In the early hours on the morning of Tuesday, June 6, 1944, a small flotilla of landing craft, supported by several other craft, including two DUKW amphibious trucks, were carrying men from the 2nd Rangers towards the Normandy coast. Commanded by Lieutenant James Rudder, they were ready to play their part in the greatest amphibious assault the world had ever seen. The target had been identified as six pieces of artillery of 155mm caliber, sited on a spit of land, called Pointe du Hoc, jutting out from the main coastline, from where they could fire onto the left and right flanks respectively of the U.S. landing beaches codenamed “Utah” and “Omaha”.
As they approached the coast some men may have thought back to their time spent in Bude, on the north coast of Cornwall, where they trained intensely for this moment. The threat
