US Army Rangers: The Story Of America's Elite Special Forces In WW2 | Battle Honors | War Stories

throughout World War II one unit came to Divine Elite military excellence in the American Army this big German Cut Loose for some chamber and he killed my second in command we got the Giant put him away superb Warriors pushed to the limits in the most difficult missions ever conceived the first third and fourth Ranger battalions were practically wiped out from assaulting African beaches to clearing the mountains of Italy and scaling French Cliffs they was coming on us pretty fast always leading the way they are the US Army's first Special Forces the Rangers an extraordinary War demanded extraordinary soldiers while we were good we were very good the best there was forged into Elite bands of Brothers you were fighting for your buddy you didn't want to let them down by facing the trials of War together they've tagged us up through the vapor trails and butchered us up pretty good tell the stories of the second world War's most famous fighting formations and their journey through tragedy and Triumph the German Commander said I've never seen any purpose Brave as yours to earn their battle honors the 30th of January 1944 cesterna in the Italian Hills the men of the U.S Army Rangers approached with great stealth what they do not know is that the armored units of the battle hardened hermann-goering Panzer Division lie in weight suddenly uh all hell broke girls we had some poor intelligence reports and there were more troops around than we had anticipated the Americans have walked into an ambush the Germans just let them come and then they just took the whole of them they already enjoyed a hard-won reputation for courage and skill but now the Rangers are cut off surrounded by tanks and fighting for their lives this will be the defining moment in their War [Music] when America entered the global conflict in December 1941 their army lacked any special forces [Music] Britain's experience had proven the value of elite hard-hitting soldiers [Music] a new American unit would be modeled on the superb British Commandos running jumping Rough and Ready soldiers of our Army's commando-like Rangers rushed through an obstacle course designed for real toughness the reputation of the U.S Army Rangers is the elite of the elite they are regarded by people both in and out of the military as being the epitome of what a soldier can be the kind of training that makes men soldiers and the kind of soldiers who win their fights U.S army rangers are at The Cutting Edge at the Forefront they are to to either carry out small scale raids to hit tactically or strategically important targets and to undertake the kind of missions that normal infantry units would struggle to do only the very best soldiers were invited to join this new crack unit this outfit requires a high type of soldier with excellent character who is not averse to seeing dangerous action all volunteers must be athletically inclined have good stamina and be mentally adapted for making quick decisions in the face of unforeseen circumstances a ranger is someone who has complete confidence in his abilities who has the knowledge that he needs to survive in practically any situation I think he has the pride that he is one of the very few soldiers who have achieved a pinnacle of Excellence my buddy Jack came around one day and he says hey they're looking for volunteers to take some Commando training and uh I said what do I got to do he says well you don't have any do anything he says I already signed you up history hit is an award-winning streaming platform built by history fans for history fans by subscribing to history hits you can access hundreds of hours of military history documentaries On Demand follow in the footsteps of the Essex dogs with Dan Jones will discover the history of archery with Ramirez we've built up an extensive library of history programs hundreds of hours of documentaries exclusive original films interviews and ad-free podcasts made for proper history fans sign up now for a free trial and War Stories fans get 50 of their first three months just be sure to use the code War Stories at checkout for weeks 2 000 infantrymen went through a grueling selection process at carrickfergus in Northern Ireland it's physically extremely demanding it really does seek to get them to a peak of a physical stamina and endurance they were put through their Paces this was really about distance travel with weight and then carrying out exercises at the U.S Army Rangers Museum in carrickfergus Sharon Murphy curates a collection of original Rangers artifacts among them are letters donated by private Bob Reed one of the original 2000 volunteers full breed was an Army medic from Canandaigua New York and he found himself in Northern Ireland in early 1942 and he decided to try out for the Rangers he donated a number of items to the museum some fantastic letters describing his experiences and he talks about how became very important for him to make it to become a ranger that may have become a matter of pride every day a list was posted of men who were to be rtu'd returned to unit they