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 The Invasion
Interactive feature of the most complex attack ever conceived
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E-mail your letter to the editor
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James Eikner, 2nd Rangers Battalion |
IN HIS OWN WORDS: JAMES EIKNER
Posted Sunday, May 23, 2004
Eikner, 30, was a communications officer with the 2nd Rangers Battalion, which scaled the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc to eliminate fortified German gun emplacements
Pointe du Hoc was equidistant between Omaha Beach and Utah Beach. The six 155-mm guns had a 25,000-yd. range, and they could rain destruction down on either of the beaches and reach far out into the sea and cause tremendous damage to naval craft. So this installation was [considered] the most dangerous within the invasion area. Toward the sea the cliffs dropped off about 100 ft. on the average, from vertical to near vertical to actually overhanging.
We put the landing craft into the water, and of course it was pitch black and nothing could be seen. The waves were headed right into us, and water began to leak in through the front ramp. Just as there was enough daylight to make out the headlands, things didn't look right. Our little three-company flotilla was two or three miles east of Pointe du Hoc. Colonel Rudder, who was leading the attack, convinced the British officer who was in charge of that craft that he was in error and made him flank left, and then we had to parallel the coastline for a couple of miles. We landed at Pointe du Hoc some 40 minutes late.
We were on our own then. Some of the rockets we carried had grappling hooks that trailed ladders made of ropes, and we got into position a certain distance from shore so that the angle was proper. We would fire two at a time. Some of the ropes didn't make it to the cliff top because the ropes had become wet and heavy. Some of the others pulled out, and the enemy cut some, but we did have enough in order to get the job done.
Most of us had something in the way of equipment to take off the boat, and my responsibility was to take off a cloverleaf of 60-mm mortar shells. So I ran down the ramp and in the water up to my knees, and headed on across what I thought was the beach. But I stepped into a shell hole that was covered with water and went down over my head. Some of our people were getting hit, and I remember one young man who was hit three times on the landing craft and twice more on the beach. Believe it or not, that young man survived.
I laid my mortar shells down under the cliff, and there was a rope right in front of me. So I started up that cliff—there were two or three guys ahead of me—and the enemy was leaning over and shooting at us and throwing down hand grenades by the bushel basketful. Before we got to the top, about two-thirds of the way up, a tremendous explosion occurred just above us. It brought down tons of rock and dirt, and of course we all went back down the cliff. I caught on a little ledge; I was covered up to my knees.
The enemy was still up there shooting and throwing down grenades. I got my tommy gun out, took aim at one of the characters up there, and—my gun wouldn't fire. So there I was in the grandest invasion in history with no weapon. I looked around and spied a youngster with a radio on his back down in a cave beneath Pointe du Hoc at water level. I scrambled down the cliff, went to him and asked if he had sent any messages yet, but he said that he hadn't. I had a number of priority messages to get out, and I sent the message, "Praise the Lord." This was a code phrase that meant all the men were up the cliff.
As some of you may have read, the big guns were not in place. One patrol led by a sergeant from D Company ran upon the big guns about a mile inland. The enemy had moved them up there for better protection. So while a buddy of his was standing guard, the sergeant sneaked into the area where the guns were being camouflaged and put thermite grenades in the breech blocks to make them inoperable. There was a large stockpile of shells there all ready to go, and had we not been there, we felt quite sure that those guns would have been put into operation and it would have brought much death and destruction down on our men.
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