The Pointe du Hoc Rangers: a Madman’s D-Day Mission
By Daniel R. Champagne
On the morning of June 6, 1944, the 2nd Ranger Battalion, commanded by Lt. Col. James Earl Rudder, began its ascent of a sheer 100-foot precipice called Pointe du Hoc. Its mission was to destroy a battery of long-range 155mm guns perched atop the craggy he...
Target: Pointe du Hoc
The overall mission plan was to employ the Rangers as an independent task force in support of the Normandy invasion. It was determined that one of the most significant strategic objectives would be to destroy the coastal defense battery at Pointe du Ho...
One Chocolate Bar, Two Grenades and an M-1 Garand Rifle for the Pointe du Hoc Rangers
The provisional Ranger Task Force (2nd and 5th Rangers) commanded by Rudder was temporarily attached to the 116th Regiment, 29th Infantry Division. For organizational purposes, the commanders decided to split the force into three sections, Task Forces A,...
“Rangers! Man Your Craft.”
Allied commanders assumed that the massive bombing would take its toll on the German defenders at Pointe du Hoc. Unfortunately, the Allied bombardment lacked the punch to truly be effective. In fact, it would not be realized until much later that the bo...
Soaked to the Bone
At 4:30, the LCAs were given the order to form up side by side and head for shore. Almost immediately, the rough seas imperiled the small craft. LCA 860 was swamped by a huge wave and went down. Captain Harold “Duke” Slayter, D Company commander, and mo...
Hitting the Beach
The LCAs started to touch down at approximately 7:10. The boats, crowded but evenly spaced, hit the beach along a 500-yard front. Rudder’s LCA 888 hit the beach first. As soon as the ramp splashed down, intense enemy machine-gun fire erupted from the cl...
“To Hell With It”
Private First Class Frank H. Peterson, who had been wounded on the beach, positioned his body in the small niche and inched his way up the rope behind Robey. Once the three comrades reached the top, they proceeded to their next objective, the 155mm gu...
Captain Otto Mansy’s Orders
The last boat to reach the shore was LCA 883 carrying the men of F Company. Captain Otto Mansy, commander of F Company, ordered the coxswain to land near the cliff jutted outward, which protected the Rangers from the flanking machine-gun fire that had raked the other units. As a result, they landed about 100 yards from the designated touchdown point.On the ride in, Mansy also noticed that the scaling ropes fired by the previous boats were falling helplessly short of the cliffs. “Don’t fire those ropes until I give the word! We’ve got plenty of time,” he yelled to the British coxswain. To ensure that Captain Mansy’s orders were followed, Lieutenant Richard A. Wintz pulled out his pistol, pointed it at the British sailor, and said, “If you drop those gates or let those charges go before I give the order, I’ll put a bullet in your head.”When the ramps went down, Mansy shouted, “Go!” The rest of F Company followed. Snipers and enemy machine gunners opened fire from the rocky heights, churning up the beach below. Running as fast as they could, the Rangers found safety at the base of the cliff. Private First Class Raymond A. Cole and Staff Sergeant Robert G. Youso started to climb the rope ladders while the other Rangers waited their turn. Meanwhile, Captain Mansy strolled up and down the beach offering encouragement and advice to his men.
Breaching the Atlantic Wall
At approximately 7:30, Pfc. Cole slithered over the top of the cliff. Suddenly, a shot rang out. Moments later, Sergeant Youso pulled himself onto the shelf. Lying in the dirt a few feet away was Private Cole.“Cole’s been hit!” yelled Youso. Keeping low, Youso waited patiently for T/5 Herman Stein and Sergeant Jack Richards, who were both following close behind. When Stein and Richards reached the top, they found Cole dead.Lieutenant Wintz, encouraged by the overall success of the previous climbers, picked up the plain rope and began his ascent. He was exhausted. The ropes were wet and muddy, and the slippery clay made it virtually impossible to get a good foothold. After exerting all his energy, Wintz finally reached the top. He then organized six other Rangers into a squad and immediately set out for the German guns.Once Rudder’s Rangers disembarked the LCAs, it took most of the men 15 to 20 minutes to scale the rocky cliff. By 7:30, the battalion had lost two LCAs, one DUKW, and more than 20 Rangers killed or wounded. However, they had breached Hitler’s formidable Atlantic Wall.It was now time to focus all their efforts on finding and destroying the big 155mm guns, cutting off enemy communications, and holding their positions until reinforcements arrived. For the 2nd Rangers, the worst was yet to come.
Missing Gun at Position Number Three
On top of the Pointe, the Rangers found themselves in a bewildering wasteland of mass confusion. The expected landmarks were gone; bomb craters and mounds of debris were everywhere, obscuring paths, trenches, terrain features, and fortifications.In his book,...
Lomell Finds the Missing Guns
Meanwhile, on the extreme right flank, 2nd Platoon, D Company quickly made its way toward gun positions four, five, and six. Sergeant Lomell, Lieutenant George Kerchner, and 12 other D Company Rangers went after gun number four initially. When they ar...
Two Days of German Counterattacks
The Germans, who still occupied many areas on the Pointe, knew every inch of the terrain and were mounting a stubborn defense. To make matters worse, the Rangers were running dangerously low on supplies. To prepare for night defenses, the Rangers had to...
“The First American Forces on D-Day to Accomplish Their Mission”
Years later, Eikner was absolutely correct when he stated in his oral history: “Had we not been there we felt quite sure that those guns would have been put into operation and they would have brought much death and destruction down on our men on the beaches and our ships at sea…. The Rangers at Pointe du Hoc were the first American forces on D-Day to accomplish their mission and we are proud of that.”Ten years after the Pointe du Hoc Rangers’ heroic deeds on D-Day, Colonel Rudder went back to the site with his 14-year-old son. Looking up at the cliff, he asked: “Will you tell me how we did this? Anybody would be a fool to try this. It was crazy then, and it’s crazy now.” Back to the issue this appears in
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