There is a little village in the west of France, near the sea in Normandy, that epitomizes for me those to be honored on this and every other Veterans Day. It is called, charmingly, Criqueville-en-Bessin, and it is adjacent to a promontory known as Pointe du Hoc.
Though it is known as a significant location with regard to the Allied invasion of Normandy in World War II, it isn’t really part of the acknowledged beaches’ tour, it’s a little bit off the beaten track of that excursion. But the village, the cliffs, and its heights, must be seen.
The Pointe du Hoc is an area at the top of several 100-foot high cliffs, cliffs that are awe inspiring in their majesty. The scene at the top of the cliffs would be picturesque if it weren’t for the numerous bomb craters pockmarking its surface, along with, of course, the unsightly but eerie, squat, and still bullet-ridden concrete bunkers built by the Nazi soldiers who spent years of their lives in them looking out to sea.
They did finally see what they dreaded, which was an invasion of thousands of Allied vessels coming to land on their Normandy beach on the morning of June 6, 1944.
It was America, basically, coming to rescue Europe from the forces of unimaginable evil. It was all sorts of different military aquatic vehicles full of American kids – kids who turned out to be the bravest liberators the beleaguered people of Normandy had ever seen.
On this promontory, the Germans had built one of the strongest forts in “Hitler’s Atlantic Wall,” and as it was the highest point between two of the most strategic sections of the Normandy beaches, where it turned out the D-Day landing was to occur, the vast military power that the Nazis had accumulated at the Pointe du Hoc had to be neutralized if the invasion to free Europe was to succeed.
This strategic military position held six 155mm artillery guns in heavily reinforced concrete bunkers “that were capable of hitting either beach,” (Omaha or Utah), as well as making similar destructive contact with the “thousands of ships of the invasion fleet anchored off the shores” of that part of Normandy.
These guns had to be destroyed for the mission, literally to save the world, to go forward.
Aerial bombing had already occurred, and was considered to be successful. As a matter of fact, according to Stephen Ambrose, the author of the “The Victors,” a book about Pointe du Hoc, “heavy bombers from the U.S. Eighth Air Force and British Bomber Command had repeatedly plastered the area, with a climax coming before dawn on June 6th. Then the battleship Texas took up the action, sending dozens of 14-inch shells into the position. Altogether, Pointe du Hoc got hit by more than ten kilotons of high explosives, the equivalent of the explosive power of the atomic bomb used at Hiroshima.”
Still, no one was sure that the object had been achieved, and the guns completely taken out.
The significance of this target to the entire D-Day operation was received by the Army 2nd Ranger Battalion under the command of Colonel James E. Rudder. Here’s what happened when they got the call:
“After a perilous landing on the beach, the Rangers fought the slippery rock face, sodden ropes and enemy fire, and finally struggled to the top.”
The Rangers discovered, when they reached the pinnacle through unimaginable difficulties, that the guns were not there – camouflaged timber beams were in their place. They immediately started searching and found the guns, which they destroyed with grenades. The Rangers then had to stay in place and repel the German forces trying to recapture the site, as it turned out, for more than two days. Without reinforcements, low on food and running out of ammunition, the remaining Rangers managed to hold off repeated such brutal attempts by the Germans, until their number, which started at 225, had dwindled to 40 men.
Two days before, this elite group of 225 had leapt out of their amphibious vehicles into a wild Atlantic surf on that extraordinary morning of June 6, 1944. They all knew that their assignment was among the most dangerous of all the Allied invaders; nonetheless, they took out their ropes and their ladders, (you can imagine how rudimentary their vital equipment was in 1944), and once they reached the small pebble beach at the base of the cliffs, they started their climb. At the top of the cliffs, there were myriad German soldiers standing there staring down at them, throwing grenades on the soldiers’ heads. These grenades were not just ordinary grenades, they were “Model 24 Stielhandgrenate Stick Infantry Hand Grenades,” known as Potato Mashers by the American soldiers due to their resemblance to an American kitchen implement. They were particularly and horrifyingly effective.
225 made the climb and only 99 Rangers survived. Though tragically depleted, these remarkable men reached the top, took the area for the Allies, and did what they had to do at the Pointe du Hoc for the two days it took for their American comrades to rescue them. Again, out of 225 – 40 men survived this action.
Today, this site near the picturesque little Norman village of Criqueville-en-Bessin still exists, with the German bunkers still there, amidst the holes in the ground pockmarked with bomb craters. When reaching the edge of this plot of land still known as the Pointe du Hoc, one must stand at the top and look down the terrifying cliffs to see the extraordinary nature of the American soldier defined.
They truly did do the impossible.
There is one more duty to be fulfilled upon visiting the Pointe du Hoc. In the little village adjacent to the area, there is a small museum dedicated to the events of that momentous day, most specifically to the Rangers who fought this battle. Included is a short documentary film which portrays aspects of this extraordinary event, with a charming small display accompanying the film. Both the film and the museum are clearly labors of love on the part of the natives of the Normandy coast village; it is actually said in France that of the whole country, those in the nation who most love Americans are the Normans, strictly because of that great day of liberation that they saw with their own eyes in June of 1944.
A must see, the film is in part about the courage and bravery of a group of U.S. Army Rangers who came to that coast on that memorable day, and did the impossible. The other part of the film depicted a day in later years in memoriam of these brave and doomed young men by President Ronald Reagan, on a visit to the Pointe du Hoc in June of 1984. The film, as the memoriam, is known as “The Boys of the Point du Hoc.”
The speech that President Reagan gave that day, with the backdrop of the sheer, steep cliff falling into a raging Atlantic Ocean, is considered by many to be the best Presidential speech ever given. I was once told by a friend who is a Democratic operative that the “Boys of the Pointe du Hoc” speech is what they (the Democrats) use to show to potential speech writers, publicists and like operatives as the ideal in creating a desired emotion, as one cannot watch this speech and not weep. One watches this speech not just in wonder at Reagan’s gift, but also in awe at what those American kids did in 1944.
And American kids like them, American warriors in waiting for a leader they could respect, would do the same today for their country and its people.
WATCH Reagan’s Speech:
Susan Smith brings an international perspective to her writing by having lived primarily in western Europe, mainly in Paris, France, and the U.S., primarily in Washington, D.C. She authored a weekly column for Human Events on politics with historical aspects.. She also served as the Staff Director of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Children, Family, Drugs and Alcoholism, and Special Assistant to the first Ambassador of Afghanistan following the initial fall of the Taliban. Ms. Smith is a graduate of Wheeling Jesuit University and Georgetown University, as well as the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris, France, where she obtained her French language certification. Ms. Smith now makes her home in McLean, Va.