(dramatic music) (narrator) Throughout World War II, one unit came to define elite military excellence in the American Army.

(George) This big German cut loose with a submachine gun and he killed my second-in-command.

(gunshots firing) We got the guy and put him away.

(narrator) Superb warriors pushed to the limits in the most difficult missions ever conceived.

(Edwin) The 1st, 3rd, and 4th Ranger Battalions were practically wiped out.

(gunshots firing) (narrator) From assaulting African beaches to clearing the mountains of Italy, and scaling French cliffs... (Jack) We was under all kind of fire.

They was coming on us pretty fast.

♪ (narrator) ...always leading the way, they are the US Army's 1st Special Forces, the Rangers.

♪ (gunshots firing) (ominous music) (blasting) An extraordinary war demanded extraordinary soldiers.

♪ (veteran) Oh, we were good, we were very good.

The best there was.

(gunshots firing) (narrator) Forged into elite bands of brothers... (veteran) You were fighting for your buddy.

You didn't wanna let them down.

(narrator) ...by facing the trials of war together.

(veteran) They attacked us up through the vapor trails and butchered us up pretty good.

(whirring) (narrator) These are the stories of the Second World War's most famous fighting formations... (blasting) ...and their journey through tragedy and triumph... (Tony) The German commander said, "I've never seen any people as brave as yours."

(narrator) ...to earn their battle honors.

(gunshot firing) ♪ (intense music) The 30th of January, 1944.

♪ Cisterna in the Italian hills.

♪ The men of the US Army Rangers approach with great stealth.

♪ What they do not know is that the armored units of the battle-hardened Hermann Göring Panzer Division lie in wait.

Suddenly, uh, all hell broke loose.

(blasting) We had some poor intelligence reports and there were more troops around than we had anticipated.

(narrator) The Americans have walked into an ambush.

(George) The Germans just let 'em come, and then they just took the whole unit.

(narrator) 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.

(blasting) This will be the defining moment in their war.

(gunshots firing) (foghorn blowing) (contemplative music) When America entered the global conflict in December 1941, their army lacked any special forces.

♪ Britain's experience had proven the value of elite, hard-hitting soldiers.

♪ A new American unit would be modeled on the superb British Commandos.

(announcer) Running, jumping, rough, and ready soldiers of our army's Commando-like Rangers rush through an obstacle course designed for real toughness.

(Flint) The reputation of the US 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.

(announcer) The kind of training that makes men soldiers and the kind of soldiers who win their fights.

(Jon) US 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.

(suspenseful music) (narrator) Only the very best soldiers were invited to join this new crack unit.

♪ (voice actor) 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.

♪ (Flint) 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.

(Charles) 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, "Well, what do I gotta do?"

He says, "Well, you don't have to do anything."

He says, "I already signed you up."

(narrator) For weeks, 2,000 infantrymen went through a grueling selection process at Carrickfergus in Northern Ireland.

(Jon) It's physically extremely demanding.

It really does seek to get them to a peak of physical stamina and endurance.

They were put through their paces.

This was really about distance travel with weight, and then carrying out exercises.

(energetic music) (narrator) At the US Army Rangers Museum in Carrickfergus, Shirin Murphy curates a collection of original Rangers artifacts.

Among them are letters donated by Private Bob Reed, one of the original 2,000 volunteers.

(Shirin) Bob Reed 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.

(pensive music) And he talks about how it became very important for him to make it to become a Ranger.

It may have become a matter of pride.

(narrator) Every day a list was posted of men who were to be RTU'd, returned to unit.

They failed to make the cut.

(Shirin) He talks about checking the lists every day to see, you know, was he still in.

It suddenly had become really important to him that he make it through and that he become a Ranger.

(Jon) To be on that list, to be publically 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, uh, failing a school exam.

It's--it's failure.

(cheering) (narrator) Bob Reed was one of the 600 who passed selection for an elite unit that still had no name.

(suspenseful music) (Charles) Well, we thought a lot of different things about rangers and everything, and then someone spoke up and says, "Hey, why not name it after Rogers's Rangers?"

