Pointe du Hoc | Scaling the Impossible
The surf splashed against the sides of the boat and into the air. He felt the spray hit his face and wiped it away. He could see nothing but darkness.
They had been in the boat for a long time. Long enough for him to think about it more than once. He looked at the grappling hooks pointing to the sky, seawater dripping from the cold steel as rain fell and got into his eyes. His commander looked ahead through binoculars. The officer pulled the receiver away and pointed in another direction. The boat turned as the pilot adjusted its course.
He waited. The cold rain mixed with the seawater on his clothes and he was sure that he had never felt so wet. Artillery fire slammed into the sea next to the boat. He could see a shape in the distance. A dark pillar set against the rising sun, blanketed in shadow. Bullets hit the steel walls around him. The monolith grew closer.
More rounds and an explosion. Water showered down. Something large hit the frame of the boat and he fell onto the floor, feeling the water fully saturate his clothes. Someone pulled him to his feet in time for the shape of the cliffs to be in full view. He looked for the top. He strained his eyes to see their end. But there was nothing. Only rock, and unending height.
The boats hit the shore. The grappling hooks fired into the dark sky. And he ran forward.
The Plan
Planning for the D-Day invasion began in July 1943. Called Operation Overlord, American, British, and Canadian forces were to conduct airborne and amphibious landings to push the Nazis back and establish a beachhead to move troops, armor, and supplies into the European theatre of war.
In their way was the German Atlantic Wall, a sea of concrete bunkers, elevated machine-gun positions, artillery, mortars, coastal guns, minefields, beach obstacles, and barbed wire, it was built to repel any invasion attempt made by the Allies. Behind these fortified positions were over 300,000 German and conscripted forces. To fortify and strengthen the wall against invasion, General Erwin Rommel flooded pastures, fields, and other areas to slow the Allied advance if they succeeded in capturing a beachhead. One of the many challenges for the Germans was predicting where the invasion would take place. Because they did not know, the Atlantic Wall stretched over 3500 miles and included over 2,000 fixed fortifications. The Allies also conducted Operation Bodyguard, a series of fake radio messages, orders, and leaked intelligence intended to fool the Nazis into thinking the invasion would occur in several different locations.
Reconnaissance from the French Resistance, weather patterns, and tide schedules dictated that the best location was Normandy, France. General Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, and his staff chose specific beaches and targets for American paratroopers and British glider units to take out the night before. Amphibious landings were to be conducted at six different locations. British forces would land on Sword and Gold Beach, the Canadians on Juno, and the Americans on Utah and Omaha beaches.
The last landing was unique. It was a 100-foot cliff facing the English Channel, situated between Utah and Omaha beach. At the top of the cliff were 155mm guns with a range of 3.5 miles that could fire on both Utah and Omaha beaches and cause maximum casualties. The plan was to make the amphibious landing in three separate groups. These units of the American 75th Ranger Regiment would attach rope ladders to the rock wall, scale the cliffs under enemy fire, and engage the 200+ Germans at the top. Once enemy forces were neutralized, the Rangers were to destroy the guns. Lieutenant James Earl Rudder commanded three companies of Rangers – 225 soldiers – who went through extensive training. This group and supporting forces were to land before the main D-Day invasion took place. The challenges facing these men were obvious, with the sheer rock face and no cover, and they would be easy targets for the Germans. In addition, the choppy sea and possible equipment and mechanical failures added to the dangers of combat. All factors, from combat conditions to topographical obstacles, made the objective almost impossible. The Germans believed that whatever the invasion would be, it couldn’t include Pointe Du Hoc.
The Attack
The Rangers disembarked at 4:45 am on the morning of June 6th for the hour-long trip. Due to adverse sea conditions, one of the landing craft capsized and several others were thrown off course. Seawater lapped over the sides of the crafts, requiring the seasick men to bail out the water to keep the boats from sinking.
One of the groups that had gotten separated spotted a cliff and made for the beachhead. As the crafts neared the shore, artillery fire started to rain down on them. One of the craft suffered a direct hit killing over fifteen men on board. The first group arrived on the beach at 6:45 am with only 35 of its 78 men it started out with. The boat crews fired grappling hooks attached to rope from the front of the landing crafts and attached them to the sides of the cliff. Soon after setting foot on the shore, the company commander looked out into the channel, and instead of seeing reinforcements, there was nothing but open sea. He tried to locate Lieutenant Rudder and the rest of the landing force on the radio but found they didn’t work. More artillery, mortars, and gunfire fell upon his men as they fought to gain ground, eventually scaling the 90-foot cliff-face and making it to the top. They then realized with horror that they were on the wrong cliff, accidentally landing and scaling Pointe de la Percée instead of Pointe du Hoc to the west. Reassessing their position and determining a route through the enemy line, they set out towards their original target, fighting their way through German lines to join up with the other Ranger companies.