failed to make the cut he talks about checking the lists every day to see you know is he still in it's suddenly become really important to him that he may get through and that he'd become a ranger to be on that list to be publicly pointed out and named as not being good enough not being up to the Mark is a difficult one for anyone to take you know it's failing your driving test it failing a School exam it's it's failure Bob Reed was one of the 600 who passed selection for an elite unit that still had no name [Music] well we thought a lot of different things about Raiders and everything and then someone spoke up and says hey why not named it after Rogers Rangers well everyone voted on it that's so we came up with the first range of battalion the history of the Rangers can be traced all the way back to 1751 an officer in New Hampshire named Robert Rogers formed a militia group that was part of the British army when it colonized what's today the United States they could Ambush the enemy they could show up where they weren't expected and I think that was the model for when the Rangers were formed for World War II on the 19th of June 1942 in carrickfergus the first ranger battalion of the U.S army was officially activated by its new commanding officer Captain William Orlando Darby Darby was a graduate of West Point he was a very likable person he had strong leadership qualities he firmly saw what the ethos of the British Commandos and therefore a newly created Army Ranger unit for the for the Americans you know what that could bring now transferred to the British Commando Training Site in acnikari Scotland the real challenge began the training was just hellacious they trained seven days a week from Before Dawn until after sunset they were run ragged mainly by British Commandos who openly questioned whether they were up to it and put them under an awful lot of psychological pressure the level only intensified as their first action approached we have this example in the collection this is a training schedule it doesn't date from that early period to the period in acnikari in Scotland it's a bit later it actually gets from October 1943 during the Italian campaign but it still gives us an idea of the kinds of activities that were taking place physical fitness weapons familiarity small unit tactics speed marches 5 miles an hour until pack log drills I think Highland Scottish games hand-to-hand combat obstacle courses that required a lot of stamina and finally when you're completely exhausted it then came the Ferocious bayonet training so this example it only shows us 30 Friday and Saturday and you can see it's divided up into 15 minute increments and we could see a lot of letters here and we have a key to these so the x is for Judy company I articles of War we have a few D's down here is Eight Mile March the cruise uh mortar range B6 mile March the G's are close order drill J is Morse code and then finally our obstacle course so it was a very intense training and during all that they complained about the food Tom Sullivan's diary he talks about the food he says food wholesome but scarce no seasoning tea fish porridge Prince with cornstarch seems to be the chief diet Mass officer has a temerity to ask if we like it so it was a very intense training period the training had been brutal one recruit even died in a live fire exercise but in August 1942 the Rangers were ready for action [Music] after well over a year of fighting the mass Nazi invasion of Soviet Russia Stalin now demanded allied help to relieve the pressure in the summer of 1942 diab a critical French Port was targeted for an amphibious raid it was decided by the Allies that they needed to run well I'd call it a test Invasion basically it was to test German defenses it was to teach the Allied invasion planners what would be necessary for a successful large-scale invasion a raid grew to Epic Proportions with nearly 5 000 Canadian troops and over a thousand British supported by more than 230 warships and 74 Allied squadrons now joined by 50 U.S Army Rangers the first Americans to seek ground combat in Europe the Rangers were attached to the British number four Commando and orange beach became their designated Landing point the Rangers would help to neutralize six 150 millimeter guns combined Force landed near the battery advancing under intense fire before destroying the artillery pieces less than three hours after landing they withdrew they're part of the raid had been a success [Music] the rest quickly became a disaster a surprise was lost when the landing fleet was engaged by a passing German Convoy and hidden Cliff Top Guns the bodies of the British and Canadian troops were piled high [Music] it was a disaster especially if you ask any Canadians I don't think they really accomplished much other than just putting a scare into the Germans among the 5 000 Canadian troops there was a shocking casualty rate of almost 70 percent the Commandos lost a quarter of their men and the Rangers suffered the first official American combat casualty of the war in Europe [Music] [Applause] thank you but lessons were learned particularly the need for a mass Shore bombardment