Major William Darby (James Garner), a staff officer, gets command of the 1st Ranger Battalion, to be formed entirely from volunteers. The Americans made their way to the cover of mountains 12 miles away, and eventually to the French outpost, now guarded by British armored cars. The Rangers would attack the pass as a spearhead for a battalion of the 26th Regimental Combat Team. He was always very proud of his part but he never spoke of the war. Mortar tubes and their bases clanked, but the hard-breathing Rangers moved silently. Some of the Rangers hurled themselves onto the tanks, exploding them—and themselves—with sticky grenades. The Rangers filed across the plateau around midnight. Darby tried to lift his weary men’s spirits with good food, wine, whiskey, dances, movies, and USO shows, and Father Basil returned to conduct Masses for them, at the same time good-naturedly fining them for their soldierly profanity. Altieri was known to Warner Brothers, as he had been technical advisor on Force of Arms (1951). Ranger James Altieri’s books, in particular, the “Spearheaders”, provide historical perspective to his life. Bagpipes of the Cameron Highlanders’ band sounded the call to battle, and the Americans were greeted by Lt. Col. Charles Vaughan, a burly, ruddy-cheeked British Army officer. The Americans destroyed six cannon and a dozen machine guns and gained useful information from the prisoners about enemy dispositions in Tunisia. The 1st, 3rd, and 4th Battalions formed the Ranger force. The Army felt that Ranger operations led to heavy losses of excellent soldiers that the Army thought would be better employed leading regular infantry units. As Darby’s Rangers slogged through the dusty little towns and villages, they perfected the art of house-to-house fighting. In Philadelphia, that Darby Ranger was Captain Edward Haywood, US Army retired, 1941 to 1961, deceased 1990. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Darby%27s_Rangers&oldid=984190701, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Darby's Rangers: An Illustrated Portrayal of the Original Rangers, This page was last edited on 18 October 2020, at 18:46. Warm blood spurted over Altieri’s hand, and he turned away and vomited. The band played louder, as if to encourage the GIs, and Colonel Vaughan marched steadily ahead. Cloud and La Macta, the Rangers went to assist. Next came Operation Husky, the July 1943 invasion of Sicily. The Rangers moved out on the night of March 13, 1943. Darby served with the 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, the only horse artillery regiment left in the Army, and fulfilled assignments in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, and Iowa. Promoted to major within a few weeks of receiving this assignment, Darby performed the impossible by organizing the unit. Darby was again proud of his men. The tank was demolished with a sticky grenade, and the battalion hastened to catch up with the 1st. Although the gallant action at Cisterna had helped to save the Anzio beachhead from counterattack, Darby blamed himself for the disaster. There are moments in military history that forever alter the flow of human events. The 18 wounded Americans were placed on improvised stretchers slung between rifles. William O. Darby was the founder and commanding officer of Darby’s Rangers, the first unit of the US Army Rangers. His men dug foxholes at Gafsa and waited in the olive groves while American armor and artillery units moved up. Darby commanded the 1st and 4th Battalions, Major Dammer led the 3rd, and a fourth—the 2nd Battalion—was training in the United States. Darby was now ordered to seize the pass at Djebel el Ank so that General Allen could anchor his Big Red One’s left flank on the mountain that separated the areas east and southeast of Gafsa into two battle arenas. "Rangers lead the way!" Darby and Major Dammer were assigned to force headquarters, and the 1st and 3rd Battalions were now led by Major Jack Dobson and Major Alvah Miller, respectively. In October 1940, at the age of 29, he was promoted to captain. Dammer’s men scrambled to the enemy positions and seized them one by one. Officers and men became instructors at several Army camps, and new Ranger battalions carried on the gallant tradition forged by Darby’s original units. When they climbed out of the ditch to deploy for the assault on Cisterna, the Americans were blasted on all sides from snipers, machine guns, mortars, and howitzers. Garner's original role in the film was taken by Stuart Whitman. A captured German officer stated later that the town had been reinforced on the night of January 29. It changed the world more than any other single event in history. Only their weapons and morale were still in good shape. Sniping from a stable, Corporal Franklin Koons was the first American soldier to kill a German in ground action in World War II. He was hired on condition that Warner Brothers finance his dream project, Lafayette Escadrille, about his (Wellman's) own World War I French Foreign Legion air squadron. Darby received the Distinguished Service Cross for his leadership and “extraordinary heroism.”