Maisy Battery and Ponte du Hoc
Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2026 4:28 pm
Was going through the channels and found a programme about the Maisy Battery in Normandy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maisy_battery
According to wiki
The battery is located 3.58 miles (5.76 km) from Pointe du Hoc, a key objective for the US Rangers during D-Day, and approximately 7 miles from the western-most boundary of Omaha Beach proper. The battery was garrisoned by elements of the 352nd and 716th Infantry and Artillery Divisions, plus Flak Regiment No. 1 consisting of twelve 88-mm anti-aircraft artillery pieces sent to protect the battery shortly before D-Day on 5 June 1944
he batteries at Maisy were D-Day mission objective Number 6 as given to Colonel James Rudder in his Operation Neptune intelligence and US 1st Infantry Division orders. However, he did not brief his men to carry out the mission to Maisy. Historian Gary Sterne, in a book published in 2014, suggests that Rudder disobeyed orders calling on him to continue to Maisy after taking Pointe du Hoc. The Rangers stayed at Pointe du Hoc for some days until relieved, which kept them from completing their D-day orders and away from the Maisy site - as well as the D-day Phase Line which was their main target for the evening of 6 June. This allowed the guns at Maisy to continue to shell troops in both the Omaha Beach and Utah Beach sectors for three days after the landings. Rudder always claimed that his orders called on him to hold the highway against a possible counterattack against Pointe du Hoc, but Sterne and subsequent historians could not find any such order in the US National Archives.
The battery continued in operation for three days and when it was finally captured, the Allies litteraly buried it to the extent that locals did not know it was there.
It was 'rediscovered' in 2004.
What was the reason do people think for its burial....embarrassment it continued in operation??
Its not as if all the planned objectives were taken but I dont think they were buried once taken??
Of a ploy by Sterne to promote the site and his book?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maisy_battery
According to wiki
The battery is located 3.58 miles (5.76 km) from Pointe du Hoc, a key objective for the US Rangers during D-Day, and approximately 7 miles from the western-most boundary of Omaha Beach proper. The battery was garrisoned by elements of the 352nd and 716th Infantry and Artillery Divisions, plus Flak Regiment No. 1 consisting of twelve 88-mm anti-aircraft artillery pieces sent to protect the battery shortly before D-Day on 5 June 1944
he batteries at Maisy were D-Day mission objective Number 6 as given to Colonel James Rudder in his Operation Neptune intelligence and US 1st Infantry Division orders. However, he did not brief his men to carry out the mission to Maisy. Historian Gary Sterne, in a book published in 2014, suggests that Rudder disobeyed orders calling on him to continue to Maisy after taking Pointe du Hoc. The Rangers stayed at Pointe du Hoc for some days until relieved, which kept them from completing their D-day orders and away from the Maisy site - as well as the D-day Phase Line which was their main target for the evening of 6 June. This allowed the guns at Maisy to continue to shell troops in both the Omaha Beach and Utah Beach sectors for three days after the landings. Rudder always claimed that his orders called on him to hold the highway against a possible counterattack against Pointe du Hoc, but Sterne and subsequent historians could not find any such order in the US National Archives.
The battery continued in operation for three days and when it was finally captured, the Allies litteraly buried it to the extent that locals did not know it was there.
It was 'rediscovered' in 2004.
What was the reason do people think for its burial....embarrassment it continued in operation??
Its not as if all the planned objectives were taken but I dont think they were buried once taken??
Of a ploy by Sterne to promote the site and his book?