before amphibious assaults and the effectiveness of targeted Special Forces all new units need success they need to prove why they have been established why have we been created and the ability even for a small number of men to take part in Dieppe to take part in in the the most successful part of that operation was Goldust being a ranger quickly became a badge of honor and the collection at the Rangers Museum in Northern Ireland shows how that Pride now took a physical form the app was a disaster but it was also highly publicized first aggression and so it was being talked about back in the UK apparently fights broke out in pubs and between well between Rangers between those who had been there and those who hadn't until something had to be done and so Darby arranged a competition arranged a prize for the winner and it was won by Sergeant Anthony Rada and so this is the winning design here and you can see some variations here often they were locally made and a little bit crude and there was no standardization and so after the app the Rangers were authorized to where the shoulder Scrolls on their left shoulder this is the Rangers badge of honor this is something that says they were Avenger they were there the Rangers new batch came without heraldry no Lions Eagles or daggers for them it was all in the name the Rangers what it means to be a U.S Army Ranger is you are one of a relative few you know a few hundred men and it also means that you join a tradition um which stretches back all the way to to the foundation stones of America their next battle honor would come in November 1942. in the heat of North Africa a targeted operation to take out another heavily defended gun battery part of the Allied invasions to liberate North Africa controlled by the Vichy French clients of the Nazis it became important for the Americans to knock out the French guns so that the other landing craft and and support ships could come into the harbor which was the perfect assignment for them because they were small enough to go in make a hit and run raid before the French even knew what was happening [Music] a textbook Special Forces Mission and another praise winning success as the Allies pushed further into Northern Africa the Rangers were always at the Forefront Darby and his men like to conduct night raids when they could close in on an enemy position without them knowing about it by early 1943 they had even started to terrify their axis foes Dobby's next Target was Senate railway station a key Outpost in Tunisia and base for the elite 10th the saglieri regiment they were the cream of the Italian infantry almost to say they were the ranges of the Italian Army so you know the Rangers were going up against you know some of the best troops that the Italians had to offer to be effective special forces such as Rangers need compact Small Arms that pack a mighty punch even if borrowed from Chicago's gangsters many of the Rangers in the raid were equipped with the Thompson submachine gun or Tommy Gun which had been around since 1918. and was now used by the military firing 600 rounds per minute with great stopping power it proved perfect for the Rangers close combat tactics before they set out Captain Roy Murray told his men they've got to know that they've been worked over by Rangers every man is to use his bayonet as much as he can those are our orders [Applause] it was going to be an all-night Overland march on foot to sneak up on the enemy one of the Italian centuries heard the man coming well that was kind of the signal for the Rangers to charge [Music] we swarmed over them grenading bayonetting shooting screaming the Italians never had a chance we worked them over furiously giving No Quarter sickening brutal inhuman from that time on the Italians referred to the Rangers as a black death because of the the black caps they wore and the fact that they had blackened their their faces and there was a real fear among Italian troops and I think Germans as well that the Black Death was coming to get them they really start building this legend of the Rangers this idea of getting close with the enemy of not killing them a distance but but you know grabbing them by the belt buckle and physically ramming a bayonet into their guts the Rangers quickly killed dozens of Italians and lost one man this wasn't just a raid it was a route Derby was awarded the silver star with 11 other rangers and by May 1943 their victories had convinced the U.S army to expand the range of force the early successes that the Rangers had led the American authorities to believe that this was a way to go that this was a force that could provide them with some real Cutting Edge this was a time to expand on what worked we've got one range of Italian great let's form another the second let's form another third the fourth or fifth the new second and fifth range of battalions began training in the U.S with the expanded first third and fourth now targeting Sicily [Music] on the 10th of July 1943 they landed at gala leading the seventh U.S Army's invasion of the island now preceded by a vast Shore barrage one of the hard-won lessons from diab [Music] I never realized