March 14, 2025 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Young Army Rangers scaled Normandy cliffs under rifle fire and grenade blasts. Why did they do it? Hear President Reagan celebrate the surviving Rangers at the site, near the monument to the daggers they drove in to top the walls of Hitler's "Fortress Europe."
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories. West of and
overlooking Omaha and Utah Beach is Point to Hawk, a
rocky one hundred and ten foot cliff in Normandy, France.
Besides being the site where Germans placed some of their
heavy guns along the Atlantic Wall, it was also the
location of one of the Second Ranger Battalion's finest moments,
(00:33):
one of our Armed Force's greatest moments too. Capturing Point
to Hawk was critical to ensuring the security of the
mean landing force to its east. It was up to
two hundred and twenty five men to take it and
ensure the liberation of Europe. Take it they did, climbing
up ladders over the rocky cliffs to do so. Here's
(00:54):
President Ronald Reagan giving a speech at Point to Hac,
honoring those men and all the men who fought in
World War two back in nineteen eighty four. Let's get
into it.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
We're here to mark that day in history when the
Allied Armies joined in battle to reclaimed this continent to liberty.
For four long years, much of Europe had been under
a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen. Jews cried out
in the camps millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved,
(01:28):
and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy,
the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against
tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history. We
stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore
of France. The air was soft, but forty years ago.
(01:50):
At this moment, the air was dense with smoke and
the cries of men, and the air was filled with
the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon.
At dawn on the morning of the sixth of June
nineteen forty four, two hundred and twenty five rangers jumped
off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom
of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most
(02:12):
difficult and daring of the invasion, to climb these sheer
and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The
Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of
these guns were here and they would be trained on
the beaches to stop the Allied advance. The rangers looked
up and saw the enemy soldiers the edge of the cliffs,
shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades,
(02:35):
and the American rangers began to climb. They shot rope
ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to
pull themselves up. When one ranger fell, another would take
his place. When one rope was cut, a ranger would
grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back,
and held their footing. Soon, one by one the rangers
(02:58):
pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm
land at the top of these cliffs, they began to
seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty
five came here after two days of fighting, only ninety
could still bear arms. Behind me is a memorial that
symbolizes the ranger daggers that were thrust into the top
(03:20):
of these cliffs. And before me are the men who
put them there. These are the boys of Puentejo. Forty
summers have passed since the battle that you fought here.
You were young the day you took these cliffs. Some
(03:42):
of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest
joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here.
Why why did you do it? With what impelled you
to put aside the instinct for self preservation and risk
your lives to take these cliffs. What inspired all the
(04:04):
men of the armies that met here. We look at you,
and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief.
It was loyalty and love. The men of Normandy had
faith that what they were doing was right, faith that
they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God
(04:25):
would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next.
It was the deep knowledge and pray, God, we have
not lost it that there is a profound moral difference
between the use of force for liberation and the use
of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not
(04:46):
to conquer, and so you and those others did not
doubt your cause, and you were right not to doubt.
You all knew that some things are worth dying for.
One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth
dying for because it's the most deeply honorable form of
government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty.
(05:10):
All of you were willing to fight tyranny. The Americans
who fought here that morning, new word of the invasion
was spreading through the darkness back home. They fought or
felt in their hearts, though they couldn't know in fact
that in Georgia they were filling the churches at four
a m. In Kansas they were kneeling on their porches
(05:33):
and praying, and in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty bell.
Something else helped the men of d Day, the rock
hard belief that Providence would have a great hand in
the events that would unfold here, that God was an
ally in this great cause. And so the night before
(05:53):
the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to
kneel with him in prayer, he told them, do not
bow your heads, but look up so you can see
God and ask his blessing in what we are about
to do. Also that night, General Matthew Ridgeway on his cot,
(06:16):
listening in the darkness for the promise God made to Joshua,
I will not fail THEE nor forsake THEE. These are
the things that impelled them, These are the things that
shaped the unity of the Allies. When the war was over,
there were lives to be rebuilt and governments to be
returned to the people. There were nations to be reborn.
(06:39):
Above all, there was a new peace to be assured.
These were huge and daunting tasks, but the Allies summoned
strength from the faith, belief, loyalty, and love of those
who fell Here. They rebuilt a new Europe. Together. There
was first a great reconcil among those who had been enemies,
(07:02):
all of whom had suffered so greatly. The United States
did its part, creating the Marshal Plan to help rebuild
our allies and our former enemies. The Marshal Plan led
to the Atlantic Alliance, a great alliance that serves to
this day as our shield for freedom, for prosperity, and
(07:23):
for peace. We in America have learned bitter lessons from
two world wars. It is better to be here, ready
to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across
the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost.
We're bound today by what bound us forty years ago,
(07:43):
the same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. Here in this place
where the West held together, let us make a vow
to our dead. Let us show them by our actions
that we understand what they died for. Let our actions
say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgeway listened
(08:06):
I will not fail THEE nor forsake THEE. Strengthened by
their courage, heartened by their value, and born by their memory,
let us continue to stand for the ideals for which
they lived and died. Thank you very much, and God
bless you.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And you've been listening to President Ronald Reagan in nineteen
eighty four, one of the great speeches of his presidency.
You were young when you took these cliffs. You risked everything.
Why did you do it? And then Reagan described those things,
faith and belief, loyalty and love. The use of force
(08:52):
for liberation, not conquest was the theme here. And indeed
that's what we've done in this country, or tried to
do as best we can, in our history. The story
of President Ronald Reagan's point to Hoc's speech and a
vow he said to our dead to understand what those
men did for us, what we do here in our
American stories as often as possible, honor that vow, that
(09:17):
story here on our American stories
And we returned to our American stories. West of and
overlooking Omaha and Utah Beach is Point to Hawk, a
rocky one hundred and ten foot cliff in Normandy, France.
