Pointe du Hoc

In 1944 this clifftop was the site of a gun battery capable of enfilading Omaha Beach and firing at the rear of the force landing on Utah Beach. After a preliminary bombardment during the build-up period from the air and on D-day from warships including the USS Texas, the US Rangers climbed the cliff under fire and stormed the battery, only to find that the guns were not mounted, but had been moved to a sunken road a mile inland. From here they could still have fired on Utah, but the Rangers disabled them. After that, they had to hold out for 2 days under heavy fire until the forces landed on Omaha Beach were able to relieve them. The area is still impressive, cratered from the impact of a thousand tons of high explosive.