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D-Day, the Normandy Landings - June 6, 1944

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Jorden Virdana
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« Reply #180 on: June 07, 2009, 03:48:08 am »

Despite initial setbacks because of weather and navigational problems, resulting in a 40-minute delay and loss of surprise, the cliffs were scaled and the strongpoint was assaulted successfully, with relatively light casualties. Fire support was provided during the attack by several nearby Allied destroyers. Upon reaching the fortifications, most of the Rangers learned for the first time that the main objective of the assault, the artillery battery, had been moved out of position, possibly as a result of air attacks during the buildup to the invasion. It is said that German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel gave the order to move the battery since he had recently been placed in charge of the coastal defenses of Normandy. Removal of the guns had actually been completed on June 4, 1944, but poor weather conditions prior to the invasion limited a final reconnaissance effort which would have revealed the guns' removal. The Rangers regrouped at the top of the cliffs, and a small patrol went off in search of the guns. This patrol found the guns nearby and destroyed them with thermite grenades. The new battery location inland was sited solely for Utah beach.

The costliest part of the battle for the Rangers came after the cliff assault. Determined to hold the vital ground, yet isolated from other assault forces, they fended off several German counterattacks over the next two days, until reinforced from Omaha Beach. The original plans called for an additional, larger Ranger force of eight companies to follow the first attack, if successful. Flares from the clifftops were to signal this second wave to join the attack, but because of the delayed landing, the signal came too late, and the other Rangers, mostly of the U.S. 5th Ranger Battalion, landed on Omaha instead of Pointe du Hoc.

The added impetus these 500+ Rangers provided on the stalled Omaha Beach landing has been conjectured to have averted a disastrous failure there, since they carried the assault beyond the beach, into the overlooking bluffs and outflanked the German defenses. At the end of the 2-day action, the initial Ranger landing force of 225+ was reduced to about 90 men who could still fight. One of the battleships who helped the battalion was the USS Texas (BB-35).

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Jorden Virdana
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« Reply #181 on: June 07, 2009, 03:48:57 am »




Pointe du Hoc's location
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Jorden Virdana
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« Reply #182 on: June 07, 2009, 03:49:42 am »



Preinvasion bombing of Pointe du Hoc by 9th Air Force bombers.
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Jorden Virdana
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« Reply #183 on: June 07, 2009, 03:50:19 am »



Rangers from 2nd Ranger Battalion demonstrate the rope ladders they used to scale Pointe du Hoc
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Jorden Virdana
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« Reply #184 on: June 07, 2009, 03:51:02 am »



Detailed Pointe du Hoc battle plan
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Jorden Virdana
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« Reply #185 on: June 07, 2009, 03:51:29 am »

Media

The assault on Pointe du Hoc has recently been portrayed in the video game Call of Duty 2, in which the player is a member of the Dog Company, 2nd Ranger Battalion, and is faced with destroying the artillery battery and fending off the counter-attacks. [5]. Another video game version of this battle is in G.I. Combat, a real-time wargame from Strategy First and Freedom Games. A playable version of Pointe Du Hoc is also featured in the real-time strategy game Company of Heroes.

The movie The Longest Day also contains scenes of the assault on the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc.
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Jorden Virdana
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« Reply #186 on: June 07, 2009, 03:52:01 am »



Part of the modern day site looking out from the top of one of the bunkers.
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Jorden Virdana
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« Reply #187 on: June 07, 2009, 03:52:29 am »



Present day view of the cliff of Pointe du Hoc with the monument on the top-right.
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Jorden Virdana
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« Reply #188 on: June 07, 2009, 03:53:31 am »

Utah Beach

Utah Beach was the codename for one of the Allied landing beaches during the D-Day invasion of Normandy, as part of Operation Overlord on 6 June 1944. Utah was added to the invasion plan toward the end of the planning stages, when more landing craft became available.

Despite being substantially off course, the U.S. 4th Infantry Division (part of the VII corps) landed there with relatively little resistance, in contrast to Omaha Beach where the fighting was fierce.

Utah Beach, about 3 miles (5 km) long, was the westernmost of the five landing beaches, located between Pouppeville and the village of La Madeleine,[1] which became the right flank anchor of the allied offensive along the left bank of the Douve river estuary.[2]
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Jorden Virdana
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« Reply #189 on: June 07, 2009, 03:54:15 am »



Amphibious DD tanks of the 70th Tank Battalion landing on Utah Beach.
Date    6 June 1944
Location    Pouppeville, La Madeleine, in France
Result    American victory.
Belligerents
 United States     Germany
Commanders
Flag of the United States Raymond O. Barton
Flag of the United States Theodore Roosevelt Jr    Flag of Nazi Germany Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben
Flag of Nazi Germany Dietrich Kraiss
Strength
32,000    Unknown
Casualties and losses
200    Unknown
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Jorden Virdana
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« Reply #190 on: June 07, 2009, 03:54:52 am »



Utah Beach aerial photographs
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« Reply #191 on: June 07, 2009, 03:55:14 am »

The landing was planned in four waves. The first consisted of 20 Higgins boats or LCVPs, each carrying a 30-man assault team from the 8th Infantry Regiment. The 10 craft on the right were to land on Tare Green Beach, opposite the strong point at les Dunes de Varreville. The 10 craft on the left were intended for Uncle Red Beach, 1,000 yards (900 m) farther south. The entire operation was timed against the touchdown of this first assault wave, which was scheduled to take place at 06:30 am. Eight LCTs (or Landing Craft, Tanks), each carrying four amphibious DD Tanks, were scheduled to land at the same time or as soon thereafter as possible.

The second wave consisted of another 32 Higgins boats with additional troops of the two assault battalions, some combat engineers, and also eight naval demolition teams that were to clear the beach of underwater obstacles.

The third wave, timed for H plus 15 minutes, contained eight more Higgins boats with dozer tanks.

It was followed within 2 minutes by the fourth wave, mainly detachments of the 237th and 299th Engineer Combat Battalions, to clear the beaches between high- and low-water marks.
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« Reply #192 on: June 07, 2009, 03:55:54 am »



Map of the Utah beach landings.
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« Reply #193 on: June 07, 2009, 03:56:32 am »



Utah Beach-South with obstacle overprint from 30 May 1944 (front)
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Jorden Virdana
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« Reply #194 on: June 07, 2009, 03:57:04 am »

Two hours before the main invasion force, a raiding party, armed only with knives, swam ashore at Îles Saint-Marcouf, thought to be a German observation post. It was unoccupied.

The first wave arrived at the line of departure on time and all 20 craft were dispatched abreast. Support craft to the rear were firing machine guns, possibly with the hope of exploding mines. When the LCVPs were 300-400 yards (270-360 metres) from the beach, the assault company commanders fired special smoke projectors to signal the lifting of naval support craft fire. Almost exactly at H Hour the assault craft lowered their ramps and 600 men waded into waist-deep water for the last 100 or more yards to the beach. The actual touchdown on the beach was therefore a few minutes late, but the delay wa
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