American Troops on their Way to the British Dock before D-Day

American troops of the 2nd Ranger Battalion march through Weymouth, a southern English coastal town, on their way to the docks where they will be loaded into landing craft for the big assault on D-Day, June 1944. The massive concrete cliff-top gun emplacement at Pointe du Hoc was the target of the 2nd Ranger battalion, commanded by James Earl Rudder. The task was to scale the 30 meter (100 ft) cliffs under enemy fire with ropes and ladders, and then attack and destroy the guns, which were thought to command the Omaha and Utah landing areas. The Ranger commanders did not know that the guns had been moved prior to the attack, and they had to press farther inland to find them but eventually destroyed them. However, the beach fortifications themselves were still vital targets since a single artillery forward observer based there could have called down accurate fire on the U.S. beaches. The Rangers were eventually successful, and captured the fortifications. They then had to fight for 2 days to hold the location, losing more than 60% of their men

Source:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Operation_Overlord