The Ultimate Sacrifice: Rudder's Rangers at Pointe-du-Hoc
by Thomas M. Mingus
The dark, cold lion of the English Channel billowed, tossing the tiny, cramped
landing vehicle to and fro between its massive paws. Thoughts of loved ones,
family, and other cherished memories danced through their heads like ballerinas
as each man on the craft stared the menace known as Death in the face as the
craft and soldiers sailed onward to their doom. Closer and closer they get to
the French coastline as the speedy boat rifles through the raging sea. The
signal is given to open the back door to each landing craft as they arrive at
their perilous destination, and there the heroism and the chaos jointly begin;
a quest to smash through the German lines and uproot Hitler's sinister plans at
a place called Normandy.
The 1944 Normandy Campaign was carefully and thoroughly planned well in advance
of the invasion, with several key elements that had to be perfected executed in
order to be successful. None was more strenuous, dangerous, or as demanding
than the mission given to Lt. Col. James Earl Rudder's Second Ranger Battalion
at a cliff prominence known as Pointe-du-Hoc.
There was no chance of escaping the attack, as both the Axis and Allies knew
that it was inevitable. Both warring sides debated when an invasion should and
would be launched by the Allied forces against what was seen as a sadistic Nazi
regime. The German high command speculated that the invasion would occur at
Pas-de-Calais, because it was situated at the shortest distance across the
channel, directly across from the English city of Dover. Adolph Hitler assigned
famed Field-Marshal Erwin Rommel the task of greatly broadening the defenses
along the new Maginot Line, or Atlantic Wall, ordering him to prepare for an
invasion at any point along the English Channel. The Atlantic Wall,
surprisingly weak prior to the Allied invasion, was strengthened by Rommel, who
placed millions of mines along the beaches, as well as moving several German
divisions along the coastline, concentrating especially on the feared invasion
point of Calais.
After several long deliberations and secret meetings between his "Project
Overlord" command staff, General Dwight David Eisenhower, the newly appointed
Allied supreme commander for the invasion force, decided that the target would
not be Calais, but rather Normandy. He felt that this latter site offered more
advantages than Calais, despite the fact that his fleet would need to sail over
100 miles across one of the widest parts of the English Channel without being
detected by the waiting Germans. Not only were there fewer German
fortifications and troops at Normandy, the beaches were ideally suited to
landing craft and support operations, and the location was fairly isolated,
reducing the risk of a sudden and large German counterattack. The Allies hoped
to cut off all vital roads, slowing German reinforcements and cutting off
supply routes, thereby increasing the chances for the success of the invasion.
The forces of the Nazi regime were placed under the direct guidance of
Field-Marshal Rommel, who strategically placed an immense number of mines of
various types along the coast of Normandy to try to prevent or slow down an
invasion there. All along the coastline, engineers built pillboxes into the
sides of the cliffs for Nazi machine gun, as well as heavy artillery. Rommel
also strengthened the Normandy coastline by harboring 60 divisions of the
Imperial Army there, placing them under the command of Marshal Rumstedt, a
trusted subordinate. Stabbing out into the channel, an ominous piece of land
rose above the surf, staring out to sea and almost sneering at any invasion
attempt. Situated four miles west of Omaha Beach and seven miles east of Utah
Brach, Pointe-du-Hoc was a natural watchtower, and Rommel's engineers converted
it into a virtual castle tower fronted by the English Channel. If this area
were to fall to the invaders, the entire Nazi position would crumble, allowing
Allies to pour ashore and begin the long trek to Berlin and the eventual
overthrow of Hitler's government.
Pointe-du-Hoc was defended by the German 352nd Infantry Division, a group
composed of a mixture of veteran troops and young recruits. Rommel constructed
six cement casements around the prominence to provide an elevated advantage
point for six huge 155mm artillery pieces, each with a range of fifteen miles.
These guns could bombard the two neighboring beaches with relative ease.