Well, everyone voted on it, and so we came up with the 1st Ranger Battalion.

♪ (Flint) 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.

Uh, and I think that was the model for when the Rangers were formed for World War II.

(narrator) In the 19th of June, 1942, in Carrickfergus, the 1st Ranger Battalion of the US Army was officially activated by its new commanding officer, Captain William Orlando Darby.

(Flint) Darby was a graduate of West Point.

He was a very likeable person.

He had strong leadership qualities.

(Jon) 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.

(narrator) Now transferred to the British Commando training site in Achnacarry, Scotland, the real challenge began.

(Flint) The training was just hellish.

They trained seven days a week from before dawn until after sunset.

♪ (Jon) They were run ragged and mainly by British Commandos who openly questioned whether they were up to it and put them under an awful lot of psychological pressure.

(narrator) The level only intensified as their first action approached.

(Shirin) We have this example in the collection.

This is a training schedule.

It doesn't date from that early period, the period in Achnacarry in Scotland.

It's a bit later, it actually dates 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 five miles an hour in full pack, log drills, think Highland Scottish Games, hand-to-hand combat, obstacle courses that required a lot of stamina, and finally, when you're completely exhausted, then came the ferocious bayonet training.

(clattering) So this example, it only shows us Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and you can see it's divided up into 15-minute increments, and we can see a lot of letters here, and we have a key to these.

So the X is for Judy company, and the I, articles of war.

We have a few Ds down here as 8-mile march.

The Q's are motor range.

B: 6-mile march.

The Gs are close-ordered drill.

J is Morse code And then finally, R is 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, prunes with corn starch seems to be the chief diet.

Mess officer has the temerity to ask if we like it."

So it was a very intense training period.

(narrator) The training had been brutal.

One recruit even died in a live fire exercise.

(gunshots firing) (dramatic music) ♪ But in August 1942, the Rangers were ready for action.

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, Dieppe, a critical French port, was targeted for an amphibious raid.

It was decided by the Allies that they needed to run-- well, uh, I'd--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.

(blasting) (intense music) ♪ (narrator) A raid grew to epic proportions with nearly 5,000 Canadian troops and over 1,000 British, supported by more than 230 warships and 74 Allied squadrons, now joined by 50 US Army Rangers, the first Americans to see ground combat in Europe.

♪ The Rangers were attached to the British No.

4 Commando, and Orange Beach became their designated landing point.

(creaking) The Rangers would help to neutralize six 150-millimeter guns.

♪ (blasting) The combined force landed near the battery, advancing under intense fire before destroying the artillery pieces.

(gunshots firing) Less than three hours after landing, they withdrew.

Their part of the raid had been a success.

♪ (somber music) The rest quickly became a disaster.

A surprise was lost when the landing fleet was engaged by a passing German convoy and hidden clifftop guns.

The bodies of the British and Canadian troops were piled high.

♪ (sloshing) (Flint) 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.

(sloshing) (narrator) 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.

♪ (suspenseful music) But lessons were learned, particularly the need for a mass shore bombardment before amphibious assaults, and the effectiveness of targeted special forces.

(Jon) 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 gold dust.

(narrator) 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.

(Shirin) Dieppe was a disaster, but it was also a highly publicized first aggression, and so it was being talked about back in the UK.

And apparently fights broke out in pubs, um, between--well, between Rangers, between those who had been there and those who hadn't, and so 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--and a little bit crude, and there was no standardization.

And so after the Dieppe, the Rangers were authorized to wear these shoulder scrolls on their left shoulder.

This is the Rangers' badge of honor.

This is something that says, "They were a Ranger, they were there."

(ominous music) (narrator) The Rangers' new badge came without heraldry.

No lions, eagles, or daggers.

For them it was all in the name, the Rangers.

(Jon) What it means to be a US 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.

(dramatic music) (narrator) 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.

(blasting) ♪ (narrator) A textbook special forces mission, and another praise-winning success.

(Flint) As the Allies pushed further into Northern Africa, the Rangers were always at the forefront.

