Operation Beaver

'Beaver' was an Allied series of anti-invasion and then invasion exercises in the UK (1944).

'Beaver I' and 'Beaver II' were headquarters exercises of a basically anti-invasion nature. 'Beaver III' and 'Beaver IV' involved British and Canadian troops. 'Beaver III' was carried out on 22/4 April under the direction of Lieutenant General E. L. M. Burns’s Canadian I Corps by Major General C. Vokes’s Canadian 1st Division and Major General C. Foulkes’s Canadian 2nd Division with the former in the role of a German invasion force attacking the latter. 'Beaver IV', on 10/13 May, saw the 2nd Division assuming the offensive role with the defending force supplied by the 3rd Division. This was the latter’s first appearance in a corps exercise. In 'Beaver III' the landing was assumed to have been made in the area of Littlehampton and Worthing area, and in 'Beaver IV' the landing was assumed to have been made in the area between Bexhill and Beachy Head. Both exercises involved Brigadier W. C. Murphy’s Canadian 1st Armoured Brigade and corps troops.

'Beaver V' was a US amphibious assault training exercise in the UK by Major General J. Lawton Collins’s US VII Corps of Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley’s US 1st Army in preparation for the Utah Beach component of 'Overlord'.