Observers could direct the fire of some of the massive guns onto the ships of
any invasion fleet, while the others could simultaneously enfilade the
adjoining beaches. In addition, they could do a great deal of damage to ship
anchorages and troop marshalling areas during an invasion. In many ways, the
fate of the planned landings at both Omaha and Utah beaches, as well as the
fate of the entire invasion, was in the hands of those Allied soldiers that
would be selected to reduce the defenses at Pointe-du-Hoc.
Eisenhower and his commanders decided that this vital and dangerous mission
would be assigned to some elite troops that were trained in specialized assault
tactics –the Rangers of the Second and Fifth Battalions. They were led Lt. Col.
James Rudder, a native Texan who was born on May 6, 1910, at Eden. He had
attended John Tarleton Agricultural College in 1928-29 before attending Texas
A&M in 1930. He graduated in 1932 with a degree in industrial education.
After graduation, he was commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry in the
Army Reserves. In 1933 while he worked as a football coach and teacher at Brady
High School. He had married Margaret E. Williamson on June 12, 1937. The next
year, he became a football coach and teacher at Tarleton. Rudder had been
called into active duty in 1941.
The commanding general of the First U.S. Army, Omar Bradley, was quoted
following the Normandy invasion as saying, "No soldier in my command has ever
been wished a more difficult task than…Rudder." The shear impact of his
assignment had dazed Rudder when Bradley revealed it to him in January of 1944.
Rudder's first initial thought was that Bradley was playing some sort of
elaborate practical joke on him, but to Rudder's dismay, Bradley was deadly
serious about this potentially deadly and serious task. The general in effect
ordered Rudder to take three companies of roughly 200 men, land on a shingled
shelf, scale the imposing 100-foot-high cliff while under hostile fire, and
then destroy the six enemy guns. Then, after blowing up the artillery battery,
the Rangers were to move inland and establish a roadblock on the coastal road
that ran along the coast from Omaha Beach. Rudder courageously volunteered to
personally lead the assault. He left Bradley and returned to his men to begin
preparations.
By spring, the stage was set for the massive Allied invasion. Rudder's Rangers
spent considerable amounts of time in detailed training, preparing for what
many believed was an impossible task, or at the least, an undertaking that
would result in heavy casualties to the attacking force. Rudder had assigned
Companies D, E, and F of the Second Ranger Battalion to scale the cliff,
leading the overall attack with the specific responsibility of destroying the
field guns. Companies A and B, accompanied by the entire Fifth Battalion of six
companies, would wait on the landing crafts below marking off time, while
waiting for a signal that the advance attack had been successful. Then, these
reinforcements would scale the prominence. If the signal was not received
within thirty minutes of the initial assault, the waiting force of Rangers were
to land on Omaha Beach and force-march behind Pointe-du-Hoc to seize it from the
rear.
The tactical plan involved careful and well-coordinated timing. The Army Air
Corps were to come in at a set time and heavily bomb Pointe-du-Hoc, regardless if
the Rangers were on top or not, but only if the German guns were still firing
after the thirty minute window. Over 2,000 soldiers from across the USA had
filled out applications to join the elite Ranger battalions. Rudder selected
500 of the best candidates after carefully reviewing the forms, then
determinedly trained them for the daunting assignment. The drilling and
training in the hot, humid Tennessee climate was physically draining. There,
the Rangers endured 50-mile hikes, often during the middle of the night. They
agonized through repeated high-speed forced marches, and sweated through hours
of demolition training sessions with live explosives.
One day while the Rangers were sleeping while riding on a troop train, Rudder
abruptly woke them up, stopped the train, and sent the exhausted men out of the
railcars. There, they were to live in the woods, surviving on wild game such as
rabbits and squirrels. His intention was to impress upon his soldiers the need
to learn to live lean, with limited rations, equipment, and tools. When the
Rangers were shipped to England a short time later, Lt. Col. Rudder sent two of
his brightest and best men, Staff Sgt. Jack Kuhn and Private First Class Peter
Korpalo, to work with the South London firm of Merryweather. They were charged
with developing of a better means of scaling Pointe-du-Hoc than by merely using
conventional mountain-climbing ropes. The British company soon came up with a
possible solution – the Rangers would use 100-foot extension ladders that would
be requisitioned from the London Fire Department.