Darby and his men liked to conduct night raids when they could close in on an enemy position without them knowing about it.

(narrator) By early 1943, they had even started to terrify their Axis foes.

(blasting) Darby's next target was Sened Railway Station, a key outpost in Tunisia and base for the elite 10th Bersaglieri regiment.

(blasting) (Jon) They were the cream of the Italian infantry, almost to say they were the Rangers 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.

(narrator) To be effective, special forces, such as Rangers, need compact small arms that pack a mighty punch... (gunshot firing) ...even if borrowed from Chicago's gangsters.

(dramatic music) ♪ 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: (Roy) They've gotta know that they had been worked over by Rangers.

Every man is to use his bayonet as much as he can.

Those are our orders.

(footsteps clopping) (Flint) It was going to be an all-night, over-land march on foot to sneak up on the enemy.

(tense music) One of the Italian sentries heard men coming.

Well, that was kinda the signal for the Rangers to charge.

(blasting) ♪ (James) We swarmed over them, grenading, bayonetting, shooting, screaming.

The Italians never had a chance.

We worked them over furiously, giving no quarter.

It was sickening, brutal, inhuman.

(Flint) From that time on, the Italians referred to the Rangers as the 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.

(Jon) They really start building this legend of the Rangers.

This idea of getting close with the enemy, of not killing them at distance, but--but, you know, grabbing them by the belt buckle and physically ramming a bayonet into their guts.

(footsteps clopping) (narrator) The Rangers quickly killed dozens of Italians and lost one man.

This wasn't just a raid, it was a rout.

Darby was awarded the Silver Star with 11 other Rangers.

And by May 1943, their victories had convinced the US Army to expand the Ranger force.

(Jon) 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 got one Ranger Battalion, great, let's form another, the 2nd, let's form another, the 3rd, the 4th, the 5th.

(narrator) The new 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions began training in the US, with the expanded 1st, 3rd, and 4th now targeting Sicily.

(intense music) On the 10th of July, 1943, they landed at Gela, leading the seventh US Army's invasion of the island... (blasting) ...now preceded by a vast shore barrage, one of the hard-won lessons from Dieppe.

♪ (William) I never realized naval gunfire could be so accurate.

(blasting) In ever battery position we found at least one gun with a direct hit and at least one stack of ammunition blown.

♪ (narrator) Facing stiff opposition on Italian soil... (gunshots firing) ...they cleared the coastal defenses, stormed Gela, and defeated armored counterattacks with great prowess.

♪ (Jack) We was under all kind of fire.

Stay close to the ground if you could.

We really didn't have time to dig in 'cause they was coming on us pretty fast.

(narrator) United as Force X, the Rangers became the shock troops for the drive through Sicily.

(whirring) 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.

Shore 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.

(blasting) (Wayne) 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.

(George) First time in combat I didn't know what the hell was going on.

(blasting) And this big German cut loose with a submachine gun, and he--he killed my second in command.

He was right behind me.

(exploding) We got the guy and put him away.

(narrator) 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.

(Shirin) 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 in the letter, he says, "You'll probably get some notice from the War Department, so this enclosure will let you know what it's all about."

And then at the end of the letter he says, "Please don't write to me at this address until you hear from me and get a new one, as I have been transferred again to a much better place by the way."

(narrator) As it turns out, Italy would be Private Reed's last frontline campaign.

(Shirin) At the time he couldn't really say where he was going or what he was doing 'cause of censorship, but later on he has added his own notes to the letter.

So he circled "notice," and he's put, "Award of Silver Star," and when he talks about "a much better place," he's referring to coming home.

He's written, "U.S.A." (narrator) Lieutenant Colonel Darby was praised for leading a mixed Allied force as well as the Rangers.

(Shirin) This is dated 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 operation north of Salerno.

Given a command consisting of a number of different British and American units which had never previously served together, you speedily made of them a 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 have the genuine gratitude of the officers and men of the 5th Army for the splendid job you are doing."

And it's signed by Mark W. Clark, Lieutenant General, USA.