Naval gunfire could be so accurate in every battery position we found at least one gun with a direct hit and at least one stack of ammunition blown stiff opposition on Italian soil they cleared the coastal defenses stormed gella and defeated armored counter-attacks with great prowess [Music] we was under our campfire stay close to the ground which he could we really didn't have time to dig in because they was coming on us pretty fast United as force x the Rangers became the shock troops for the drive through Sicily just over a month later they prepared to land to the south of Naples now to secure the Western flank of a mass amphibious assault at Salerno the Rangers replicated exactly what they'd done in Sicily and in French North Africa beforehand they're there for specific targets Shaw batteries airfields important Bridges traffic Junctions that's where they need the Rangers to be so key points that are going to help their ongoing land forces behind them move faster into the interior I was in misery most of the time aside from trying to lead others and trying to keep their minds from cracking up it was hell for me as well as everyone else tired hungry cold hot just misery first time in combat I didn't know what the hell was going on yeah and this big German Cut Loose with a submachine gun and he killed my Sacramento he was right behind me we got the guy in put him away brutal experience quickly expanded their skill set to taking mountain passes and even towns private Bob Reed was one of many Rangers who received commendations for their service in Italy this is his Silver Star here which we have on display in the museum and this is the letter that he wrote home to his family telling them about it and he's a bit vague and a bit cryptic and the letter he says um You probably get some notice from the war department so this enclosure will let you know what it's all about and then the Ender letter he says please don't write to me at this address until you hear from me and get a new one as I am being transferred again to a much better place by the way as it turns out Italy would be private reads last Frontline campaign at the time you couldn't really see where he was going or what he was doing because of censorship um but later on he has added his own notes to the letter so he circled notice and he said award a silver star and when he talks about him much better place he's referring to coming home he's written USA Lieutenant Colonel Darby was praised for leading a mixed Allied Force as well as the Rangers this is data 21st of September 1943 and it's a letter commending him for his actions at Salerno in Italy so it says I wish to express to you my unqualified Commendation for the remarkable battle leadership you have shown in your operations north of Salerno given a command consisting of a number of different British and American units which had never previously served together is speedily made of them as smoothly operating Force which demonstrated by its Deeds its ability to defeat the enemy opposed to it you have fully appreciated the importance of your mission and you have accomplished it in a magnificent way which reflects credit not only upon yourself and the men of your command but on the American military service in general you and the members of your command had the genuine gratitude of the officers and Men of the Fifth Army for The Splendid job you are doing and it's signed by Mark W Clark Lieutenant General USA the Rangers had achieved remarkable Feats for a tiny Force but a truly devastating danger now faced them in the mountains near a small town called cisterna in January 1944 the Allies targeted anzio with another over-ambitious amphibious Landing its aim was to flank the Gustav line reinforced positions that blocked their advance [Music] it was a very very heavily fortified defensive set of fortifications that use the best of Italy's geography the mountain ranges and the difficulties of terrain the steepness of The Ravines the fast-flowing rivers and so on to make it almost impossible to get through so their view was if you can't go through it Go Round it a vast Armada assembled for The Landings and as they head down in Algeria and again in Sicily the Rangers led the way the beach had went relatively easy the first two days until they realized what had happened and then we got a lot of resistance the Germans reacted very quickly using a significant Force to trap the Allies in the landing Zone we were on the beachhead from the 22nd of January until the 30th of January when the first third and fourth ranger battalion went through the Enemy Lines to lead the breakout the Rangers infiltrated towards cisterna led by the first and third battalions with the fourth as reinforcements that was our object to capture sisternia which had a road that was going south that was critical for the Germans but as they Advanced the fourth immediately ran into trouble as the first and third were hit by the hermann-going Panzer Division the Germans were bringing up strong forces in particular armored forces and those were looking to strike a blow and drive the Americans back into the scene and the two met head-on