The German army fortified the area with concrete casements and gun pits. On D-Day (6 June 1944) U.S. Army Rangers scaled the 100-foot cliffs and seized the German artillery pieces that could have fired on the American landing troops at Omaha and Utah beaches.
The holes in the ground are shell and bomb craters.
The battery was initially built in 1943 to house six captured French First World War vintage GPF 155mm K418(f) guns positioned in open concrete gun pits.
One of gun pits. The rectangles on the left side were ready use magazines the main magazine is the concrete bunker in the background.
These are ready use ammunition bunkers in the gun pits.
To provide increased defensive capability, the Germans began to improve the defences of the battery in the spring of 1944, with enclosed H671 concrete casements. The plan was to build six casements but two were unfinished when the location was attacked.
The 155mm guns would have threatened the Allied landings on Omaha and Utah beaches when finished, risking heavy casualties to the landing forces.
Also built was a observation bunker and mounts for 20mm anti-aircraft guns.
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 removed. The Rangers regrouped at the top of the cliffs, and a small patrol went off in search of the guns. Two different patrols found five of the six guns nearby (the sixth was being fixed elsewhere) and destroyed their firing mechanisms.
This bunker became the HQ and aid post when captured by the rangers.
On top of the bunker is the Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument erected by the French to honour elements of the US American Second Ranger Battalion under the command of Lt. Col. James E. Rudder.
The monument is supposed to resemble a Rangers Dagger. I can't help thinking it looks like something else.
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Looking out of the observation bunker
Looking down the cliff from the monument.
Looking west towards Utah beach.
Looking Towards Omaha Beach (around that point in the distance).
Ammo Bunker.
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