(suspenseful music) ♪ (narrator) 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 overambitious amphibious landing.

Its aim was to flank the Gustav Line.

♪ Reinforced positions that blocked their advance.

♪ It was a very, very heavily fortified defensive set of fortifications that used the best of Italy's geography.

The mountain ranges, the difficult 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 around it."

(narrator) A vast armada assembled for the landings.

And as they had done in Algeria and again in Sicily, the Rangers led the way.

(booming) (Edwin) The beachhead went relatively easy the first two days until they realized what had happened, and then we got a lot of resistance.

(narrator) The Germans reacted very quickly, using a significant force to trap the Allies in the landing zone.

(clanking) We were on the beachhead from the 22nd of January until the 30th of January, when the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Ranger Battalion went through the enemy lines.

(narrator) To lead the breakout, the Rangers infiltrated toward Cisterna, led by the 1st and 3rd Battalions, with the 4th as reinforcements.

(Edwin) That was our object, to capture Cisterna, which had a road that was going south that was critical for the Germans.

(dramatic music) (narrator) But as they advanced, the 4th immediately ran into trouble... (blasting) ...as the 1st and 3rd were hit by the Hermann Göring Panzer Division.

(Jon) 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 sea, and the two met head on.

♪ (Edwin) When we got on the outskirts of Cisterna, we did get that far, suddenly, uh, all hell broke loose.

(blasting) We had some poor intelligence reports, and there were more troops around than we had anticipated.

(blasting) (Flint) They didn't realize that the Germans had somehow gotten wind of this attack, and so the Rangers were ambushed as they moved towards Cisterna, 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-- were just torn to shreds.

(exploding) ♪ (George) I heard something coming down the mountain, it hit my arm, my left arm, it went off, it's a grenade.

(narrator) Casualties mounted as ammunition dwindled.

The 1st and 3rd Rangers were now surrounded... ♪ ...as the 4th made increasingly desperate attempts to break through the Panzers.

(whirring) The Rangers fought heroically.

They did not turn tail 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 had no hope of relief, and their fellow Americans tried to get through to them, but there was no way that was going to be achieved.

(George) They never got there-- the Germans just let 'em come, and then they just took the whole unit.

(Edwin) The 1st, 3rd, and 4th Ranger Battalions were practically wiped out, either killed or taken prisoner.

(grim music) (Flint) 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, uh, he just put his head down on-- on his arms and cried because so many of his men who were lost.

And this was basically the end of the Rangers in Italy, and, uh--and Darby's association with them.

(narrator) Of his 767 men in the 1st and 3rd Rangers, only 6 managed to escape death or capture.

The battered 4th Battalion was now broken up.

A sad end to an illustrious band of brothers.

♪ (Lester) I was with Colonel Darby when the 1st and 3rd 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.

♪ (dramatic music) (narrator) Now it was left to the untested 2nd and 5th Battalions to carry the Rangers' war in the European theater.

Since 1943, they had been training in the United States, and then England, for what would be the largest seaborne invasion ever launched: D-Day.

♪ On the 6th of June, 1944, over 150,000 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 US Omaha and Utah Beaches was a promontory called Pointe du Hoc, 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.

(Flint) 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.

(narrator) Pointe du Hoc is part of Hitler's massive Atlantic Wall defenses, running all along the French coast.

(ominous music) (Jon) 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."

♪ Pointe du Hoc 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 100 feet, and then on the top they were crowned with barbed wire, mines, and then once on top there you had to actually fight your way through the battery position, where there were pillboxes, machine gun positions.

(narrator) This seemingly impossible task fell to three companies of the 2nd Rangers led by Lieutenant General 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.

♪ (James) You were ready to go.

You didn't have a fear at that time.

You're thinking, "Boy, this is what we-- that's what we're here for, it's what you're trained for."

(narrator) Rudder led 225 men in the landing craft.

♪ (James) You couldn't see anything, you know, and the guys that wanna stick their head up and see what's going on, and they always told 'em, they said, "Keep your heads down," you know.

And then all of a sudden it becomes silent.

There was no--no talking at all.

