The German battery of six 150mm guns established on Pointe du Hoc during the building of Hitler's vaunted Atlantic Wall provided cover for both Omaha and Utah Beaches. The 100ft high cliffs weren't a suitable objective for paratroopers, who were already at full capacity elsewhere so the task fell to Colonel Rudder, who developed and trained 2nd Rangers in a series of scaling techniques. These included sectional aluminium commando ladders, rocket grapples and ropes, plus the so called Swans-London Fire Brigade ladders. On hearing the Ranger plan to scale the cliffs and seize the battery before the beach landings, experienced commanders commented that 'three old women with brooms could sweep them off the cliffs'. On the morning of 6 June a culmination of bad weather, navigational errors and communications failure meant that less than 200 of Rudder's Rangers were delivered to the foot of the cliffs. In an epic of American military history against every kind of difficulty, small groups of Rangers battled their way up ropes and ladders, with grenades bursting around them, to scale the unstable cliff. A handful of men spread out and cleared the stunned defenders but, as is often the case, seizing the objective was only a part of the battle. Isolated for over 24 hours, with no relief from the near disaster at Omaha, the Rangers fought on against increasingly determined German counter-attacks. Meanwhile, at Omaha Beach, Company C cleared a dominating German strongpoint and the remainder of the Rangers who should have gone to Pointe du Hoc made all the difference between success and failure in Dog Sector, when General Norman Cota coined the phrase 'Rangers Lead the Way'.
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