3. Pointe Du Hoc & Range memorial
The World War II Pointe du Hoc lies between Utah Beach (to the West) and Omaha Beach (four miles to the East). As one of the beaches immortalized as the sites of American landings on D-Day, 6 June 1944, Pointe du Hoc offered a commanding view of the Channel for artillery observers and gun crews through it cliffs which were eighty to one hundred feet high, almost vertical. The Pointe Du Hoc & Range memorial was erected by the French to honor elements of the American Second Ranger Battalion under the command of Lt. Col. James E. Rudder.
With a battery constructed by the Germans in 1942, as part of the Atlantic Wall to defend against the Allied forces, the Germans were sure of high ground for observation purposes as well as a defense mechanism that would wreak absolute havoc on the landing beaches. However, the U.S. Army Rangers made it their priority and knocked it out so as to prevent massive losses that they might incurred at Omaha and Utah.
La Pointe du Hoc’s monument, shaped like an enormous menhir (standing stone) consists of a simple granite pylon positioned atop a German concrete bunker with tablets at its base inscribed in French and English. It is believed that bodies of the German soldiers who died and fought there still lie under the ruins. The simplicity of this monument that soars towards the sky and stands out against the horizon seems to be committing the souls of those who died to God.