Sited on a high rocky headland jutting out into the sea four miles to the west of Omaha beach, Pointe du Hoc would be a tough nut to crack. Protected to seaward by near-vertical cliffs and, on the land side, by a web of intricate defences, to take it would need a crack unit. The task was given to three companies of the US 2nd Ranger Battalion and on the morning of 6 June 1944 the Rangers would need to call on all of their elite training.

Scaling the 90-foot cliffs under impossible odds and relentless enemy fire, the Rangers found and destroyed the German guns trained directly onto the landing beaches. The men now had to hold their ground enduring ferocious fighting for almost two days before reinforcements could get through.

In one of the most dramatic depictions of the assault, Simon Smith portrays the men of Dog Company as they unleash a withering volley of return fire, forcing the Germans to retreat.