U.S. Army Rangers reenacted this week the famous scaling off the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, one of the most famous missions in Ranger history. The cliffs, scaled on the morning of June 6th, 1944, were the only way to a German artillery battery Allied commanders believed could wreck the D-Day invasion. More than a hundred Rangers were killed or wounded during the fighting in and around the guns.



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In the months leading up to the Normandy invasion, targets up and down the French coastline were bombed and strafed by allied airpower. Although the Allies had a huge advantage in air power, they could not concentrate aerial firepower against targets facing the Normandy beachheads without tipping their hand--the Germans would realize where the invasion was set to take place and send reinforcements accordingly.

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As a result, many important targets were left unbombed even on the day of the invasion. One such target was a battery of six french GPF 155 K418(f) howitzers. Captured from the French Army, the guns were reportedly in hardened emplacements overlooking a section of beach designated by landing forces as Omaha. Left untouched, the guns could blast away at Allied warships point-blank, holding troop transports and even heavier destroyers and cruisers at risk.

The concrete fortifications made destroying them via air power or naval guns difficult. The decision was made to send a portion of the landing force, 225 U.S. Army Rangers, to scale the cliffs in front of them and destroy the guns by hand. The Rangers not only endured the beach landing but proceeded to scale Point du Hoc’s cliffs with a combination of ladders, ropes, and sheer bravery.



In some cases the equipment was inadequate, with ladders borrowed from the London Fire Department proving too short. Still, the Rangers pushd to the top and secured their objectives, holding them against determined counterattacks. Over the first 48 hours of the invasion, the assault force took 135 casualties--one of the highest casualty rates of D-Day.

U.S. Army photo by Yvonne Najera

On June 5th, one hundred of today’s Army Rangers took part in a re-scaling of the cliffs. The Rangers, dressed in a mix of World War II-era uniforms--complete with the blue and yellow diamond-shaped Ranger insignia--and modern camouflage scaled the cliffs together. According to Stars and Stripes , veterans of the actual operation were in attendance to observe the cliff scaling.

Today there are three Ranger Battalions in the U.S. Army, along with a Special Troops Battalion, that make up the 75th Ranger Regiment. Today’s Rangers are highly trained light infantry and are part of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command.

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