Concurrently with Merryweather's explorations into the scaling apparatus,
Rudder's Rangers endured more exhaustive and dangerous training dealing with
cliff climbing, as well as various night combat and logistics problem solving
sessions. On several occasions, Rudder ordered live fire assault training
drills. As time progressed, his men became more and more skilled at undertaking
the challenging assignment.
Finally, the time came for the company commanders to conference with their
soldiers, revealing the mission, its dangerous nature, and the odds that were
against them. To some officers, any man that even got close to the cliffs
without being killed deserved a medal. Hitler's war managers had issued a
chilling warning that any Allied soldier identified as a commando or ranger was
not to be treated as a common prisoner of war. Instead, they were to be shot
dead on the scene, instead of taking them captive. Grimly, Rudder's men
prepared for the seemingly impossible mission.
When orders came for the actual assault, the Rangers boarded the Ben My Chree
, which joined the great armada of convoys knifing across the cold, dark
English Channel from the Isle of Wight to an unknown fate that waited them
along the German-held Normandy coast. One the fateful morning of June 6,
Rudder's 225 soldiers of the initial assault parties were treated to a
breakfast of flapjacks and coffee. They carried minimum loads, with heavier
weapons amounting to four Browning Assault Rifles. Each company also had two
60mm mortars). Shortly before 0400, they were loaded into LCAs (landing craft,
assault) departed the huge transport ship and headed out in two columns of six
boats across a very rough sea still churning from a vicious storm the previous
day. Ten of the small landing craft carried Rudder and his men, while the other
two carried supplies (packs, rations, demolitions, and extra ammunition for the
three companies). The small flotilla was accompanied by four DUKW's that
carried the extension ladders. Each DUKW was topped by twin Lewis machineguns
to provide some firepower for an anticipated contested landing.
Immense waves were smashing into the sides of each craft, engulfing the small
vessels and drenching the anxious rangers. Shortly after the flotilla had left
the Ben My Chree, one LCA sank in the heavy seas, drowning everyone
except one fortunate man. Soon, another landing craft became swamped, adding
the commander of Company D, Capt. Duke Slater, and his twenty Rangers to the
number of soldiers already out of the attack on Pointe-du-Hoc. Water continued to
gush into the boats, rising quickly with every new wave that slammed into the
sides. Seasick Rangers desperately began to bail with their helmets as they
continued their perilous run toward the shore, and possible death from enemy
firepower. Within fifteen minutes after leaving the Ben My Chree , one
of the supply boats sank and the other jettisoned all its packs in order to
stay afloat. One DUKW was sunk by 20-mm fire from a cliff position near the
Point. The 9 surviving LCAs advanced on a 400-yard front on the eastern side of
the Point
As the Rangers closed in on their objective, they could see and hear the
thunderous blasts from the battleship USS Texas as it shelled the
fortifications on top of Pointe-du-Hoc for 35 minutes. The planned landing was
delayed by 40 minutes, as the boats were off-course, initially heading due east
of the landing point. Rudder noticed this aberration and ordered the helmsmen
to correct their course to the right direction. German opposition on the ground
was slight until the first pair of LCAs came a mile from shore, when the Nazis
opened fire with mortars and machineguns. The Rangers finally touched down at
0710 on at Pointe-du-Hoc with only half their original three companies remaining,
a troublesome start to an already challenging assignment. Companies E and F
deployed to the eastern side of the point, with Company D to the west.
From a position 300 yards on the Rangers' left flank, German machineguns
strafed the heavily crated landing area, just as Rudder's men began placing the
fire ladders in position. Bullets struck about fifteen of the Rangers. Gene E.
Elder, a member of the Second Ranger Battalion, remembered the landing, "We
found that the cliffs were higher than the ones we scaled in Cornwall [England,
during preparation]. These were 115 to 125 feet high." The extension ladders
would only reach 100 feet. As soon as he had landed, Lt. Colonel Rudder sent
the message 'tilt,' which told the floating reserve to land at Omaha Beach, and
then fight their way to Pointe-du-Hoc as soon as possible due to the delayed
landing time schedule.
