First Objective

Rangers from Companies E and D (less elements detained on the Point) began to come together on an axis along the north-south exit road from the Point to the highway. The bulk of the group that started down the exit …

1944-06-06

P01

Rangers from Companies E and D (less elements detained on the Point) began to come together on an axis along the north-south exit road from the Point to the highway. The bulk of the group that started down the exit road was made up of Rangers from LCA’s 888 (Company E) and 858 (Company D). The party from 888 had come up, after some delay, on extension ladders and started out with 15 men under 1st Sgt. Robert W. Lang. After finding No. 3 casemate a junk-pile of broken steel and concrete, Lang’s group moved south. They began to meet artillery fire, coming in salvos of three, and shifting toward the Point with each salvo, Lang stopped for a moment to try for a contact on his 536 radio, failing in the attempt. Lang soon found artillery fire falling between his position and that of his men, so he turned left into the torn-up fields, where he picked up three stray Rangers of Company E, and then joined a group under Lieutenant Arman of Company F. The Company E Rangers had meanwhile met up with a dozen men of Company D, bringing the total group to about 30 men. Without waiting for others to arrive, they started along the exit road, taking as much cover as possible in a communications trench along its edge. While the Rangers moved up in single file, enemy artillery (estimated to be 75’s or 88’s) searched the area with timed fire. From the assembly area onward the Rangers began meeting machine-gun fire from the right flank and small-arms fire to their left front. They suffered serious casualties in the next few hundred yards: seven killed and eight wounded. Despite these losses, the total size of the force was increasing as it caught up with small advance parties who had left the point earlier, or as latecomers tagged on to the rear of the party. The Rangers soon gained the first objective, a group of ruined farm buildings, almost halfway to the highway. German snipers who had been using the building pulled out before the Rangers arrived there, no doubt encouraged to exit by shells from the destroyer’s guns that were landing around tlte farm buildings along with German artillery.

Pointe Du Hoc, France

La Pointe du Hoc is a promontory with a 100-foot (30 m) cliff overlooking the English Channel on the northwestern coast of Normandy in the Calvados department, France. Pointe du Hoc was the location of a series of German bunkers and machine gun posts. Prior to the invasion of Normandy, the German army fortified the area with concrete casemates and gun pits. On D-Day, the United States Army Provisional Ranger Group attacked and captured Pointe du Hoc after scaling the cliffs. United States generals including Dwight D. Eisenhower had found that the place housed artillery that could slow down nearby beach attacks.

Wikipedia: Pointe du Hoc

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