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The Final Order - The forgotten battle of Hill 400
National Review Online ^ | December 7, 2012 | Patrick K. O’Donnell

Posted on 12/07/2012 1:02:41 PM PST by neverdem

Most Americans remember December 7 as Pearl Harbor Day. But the seventh haunts many World War II Ranger veterans for another reason: It marks the anniversary of one of the great untold small-unit actions of World War II — the Battle of Hill 400, the U.S. Army Rangers’ “longest day.” My new book, Dog Company: The Boys of Pointe du Hoc, chronicles that epic battle, as well as the other heroic efforts of this remarkable Ranger company.

“Fix bayonets!” barked a hulking Ranger officer.

In a scene reminiscent of a World War I battle, Germans and Americans stared at each other across a vast no man’s land. Best friends Lieutenant Leonard Lomell and Sergeant Tom Ruggiero gazed across the icy, flat expanse. They realized it made an ideal killing field, and wondered if they would live long enough to cross the field and make it up the hill. The Rangers were huddled behind an embankment. In bunkers and foxholes on the other side of the field, Germans held their fingers poised on the triggers of their machine guns, which boasted a rate of fire of up to 1,500 rounds per minute. The gunners stood ready to tear the Rangers’ bodies to pieces. Along the Ranger line, the men could hear the deafening sound of heavy artillery.

boom! boom! boom! boom!

A creeping artillery barrage and mortars slowly closed in on Dog Company, as tensions neared the breaking point.

Suddenly, a Ranger stood up, raised his tommy gun above his head, and screamed: “Let’s go get the bastards!”

The Rangers fired a tremendous volley into the German positions facing them. In unison, they stood and let loose a blood-curdling Rebel yell as they charged across the open field.

“wa-woo-woohoo! wa-woo-woohoo! wa-woo-woohoo!”

“We stood up just like in a movie,” one Ranger later remembered. “It was like seeing a wave at the football field. . . . We went over the field as one. With bayonets shining, hip-firing, and yelling a battle cry that probably goes back into the eons of time, we charged into the jaws of death.”

Sustaining massive casualties, Dog (or D) Company of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, along with its sister unit, Fox Company, seized Hill 400 and, against all odds, held it for two days. Both Ruggiero and Lomell would be badly wounded in an operation that killed nearly all of their friends. The few surviving Rangers are still haunted by the memories of Hill 400 that are forever seared in their minds.

The Boys of Pointe Du Hoc

But the Battle of Hill 400 was far from the first time Dog Company had changed the course of the war.

Six months earlier, on June 6, 1944, the men of Dog Company and other elements of the Second Ranger Battalion took on what was arguably D-Day’s toughest mission. They scaled the 90-foot cliffs of Pointe du Hoc under direct machine-gun and artillery fire while German soldiers threw grenades down upon them. Using ropes and their bare hands, the men of Dog Company scaled the precipice.

One of those Rangers was Leonard Lomell, Dog Company’s inspiring first sergeant, who continued to climb, even after being wounded in the side by a bullet from a machine gun.

Once on top, Dog Company fought its way through a Guns of Navarone–like labyrinth of bunkers, tunnels, machine-gun nests, and tens of thousands of mines. Somehow, Lomell and his close friend Jack Kuhn found the guns that hundreds of Allied bombers and thousands of Naval shells failed to destroy. Because the big guns could reach Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, and the Allied armada in the English Channel, taking them out was a top priority. They had to be neutralized at all costs.

For two days, Lomell and the rest of Dog Company sustained tremendous casualties, endured relentless German counterattacks, and — somehow — held the line against overwhelming numbers.

The Rangers’ accomplishments at Pointe du Hoc were nothing short of awe-inspiring. Yet somewhat surprisingly, the soldiers involved didn’t consider it their most difficult battle. To a man, the Rangers of Dog Company all said one thing: Our longest day was not D-day but Hill 400, in the Hürtgen Forest.

The Longest Day

In the first week of December 1944, the Allies made one of their deepest penetrations into the Third Reich at Bergstein, Germany. Looming behind the town of Bergstein was one of the most important hills in the Hürtgen Forest, the scene of one of the U.S. Army’s longest and most costly battles in Europe. On a clear day, one could see from Hill 400, as the Allies called it, into one of Germany’s greatest secrets of the war — the preparations for the Battle of the Bulge.

The Germans wanted to retain control of Hill 400 at all costs.

The Americans sent nearly an entire tank regiment to seize Bergstein and Hill 400. The Germans viciously counterattacked, nearly destroying the unit.

