With his firm grip on the tiller of strategy and secrecy, the Allies stormed France on June 6, 1944, on the way to victory over the Nazis 11 months later.
What many of us don’t know is a mighty hero in Ike’s ranks.
His name was James Earl Rudder, an Army lieutenant colonel whose scaling of the Pointe du Hoc cliffs helped turn the tide of the biggest amphibious invasion in history.
Omar Bradley, Ike’s top general at Normandy, knew exactly Rudder’s crucial role, writing: "No soldier in my command has ever been wished a more difficult task than that which befell the 34-year-old commander of the Provisional Ranger Force."
Rudder’s triumph high above the northwest coast of France was an uppercut to the Germans from the west as the Russians rushed from the east.
Patrick O’Donnell, author of the Ranger-filled "Dog Company," is in awe of Rudder: "Pure leadership. He was a leader of men. He had mental toughness. He was determined. It was in his DNA. And to think the whole operation might not have succeeded if he had not been there."
Douglas Brinkley, author of "The Boys of Pointe du Hoc," put it this way: "James Rudder was the best of the U.S. military tradition. As an officer, he was one with his men. He was the perfect leader. This was a man who went on a suicide mission, and it’s one of the most remarkable stories of World War II. He told his men they had a 50% chance of making it alive. And when his superiors told him not to go himself, he insisted. No way would he send them on that mission and not put his own life on the line."
Thomas Hatfield, author of "Rudder: From Leader to Legend," also raves: "He was one of the greatest citizen soldiers. The greatest, of course, was George Washington, who left the Army after the Revolution and returned to farming. Rudder was a reservist. He didn’t make the Army a career. He wanted to return to civilian life for two reasons: an attachment to his mother and an attachment to Texas, to ranching. He was a man of the soil."