Quote Originally Posted by Tom in N.J. View Post
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.