A short drive west from Omaha Beach is the Pointe du Hoc where Colonel James Rudder with 200 US Rangers scaled the cliffs with ropes and ladders under a hail of bullets and grenades to capture the heavily defended battery. Having seized the battery, found and destroyed the guns, Rudder's men held out for nearly three days. This epic struggle greatly influenced the fate of the main assault on Omaha Beach. Much of the damage and craters are from the main 14 inch guns of the USS Texas.

Ten years later Colonel Rudder stood on the beach once more, this time with a young American journalist interviewing him - to whom he suggested, ' You tell me how we got up there.'