Hand-to-hand fighting raged in Bergstein. The scene resembled a miniature Stalingrad: The fighting was house-to-house, and dozens of Sherman tanks were destroyed by German grenadiers and anti-tank guns.

After two days of intense fighting, the GIs in Bergstein barely hung on. One remembered: “Had daylight arrived 15 minutes later, we would never have been able to hold Bergstein.”

That’s when the men of the Second Ranger Battalion received orders to reinforce the town and seize Hill 400.

The Rangers’ arrival immediately changed the course of the operation. One GI recalled that several Ranger officers appeared near the German hamlet. “They asked for the enemy positions and the road to take. They said that they were ready to go.”

The officers then turned to the other Rangers in their group and said, “Let’s go, men.”

“We heard the tommy guns click,” the GI remembered. “Without saying a word, the Rangers moved out. Our morale went up in a hurry.”

The Rangers passed by dozens of burning or burned-out Sherman tanks. Gored in its attempt to take Bergstein and Hill 400, the doomed regiment had been reduced to the equivalent of a company. “It was a haunting feeling,” recalled one Ranger. “We saw hulks of destroyed American tanks . . . The sight of GIs whose bodies were charred and blackened in the tanks . . . the smell of blood.”

Armed only with their tommy guns and assorted small arms, the men of the Second Ranger Battalion embarked on a suicide mission, just as they had on Pointe du Hoc, and waged a frontal assault to clear the town of Bergstein and capture the hill.

After the daring bayonet charge across the ice-covered field, which took the lives of many Rangers, small groups of men from Dog and Fox Companies seized the hill, taking out scores of German positions along the way.

Within an hour, the Germans counterattacked with hundreds of troops, outnumbering the Rangers many times over.

The hill shook as 18 battalions of German artillery initially allocated for the Battle of the Bulge plastered 400. Len Lomell recalled the scene: “The artillery fell like rain. Have you ever been in a torrential rainstorm? Now picture yourself trying to hide from those raindrops. Instead of rain, it’s falling shrapnel, deadly shrapnel rain.”

The shells kept coming down as if they were “belt-fed” — like machine-gun fire. With only a couple dozen men, the Rangers held off hundreds of enemy troops. Moving their tiny forces from one position on the hill to another, they stopped each German counterattack.

Sergeant Edward Secor from D Company single-handedly halted one attack. As hundreds of elite German paratroopers rushed his foxhole, his Browning automatic rifle was hit by a bullet, rendering it useless. In a scene reminiscent of Where Eagles Dare, Secor picked up two MP-40 machine pistols from dead German soldiers whose bodies lay only feet in front of his foxhole, and madly charged into the oncoming counterattack. “With a captured machine pistol under each arm, he stood up to turn twin streams of demoralizing fire on the close-in enemy.”

The Rangers continually requested reinforcements to support their dwindling numbers. None were available. They were told flatly, “Hold the hill at all costs.” As the fighting continued, dead and wounded Rangers piled up inside the troop shelter atop 400.

By this time, the Rangers were down to fewer than 20 men, and many of the survivors were wounded — some several times over. But even the severely wounded manned fighting positions. One of Lomell’s fingers was dangling from a tendon, “half dropping off.” A fellow Ranger recalled Lomell’s presence on the hill: “I can still see Len walking on the top of that hill, his blood coming from his hand, and carrying his tommy gun. A leader like that we would do anything for.”

The Germans desperately wanted to retake Hill 400. They sent an elite parachute battalion against the Rangers and even offered German soldiers the Iron Cross and two weeks of furlough if they recaptured the hill. The Reich wanted the hill because it provided high ground for artillery. What is more important, they wanted it because it provided observation into the assembly areas in which they were assembling for the Battle of the Bulge, an operation cloaked in secrecy. The capture of the hill could have unraveled Hitler’s last great counteroffensive.

Miraculously, the men of Dog Company and Fox Company continued to fend off German attacks and held the hill until December 8, when an infantry unit finally arrived.

The GIs who relieved the Rangers later reported a “considerable moving of troops in the enemy’s rear.” But no one in the chain of command connected the dots. On December 16, the Battle of the Bulge began in a furious assault on Allied lines, with the sort of total surprise the Americans had not experienced since Pearl Harbor.

Ranger Friendships Last a Lifetime

The Boys of Pointe du Hoc who took out the big guns on top of the cliffs in Normandy are all in their nineties now. Of the original 68 men from Dog Company, 2nd Ranger Battalion, only four are left.

