Garand Picture of the day #105 Rangers on D-Day Color

[Louis of PA]

The monument you see behind me honors our soldiers. The French gave the land it sits on to the United States; in other words, it's on American territory and is right at the very point of Pont du Hoc.

The pillbox just to its right is probably for a range finder, manned by a couple of Jerry soldiers with a radio.


Imagine being one of them on the morning of June 6th ... as the morning mist burns off, you look out and gradually see 5,000 F...K..G ENEMY SHIPS COMING STRAIGHT FOR YOU!

A Holy Shtt moment for sure.


To top if all off, our 5-25s begin their bombing runs, and for extra fun, the 11-inch guns on U.S.S. Pennsylvania, along with other ships, begin blasting all around Pont Du Hoc.


If any of those Germans are still alive today, I suspect they still get a bad case of the willies when they recall that particular morning.

Regards,
Louis of PA

[Louis of PA]

Rudder's men fought off one German counter attack after another. By the third day, they were low on food, ammo, medical supplies, everything.

On that day or the next, another Ranger unit made it's way from Omaha Beach and relieved them.

Thanks for looking.


Louis of PA

Sacred ground, nourished by a lot of American and German blood.

[Fredtheobviouspseudonym]

[QUOTE=Louis of PA;39593]Rudder's men fought off one German counter attack after another. By the third day, they were low on food, ammo, medical supplies, everything.

On that day or the next, another Ranger unit made it's way from Omaha Beach and relieved them.Thanks for the images.

I read somewhere that all those craters worked for the Rangers when attacking the Germans. The German defenders had plenty of MG-42 (Google "Hitler's buzz saw" if needed) MGs to work with.

Apparently a few Rangers would distract the MG crew while others worked from hole to hole to within grenade distance.

However, the "distracting" Rangers took horrific losses (a fast-firing MG at close range -- go figure) but there was no shortage of volunteers for this very hazardous duty.

IIRC about 70 percent of Rudder's men were casualties by the time relief arrived. The remainder were still holding on, doing their duty to their buddies, their unit, and their country.

I'm not sure what the Ranger version is of "semper fi" but whatever it is the men of Pointe du Hoc earned it.

[Tom in N.J.]

And after that climb they found no coastal defense guns had ever been installed in the bunkers. Not to be cheated, the Rangers went inland and attacked and disabled a field artillery battery.

[Louis of PA]

And after that climb they found no coastal defense guns had ever been installed in the bunkers. Not to be cheated, the Rangers went inland and attacked and disabled a field artillery battery.

Tom - I'm happy to see that New Jersey folks are still permitted by your state to log onto gun-related web sites. I wonder how much longer THAT will last -
Regards, Louis of PA

[Tom in N.J.]

Louis - Someone is writting a bill to ban that as we speak!..... Tom in N.J.

[Fredtheobviouspseudonym]

And after that climb they found no coastal defense guns had ever been installed in the bunkers. Not to be cheated, the Rangers went inland and attacked and disabled a field artillery battery.

-- the guns that had been in the batteries (155 mm cannon -- effectively equivalent to the US Long Toms) had been cleverly pulled back by the Krauts about 1.5 mile. This way, all the naval bombardment would hammer the (empty) emplacements and the guns could still deliver indirect fire on the beaches and on any troopships that stopped (say, to lower landing craft) within some seven miles of the beach.

Ranger CO Rudder had sent two Ranger sergeants on a patrol inland to find the guns. They did so, and noted that the guns were unmanned while the crews were taking cover in a bomb shelter (there were so many shells & bombs flying). The two Ranger sergeants disabled the guns with thermite grenades (apparently on the sighting mechanisms) and returned to the main force.

Hundreds of bombs and naval shells had failed to destroy the guns. Four Thermite grenades in the hands of two brave and competent men did so.

God bless all our warriors of this and every other generation.