Exercise Fabius was a formal exercise for the Allied

Operation Neptune Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The other was

Exercise Tiger Exercise Tiger, or Operation Tiger, was one of a series of large-scale rehearsals for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, which took place in April 1944 on Slapton Sands in Devon. Coordination and communication problems resulted in friendly fire ...

, which had occurred a week earlier. The British Army in the United Kingdom 1939-45 H38270

The exercise was planned to start on 2 May 1944, but bad weather delayed it to the next day. It consisted of six separate exercises: * Fabius 1: elements of the

1st Infantry Division 1st Division may refer to: Military Airborne divisions *1st Parachute Division (Germany) *1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom) *1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine) *1st Guards Airborne Division Armoured divisions *1st Armoured Division (Australi ...

and

29th Infantry Division (United States) The 29th Infantry Division (29th ID), also known as the "Blue and Gray Division", is an infantry division of the United States Army based in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. It is currently a formation of the U.S. Army National Guard and contains unit ...

practised amphibious landing at

Slapton Sands Slapton is a village and civil parish in the South Hams district of Devon, England. It is located near the A379 road between Kingsbridge and Dartmouth, and lies within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The nearby b ...

. * Fabius 2: elements of the 50th Infantry Division practised landings at

Hayling Island Hayling Island is an island off the south coast of England, in the borough of Havant in the county of Hampshire, east of Portsmouth. History An Iron Age shrine in the north of Hayling Island was later developed into a Roman temple in the 1st c ...

. * Fabius 3: elements of the

3rd Canadian Infantry Division The 3rd Canadian Division is a formation of the Canadian Army responsible for the command and mobilization of all army units in the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, as well as all units extending westwards fro ...

practised landings at

Bracklesham Bay Bracklesham Bay is a biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in West Sussex. It is a Geological Conservation Review site. It is a coastal bay on the west side of the Manhood Peninsula in West Sussex, England. The bay l ...

. * Fabius 4: elements of the 3rd Infantry Division and associated units practised landing at

Littlehampton Littlehampton is a town, seaside resort, and pleasure harbour, and the most populous civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the English Channel on the eastern bank of the mouth of the River Arun. It is south sou ...

. * Fabius 5 and 6: practice for American and British forces working on buildup of forces and supplies on Allied beaches. They formed the largest amphibious training exercise of the war. As the final exercise before Operation Neptune, it resembled closely the final operation and no major changes could be made to Operation Neptune.

References

Bibliography

* Western European theatre of World War II

Fabius In Roman mythology, Fabius was the son of Hercules and an unnamed mother. In "The Life of Fabius Maximus" from the ''Parallel Lives'' by Plutarch, Fabius, the first of his name, was the son of Hercules by a nymph or a woman native to the count ...

1944 in England Military history of Devon Military history of Hampshire Military history of Sussex {{WWII-stub