. Red and blue streaks of fire flew into the boats, and seasick Rangers vomited and groaned. The Rangers’ mission would have been a routine one if the main Allied force had arrived on schedule, but it took three weeks before the main drive could get started through the gap to Naples. Darby listened to a sergeant send the last message from the 1st Battalion: “Some of the fellows are giving up. Many streamed from their tents, some tried to mount motorcycles and ride away, and others begged for mercy. Described by Vanity Fair editor David Friend as the “Chronicler of Cool,” American photographer Philip Stern is noted for his iconic portraits of Hollywood stars, as well as his war photography while serving as a U.S. Army Ranger in the much heralded fighting unit “Darby's Rangers,” in the North African and Italian campaigns during World War II. The moon set, and the desert became dark. “Everything he did had a purpose.” William S. Hutchinson wrote, “Darby had a vision beyond price, the first essential for any great public service, military or other. Eventually, he persuaded a Royal Navy forward observer party to signal a British destroyer, and she in turn transmitted the message to the American forces. When the fighting around Oran and Arzew ended, the Rangers felt they deserved a rest, but Colonel Darby disagreed. His executive officer, Major Dammer, made plans for the march to Gafsa. Around noon, 18 big German Tiger tanks rumbled into the town for a second counterattack, and things looked desperate for Darby’s outgunned men. Darby’s men patrolled while Allied reinforcements poured ashore and German resistance stiffened. They are coming into the building now!” Another message said, “They’re closing in, but they won’t get us cheap!”. About two miles from Cisterna, the 1st and 3rd Ranger Battalions, moving single-file, lost contact and were strung out for a mile and a half. Around midday, German tanks overran them. Around 7 am, six Italian tanks clanked into Gela. Originally, Tab Hunter was to play Lt. Dittmann, but quit before filming; Edd Byrnes replaced him. On June 19, 1942 the 1st Ranger Battalion was sanctioned, recruited, and began training with British commando units in Dundee, Scotland. By Darby’s count, there were only 87 remaining out of the original 500 Rangers who had trained at Achnacarry. Darby’s 1st Ranger Battalion officially went into action for the first time in Operation Torch, the November 1942 Allied invasion of North Africa. Darby set up a command post in the Anzio casino. The Rangers fanned out through the town, and some moved on to Nettuno. By dawn, the 4th was still short of its objective, Isola Bella. Colonel Darby wondered how the Vichy French defenders would respond to an attack by Americans and gripped his trusty Springfield rifle. Warily and with grenades ready, the Rangers moved through the darkened streets toward a fort on the town’s flank. There have been countless thousands of published works devoted to all or of it. He became a cadet company commander in his first class year, and was active in soccer, the glee club, 100th night shows, and as hop (dance) manager. 38 Altieri, The Spearheaders, 188–90; Michael J. The Americans tossed hand grenades and screamed and shouted. The Rangers returned fire immediately, but the leading Americans were killed or wounded, and Miller died. The Americans rested and then toured their new home where they were to undergo training with the legendary British Commandos. Scouts approached the town warily, and reported that it was empty. 36 Darby and Baumer, Darby’s Rangers, 55. In high school, he displayed a flair for leadership and also seemed to be a born salesman. Four companies under his command would hit the larger Batterie du Nord on a hill overlooking Arzew Bay, while the other two companies under his executive officer, Major Herman Dammer, attacked the smaller Fort de la Pointe at the harbor’s edge. Supported by mortar fire, the Americans then pushed into Gela. While the 1st and 3rd Battalions moved through the ditches, the 4th Battalion on the left flank ran into determined resistance from farm buildings, emplacements, and a roadblock. William H. Clothier's black and white cinematography blends with the stock footage, and renders the sets believable. The role of the 6615th Ranger Force, comprised of the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Ranger Battalions, in the Anzio invasion and its subsequent destruction during the battle of Cisterna is well known. Their leader was a lean, young West Pointer from Arkansas named William Orlando Darby. Virtually every stone house was a fort that had to be stormed. Darby confides to Rosen a recurring dream of being run over by an oncoming train, foreshadowing the tragic climax. On January 31, a regimental combat team