As the waves of DUKWs and LCAs landed on the small 25-yard strip of beach,
soldiers raised one of the London Fire Department extension ladders to its full
height. Sgt. William Stivison of the Second Rangers labored to the top carrying
twin Lewis machineguns. He drew counter-fire from the Germans above him as his
comrades watched the amazing spectacle. Amazingly, not a single bullet even
grazed the lucky Stivison as he single-handedly attacked the enemy on the
crest. Fighting to keep his balance, he continued firing even as the ladder
weaved from side to side in a dizzying arc almost 90 feet in the air. The
spectacular duel in the air finally ended due to the ladder being forced to
retract by the rumbling seas under the DUKW. His performance was exactly the
kind of courage and innovation that Rudder had hoped for when he had selected
his elite team.
The Rangers were briefly pinned against the side of the prominence, taking
cover from the Nazis above, who tossed down "potato mashers," their distinctive
grenades. Bobbing in the boiling surf, the destroyer USS Saterlee saw
that Rudder's Rangers were now fighting the Germans without any gun support.
The captain decided to steam in close to the shoreline, where he opened on the
Germans on top of the cliffs. As the ship blazed away, the Nazis scattered,
allowing the Rangers to begin their ascent. Each of the LCAs had been fitted
with 3 pairs of rocket guns. These could fire grapnels, which pulled up ¾"
ropes, toggle ropes, and rope ladders. In addition, each landing craft carried
a pair of handheld rockets, which could be carried ashore to fire small ropes.
Each craft also carried tubular-steel extension ladders made up of light, 4'
sections suitable for quick assembly. Quickly, crews began firing off the
rockets. Some of the landing craft had trouble firing their ropes, either
firing them too early, or in some cases, the ropes had become too saturated
from the pounding salt water, making them too heavy to get enough elevation to
properly catch on the cliffs. Other ropes did land on the cliff-tops, but were
not secure enough, and they and the Rangers using them fell to the ground
below. However, all but one LCA managed to properly position their ropes and
ladders. In a few cases, surviving Germans cut the ropes.
Still, enough ropes were in place to allow the remaining Rangers to scale
Pointe-du-Hoc and complete their mission. Robert Kerchner of the Second Battalion
recounted that the Germans had scarcely touched the ropes that were being used
by his company. The enemy had never seen the rocket launchers used to propel
the ropes, and when the nine remaining LCAs fired their six rockets, each
trailing smoke and fire, it appeared to be a new sort of weapon. Several Nazi
soldiers hit the ground, taking cover from the incoming "weapons." In some
cases, Americans GIs had tied pieces of fuse to the end of the grapnel to fool
the Germans into thinking the strange weapon would explode at any minute.
Hence, most did not bother to approach the ropes to dislodge them until it was
too late.
As Allied warships and airplanes continued to attack German positions on and
behind Pointe-du-hoc, dirt, clay, and shale cascaded from the cliffs. Soon, the
first 25 feet or so of the ascent was walkable as Rangers used the resultant
mounds as stepstools. Within five minutes after the Rangers had landed on the
beach, their first men had fought their way on top of the cliff, assembled in
groups of three or four, then moved out on prearranged missions toward the gun
positions. Some Americans, covered with mud from having fallen into the
water-filled craters on the beach, had trouble in climbing. However, within a
half-hour, all of the front-line soldiers had scaled the point. They found
themselves in a no-man's land of incredible destruction with all landmarks now
gone and the ground so cratered that if men got 15 feet apart, they were
immediately out of contact. Only a few Germans were initially seen, and these
were quickly driven to cover in a network of ruined trenches connecting deep
dugouts and emplacements. The Rangers soon found that they had no radio
communications, as all of the devices carried upward were now malfunctioning.
Rudder called on his communications officer, James "Ike" Eikner, to descend the
cliff and use a working radio on the beach to send headquarters the code phrase
"Praise the Lord," a signal that the initial attack had been successful in
securing the heights.
