What the Germans Said After a Night Against the Rangers at Pointe du Hoc

At 5:19 a.m. on D-Day, 225 American Rangers approached a position German engineers considered impossible to assault. Above them, the 100-foot cliffs of Pointe du Hoc protected a battery capable of threatening both Utah and Omaha Beaches. The defenders of the 726th Grenadier Regiment trusted the terrain, their machine guns, and a conclusion built on simple geometry: no force could climb that rock face under fire and survive. After naval bombardment by USS Texas, USS Satterlee, and HMS Talybont, Lieutenant Colonel James Earl Rudder’s 2nd Ranger Battalion landed nearly forty minutes late. German troops had already returned to their positions. Rockets launched grappling hooks toward the summit as soaked ropes fell short, broke, or caught in the shattered earth. Grenades and machine-gun fire poured down while Rangers climbed through collapsing chalk, sometimes cutting handholds with knives. Within thirty minutes, the first Americans reached the top. What followed was a brutal fight through trenches, craters, and concrete positions—and then a discovery that transformed the mission. The six French-made 155 mm howitzers were gone. Telephone poles had been placed inside the casemates as decoys. First Sergeant Leonard Lomell and Sergeant Jack Kuhn followed tire tracks inland, found the real guns camouflaged in an orchard, and acted without waiting for orders. Using thermite grenades, they disabled five firing mechanisms before their limited explosives ran out. This documentary reconstructs the assault through the plans, battlefield decisions, and reported reactions of the men who watched an “unclimbable” position fall from only yards away. If you value precise, source-conscious military history, like the video and subscribe for more documentaries examining decisive battles from both sides of the battlefield. 📚 Further context / historical background: Consult U.S. Army operational records, Ranger after-action reports, German unit reports, D-Day naval bombardment records, and battlefield studies of Pointe du Hoc and the Normandy landings. #DDay #PointeDuHoc #WWIIHistory