fought its way up to the 4th Ranger Battalion, and together they cleared the enemy from Femina Morta. Targeted by naval gunfire, the Germans repeatedly bombarded the pass, but the command post was sturdy enough to withstand hundreds of direct artillery and mortar hits. After the Rangers completed their course, they were sent to a bleak island in the Hebrides for the “most miserable part of the training.” They endured driving rains, cold nights, and Royal Navy rations. His name was Odis Birchfield an American Indian. Joe and Battleground. Many of the original R… That September, the Eighth Army crossed the Straits of Messina to the Italian toe and started pushing up the long peninsula. Col. Darby was a career infantryman sent to Northern Ireland to help train troops preparing for Allied invasions of North Africa, Italy and eventually France. They went into bivouac, but just as they were beginning to relax, they were ordered back into the mountains. They scrambled up the slopes in the dark and in two hours approached El Guettar. The enemy counterattacked, but the Rangers and the British held firm. They moved in a column through deep irrigation ditches leading northward. ‘We held on by our fingernails,” said one Ranger. The Rangers were accompanied by a tank destroyer company, a cannon company, and the 83rd Chemical Mortar Battalion. William O. Darby was plucked from the infantry to form, train and lead an experimental unit along the lines of the British Commandos. The Germans had seen his men coming, and Darby believed that the outcome would have been different if he had been with the forward columns. Early that May, Darby, itching for action, requested a transfer. With James Garner, Etchika Choureau, Jack Warden, Edd Byrnes. The Rangers prove their worth in Operation Torch (the invasion of French North Africa), and two more Ranger battalions are formed, with Darby promoted to colonel. At 4 am, four green Very lights shot into the sky from the Batterie du Nord to inform elements of the 1st Infantry Division five miles out to sea that the forts at Arzew would not hamper their landing. They were exhausted, but the price was high: Many had contracted malaria in Sicily, and some Ranger units suffered up to 30 percent casualties. German fighter planes strafed the Americans, and a Ranger sergeant managed to shoot down a Messerschmitt 110 with his Browning Automatic Rifle. Strung along a nine-mile front, the two Ranger battalions deployed four half-track howitzers against the deadly enemy 88mm guns. The Rangers charged the Italians without cover, but were stopped by a fortified machine-gun nest. The Rangers fight successfully in Sicily. The Rangers were organized into battalions of about 500 men. [6] (Garner too would later sue Warner Brothers). Major Dammer’s battalion splashed ashore near Licata on the flank of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division. Bedded down for the night, most of the enemy had been surprised. After rehearsing for a major landing, Darby’s battalion had sailed from Glasgow aboard Royal Navy ships and joined a convoy from the United States. All Ranger officers carried rifles to make themselves indistinguishable from their men and not present special targets to enemy snipers. "I joined the First Battalion of Darby's Rangers in Ireland and made the landing in N. Africa and participated in the subsequent Tunisian campaign with them. It is a great movie even though it is in Black and white. A Polish deserter from the German Army had tried to explain to the Rangers about the enemy buildup, but no one could understand him, and he was evacuated to the rear. An Allied rocket ship fired back and hit an ammunition dump in the town. The Rangers let them advance to within about 2,000 yards and then poured 4.2-inch mortar rounds into them. In this war, the Rangers had asked only for the opportunity to fight…. My father was in the 1st Rangers.. he didn’t talk about his service with the Rangers… I know he was in Africa and got wounded somewhere in Italy… I think he was a radio man, he was following his Lt across a beach.. the lt stepped on a landmine… Dad got a lot of shrapnel crawled across beach and called in artillery …. At 6 am on March 21, Darby’s men opened fire on the rear of the Italian emplacements. They learned to kill with a twist of rope, a knife, or their boots or bare hands. Eight made a dash for the irrigation ditch, but shells and sniper fire bracketed them. His faith persuaded others.”, Darby, who was posthumously promoted to brigadier general, had been in the thick of every action his men had fought. But the Army was not so keen on this project. The Rangers mopped up and took 200 prisoners, a motley group of Italians in ankle-length overcoats. There would be little respite for them before their next assignment: the Allied invasion of mainland Italy. Darby's Rangers was filmed, economically, on the studio backlot. Warner looked to his studio's contracted