Ranger Casualties

, Ranger Casaulties , US Ranger units sustained heavy losses during the Normandy landings., Of 225 Rangers that left the ships in the first wave to attack Pointe du Hoc, only 90 men were still able to bear arms when the relief force arrived on the morning of June 8. In the larger battle, the 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions taken together suffered 96 killed, 183 wounded, and 32 missing during the battles for Pointe du Hoc and Omaha Beach., The Price of Freedom , Of the 350,000 Allied personnel who took part in the D-Day invasion, including the 156,000 troops who landed on Normandy's beaches, approximately 9,000 were casualties on June 6. By the end of the campaign for Normandy, the Allies suffered more than 200,000 casualties, including over 50,000 killed. The Normandy American Cemetery holds the remains of 9,387 Americans and memorializes 1,557 on the Walls of the Missing., Almost 30,000 American soldiers, sailors, and airmen died in the battle to liberate Normandy., American soldiers preparing casualties for burial., Sgt Walter Geldon, Company C, 2nd Ranger Battalion , June 6, 1944, was Sergeant Geldon's third wedding anniversary. He and his fellow Rangers sang songs to celebrate the occasion shortly before landing on Omaha Beach. The 23-year-old steel worker from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was cut down by enemy fire within a few minutes of coming ashore. When his widow died in 2002 at age 78, she was buried by his side., "I started out to cross the beach with thirty-five me and only six got to the top, that's all..." , Lt. Robert Edlin, 2nd Ranger Battalion, 1st Lt Jacob Hill, Company F, 2nd Ranger Battalion , First Lieutenant Hill and his men began firing at the German defenders as their landing craft approached Pointe du Hoc. Atop the cliffs, Hill and several of his Rangers moved inland, where he fearlessly led an attack that knocked out a German machine gun position. Attempting to take out another machine gun later on D-Day, he was shot and killed by the alerted enemy soldiers., "Because they cannot keep themselves for a day, we'll keep them forever in memory and give them immortality." , Mrs. H.M. Lane, US civilian, Bedford, Virginia, SSgt Lawrence M. Johnson, Company D, 2nd Ranger Battalion , Staff Sergeant Johnson was among the Rangers who advanced south from Pointe du Hoc in search of the missing guns. That night he defended a corner of the Rangers' defensive perimeter that bore the brunt of the first German counterattacks. Johnson was killed during the second counterattack when Germans overran his position. Awarded the Bronze Star posthumously, he is buried at Normandy American Cemetery, Plot J, Row 6, Grave 28., ”Some must die so others might live.” , Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1st Lt Robert M. Brice, Company B, 2nd Ranger Battalion , First Lieutenant Brice and the rest of Company B of the 2nd Ranger Battalion landed at Omaha Beach after being diverted from Pointe du Hoc. After struggling through the surging waves, Brice ran toward the sea wall where men of the first waves were seeking protection from German fire. Before he arrived, he was killed by a burst of machine gun fire. Brice is buried at the Normandy American Cemetery, Plot J, Row 11, Grave 16., "And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons, wheresoever they may be." , Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, Pvt Paul Pavey, Company A, 5th Ranger Battalion , Eager to serve the war effort, Private Pavey was 17 when he joined the Army in 1943. On D-Day he was part of First Lieutenant Charles Parker's platoon, the first Rangers to reach Pointe du Hoc overland from Omaha Beach. Arriving just in time to reinforce the depleted Ranger force, he helped defend the coast road against German counterattacks that night. He was killed by German gunfire while on patrol the next morning., "Many thousands of men have died for such ideals...but these young boys...were cut off in their prime...I devoutly hope that we will never again have to see such scenes as these." , General Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. Army, Capt Walter Block, 2nd Ranger Battalion , The 2nd Ranger Battalion surgeon, Captain Block worked tirelessly to help the wounded at Pointe du Hoc. He assisted injured men in the field and at his makeshift battalion aid station in a damaged German bunker. Block received the Silver Star for his efforts. He survived the Normandy campaign but was killed by German artillery while working at an aid station in the Huertgen Forest on December 8, 1944., "Let us be firm, pure and faithful, at the end of our sorrow, there is the greatest glory of the world, that of the men who did not give in.” , Charles de Gaulle, President of France, French Sacrifice , More than 90,000 French soldiers died defending France in 1939-40. Another 58,000 soldiers and approximately 20,000 members of the French Resistance died fighting alongside the Allies from 1940 through 1945. The famed French 2nd Armored Division came ashore on nearby Utah Beach and suffered over a thousand casualties spearheading the Allied drive into Paris. Although thousands of French civilians died during the Normandy fighting, the population continued to welcome and assist Allied troops., Members of the French Forces of the Interior pose with their weapons in the town of Kersaint, Brittany, August 18, 1944.,