The Boys of Pointe du Hoc are fading away. The entire World War II generation is in its twilight. Len Lomell, who disabled the guns of Pointe du Hoc and vigorously helped lead the defense of Hill 400, passed away in 2011. In his last days, he gave a final order.

Lomell turned to his best friend and fellow Ranger, Tom Ruggiero, and told him, “I don’t think I’m going to last much longer. That time may come before we are able to obtain a Presidential Unit Citation for the men that were lost on 400. I want you to go after it.”

“I will go after it, if it’s the last thing I do,” Ruggiero promised. The beloved Len Lomell died a short time later.

The Presidential Unit Citation (PUC) is awarded to units that display extraordinary heroism under difficult or hazardous conditions. The 2nd Ranger Battalion received the PUC for their special-operations mission on Pointe du Hoc, but their efforts at Hill 400, which were equally extraordinary and heroic, have largely been forgotten — except by those who survived the battle.

At 92, Ranger Tom Ruggiero is carrying out Lomell’s order and fulfilling his duty to the end.  He continues to pursue the citation to honor the men, his brothers in arms, who won the battle of Hill 400, and held it at all costs.

Patrick K. O’Donnell is a historian and the bestselling author of eight books, the most recent being Dog Company: The Boys of Pointe du Hoc.



TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Germany; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 75thinfantry; bergstein; hill400; rangersleadtheway; worldwareleven; worldwartwo; ww2; wwii
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Rangers Lead The Way!!

May God bless them. They trace their heritage back to Rogers' Rangers in the French and Indian War which was part of the really first world war, the Seven Years War.

1 posted on 12/07/2012 1:02:46 PM PST by neverdem
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To: neverdem

One thing I remember about my Father who was a combat veteran of WWII. He was in the Combat Engineers but his opinion of the Rangers came pretty close to absolute worship.

More than once he told me just how good they were.


2 posted on 12/07/2012 1:11:47 PM PST by yarddog (One shot one miss.)
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To: neverdem

I have been to this battle site in the Hürtgen Forest area. As a scout master and/or an assistant scout master, I took our troop there 4 times between 2000-2003. We were actually there on 7 Dec 2002, with a historian who read from the Hürtgen Forest trail Medical position, accounts of the battle and the truce that allowed both German and American soldiers to hold a truce and together recover the dead and wounded. We stood on very site where pictures were taken during WWII. After that we went to the German 77th Division Cemetery where the last surviving member was the caretaker; he told us some stories which probably met more to me than the boys.


3 posted on 12/07/2012 1:57:57 PM PST by Jumper
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To: yarddog

As a baby boomer American who knows next to nothing about soldiers or war.

I thank my lucky stars daily - to be able to stand on the shoulders of these brave men who fought so valiantly.

They don’t want my attention or need my kind words, yet they gave their lives and quit this earth as men.


4 posted on 12/07/2012 2:27:57 PM PST by shineon
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To: neverdem
Most Americans remember December 7 as Pearl Harbor Day.

Everyone remembers December 7 as the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack--an American defeat. But how many recognize June 5 as the anniversary of the Battle of Midway, June 6 as the anniversary of Belleau Wood, June 19 as the date of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and October 25 as the anniversary of the invasion of Grenada, arguably the turning point of the Cold War? We ought to be commemorating our victories.

5 posted on 12/07/2012 2:37:25 PM PST by Fiji Hill (Io Triumphe!)
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To: neverdem

6 posted on 12/07/2012 2:44:49 PM PST by Fiji Hill (Io Triumphe!)
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To: neverdem
SUa Sponte

RLTW!

7 posted on 12/07/2012 2:48:31 PM PST by TADSLOS (No need to watch the movie "Idiocracy". We're living it.)
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To: neverdem

These men fought bravely under incredible odds, God Bless their loyalty, fierce patriotism and love of Country.


8 posted on 12/07/2012 2:49:04 PM PST by wac3rd (Somewhere in Hell, Ted Kennedy snickers....)
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To: neverdem

It’ll be interesting to see if the young manginas of today’s generation can do anything remotely like this.

I doubt they could.

We’re no longer a serious country. Bad things happen to non-serious countries.


9 posted on 12/07/2012 2:51:00 PM PST by x1stcav (Breathe deep the gathering gloom.)
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To: wac3rd

After all they, and the soldiers of Valley Forged sacrificed to give them a free Country, On November 6, 2012 the traitors and parasites proved they do not have the intelligence to live in a free Country and finished giving it away. How high we soared as a Nation and how low we have sunk.


10 posted on 12/07/2012 3:06:15 PM PST by sport
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To: Fiji Hill

Thanks for the pic & dates.