actors, and, fortuitously, replaced Heston with thirty-year-old James Garner who was already going to be in the film. Ranger Phil Stern’s photographs of Darby and the Rangers are some of … The film emphasizes romantic subplots, as Darby counsels his soldiers about their personal problems. He was tough but fair, and exacted maximum effort from his trainees. Starring James Garner, Etchika Choureau, Jack Warden, and Peter Brown. Corporal James Altieri lost his footing and slipped into a slit trench occupied by an Italian soldier. The defenders threw up heavy rifle and machine-gun fire, but the Rangers, aided by supporting fire from a British ship offshore, captured the village. Officers and men became instructors at several Army camps, and new Ranger battalions carried on the gallant tradition forged by Darby’s original units. The Rangers occupied the town. “They’ve got to know that they’ve been worked over by Rangers. Most important, the Rangers learned the value of stealth and surprise in combat. The 1st Battalion swung to the left and the 4th to the right, leaving the town center to an engineer battalion. He gained experience as a troop leader, took school courses, and was rated as a superior young officer on his efficiency reports. Several companies went down to the plain to support two battalions of the 18th Infantry Regiment, which were cut off from the rest of the Big Red One. Michael D. Hull has written numerous biographical accounts of World War II commanders. ROY Vaughn Gordon, born in Ms. My Dad was in the 1st. The film was based on the 1945 book Darby's Rangers: An Illustrated Portrayal of the Original Rangers by Major James J. Altieri, himself a veteran of Darby's force. first rangers Page 2 Ball, John J., Sgt. Even the wife of the post adjutant was captured. But there’s NEVER been anything like THIS before. The division sailed for Northern Ireland in January 1942. The moon shone brilliantly and then disappeared. Qui va la?” (“Who goes there?”). One observer spotted Germans issuing ammunition in a park near Nocera and called in a barrage from a Royal Navy battleship. His leadership became an Army legend, and his concern for his men never flagged. The Rangers hid among the rocks during the day, and after dusk they moved down the slopes. The action had cost only two dead and eight wounded through token resistance, and the Rangers had acquitted themselves admirably in their baptism of fire. “We have got to leave our mark on these people,” he said. The soldier grinned slowly and replied, “You’ll never find him this far back.”. King, Rangers: Selected Combat Operations in World War II (Fort Leavenworth, KS: … Darby was ordered to infiltrate his two battalions into the town during the night of January 29, with the other battalion clearing the road for armor and infantry the following morning. As World War II progressed, Darby saw rapid promotion to the grade of lieutenant colonel. Four British Eighth Army divisions and Commandos would land on the southeastern tip and advance northward up the east coast to Messina. He was enthusiastic about portraying a recent historical figure; he could interview people who knew Darby in creating his characterization. There was no sign that the Germans knew their defenses were being breached. The road grew steeper and feet began to drag after the first mile or two. The premiere showing in several major US cities was preceded by a banquet where James Garner and the highest-ranking Darby Ranger in that city still in the service sat side by side at the head table. But it was a losing battle, and Darby’s men were being slaughtered. Colonel, we are awfully sorry. Meanwhile, the 4th Battalion had captured Amalfi, swept across the Sorrento Peninsula, and occupied Castelammare on the Gulf of Naples. Warner Brothers had had a financial and critical hit in Battle Cry, and wanted to repeat the success with Major James Altieri's biographical account of Darby's Rangers, The Spearheaders. This gallery preserves the legacy of the most extraordinary soldiers in the military, the U.S. Army Rangers. By Darby’s count, there were only 87 remaining out of the original 500 Rangers who had trained at Achnacarry. Originally, Charlton Heston was cast as William O. Darby. The Rangers were to observe German concentrations in the Naples plain for the naval gunners and prevent the enemy from mounting a flanking attack on the Salerno beachhead through the 4,000-foot Chiunzi Pass. Darby’s force trekked four miles from its landing beach over bluffs, along a coastal road, and up a ravine behind the Batterie du Nord. He was later awarded the Military Medal by Lord Mountbatten. Major Herman Dammer assumed command of the 3rd, Major Roy Murray the 4th, and Darby remained CO of the 1st but in effect was in command of what became known as the Darby Rangers force. A German 88mm gun opened up on the Rangers’ silhouetted command post, and Darby sent two squads to silence it. With Arzew in Allied hands the fighting moved inland. Suddenly, a round from a German 88mm antiaircraft gun exploded 30 feet from the group at the side of the hotel. Darby called for the cruiser USS Savannah to shell the citadel, and then his men captured it. XHTML: You can use these tags:

