The U.S. Army Rangers of World War II were brand new in the summer of 1942. Though the “Ranger” name had roots in America’s colonial wars, the modern battalions were created in Britain at the urging of Gen. George Marshall and Maj. Gen. Lucian Truscott, who saw how Britain’s Commandos had tackled Axis positions with small, fast raids.
Under Maj. William O. Darby, volunteers drawn heavily from the 34th Infantry Division trained in Scotland in demolitions, amphibious assaults, cliff scaling, and small-unit tactics. By August, just two months after their creation, 50 Rangers would face their first test: Operation Jubilee, the Allied raid on Dieppe, France.
Operation Jubilee: The Rangers at Dieppe
Dieppe was designed as a limited strike against a heavily defended port. British leaders hoped to test German coastal defenses, seize documents, destroy key infrastructure, and see whether such raids could pave the way for a future invasion of the continent. Leading the assault force would be the Canadian 2nd Infantry Division, backed by several British Commando units.
To give the new Americans combat experience, 50 Rangers were hand-picked and scattered among the assault groups. Most were to serve as observers, but some were slated to fight directly alongside the Commandos. For Darby’s men, it was the chance to prove themselves in real battle and learn how to fight the Germans.
The raid began on Aug. 19, 1942. Almost immediately, things went south. No. 3 Commando’s flotilla, with 40 Rangers aboard, ran directly into a German naval convoy just before dawn. In the engagement that followed, several landing craft were sunk or scattered, and the assault was aborted. But seven boats never received the cancellation order and pushed toward the beach under fire.
Among those pressing ahead were seven Rangers led by 2nd Lt. Edward V. Loustalot of Franklin, Louisiana. When the British captain in command was cut down, Loustalot took lead of the surviving troops. He urged his men up the steep cliffs at Berneval under mortar and machine-gun fire. Wounded three times, he was finally killed as he tried to suppress a German gun position. Loustalot was the first American soldier to die in ground combat in the European theater.
Two other Rangers also fell that day: 2nd Lt. Joseph H. Randall and Technician 4th Grade Howard M. Henry. Fighting on the main beaches alongside Canadian units, they were caught in the slaughter as machine guns swept the shingle and tanks bogged down in the surf.
Elsewhere, four Rangers attached to No. 4 Commando went ashore west of Dieppe at Varengeville. In one of the raid’s only successes, the Commandos and Rangers stormed the Hess Battery, a German position with six 155 mm guns. They destroyed the artillery and neutralized the crews before evacuating on time.
By the time the battered force withdrew, three Rangers were dead, three captured, and five wounded. Of the 50 Rangers who took part, only about 15 even made it to the beach.
Combat Lessons for the Army Rangers
Dieppe was a disaster for the Allies—over 3,000 men killed, wounded, or captured in just a few hours, mostly Canadians. The Rangers saw firsthand how poor coordination between sea, air, and land could doom an assault. Naval firepower was too light to break fortified positions. Air support was ineffective. Tanks were destroyed at sea or stuck on the beach. Radio communications broke down almost immediately.
For the Rangers, the lessons were apparent: mass frontal assaults against a fortified port were suicide. Small-unit surprise, demolitions, and precise objectives worked far better. They saw how cliff assaults had to be rehearsed and supported, how portable firepower like bazookas and demolitions were essential, and how sea and air coordination had to be flawless.
Dieppe gave the Rangers their first martyrs—Loustalot, Randall, and Henry—but also their first combat credibility. They had fought the Germans, taken losses, and learned lessons they would carry into every mission that followed.
Army Rangers at Sicily, Salerno, and Anzio
Darby’s Rangers carried those lessons into the Mediterranean. In July 1943, three Ranger battalions spearheaded the landings at Gela, Sicily. They captured the port and held it under counterattack from Italian tanks until naval gunfire blasted the armor off the field. It was exactly the kind of coordination missing at Dieppe.
At Salerno two months later, Rangers scaled cliffs in night landings west of the main beaches. Their seizure of the high ground blocked German armor from crushing the beachhead, holding off repeated counterattacks until reinforcements arrived.
The price came at Anzio. In January 1944, the 1st and 3rd Ranger Battalions pushed deep behind enemy lines toward Cisterna. By morning, they were surrounded by German troops and tanks. Cut off from artillery and armor, nearly the entire force was killed or captured. Survivors described the fighting as hand-to-hand until they had nothing left. The catastrophe was similar to Dieppe—poor coordination, isolation, and frontal assaults—but this again hardened the force.
The Rangers Return to France
On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Rangers once more led the way into France. At Omaha Beach, the 2nd and 5th Battalions fought through fire even worse than Dieppe. Troops were pinned down, tanks were stuck, commanders dead, and communication breaking down. Another Ranger defeat on the French beaches seemed certain.
Brig. Gen. Norman Cota paced the beach, urging his hesitant survivors toward the cliffs. Upon encountering the Rangers, he famously yelled: “Rangers, lead the way!” — words that later became their official motto. The Rangers and other survivors managed to breach Omaha Beaches’ defenses, allowing reinforcements to land and break out into Normandy.
Meanwhile, Lt. Col. James Rudder’s 2nd Battalion scaled the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc with ropes and rocket-fired grappling hooks, techniques drilled and perfected since Dieppe had shown the danger of cliff assaults under fire. They destroyed the 155 mm guns aimed at Omaha and Utah beaches and held off German counterattacks for two days, though fewer than 75 of the 225 men were still fit to fight when relieved.
By the end of WWII the following spring, the Army rangers had played a vital role in the destruction of the Axis forces. Darby was later killed in action fighting in Italy. However, the lessons his men learned at Dieppe and throughout the war molded the force into what it is today: a light-infantry, direct-action force capable of tackling the U.S. Army’s toughest objectives.
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