A brief history of the 5th Ranger Battalion

While the 2nd Rangers trained hard in the summer heat and humidity of Tennessee, Allied planners in England realized that another battalion of assault troops was needed for the D-Day invasion. This led to the formation of the the 5th Ranger Battalion, which was activated on 1st September 1943 at Camp Forrest, Tennessee.

 

Since the unit had to be in England by the beginning of 1944, the 5th Ranger training in the United States was compressed. “The training was ten times more intense than training with the infantry. We were physically stretched to our limits and not all men passed.” In November 1943, the battalion began two weeks of amphibious training at the U.S. Navy Scout and Raiders School at Fort Pierce, Florida.

 

In January 1944, now in England the 5th Rangers were thrust into a demanding pre-invasion training. Unbeknownst to the men the planned invasion of Europe was just four months away. After two months of arduous training the unit moved by rail and ship to Scotland for British Commando training.

 

It was this training in Scotland that the Rangers believe brought them through the invasion of France and all the difficult assignments that followed. Amphibious assault landings, cliff climbing and rappelling were practiced daily. At the end of the days training the Rangers were quartered in a hotel on the top of an eighty-foot cliff. “We arrived at the beautiful wide front steps, our battalion commander told us that we would use those stairs only once. At first none of us knew what he meant, but we soon found out. My men and I were quartered on the third floor in two rooms. In each room near the window was a coil of rope tied to a pipe. We were instructed to throw the rope out of the window, then rappel down the wall of the building to the yard, run across the yard, climb over an iron picket fence, and rappel down an eighty-foot cliff to the beach below.”

 

After just a few weeks of cliff climbing and rappelling, the 5th Rangers joined the 2nd Rangers to finalize preparations for the coming invasion.

 

During the Battle of Normandy, the Battalion landed on Omaha Beach along with Companies A, B and C of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, where elements of the 29th Infantry Division were pinned down by murderous machine gun fire and mortars from the heights above. It was there that the situation was so critical that General Omar Bradley was seriously considering abandoning the beachhead, instead of sending more men to die. It was then and there that General Norman Cota, Assistant Division Commander of the 29th Infantry Division, gave the now famous order that has become the iconic motto of the the unit:

 

“Rangers Lead The Way!”

 

The 5th Ranger Battalion was active from 1st September 1943 to 22nd October 1945 and took part in the Battle of Huertgen Forest, Battle of the Bulge and other tough battles throughout central Europe, earning two Distinguished Unit Citations and the French Croix de Guerre.