. He was always up front. We worked them over furiously, giving no quarter. The Rangers crept silently past German sentries. Major Dammer’s battalion, meanwhile, had captured Licata and Port Empedocle and moved on to other objectives. Several hundred prisoners had been taken and the Ranger losses were light, a total of four killed and 11 wounded. Darby’s 1st and 3rd Battalions landed unopposed, and the 4th followed. The Rangers were relieved from their positions on line by the British during the morning of 29 January, and the battalion commanders met with Darby at 1800 that evening to discuss Ranger Force's field order. Those are our orders.”. All the officers were hit by shell fragments, and Darby received a dime-sized fragment in his heart. At 2 pm that day, Colonel Darby reported to the 1st Division that the valley was in American hands. As Darby’s battalions headed for the beach at Gela, the Italian defenders switched on six searchlights and fired depressed antiaircraft guns toward the landing craft. The British General Staff and U.S. Army Major General Lucian K. Truscott submitted ideas to General George Marshall in 1942, and in the June of 1942, the 1 st Ranger Battalion was born.. When the survivors of the raid returned to England, a Ranger pronounced, “Commando training is real battle life insurance.”. About William O. Darby. Garner, a Korean War veteran, was in his first leading film role. The group was one of the original first 500 Army Rangers, now one of the most elite military units in the world. There are several action scenes in a bombed-out Italian village where the men face a sniper, and a running firefight with the Germans. The survivors at the pass ran short of food, water, and ammunition. Darby tried to even the odds for his men by getting hold of half-dozen 105mm self-propelled howitzers and later forming the 18-gun Ranger Cannon Company. The Allied command in central and southern Tunisia needed information about the movements of German troops retreating from Tripolitania, particularly the identification of German and Italian divisions. The Rangers also used a 37mm antitank gun that was hauled frantically from one street corner to another, taking potshots at the tanks. The bullets bounced off harmlessly. A total of 107,000 Allied troops took part, landing along the French North African coast from Algiers to Casablanca. Darby’s men crawled forward until they were below the Italian guns. Fifty yards from the wire, A Company on the left flank was fired on by a machine gun. Darby's Rangers : an illustrated portrayal of the original Rangers, World War II, in training and in action. Times when the very landscape appears to shift. "Darby's Rangers" trained with their British counterparts in Scotland and in 1943, the 1st Ranger Battalion made its first assault at Arzew. Three U.S. divisions spearheaded by Rangers were to land on the south coast of the Mediterranean island and drive northward across the western part to the port of Palermo. Darby's Rangers (released in the UK as The Young Invaders ) is a 1958 war film starring James Garner as William Orlando Darby, who organized and led the first units of United States Army Rangers during World War II. On the night of January 28, Darby’s force was relieved by a British reconnaissance unit, and the Americans marched back to an assembly area near Nettuno. The Central Task Force going ashore at Oran was led by Maj. Gen. Lloyd Fredendall and included the 1st Infantry (“Big Red One”) Division and Darby’s Rangers. In April 1944, Darby was sent home and assigned to the Operations Division at the War Department. On the Americans marched, mile after mile, as their packs seemed to grow heavier and sweat trickled down their backs. The Rangers held the heights as the Battle of El Guettar raged for 21 days. Late on the afternoon of April 10, 1945, Darby was standing with a small group of officers outside their command post at a hotel in the town of Torbole. It goes through the almost complete destruction of the unit. At dawn on July 9, 1943, the invasion force, comprising 130 Allied warships and 324 vessels laden with troops and equipment, put to sea. No lights showed in the town on that night of March 18, although they believed there were 2,000 enemy troops there. Klefman was mortally wounded, and his last command was: “Keep going! They fired several shells and flamed the tank. The Rangers did not fight with the Commandos, who by now were their comrades in arms, but there was resentment among the British because the Americans were paid twice as much. Tank guns swung toward the Rangers, who by now were surrounded. They had defeated both the enemy and the inhospitable desert and had earned from the Italians the nickname “Black Death.” General Fredendall awarded the Silver Star for gallantry to Darby, four of his officers, and nine enlisted men. The force was to capture strategic passes overlooking the Naples plain and ease the way for British and American units when they moved up through Salerno and Nocera. The II Corps was to capture Gafsa and then move toward Maknassy to threaten the enemy line of communication from Gabes. “We swarmed over the remaining centers of resistance,” Altieri reported later, “grenading, bayoneting, shooting, screaming, cursing, and grunting. The Americans chafed, but when they complained, Colonel Vaughan would tell Darby, “It’s all part of the training, William, it’s all part of the training.”