6 June 1944
Posted: Sunday, June 06, 2010 by Travis Cody inToday is the 66th commemoration of the Allied invasion of the Normandy beaches on 6 June 1944, D-Day. Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and civilians from many nations invaded Hitler's fortress Europe. Many gave their lives to liberate the continent from Nazi tyranny. For my previous posts about this day, click the links below.
6 June 1944, posted in 2009
A Momentous Day, posted in 2008
Today I'd like to give you a few details of the US Army 2nd Ranger Battalion assault on Pointe du Hoc. You can click here for an excellent and complete study of the objective and its importance to the success of the invasion of Europe.
Essentially, the Rangers were tasked to climb an 85-100 foot cliff in order to reach German gun emplacements that reportedly housed at least 6 155mm cannons. The range on these weapons was about 25,000 yards. Those guns could decimate the landing forces and put the outcome of the battle in jeopardy.
Unfortunately, the attack got off to a bad start as the landing craft drifted in the heavy current, putting the Rangers more than a half hour behind schedule. When Dog, Easy, and Fox companies finally reached the top of the Pointe, they searched and found that the guns were not installed in the battery. The Rangers destroyed the position with grenades, and then began the secondary phase of the mission.
2nd Ranger Battalion was also tasked with cutting the coastal highway inland, and then holding in force to link up with the 5th Ranger Battalion and the 116th Infantry Regiment that was due from Omaha Beach later on D-Day.
But the 116th was late. The Rangers managed to cut the highway and hold. Lt Col James Rudder split his command. Half of the battalion found the 155mm cannon further inland, unguarded in an apple orchard. Those guns were destroyed.
The rest of the battalion hunkered down and held off repeated German counterattacks against the highway position. 5th Ranger Battalion finally broke through from the beach, linking up and relieving the battered 2nd Rangers on D-Day plus 2.
The 2nd Ranger Battalion suffered heavy casualties during the assault on Pointe du Hoc and the subsequent two days defending the coastal highway. They went in with 225 men total from Dog, Easy, and Fox companies. Eighty men died, while another 55 were wounded or reported missing in action. Able, Baker, and Charlie companies, which landed at Omaha Beach and pushed inland to link up with the rest of 2nd Ranger Battalion, lost more than half of their strength.
D-Day was a bloody battle across all sectors. 2nd Ranger Battalion earned a Presidential Unit Citation for its efforts to secure the deadly guns and the coastal highway.
In his eulogy for his brother, Senator Edward Kennedy said,
My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: 'Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.'
It is also my grandfather's 86th birthday today. He lied about his age in 1940 so he could go to sea as a Merchant Marine.
I have written this before, but it's worth repeating. The world changed on 6 June 1944. It changed again 6 June 1968.
Did not realize that today was the anniversary day of Robert Kennedy's death. How sad, I don't know how Rose Kennedy could handle the loss of so many of her children. I hope and pray we NEVER have to witness the assassination of another President ever, ever again.