when we got on the outcasts of cisternia we did get that far suddenly uh all hell broke loose we had some poor intelligence reports and there were more troops around than we had anticipated they didn't realize that the Germans had somehow gotten wind of this attack and so the Rangers were ambushed as they moved towards chesterna and it was a it was a terrible fight the Rangers were attacking the panzers and knocking them out there was hand-to-hand fighting the Rangers were just torn to shreds I heard something coming down the mountain and it hit my arm my left arm and went off it's a grenade casualties mounted as ammunition dwindled the first and third Rangers were now surrounded as the fourth made increasingly desperate attempts to break through the panzers [Music] the Rangers fought heroically they did not turntail and run they did not give up they held out literally until their ammunition was gone but when it was gone they were surrounded they have no hope of relief their fellow Americans tried to get through to them but there was no way that was going to be achieved they never got there the Germans just let them come and then they just took the whole the first third and fourth Ranger battalions were practically wiped out either killed or taken prisoner as each radio went silent Colonel Darby realized that his Force had been overwhelmed over 700 men were either killed or taken prisoner in this operation and he just put his head down on on his arms and cried because of so many of his men who were lost and this was basically the end of the of the Rangers in Italy and uh and Darby's association with them off his 767 men in the first and third ranges only six managed to escape death or captcha the bat head fourth Battalion was now broken up a sad end to an illustrious Band of Brothers I was with Colonel Darby when the first and third were lost I watched a great man break down I saw defeat within a soul of one whom I had great respect and admiration I have never seen a person so dejected and defeated foreign [Music] now it was left to the untested second and fifth battalions to carry the Rangers war in the European theater since 1943 they had been training in the United States and then England but what would be the largest Seabourn Invasion ever launched D-Day [Music] on the 6th of June 1944 over a hundred and fifty thousand Allied troops would land on the beaches of Normandy this was the major push to open up a western front and liberate Europe but a huge threat loomed over the American Landing Zone between the U.S Omaha and Utah beaches was a Promontory called point to Hawk a fortified bunker complex that housed six huge 155 millimeter guns they sat atop a sheer 30 meter cliff in range of the beaches and the vulnerable landing craft they couldn't trust that air power or Naval gunfire would do the job and it would take boots on the ground to do it point to Hawk is part of Hitler's massive Atlantic Wall defenses running all along the French Coast thank you for any unit to try and take such an objective was seen as incredibly difficult and so the call went out let's give it to the Rangers [Music] pointerhock had a shingle Beach that was barely 20 yards across below it and then it had in effect vertical Cliffs all the way up about a hundred feet and then on the top they were crowned with barbed wire mines and then once on top there you could actually actually fight your way through the battery position where there were pill boxes machine gun positions this seemingly impossible task fell to three companies of the second Rangers led by Lieutenant Colonel James rudder early on the morning of the 6th of June the Rangers boarded their Royal Navy landing craft and set out for the cliffs [Music] you're ready to go you didn't have a fear at that time you're thinking boy this is what we want it's what we're here for your training for rata LED 225 men in the landing craft you couldn't see anything you know and the guys that want to stick their head up and see what's going on and they always told us to keep your heads down you know and then all of a sudden it becomes silent there was no no talking at all [Music] as the Allied warships and rocket launchers battled against the vast Shore defenses the larger second wave of Rangers remained offshore waiting for the signal from rudder's men to join them but then 115 RAF Lancaster bombers hit point to home with over 600 tons of bombs and rudder's Rangers realized they were in the wrong place they had drifted off course and had to sail back to the small Beach below Point de Hawk we get lost we were supposed to land on one side at the point and they did get lost to help scale the 30 meter Cliffs the Rangers landing craft were equipped with rocket launchers to fire steel grapnel hooks thank you two inch Rockets shot from six J projectors launching a combination of ropes and rope ladders up the cliffs backed up by portable units on the beach they shot them up and then some guys would go up this rough area which would probably be maybe 25-30 feet and then we would have ladders from there going the restaurant but the ladders were so small and so narrow that it wasn't too practical