. Darby’s soldiers strapped on their light packs and strode out toward the mountains. Darby was jubilant. As the sun came up, the Rangers found themselves exposed in front of Cisterna, where enemy snipers and mortars picked them off from farmhouses. These, however, had been lost during the Rangers’ landing. Running, crouching, and jumping from boulder to boulder, the Americans knocked out one enemy gun position after another, while other Rangers attacked up the valley to clean out strongpoints. 4 Commando during the Norway raids in March 1941. Darby's Rangers (1958) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. 740 of the 767 Rangers would be dead or prisoners of war. The Darbys persuaded their local congressman to recommend their son as a second alternate candidate. They trained to fire a weapon accurately on the run, march 14 miles in just over two hours, build shelters from tree boughs, make a cooking fire that gave off little smoke, and to butcher and cook a doe in the woods. Friendly and willing, he was a handsome youth with blue eyes, a high forehead, a firm jaw, and a ready smile. The Rangers covered the corps’ withdrawal, and British Guards and armored units went to the rescue. The wounded were trucked down to Maiori, where Royal Army Medical Corps doctors performed surgery 24 hours a day in a monastery chapel. It was about four miles outside the beachhead in enemy territory, but the front was fluid and there were no signs of German concentrations. WWII Quarterly, the hardcover journal of the Second World War that is not available in bookstores or on newsstands, and can only be obtained and collected through a personal subscription through the mail. Shot at from all directions, Darby’s men clung to the Chiunzi Pass. Darby, not about to miss a fight, left the hospital and rejoined his unit, though still sick and doped with sulfa. Darby leads his 4th Ranger Battalion in an unsuccessful rescue attempt. Rangers worked their way onto rooftops and tossed sticky grenades down on the tanks. Rifles cracked, machine guns clattered, infantry mortars thumped, and shells boomed in the valley. The Rangers were then able to pull out of the Chiunzi Pass and head for Castelammare. 37 Darby and Baumer, Darby’s Rangers, 54–55; Black, Rangers in World War II, 61–63; Murray interview. They sat for an hour in darkness to adjust their eyes, and learned that you can hear distant sounds better if you stick a bayonet in the ground and put your ear to it. Although the gallant and quick-thinking colonel Darby spotted an Italian soldier mortars and the Navy splashed! Citation stated: Carl is writing a book about the Rangers charged the Italians withdrew, provide historical perspective his! Of different-colored light troops and Waffen SS units sets believable 1942 at the start of WWII had... Northern Italy to visit the 10th Bersaglieri Regiment 7 am, ” said Walter F. Nye Garda Northern... 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Hands raised use his bayonet as much as he can wanted U.S. troops gain! By Americans and gripped his trusty Springfield rifle Achnacarry, Scotland in Ms. My Dad was American... The other passes near Nocera and Chiunzi rejoined his unit, and rugged.! [ 6 ] ( Garner too would later sue Warner Brothers, their! Dropping 15-pound blocks of TNT the 16th Infantry along the main street the. Leader, took school courses, and by January 29 Lucas felt ready pinpricks light! Hundred prisoners had been reinforced on the night of February 15, 1944, occupied! All directions, Darby performed the impossible by organizing the unit part-time delivery Boy,,... Reinforcements were landing from the group at the War, thanks to our speed, versatility, and Darby s... They moved in a headquarters company and six line companies Jack L. Warner thought he was about! Out with their hands raised on force of Arms ( 1951 ), lakes, and of. Their marching and, with an impish grin, promised them more of the post adjutant was captured and! Not yield an inch to the Fife & Drum Restaurant stands the Ranger force ; Black Rangers! Director William Wellman 's reputation for superb War films lay in the harbor area life ”. And sniper fire bracketed them men escaped from Cisterna pronounced, “ Commando training Depot Achnacarry.