Pointe du Hoc
Republished almost every year;
Rangers Mission for D-Day, 6 June 1944
The Ranger Group, attached to the 116th Infantry and commanded by Lt. Col. James E. Rudder, was given the mission to capture Pointe du Hoc and destroy the guns. The Ranger Group was made up of two battalions: the 2d Rangers, under direct command of Col. Rudder, and the 5th Rangers, under Lt. Col. Max F. Schneider. Three companies (D, E, and F) of the 2d Battalion (Task Force A) were to land from the sea at H-Hour and assault the cliff position at Pointe du Hoc. The main Ranger force (5th Battalion and Companies A and B of the 2d, comprising Task Force B) would wait off shore for a signal of success, then land at the Point. The Ranger Group would then move inland, cut the coastal highway connecting Grandcamp and Vierville, and await the arrival of the 116th Infantry from Vierville before pushing west toward Grandcamp and Maisy.
One DUKW was hit and sunk by 20-mm fire from a cliff position near the Point. The nine surviving LCAs came in and managed to land in parallel on a 400-yard front on the east side of Point du Hoc, landing about 0705. Allied naval fire had been lifted since H-Hour, giving the Germans above the cliff time to recover. Scattered small-arms fire and automatic fire from a flanking machine-gun position hammered the LCAs, causing about fifteen casualties as the Rangers debarked on the heavily cratered strip of beach. The grapnel rockets were fired immediately on touchdown. Some of the water-soaked ropes failed to carry over the cliff, but only one craft failed to get at least one grapnel to the edge. In one or two cases, the demountable extension ladders were used. The DUKWs came in but could not get across the cratered beach, and from the water’s edge their extension ladders would not reach the top of the cliff.
Despite all difficulties, the Rangers used the ropes and ladders to scramble up the cliff. The German defenders were shocked by the bombardment and improbable assault, but quickly responded by cutting as many ropes as they could. They rushed to the cliff edge and poured direct rifle and machine gun fire on the Rangers, augmented by grenades tossed down the slope. The Rangers never broke, continuing to climb amidst the fire as Ranger BAR men picked off any exposed Germans. The destroyer USS Satterlee (DD-626) observed the Rangers’ precarious position, closed to 1500 yards and took the cliff top under direct fire from all guns, a considerable assist at a crucial time.
Within ten minutes of the landing the first Americans reached the top of the cliffs.
I may just watch “The Longest Day” tonight.
Category: Historical
Still to this day, and inspiration.
As Always, inspiring! Tough, Brave men! Thanks John.
Rangers, do in fact, lead the way.
A deepest felt thank you to the heroes of D-Day.
So humbling. Always worth remembering.
I doubt if most American high school kids these days are taught this history lesson of American Courage.
And if they are, they were just racist old white men.
Seriously. That’s what my daughter is learning about the American Revolution. I had yo set her straight most ricky-tick.
NHSparky, be sure that you tell her about indentured bond servants, who were white people paying off a debt. If they ran away, they were advertised as criminals and jailed when found. There were more of them than there were of blacks. You can find more details online, but bring it up.
The schools have liberal policies and use indoctrinate the students on social justice and leave out a lot of our history. My late Neighbor was 12 years old when she had to join the Hitler Youth movement and indoctrinated on their aim for a thousand year Reich. She told me that she really hated it. After the war, she married and came to the States.
JUNE 6, 1944 74 years ago today.
Rangers and Texas Aggies Lead the Way!
I have always been and will always be in awe of such men.
Yes Brother, in AMAZED AWE beyond any description. The BIGGEST BALLS and COURAGE exhibited that day leaves me in tears when I read the “play by play” / AAR . The kids in school today NEED to read at least a few biographical accounts of that day’s actions. SO MUCH is taken for granted by so many people and it’s REALLY, REALLY IMPORTANT that the FREEDOMS we enjoy so blithely today are a direct result of the incredible bravery of these young men. I ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, make it a point to THANK THEM PROFUSELY and shake their hand upon crossing their path. Korean, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghani VETS as well…ALL HAVE MY DEEPEST RESPECT.
Not one word online or on news that I could see. Switched to a Clark Gable/Spencer Tracy movie instead.
The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers — the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machineguns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After 2 days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.
Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.
These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.
Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender’s poem. You are men who in your “lives fought for life . . . and left the vivid air signed with your honor.” ~ President Ronald Reagan Point du Hoc June 6, 1984
The first of the liberation of Europe so they could turn it over to muslims and sharia law within two generations
Except this time, we won’t be going over to stop the result of their stupidity and appeasement…
I just finished reading “The Liberation Trilogy” by Rick Atkinson.
Of all the books I have read throughout the years, that series touched me in ways that I am unable to describe.
The one thing it does for me is to get me really angry when I see people or in this case, turnips calling anyone that disagrees with them Nazi’s.
To do that absolutely dishonors the memories of the men and women that fought against them and the victims of their evil and totally horrendous deeds.
Thanks to us now having #PresidentTrump in office, quite securely, I might add, I get into the faces of those that do.
What they do denigrates the real evil that they were.
That conflagration was the biggest struggle between good and evil since the beginning of civilization. The stakes have never been higher than they were back then.
In my own way I feel very strongly that God played a huge part in that war and that we fought on God’s side.
We came so close to losing that war, so very close to losing it, there had to be the touch of the hand of God backing us when we needed it. June 6, 1944 was one of those times.
Thank God almighty that men like these lived.
Pure guts climbing those hills. It is beyond amazing that any of them survived it, but they did.
An inspiration to us all.
Un. Be. Lievable.
Kinda put one’s own modest contribution WAY in perspective.
Very few people alive/serving today can hold a torch to what these lads did.
True heroism
Ten minutess after landing the first men made it to the top of the bluff. That has got to be the longest ten minutes those men ever lived. Ten minutes that made history and the brave men of Pointe du Hoc will live forever.
A bit off topic but I thought about what General Eisenhower said “If you see any airplanes, they’re ours.”
I find it humbling what these men did. They knew if they made it to the top after a gruesome climb, they faced machine guns and snipers. They knew they were probably going to die.
And today we have teens crying over what bathroom to use and wetting their panties and in need of a time out.
In 70 years we have gone from the greatest generation to many/most who are only interested in themselves and their ‘feelings’. I think I know where we went wrong but it is an unpopular topic with liberals and MSM so I’ll just zip it.
Khrushchev got it right when he beat the table with his shoe at the UN. We will destroy ourselves from within, he said. Today we are doing just that with help from the muzzies.
My best friends father climbed the cliffs on D-Day and won the Bronze Star that day. My father went ashore at Omaha. Neither one never talked about it. They were both tough old birds. Just as the Marines who waded ashore at Tarawa were, through withering machine gun fire, wave after wave, never faltering. An amazing generation. I have no faith that today’s sorry “millenials” could (or would even try) to accomplish as much.