On June 7, the Rangers and the 1st Battalion of the 116th Regiment,
passing through Gruchy, approach the Pointe du Hoc
The 500 men intended to raise Colonel Rudder at the tip of the Hoc consisted of the 3 companies of the 2nd Ranger (half of their membership or 100h), 2 companies of the 5th Rangers (120h) and all the able to the able to be grouped of the Battalion 1/116, or only 250 infantrymen.
The whole started around 08:00 a.m. on June 7, led by Companies A, B and C of the 2nd Battalion of Rangers, walking in a double row on each side of the road, departing from Vierville.
Ten tanks from Company B of the 743rd Tank Battalion, followed closely, to be able to place themselves at the head or at the bottom of the column, as needed.
Many small German positions were overtaken, some almost on the side of the road, but they could not prevent progress. The tanks watered them with intense fire to cover the infantry that was never forced to deploy and did not stop to attack the overtaken enemy groups.
Thanks to this system, at 11 a.m., the column reached St-Pierre-du-Mont, only a thousand meters from the Pointe du Hoc, very close to its goal, but without being able to go further.
Here is the account of the events seen by the men of the Company C/116, later questioned by Lieutenant Shea:
"The orders received by Captain Hawks and Lieutenant Bedell during the night of June 6 to 7 prescribed that their troops would team up with the Rangers and tanks to advance towards Grandcamp at dawn.
This advance took the form of a parade. For their part, the Rangers had no difficulty in décroching and then forming themselves in a road column walking westward. But when the C/116 Company wanted to get in turn (it was south of the road) it was immobilized by German fire. These fires were countered by the machine guns of the tanks and the riflemen were finally able to hit the road following the Rangers. Then, the Cie C/116 being on the way, the Sherman tanks left in turn, and passed the column to take the lead towards St-Pierre-du-Mont and Grandcamp.
The Rangers and the C/116 Company did not have too many difficulties along the road. The tanks, although glued to the roadway, effectively supported the infantrymen against the firing of automatic weapons that blocked the advance. The Rangers were in the lead during the morning, then the C/116 Company took over to attack St-Pierre-du-Mont. The men say that the main opposition came from the concentrations of artillery that fell on them frequently.
They had reached positions near St-Pierre-du-Mont on the evening of June 7, where they buried themselves. The following morning, June 8, the C/116 Company followed the tanks that left for the Pointe du Hoc where Rangers had been isolated since the dawn of June 6."
Story by Technician Richard E. Rankin, 2nd Ranger Battalion, Company A.:
(On the Pointe du Hoc road) "Then Joe Trainor joined me. As we were making a turn on the road, a German soldier got up from behind a hedge and shot Joe eight times in the chest. With my stomach in my heels, I ran to cover myself behind a hedge and I found myself face to face with a German soldier. He turned around abruptly and shot. I also shot and it disappeared. It was very hard, I never forgot it. At 11:30 a.m. we were less than 750 meters from our goal, when we arrived in a defensive perimeter. A machine gun opened fire on us. Another guy and I ran towards a house to protect ourselves, when I think I tripped over a stone. Then it started to burn me, I was touched. A bullet had pierced my foot. I crawled to a ditch and took off my shoe. I then got a morphine shot in my leg. I lay in the ditch for ten minutes, then on one leg I joined by jumping the main column of soldiers that was 400 meters back."
"At 3:00 p.m., a French farmer (Mr Houyvet, from Vierville) appeared and offered to help evacuate the injured to the beach with his horse-drawn carriage. We told him that he would be shot by the Germans if he was seen helping us, but he just shrugged his shoulders. There was a little blonde girl with him, his granddaughter (Marguerite Houyvet). Our nurse insisted that we get rid of our weapons and ammunition before he fixed a Red Cross flag on the cart. It was a war rule. When we returned to Omaha Beach, we were transported to an American hospital in England."
The movements of June 7
A column of tanks from the 743rd Battalion, on June 7 on the road to Grandcamp, leaving Louvières to enter the municipality of Englesqueville.
The last is a standard Sherman tank from the Company of Command, the next 3 are DD amphibious Sherman tanks, recognizable by the flat edge that surrounds them and used for the canvas skirt.
The standard tank still carries the primer of the exhaust gas handle that has been dismantled.
A Sherman tank photographed by Mr. Houyvet on June 7 on the Grandcamp road, at the entrance to Englesqueville.
