in Cambridge (American) Cemetery (and Memorial) in England.”
Myers remains were never recovered, and he is memorialized at Forks Zion Union Lutheran Evangelical Church in Gilpin.
Tom Myers of Gilpin, who regularly mows the cemetery where the memorial is located, said he’s fairly certain that Lester Myers is his uncle’s uncle.
“My uncle Dale said he was killed during the invasion of Normandy,” he said. “But (Dale) was probably about eight or nine years old at the time.”
Due to the extreme secrecy surrounding the actual D-Day invasion, news of the 946 casualties of Exercise Tiger was not released until nearly four months later, in August 1944, alongside the casualties from the actual D-Day landings.
Both Mlakar and Myers were posthumously awarded the Purple Heart medal.
Patrick Varine is a TribLive reporter covering Delmont, Export and Murrysville. He is a Western Pennsylvania native and joined the Trib in 2010 after working as a reporter and editor with the former Dover Post Co. in Delaware. He can be reached at pvarine@triblive.com.