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The dramatic story of Pointe du Hoc, the backdrop to Biden's D-Day anniversary speech
https://www.npr.org/2024/06/07/nx-s1-4993494/pointe-du-hoc-dday-biden-normandy-speechThe dramatic story of Pointe du Hoc, the backdrop to Biden's D-Day anniversary speech
JUNE 7, 2024 5:00 AM ET
By Rachel Treisman
An aerial view of Pointe du Hoc, a clifftop in Cricqueville-en-Bessin, on the French western Norman coast, taken in October 2018.
Damien Meyer/AFP via Getty Images
President Biden’s itinerary for commemorating D-Day’s 80th anniversary in France includes giving a speech on Friday at a Normandy site called Pointe du Hoc.
[...]
Pointe du Hoc didn’t only overlook the historic landings and battles happening on shore. Its craggy edges were themselves the site of one of the invasion’s most daring operations.
The occupying German forces had established a defensive position atop the cliff, stationing several long-range guns that posed a major threat to the Allied troops coming ashore.
A group of 225 U.S. Army Rangers — led by then-Lt. Col. James Earl Rudder — was tasked with destroying those guns. But they had to scale the cliff to get to them.
[...]
JUNE 7, 2024 5:00 AM ET
By Rachel Treisman
An aerial view of Pointe du Hoc, a clifftop in Cricqueville-en-Bessin, on the French western Norman coast, taken in October 2018.
Damien Meyer/AFP via Getty Images
President Biden’s itinerary for commemorating D-Day’s 80th anniversary in France includes giving a speech on Friday at a Normandy site called Pointe du Hoc.
[...]
Pointe du Hoc didn’t only overlook the historic landings and battles happening on shore. Its craggy edges were themselves the site of one of the invasion’s most daring operations.
The occupying German forces had established a defensive position atop the cliff, stationing several long-range guns that posed a major threat to the Allied troops coming ashore.
A group of 225 U.S. Army Rangers — led by then-Lt. Col. James Earl Rudder — was tasked with destroying those guns. But they had to scale the cliff to get to them.
[...]
2 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
“By the time they were relieved by troops from Omaha Beach on June 8, Bell said, only 90 of the original 225 were “still able to bear arms.” All told, 77 were killed and 152 wounded.“