Rudder established his command post in the safe haven of a large shell hole on
the edge of the cliff. However, due to his inability to immediately communicate
his success in reaching the top, his support force (Companies A and B of his
Second Rangers, as well as the entire Fifth Ranger Battalion) did land on the
crimson-stained and still chaotic Omaha Beach. These men soon became embroiled
in the desperate fighting along the beachhead and did not move into their
assigned position to support the Pointe-du-Hoc assault. However, they became
critical to the eventual success of the Americans in seizing Omaha Beach. The
battalion's chaplain, Father Joseph Lacey, had landed with the supporting
forces, where he spent his day pulling out the wounded from the water and
tending to them. Father Lacey also took the time to say the last rites for
those brave young men who had laid down their lives in an effort to stop
Hitler's regime. He would be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his
priestly actions.
Pressing inland, Rudder's seasick and weary Rangers started gaining ground
against the German forces, despite being outnumbered in many sectors. In some
cases, progress was measured yard by yard as close order combat ensued between
the desperate defenders and Rudder's attack force. According to Ranger Leonard
Lomell, his Company D depended upon "a lot of speed. We went into the shell
craters for protection, because there were snipers around and machine guns
firing at us, and we'd wait for a moment, and if the fire lifted, we were out
of that crater and into the next one." Fighting continued to be fierce as
Rudder pushed southward. At one point, a German crew turned a 40mm antiaircraft
gun at charging Rangers, who continued onward like "possessed banshees." By
7:40, they had captured this position and killed the German crew.
A few minutes later, a German counterattack emerged from tunnels and nearby
trenches and overwhelmed and captured all but one man in an advanced Ranger
position. The command post, in a crater only a hundred yards away, was unaware
of what had happened until the survivor raced back to safety. Another assault
was hastily improvised, consisting of a dozen riflemen and a mortar section.
They got halfway to the strongpoint before being swept by artillery fire, which
killed or wounded nearly every man in the party.
Pfc. Carl Weast and Capt. George Whittington circled a machinegun nest manned
by three Germans. Seeing the Americans approach, one enemy soldier screamed
"Bitte! Bitte! Bitte!" Whittington's tommy gun soon killed all three Nazis, and
Whittington turned to his partner to inquire, "I wonder what bitte means?"
Not far away, Gene E. Elder set up his mortar squad in a 13-foot deep crater.
By ten o'clock, he was able to dispose of a German counterattack that was being
launched against his fellow Rangers. For his good marksmanship and his heroic
stand against the enemy attack, Elder was awarded the Bronze Star.
The combination of naval guns from the pounding surf and Royal Air Force
spotter planes over the target areas now began to punch out the remaining
German strong points one by one with precision gunfire. The Saterlee and
HMS Talybont spent the day pounding the top of Pointe-du-Hoc to provide
fire support for the Rangers. At times, the Saterlee was able to drive
off counterattacks, helping keep the Germans at bay while Rudder slowly
advanced. By nightfall, the Saterlee had expended all of its
ammunition and had to steam back to England for replenishment.
The Germans answered with supporting batteries located near Grandcamp, raining
shell after shell upon the advancing Rangers. After much fighting, and with a
growing casualty count, Rudder's men finally fought their way to the six heavy
155mm gun emplacements, expecting them to be operational. However, they found
that three of the concrete gun casements were still under construction, while
the other three, although finished, were empty as the Germans had not yet
positioned any guns inside. Disappointed that there were no guns to destroy,
the Rangers moved on to their second major objective to establishing a
roadblock along the coastal road, setting up a defensive position cutting that
main route between Vierville and Grandcamp. There, they were to await the
arrival of the 116th Infantry from Omaha Beach
Ranger companies D, E, and F had pushed the Germans back shortly before
midnight, and now the enemy formed a straight line directly in the path of
Rudder's weary soldiers, pinning them for two hours under ferocious small arms
fire. The Nazis launched five futile counterattacks, hoping to scatter the
Americans during the evening. By morning, the Rangers entered the key coastal
road. However, a skilled sniper killed six of Rudder's men before finally being
located and shot to death.