(blasting) (intense music) (narrator) As the Allied warships and rocket launchers battled against the vast shore defenses... (whirring) ...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 Pointe du Hoc with over 600 tons of bombs... (exploding) ...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 Pointe du Hoc.

(whirring) (James) We got lost.

We were supposed to land on one side of the point and they did get lost.

(whooshing) (narrator) To help scale the 30-meter cliffs, the Rangers' landing craft were equipped with rocket launchers to fire steel grapnel hooks.

(blasting) 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.

(whooshing) (James) They shot them up, and then some guys would go up this rough area, which would probably be maybe 25, 30 feet, and then they would have ladders, and they're going the rest of the way, but the ladders were so small and so narrow that it wasn't too practical.

(blasting) (gunshots firing) (ominous music) (Flint) Fighting their way up these ladders and ropes with Germans shooting down on them, throwing grenades, I have no idea how anybody made it to the top.

(gunshots firing) But eventually after several long, bloody minutes, the 1st Rangers got to the top and began crawling over and engaging the Germans up there.

(gunshots firing) Thought of climbing a rope for 100 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 is a truly remarkable feat.

(James) 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 that we were mostly all up there.

(dramatic music) ♪ (Flint) 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--they had taken terrible attrition.

(narrator) But despite this appalling cost, the surviving Rangers were horrified to find the huge gunning placements empty.

(Jon) The incredible thing was when the Germans had moved the guns in the days before the invasion with a view to upgrading the Point du Hoc facility as a military site.

So 2nd Battalion spread out, continued 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, and that gun battery was nullified, and it was a hugely successful operation, although perhaps not how they'd originally intended.

(narrator) Meanwhile Lieutenant Colonel Schneider led the rest of the 2nd Battalion and all of the 5th Rangers.

They had been waiting for the signal to reinforce the attack.

(Victor) We were circling when Colonel Schneider says, "I don't see any red flares."

6:00 comes, 6:15, no red flares, so that told us that the colonel in the 2nd Battalion had been successful in climbing the cliff.

So now we went over and we were gonna hit Omaha Beach.

(solemn music) My colonel is the only one that has binoculars.

He's the only one that's been in combat, so I'm standing right behind him.

He looks on the beach and he says, "Oh, damn!"

He says, "This is the hottest beach I've ever seen."

And we were going right into these 88s and machine guns.

(blasting) ♪ (narrator) Schneider's force comprised two units from the 2nd Battalion.

♪ One hit a heavily defended part of Omaha Beach soon after the 29th Infantry Division.

♪ (blasting) By the time they reached the cliffs, over half these Rangers were casualties.

(Flint) 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.

Uh, people dying left and right, being torn in half by munitions, total confusion, nobody knows where they are.

♪ (narrator) The other company had it even worse.

(gunshots firing) Of their 68 Rangers, only 27 reached the limited shelter of the sea wall just up the beach.

(blasting) Meanwhile Lieutenant Colonel Schneider and the 5th Rangers entered the maelstrom.

(James) The scene on the beach was almost unbelievable.

Shells of all kinds were hitting the water's edge.

Dead and wounded lay in the water and across the sand.

Those that could struggled to crawl out of the water before the advancing tide.

On all sides the wounded were screaming for medics.

(narrator) The survivors rallied, and when the 29th's Brigadier General Cota heard they were Rangers, he issued his most famous order.

(Norman) 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 5th Ranger Battalion which was coming from the east, led by Brigadier General Norman D. Cota, who was the bravest man that I ever saw in my life.

Very, very brave.

(intense music) (narrator) Still a coherent force, the 5th Rangers quickly deployed in a typically aggressive manner, storming the overlooking cliffs with their deadly gunning placements and helping to rally the battered 29th Division.

(Jon) One of the reasons that the US Army Rangers exceled is the ability for the individuals within it to think for themselves.

When things are unexpected, to adapt to those circumstances.

The individuals of units that do that and do that successfully that mark themselves out, uh, and that--that is one of the cornerstones of--of Ranger success.

