The 2nd Ranger Battalion and 5th Ranger Battalion were trained at Camp Forrest, Tennessee in 1 April 1943. The 2nd and 5th Ranger battalions first saw action June 6th 1944, during Operation Overlord. During D-day 2nd Rangers companies D, E, and F, were ordered to take a strategic German outpost at point-du-Hoc. This coastal cliff was supposed to have several 155m artillery cannons aimed down at the beach. Once they arrived at the bottom of the cliff they had an enormous climb to make up rope ladders while receiving a barrage of machine gunfire from the Germans above. The 2nd Rangers were successful in taking the area even with the intense German resistance but the guns were not in site. A patrol scouting the area found the 155m coastal guns a mile away; the patrol party quickly disabled the guns and any resistance in the area. In the article “Rangers take Pointe” Lenoard Lomell and Jack Kuhn are interviewed on the events that took place that day. Lomell goes on to explain:
The guns had to have been taken off the Pointe. We were looking for any kind of evidence we could find and it looked like there were some markings on the secondary road where it joined the main road. We decided to leapfrog. Jack covered me, and I went forward. When I got a few feet forward, I covered him. It was a sunken road with very high hedgerows with trees and bushes and stuff like that. It was wide enough to put a column of tanks in, and they would be well hidden. We didn't see anybody, so we just took a chance, running as fast as we could, looking over the hedgerow. At least we had the protection of the high hedgerows. When it became my turn to look over, I said, "God, here they are!" They were in an orchard, camouflaged in among the trees.
Meanwhile the rest of the 2nd Ranger and 5th Ranger battalions spearheaded the 116th infantry division, on the beach at Omaha. This is where the famous Ranger slogan comes from, when Colonel Max F. Schneider, commanding the 5th Ranger Battalion, Yelled out “RANGERS LEAD THE WAY!” This drive cut the German line allowing the conventional army to move in. The 2nd and 5th battalions would go on into the Normandy campaign, working with the conventional army on special operation tasks. The two battalions fought in many battles such as Battle for Brest and the Battle of Hurtgen Forest. The 2nd Rangers were responsible for capturing Le Conquet peninsula, where they disabled a 280mm gun and took many German prisoners. The 2nd Rangers also went on to take several tactical German position cutting the German line in the Rhineland’s. In Saar west of Zerf, the 5th battalion took an overlooking German position cutting of all supply routes to German forces. The 2nd and 5th Rangers would continue to advance until they were discharged at the end of the war.
