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Why were the German gun casemates at Pointe du Hoc empty when the Rangers reached them?
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Omaha Beach
U.S. infantrymen wading from their landing craft toward Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
When U.S. Army Rangers scaled the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc on D-Day, they discovered that the reinforced-concrete casemates were empty of the expected 155-mm artillery pieces.
The guns had been moved approximately 500 metres (550 yards) inland from the casemates. A two-man Ranger patrol later discovered the artillery pieces, which were already zeroed in on Utah Beach, along with a German force of about 100 men nearby. The Rangers successfully destroyed the guns' mechanisms using thermite grenades, rendering them inoperable.1