[WarInEur] RE: WarInEur Digest, Vol 35, Issue 5

[Wardall Clark]

Pointe du Hoc represents on a small scale the fog of War in action. If there had been an operational battery at that location, then its elimination was critical to the success of UTAH and might well have been decisive with respect to OMAHA.  Therefore a crack unit of rangers was wisely given a tactically suicidal mission: climb a cliff under fire from a beach location. The actions of the 1st Rangers were a success in operational terms; they killed a lot of enemy soldiers and destroyed the gun emplacements they were assigned to destroy as wellas the one that actually turned out to house the high caliber guns that Bradley, Monty, and Ike were so worried about. Strategically, the operation accomplished nothing of importance equal to the decimation of three companiesof 1st US Ranger Battalion since the guns were not operational on the morning of June 6th and hence could have been neutralized the following day by forces that fought there way westward from OMAHA. This last consideration in no way diminishes the heroism and athleticism displayed by the Rangers. They carried out orders that were ultimately wrong headed with all the dash and guts of the Charge of the Light Brigade.  In pursuit of the great cause of Freedom, they accomplished what quite possibly no other men could have done.  For that they should be celebrated, but we should not forget that the curse of Warfare is that ultimately many such feats of heroism and skill ultimately proved futile. Field Marshal Erich Van Manstein had it right in LOST VICTORIESBob in Louisville 
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