11 posted on 12/08/2012 12:20:00 AM PST by neverdem ( Xin loi min oi)
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To: wardaddy; Joe Brower; Cannoneer No. 4; Criminal Number 18F; Dan from Michigan; Eaker; Jeff Head; ...
Not yet time for women to serve in infantry

Rhode Island’s Blue Civil War (Walter Russell Mead)

Centrist Dems lying low on deficit negotiations to avoid 2014 backlash

Heads reportedly roll at ATF over Fast & Furious

Some noteworthy articles about politics, foreign or military affairs, IMHO, FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.

12 posted on 12/08/2012 12:53:39 AM PST by neverdem ( Xin loi min oi)
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To: Fiji Hill

Excellent comment and true. We should celebrate our victories, but remembering the failures of government are also important.


13 posted on 12/08/2012 3:57:00 AM PST by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: neverdem
I can't speak for now, but in 1968 there was a 2 hour section of training devoted to the Battle of Hill 400 in Ranger school.


RANGERS LEAD THE WAY
14 posted on 12/08/2012 4:43:40 PM PST by Tainan (Cogito, ergo conservatus sum -- "The Taliban is inside the building")
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To: Jumper

Wow, great post.


15 posted on 12/08/2012 6:12:07 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks neverdem.


16 posted on 12/08/2012 6:13:39 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: neverdem

Thanks for the ping!


17 posted on 12/08/2012 9:19:48 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: SunkenCiv
I had a copy of a dissertation written by a retired Sargent Major, who went for a Doctorate in History, on the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest. It was badly planned and failure was was reinforced again and again. The slaughter was terrible.
18 posted on 12/08/2012 9:50:52 PM PST by Little Bill (A)
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To: Little Bill

I love to watch the postwar movies about WWII — other than Patton, they always show Germans dying by the dozen. It’s a bit daunting to realize that Germany wasn’t fully mobilized for war until perhaps 1943, which was the year of the Battle of Kursk (Operation Zitadelle), the turning point of the Barbarossa campaign, the one that finally broke the Wehrmacht and began the two years of retreat and final collapse. And throughout the war (and WWI before it), Germany was massively outnumbered, and didn’t spend its blood needlessly. The bright spots for Germany were the early victories, when France and Britain collapsed in a few weeks, victories only marred by the German failure to close the bag at Dunkirk. Hitler simply lost his nerve, as he often did. He didn’t like victims who fought back.

Had he not been a complete cipher vis a vis strategy and tactics, Germany would have achieved complete power over continental Europe outside Russia, and over the Mediterranean basin; finishing up in North Africa using the massive firepower and formations he instead tossed into Barbarossa would have resulted in a German-Japanese linkup, a cutoff of the fuel supply to the British fleet, and ejection of what was left of the western allies from the Middle East.

Eventually the UK would have rid itself of Churchill (as it did shortly after the defeat of Hitler) and capitulated without firing a shot. A UK aligned with Germany would have meant no staging area for D-Day, and no support anywhere in the Med or N Africa (the so-called “soft underbelly”). At that point, Germany might still have launched Barbarossa, but waited a few years filled with consolidation of its rule over occupied Europe, mobilization, and preparation.

The Japanese and Russians managed to avoid hostilities until 1945; the US beat Japan in a bit over 3 1/2 years, without the level of commitment it might have had without having to worry about a war in Europe. Take that away, and Japan is toast in a much shorter time frame, and the only large powerful ally the USSR — assuming Germany would have, eventually, launched Barbarossa.

The US atomic bomb would not have been ready for the eventual but sooner denouement against Japan, so it is possible that an invasion of the Japanese home islands would have taken place. More likely would have been a US buildup in an enclave (or more than one) in China, in order to shore up the mostly useless Nationalist army there — it would have delayed the invasion of Japan, but would have reduced the Japanese army available to resist.

:’)


19 posted on 12/08/2012 10:28:01 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: x1stcav

I’m guessing that you mean a LOT of men raised today, if drafted like in WW II, wouldn’t be able to rise to the occasion. I imagine you are correct. Less and less hard-working country boys and more and more city kids with their i-phones.

BUT - just to be clear, there are MANY boys that still rise to this level and are in the service today. (I use the term “boys” in that they are young - but obviously are men of great courage.)

The link is to some Marine actions in Iraq that they too are trying to get recognized for:

http://militarytimes.com/blogs/battle-rattle/2012/06/25/marines-ask-why-not-more-presidential-unit-citations/


20 posted on 12/08/2012 10:34:53 PM PST by 21twelve (So I [God] gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. Psalm 81:12)
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