Still in the channel, Rudder realized that the cliff-face they were aiming for was also Pointe de la Percée and made a course correction. By now, the Rangers were well behind schedule and naval bombardment of Pointe du Hoc had been silent for near thirty minutes. As they approached, the recovering Germans laid down heavy fire, forcing all the Rangers to land on the east shore. The now saturated rope ladders fired via the grapnel-tipped rockets up the cliff face. Due to the extra weight of the water saturating the ropes, many of the hooks didn’t make it to the top. Others landed on the cliff’s edge only to be cut by the Germans. Some made it halfway, allowing the Rangers to get midway and fire another volley of hooks to the top in order to finish the climb. The enemy fire increased, grenades began to fall, and shrapnel or bullets severed many ropes. It was difficult for the Rangers to hold onto the wet rope as their soaked gear and muddy boots weighed them down. And still, they climbed.
I want to take a moment and encourage you, our audience, to think about this scene before we move on. Imagine for a moment the cold, wet rope in your hands. Your face is dripping with a combination of sweat and seawater and rain. Your ears are ringing from explosions and gunfire. Your clothes stick to your skin, and as you shiver in the wind, you look up to see Nazis shooting down at you and your friends. Below, the sea hits the shore as more men wait to follow you up the rock-face. In the face of such terror, your mind shifts to the objective. You cannot stay where you are. You cannot go back. There is only one way, and that is forward. But you don’t want to go forward. Even with months of training, you don’t want to do it. But you do. You put your hand over the other and pull yourself up the cliff. One step, one pull at a time. If this sounds impossible, then you are hearing it correctly. By all accounts, the Rangers shouldn’t have been able to accomplish this feat, and yet they did.
As the Rangers crested the cliff's edge, they engaged the enemy defenders. As they fought and advanced, they quickly realized two things. First, the entire landscape was nothing like their maps. The terrain had been bombed repeatedly both before and on D-Day, and Allied firepower had reshaped the entire area. Second, the guns they had scaled the cliff to destroy had been moved—in their place were fake guns made of telephone poles.
Realizing this, the Rangers began to systematically destroy all enemy positions atop Pointe du Hoc. Once neutralized, they set out to locate where the six guns had been moved. Under sniper, mortar, machine gun, and artillery fire, they made their way through enemy lines to locate the guns. Around 9:00 am, one of the Ranger groups stumbled into a camouflaged gun battery and discovered five of the six (the last was never found). They went to work destroying them by placing thermite grenades in the guns' recoil systems and smashing their sights. After returning to friendly lines to get more thermite grenades and coming back to the camouflaged position they realized that another Ranger group had finished the job and started a fire within the position. Once confirmed, a runner was sent to report that the primary objective of the Pointe du Hoc assault had been completed.
After destroying the guns, the Rangers linked up with elements from the 101st Airborne to secure coastal highways and fortify positions. The Rangers who had landed and scaled the wrong cliff arrived that evening, having marched overland to Pointe du Hoc. During the night, the Germans launched three counterattacks against the Rangers, all of which were repelled. On the evening of June 7th, a small group of reinforcements arrived and provided Rudder’s force with some needed relief, with a larger force arriving the next day.
As stated by an Army history source, “Following their actions Pointe du Hoc on 6-8 June 1944, Rudder’s Rangers suffered a seventy percent casualty rate. Of those who served in the 2d Ranger Battalion on D-Day, seventy-seven were killed and 152 wounded. In the 5th Battalion, casualties numbered twenty-three killed, eighty-nine wounded, and two missing. Lieutenant Colonel Rudder was wounded twice and later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) for his actions at Pointe du Hoc. Thirteen other Rangers also received the DSC for heroism at Pointe du Hoc, and the 2d Ranger Battalion was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for capturing the position.”
Learning from History
It is impossible to overstate the heroism and bravery of the men who took Pointe du Hoc. Training and repetition can prepare a person for a particular circumstance, but it is the individual who decides to move forward. These were not supermen. They were born and they died. They ate food, laughed, had friends and dreamt dreams of a future that most of them would never see. They came from across the ocean to unknown lands, where they trained to attack an evil that menaced the world. Today, among the artillery craters and broken, concrete bunkers stands a sword made of stone. On this monument is a hilt honoring the sacrifice of Rudder’s Rangers, one side in English and the other in French.
I have been to Pointe du Hoc twice. I have stood atop the cliff and looked out over the channel. I have felt the wind from the sea in my face and closed my eyes, trying to imagine the impossible task untaken by the men who looked into the face of evil and didn’t blink. Even there, it still seems unthinkable.
Though in France, the event is an American one. It stands as a testament to the spirit of our nation, the determination and will to push back against tyranny and injustice in order to realize the freedom that has defined the American spirit since its inception. All citizens share in this history. It is my heritage, and it is yours. Pointe du Hoc was an impossible objective at the start of an advance that destroyed one of the major evils in world history. The bravery, drive, tenacity, and grit of those who stormed its beaches and climbed its cliffs is an example for us all.