(narrator) The Rangers led the way for just under three kilometers to the town of Vierville-sur-Mer, where they helped resist the heavy German counterattacks.

(somber music) The Allies had won a foothold in France, but at a great cost.

(James) And we know after the headcount-- they usually take a headcount, you know, after things settled down, and we were short quite a few.

(narrator) Between the 6th and the 8th of June, nearly half of the 2nd Ranger Battalion became casualties.

♪ At Point du Hoc, they lost 135 of the 225 men.

♪ (sloshing) (somber music) Throughout the Normandy campaign, the Rangers remained in action, and then fought their way through Northern France and into Belgium.

(blasting) They were instrumental in taking one of the key French ports at the Battle of Brest.

♪ But by late 1944, the Allied advance stumbled against a massive natural barrier: The Hürtgen Forest.

♪ A thickly wooded area along the border between Belgium and Germany, it's part of Siegfried 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.

(Jon) 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 fighting had been toing and froing over it for weeks.

The Americans determined to take it and the Rangers were the--the perfect, uh, you know vehicle for that.

(ominous music) ♪ (narrator) Over the proceeding three months, this brutal meat grinder had chewed up several infantry units.

(whirring) Another impossible job for the Rangers.

(Flint) They were given the assignment because they were a small enough unit, they could close with the position without attracting a lot of attention.

So they moved up, uh, 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 gonna let this go easily.

(narrator) With some of Hitler's most experienced veterans ready to counterattack.

Fallschirmjägers, the German paratroops were to--were, you know, as--as tough as any of the elite forces that the Americans and British had.

(gunshots firing) It was a very difficult attack.

A number of Rangers were killed or wounded.

The Germans would counterattack as the Rangers took over certain areas of Hill 400.

The Germans would fall back and then attack them again.

(exploding) (Leonard) Counterattacks on hill all afternoon.

Very heavy artillery.

Only 25 able-bodied men left.

Help needed badly, are surrounded.

(narrator) Over two days the Germans launched several brutal counterattacks.

But the Rangers held until relieved by the US 8th Infantry Division.

(intense music) It had been a bloody battle.

(blasting) But where others had failed, the Rangers had succeeded in capturing and holding the most strategically important point in the Hürtgen 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.

(dramatic music) (narrator) Now attached to different US infantry divisions, the Rangers provided an elite rapid response capability.

♪ (Jon) There was a concern that the Nazis would set up a defiant last rid out in the Alps, and that there were tens of thousands of diehard SS troops who were based there with the latest weaponry, and the fighting could go on for years.

(narrator) The feared Nazi guerilla resistance never materialized.

And by the time VE Day came in May 1945, what remained of the Rangers had reached Czechoslovakia.

(whirring) And their founding father, Colonel Darby, had already left the Pentagon to rejoin the fight.

♪ Typical of the man that--that even then, um, he was constantly badgering, um, his superiors to--to get back over to Europe and get back in the fight.

(whirring) (narrator) In March 1945, he returned to Italy and led Task Force Darby... (solemn music) ...formed from the US 10th Mountain Division.

♪ But barely a week before the end of the war, as he addressed his men, a German shell burst near by... (blasting) ...killing William Orlando Darby.

♪ So this is a letter dated 5th of May, 1945, and it's sent to Darby's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Percy W. Darby, and it's 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. and Mrs. Darby, I am writing to you concerning your son Colonel William O. Darby.

I fully realize the distress you have suffered since receiving the sad announcement of your son's death, and I know you are 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 in your bereavement.

Yours sincerely, J.A.

Ulio."

♪ (narrator) Shortly after his death, Darby was posthumously promoted to the rank of Brigadier General by President Truman.

(Jon) His legacy with the Rangers is difficult to measure.

Would the US Rangers have even existed in the Second World War without him?

Perhaps.

Um, would they have achieved anything like what they did?

I--I doubt.

Leaders like Darby are rare.

He really did lead from the front and help inspire the reputation which the Rangers hold to this day.

Truly inspirational leader.

(uplifting music) (narrator) Darby 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 US 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.

♪ (bright music)