Ronald Reagan made the 2nd Ranger Battalion famous with his 1984 “Boys of Pointe Du Hoc” speech. There, he extolled the exploits of the Rangers who scaled those heights on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Ever since, many believe that the Rangers started and ended their World War II efforts on that day in June.
In fact, the battalion faced challenges throughout 1944. “The Last Hill: The Epic Story of a Ranger Battalion and the Battle That Defined WWII,” by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, shows that D-Day was just the start of the Battalion’s World War II combat.
Their greatest challenge came six months later, in December 1944, at the Battle of Hurtgen Forest. The battalion’s 512 men were ordered to take and hold Castle Hill, a 1,320-foot-tall, flat-topped mound that once held a medieval castle. The key to the Hurtgen battlefield was several Wehrmacht regiments defending the hill. Holding it was critical to Germany’s upcoming Ardennes offensive. The U.S. 28th Infantry Division, 30 times larger than the Ranger unit, had tried and failed to take it.
Drury and Clavin show why U.S. Army commanders assigned the job to the Rangers: It was based on the unit’s earlier performances. The book covers the 2nd Ranger Battalion’s history throughout the war.
The authors start by presenting the battalion’s initial organization and training in the United States. They show how the arrival of Lt. Col. James Rudder changed everything. Rudder, a Texas A&M graduate and pre-war football coach, transformed the trainees from a collection of oddballs into a finely-honed combat unit. The book follows the Rangers to Europe, showing their combat exploits between June and December 1944. They fought at D-Day and helped liberate the fortified French port of Brest before going on to Hurtgen Forest.
The heart of the book is their struggle for Castle Hill. The Rangers arrived at Hurtgen Forest on November 14 and fought for a month. Of the 130 Rangers that occupied the hill, only 16 came out the other side uninjured. “The Last Hill” offers readers a gripping account of men in battle—one that will keep you reading until the end. Drury and Clavin provide a poignant reminder of why the soldiers who fought in World War II have been called the Greatest Generation.