Besides being the site where Germans placed some of their
heavy guns along the Atlantic Wall, it was also the
location of one of the Second Ranger Battalion's finest moments,
(00:33):
one of our Armed Force's greatest moments too. Capturing Point
to Hawk was critical to ensuring the security of the
mean landing force to its east. It was up to
two hundred and twenty five men to take it and
ensure the liberation of Europe. Take it they did, climbing
up ladders over the rocky cliffs to do so. Here's
(00:54):
President Ronald Reagan giving a speech at Point to Hac,
honoring those men and all the men who fought in
World War two back in nineteen eighty four. Let's get
into it.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
We're here to mark that day in history when the
Allied Armies joined in battle to reclaimed this continent to liberty.
For four long years, much of Europe had been under
a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen. Jews cried out
in the camps millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved,
(01:28):
and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy,
the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against
tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history. We
stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore
of France. The air was soft, but forty years ago.
(01:50):
At this moment, the air was dense with smoke and
the cries of men, and the air was filled with
the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon.
At dawn on the morning of the sixth of June
nineteen forty four, two hundred and twenty five rangers jumped
off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom
of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most
(02:12):
difficult and daring of the invasion, to climb these sheer
and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The
Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of
these guns were here and they would be trained on
the beaches to stop the Allied advance. The rangers looked
up and saw the enemy soldiers the edge of the cliffs,
shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades,
(02:35):
and the American rangers began to climb. They shot rope
ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to
pull themselves up. When one ranger fell, another would take
his place. When one rope was cut, a ranger would
grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back,
and held their footing. Soon, one by one the rangers
(02:58):
pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm
land at the top of these cliffs, they began to
seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty
five came here after two days of fighting, only ninety
could still bear arms. Behind me is a memorial that
symbolizes the ranger daggers that were thrust into the top
(03:20):
of these cliffs. And before me are the men who
put them there. These are the boys of Puentejo. Forty
summers have passed since the battle that you fought here.
You were young the day you took these cliffs. Some
(03:42):
of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest
joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here.
Why why did you do it? With what impelled you
to put aside the instinct for self preservation and risk
your lives to take these cliffs. What inspired all the
(04:04):
men of the armies that met here. We look at you,
and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief.
It was loyalty and love. The men of Normandy had
faith that what they were doing was right, faith that
they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God
(04:25):
would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next.
It was the deep knowledge and pray, God, we have
not lost it that there is a profound moral difference
between the use of force for liberation and the use
of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not
(04:46):
to conquer, and so you and those others did not
doubt your cause, and you were right not to doubt.
You all knew that some things are worth dying for.
One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth
dying for because it's the most deeply honorable form of
government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty.
(05:10):
All of you were willing to fight tyranny. The Americans
who fought here that morning, new word of the invasion
was spreading through the darkness back home. They fought or
felt in their hearts, though they couldn't know in fact
that in Georgia they were filling the churches at four
a m. In Kansas they were kneeling on their porches
(05:33):
and praying, and in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty bell.
Something else helped the men of d Day, the rock
hard belief that Providence would have a great hand in
the events that would unfold here, that God was an
ally in this great cause. And so the night before
(05:53):
the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to
kneel with him in prayer, he told them, do not
bow your heads, but look up so you can see
God and ask his blessing in what we are about
to do. Also that night, General Matthew Ridgeway on his cot,
(06:16):
listening in the darkness for the promise God made to Joshua,
I will not fail THEE nor forsake THEE. These are
the things that impelled them, These are the things that
shaped the unity of the Allies. When the war was over,
there were lives to be rebuilt and governments to be
returned to the people. There were nations to be reborn.
(06:39):
Above all, there was a new peace to be assured.
These were huge and daunting tasks, but the Allies summoned
strength from the faith, belief, loyalty, and love of those
who fell Here. They rebuilt a new Europe. Together. There
was first a great reconcil among those who had been enemies,
(07:02):
all of whom had suffered so greatly. The United States
did its part, creating the Marshal Plan to help rebuild
our allies and our former enemies. The Marshal Plan led
to the Atlantic Alliance, a great alliance that serves to
this day as our shield for freedom, for prosperity, and
(07:23):
for peace. We in America have learned bitter lessons from
two world wars. It is better to be here, ready
to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across
the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost.
We're bound today by what bound us forty years ago,
(07:43):
the same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. Here in this place
where the West held together, let us make a vow
to our dead. Let us show them by our actions
that we understand what they died for. Let our actions
say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgeway listened
(08:06):
I will not fail THEE nor forsake THEE. Strengthened by
their courage, heartened by their value, and born by their memory,
let us continue to stand for the ideals for which
they lived and died. Thank you very much, and God
bless you.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And you've been listening to President Ronald Reagan in nineteen
eighty four, one of the great speeches of his presidency.
You were young when you took these cliffs. You risked everything.
Why did you do it? And then Reagan described those things,
faith and belief, loyalty and love. The use of force
(08:52):
for liberation, not conquest was the theme here. And indeed
that's what we've done in this country, or tried to
do as best we can, in our history. The story
of President Ronald Reagan's point to Hoc's speech and a
vow he said to our dead to understand what those
men did for us, what we do here in our
American stories as often as possible, honor that vow, that
(09:17):
story here on our American stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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