oh [Music] fighting their way up these flatters and ropes with Germans shooting down on them throwing grenades I have no idea how anybody made it to the top [Music] but eventually after several long bloody minutes of the first rangers got to the top and began crawling over and engaging the Germans up there thank you thought of climbing a rope for a hundred feet up a cliff that's difficult enough to do that whilst carrying all your weapons and equipment with people shooting at you from above [Music] it's a truly remarkable feat and we all had to get up there as soon as possible so we went up pretty fast within 15 minutes or so I think they were mostly all up there by the time they got to the top they had I believe 90 men the rest had had been lost and over the next few days they were down to 30 or 40 men so they had taken terrible attrition but despite this appalling cost the surviving Rangers were horrified to find the huge gun emplacements empty the incredible thing was what the Germans had moved the guns in the days before The Invasion with a view to upgrading the pointerhock facility as a military site so second Battalion spread out continue to move forward to establish a foothold and came across the guns in an orchard and there they they destroyed them so they did carry out their objective that gun battery was nullified and it was a hugely successful operation although perhaps not how they'd originally intended meanwhile Lieutenant Colonel Schneider led the rest of the second Battalion and all the fifth Rangers they had been waiting for the signal to reinforce the attack Colonel Schneider said I don't see any red flowers six o'clock comes 6 15. no red flares so that told us that the colonel in the second Battalion had been successful in playing on the cliff so now we went over and we were going to hit Omaha Beach my Colonel is the only one that has binoculars it's the only one that's been in combat I'm standing right behind him he looks on the beach damn he says this is the hottest Beach I've ever seen we were going right into these 88s in machine gun [Music] Schneider's Force comprised two units from the second Battalion one hit a heavily defended part of Omaha Beach soon after the 29th Infantry Division [Music] by the time they reached the cliffs over half these Rangers were casualties if you've seen the movie Saving Private Ryan you get an idea of what the intensity of the combat situation was when they hit the beach total chaos people dying left and right being torn in half by Munitions total confusion nobody knows where they are the other company had it even worse of their 68 ranges only 27 reached the limited shelter of the sea wall just up the beach [Music] meanwhile Lieutenant Colonel Schneider and the fifth Rangers entered the Maelstrom seen on the beach was almost unbelievable shells fall kinds were hitting the water's edge dead and wounded lay in the water and cross the Sand those that could struggle to crawl out of the water before the advancing tide on all sides the wounded were screaming for medics the survivors rallied and when the 29th's Brigadier General Kota heard they were Rangers he issued his most famous order well God damn it then Rangers lead the way so the Rangers set off uh and the rest of the 29th division decided to follow them because they were Rangers and they evidently knew what they were doing they were the main troops with a fifth range of Battalion which was coming from the East led by Brigadier General Norman decoder who was the bravest man that I ever saw in my life very very brave [Music] still a coherent Force the fifth Rangers quickly deployed in a typically aggressive manner storming the overlooking Cliffs with their deadly gun emplacements and helping to Rally The Battered 29th division one of the reasons that the U.S Army Rangers excelled is the ability for the individuals within it to think for themselves when things are unexpected to adapt to those Circumstance the individuals are units that do that and do that successfully that Mark themselves out and that that is one of the cornerstones of of range of success the Rangers led the way for just under three kilometers to the town of vierville Sumer where they helped resist the heavy German counter-attacks the Allies had won a foothold in France but at a great cost and we know after the headcart they usually take a headcount you know after they've settled down that was a short quite a few between the 6th and the 8th of June nearly half of the second ranger battalion became casualties at Point de hock they lost 135 of the 225 men [Music] throughout the Normandy campaign the Rangers remained in action and then fought their way through northern France and into Belgium thank you [Music] they were instrumental in taking one of the key French ports at the Battle of breast but by late 1944 the Allied Advance stumbled against a massive natural barrier the hurtgen forest [Music] a thickly wooded area along the border between Belgium and Germany it's part of the secret line and one of the Nazi strongholds in defenses stretching more than 600 kilometers the forest was dominated by a natural feature that loomed over