Rangers at Point Du Hoc 3D print model

The original plans had also called for an additional, larger Ranger force of eight companies (Companies A and B of the 2nd Ranger Battalion and the entire 5th Ranger Battalion) to follow the first attack, if successful. Flares from the cliff tops were to signal this second wave to join the attack, but because of the delayed landing, the signal came too late, and the other Rangers landed on Omaha instead of Pointe du Hoc. The added impetus these 500 plus Rangers provided on the stalled Omaha Beach landing has been conjectured to have averted a disastrous failure[citation needed] there, since they carried the assault beyond the beach, into the overlooking bluffs and outflanked the German defenses.[citation needed]

When the Rangers made it to the top at Pointe du Hoc, they had sustained 15 casualties. Ranger casualties on the beach totalled about 15, most of them from the raking fire to their left.[17] The force also found that their radios were ineffective.[18] Upon reaching the fortifications, most of the Rangers learned for the first time that the main objective of the assault, the artillery battery, had been removed. The Rangers regrouped at the top of the cliffs, and a small patrol went off in search of the guns. Two different patrols found five of the six guns nearby (the sixth was being fixed elsewhere) and destroyed their firing mechanisms with thermite grenades.[10]

Len Lommel of the 2nd Ranger Battalion maintained that he and Ranger Jack Kuhn found the guns completely by accident after walking down a tree-lined lane, whilst on patrol.

Multiple copies of the Rangers orders were released in 2012 by the US National Archives, indicating that Lt. Col. Rudder had been told of the guns' removal prior to landing. His D-Day orders went beyond the taking of Pointe du Hoc and remained consistent: Land at Pointe du Hoc & Omaha Beach; advance along the coast; take the town of Grandcamp, attack the Maisy Batteries and reach the D-Day Phase Line (close to Osmanville) two hours before dark. The Rangers could then repel counterattacks along the Grandcamp-Vierville road, via the Isigny-Bayeux road or diagonally across open fields. They could also prevent mobile 150mm artillery getting within a 12-mile range of the beachhead.

The Rangers trained specifically for the 12-mile inland march during the Slapton Sands exercises in England, and the First Infantry Division was also given the same D-Day Phase Line objective.

Once captured, Pointe du Hoc did not offer the German Army any advantage of observation as they already used the taller Chateau, houses and churches in the area.

The Small Unit Actions Report[19] written by US Army Intelligence, states that there were times (some hours) when the Rangers did not see a single German after the initial fighting. Historians suggest this gave Lt. Col. Rudder the time to have continued with his objectives. No documentary evidence has been produced ordering Rudder to stay and guard the road behind Pointe du Hoc or wait for reinforcements. Yet that version of events is often stated as factual in books written prior to 2012.