By June 7, all three American company commanders had become casualties. Lt.
George Kerchner, the only surviving field officer in Company F, assumed command
of that company. Lieutenants Armen and Lapres now led Companies D and E,
respectively. Each company was also now short on manpower. Sgt. Leonard Lomell
reported to the new command post on the road, leading only a dozen survivors of
his unit. The three lieutenants decided to establish a perimeter around the
captured road, where they would await the landing force from Omaha Beach.
Soon, thunderous blasts bellowed through the area as Sgt. Koenig blew up
important telegraph poles, cutting German communications along the coastal
road. A large group of Nazis approached the new Ranger position, but they were
quickly disposed of during a brief, but violent firefight. After driving off
the remaining Germans, Lomell, Sgt. Kuhn, and one Ranger infantryman decided to
patrol the area to watch for yet another counterattack. About 8:30 a.m., the
trio headed off the coastal road, and had traveled no more than one hundred
yards from the American perimeter when they discovered the missing 155mm German
guns, with ammunition stacked next to each one. The guns were serviceable, but
they had apparently been abandoned before firing a single shell. Ironically,
these deadly weapons were found in a farmer's field less than 550 yards from
their casements, where they might destroyed part of the Allied fleet before the
invasion could be launched.
Acting quickly, Lomell ran up to a pair of the guns and placed two thermite
grenades into the traversing mechanisms. The silent grenades melted the gears
of the guns, knocking them out of action. The sergeant broke the sites on the
remaining three artillery pieces, assuming that the Germans would not be able
to accurately range their fire should they retake the position and eventually
re-crew the massive guns. Lomell and his two comrades raced back to the road
and collected all the other incendiary grenades from the Rangers manning the
roadblock. Rushing back to the trio of remaining guns, the Americans placed
these grenades in the traversing and elevating mechanisms, and soon rendered
them inoperable as well. They banged on the sites, destroying them. As Lomell
emerged from the hedgerow in front of the guns, a massive explosion just to his
left obliterated a nearby German ammunition depot. Sgt. Rupinski had led a team
from Company E on this mission.
As news spread among the surviving Rangers that the 155m guns had been located
and destroyed, Rudder's men basked in knowing that they had successfully
completed their initial assigned mission. By 9:00, the guns were out of
commission, the paved highway cut, and a roadblock established. The artillery
had been so well camouflaged that the Army Air Force and its photo
reconnaissance planes could not detect them from above. Lt. Kerchner and Sgt.
Lomell would receive the Distinguished Service Cross for their heroic actions
during the fighting.
The remaining Rangers of the Second Battalion stayed at the roadblock, most
surviving two and a half days of continued German counterassaults, until relief
came. Companies A and B and the Fifth Ranger Battalion had planned to meet them
within three hours of the initial landing on Pointe-du-Hoc. Instead, it took them
three days to fight their way across Omaha Beach and inland before making the
junction.
Rudder counted his loss in taking Pointe-du-Hoc. Capt. Walter E. Block spent the
entire day ministering to the 130 Rangers who were dead or dying near the
cliff's edge, as well as to the wounded before their evacuation
Still, Rudder's Rangers had accomplished their difficult task – Pointe-du-Hoc was
in American hands, the feared 155m guns were out of commission, and the road
along the coast was severed. However, the fighting was not over – the road to
Berlin would take thousands more lives before the penultimate mission was
completed.
Sources / Further Reading:
Ambrose, Stephen. D-Day: June 6, 1944 . New York: Simon and Schuster,
1994.
Anonymous. Operation Overlord Order of Battle Series, vol 3. Omaha Beach and
Pointe du Hoc . London: Greenhill Books, 1995
Collier, Richard, D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Normandy Landings . New York:
Orion Books, 2002
Drez, Ronald J. (ed), Voices of D-Day: The Story of the Allied Inv asion.
Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1994
Written by Thomas M. Mingus
Copyright © 2004 Thomas M. Mingus
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