the surrounding landscape Rising for hundreds of meters Hill 400. because it was high ground it gave the ability for observers to bring down accurate artillery fire on the land below it the Germans had garrisoned it and and fighting had been twoing and throwing over it for weeks the Americans determined to take it and the Rangers were the the perfect uh you know vehicle for that over the preceding three months this brutal meat grinder had chewed up several infantry units another impossible job for the Rangers they were given the assignment because they were small enough unit they could close with the position without attracting a lot of attention so they moved up through the woods and made the assault on this particular position which was heavily fortified there were bunkers up there there were machine gun positions the Germans were not going to let this go easily with some of Hitler's most experienced veterans ready to counter-attack falsham Yeagers the German paratroops which were you know as as tough as any of the elite forces that the Americans and British had it's a very difficult attack a number of Rangers were killed or wounded the Germans would counter-attack as the Rangers took over certain areas of Hill 400 the Germans would fall back and then attack them again all afternoon very heavy artillery only 25 able-bodied men left helped me get badly are surrounded over two days the Germans launched several brutal counter-attacks but the Rangers held until relieved by the U.S 8th Infantry Division it had been a bloody battle but where others had failed the Rangers had succeeded in capturing and holding the most strategically important point in the hurtigan forest they then took up their role as the tip of the spear leading the way into the Nazi Heartland Whenever there was a pocket of resistance that was encountered on the route of March the Rangers were generally the ones who were sent up front to take care of that pocket and wipe it out I'm attached to different U.S infantry divisions the Rangers provided an elite rapid response capability [Music] there was a concern that the Nazis would set up a defiant last Ridout in the Alps and that there were tens of thousands of die-hard ss troops who would be based there with the latest weaponry and the fighting could go on for years the feared Nazi gorilla resistance never materialized and by the time VE day came in May 1945 what remained of the Rangers had reached Czechoslovakia and their founding father Colonel Darby had already left the Pentagon to rejoin the fight [Music] typical of the man that even then he was constantly badgering his superiors to to get back over to Europe and get back in the fight in March 1945 he returned to Italy and led task force Derby formed from the U.S 10th Mountain division [Music] but barely a week before the end of the war as he addressed his men a German shell burst nearby killing William Orlando Darby so this letter did at 5th of May 1945 and it sent to Darby's parents Mr and Mrs Percy W Darby and concerning their son's death now at this stage they already are aware that their son has been killed but this is a follow-up letter which aims to give them some more detail on what had happened so we can only imagine what it was like for them desperate to know what had happened to their son Dear Mr Mrs Darby I am writing to you concerning your son Colonel William U Darby I fully realized the distress you have suffered since receiving the sad announcement of your son's death and I know you're anxious to learn any details which may become available regarding his death an additional report has now been received in the war department which states that Colonel Darby was killed in action in Italy on the 30th of April 1945. you have my heartfelt sympathy and your bereavement you're sincerely J.A Julio shortly after his death Derby was posthumously promoted to the rank of Brigadier General by President Truman his legacy with ranges is difficult to measure would the U.S Rangers have even existed in the second world war without him perhaps would they have achieved anything like what they did I I doubt leaders like Derby are rare he really did lead from the front and help Inspire the reputation which the Rangers hold to this day to the inspirational leader Derby created a special ops unit that Rose from obscurity to Legend suffering an appalling rate of attrition in some of the toughest fighting against Hitler and today over 75 years on from their humble beginnings in Northern Ireland the Rangers still lead the way for the U.S army the Rangers are still considered the elite of the elite they are looked upon as the men you call on when you need to have a dirty job done who are deployed whenever a quick action Strike Force is necessary anywhere in the world foreign [Music]

Channel: War Stories

Views: 48,666

Keywords: military history, war, war documentary, military tactics, war stories, history of war, battles, Full Documentary, US Rangers, US Army Rangers, Rangers, WW2, World War 2, Second World War, Battle Honours, Battle Honors

Id: Lsr5FMmRYPA

Length: 51min 37sec (3097 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 03 2023