Rangers: Selected Combat Operations in World War II

Operation Urgent Fury, conducted in October 1983, focused international attention on the U.S.
Army Rangers. This tough, highly mobile force performed an airborne-airland assault into Grenada on
short notice and quickly seized objectives while sustaining only Eimited casualties. The performance of
the Rangers in Grenada is indicative of the role that skilled forces can play in a nation’s military
strategy and exemplifies the ideal use of highly trained “elite” forces,
The U.S. Army Ranger has a proud heritage dating from Rogers’ Rangers to the present, but at
no time was the Rangers’ legacy more evident than during the heyday of World War Ii. Conceived
under the guidance of then Army Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall, the Rangers were
selectively recruited and trained for operations such as raids, infiltrations, and specialized combat. In
reality, their utilization was somewhat more varied, thus providing one of the themes for this Leavenworth
Paper.
The five Ranger operations recounted in this paper depict the Rangers in a variety of combat
roles. Each operation provided unique challenges to the Ranger Force, and each produced different
results. Created for one purpose, often used and misused for others, the Ranger organization fluctuated
throughout the war. The longer the Ranger Force remained in a theater of operations, the heavier it
became and the more likely it was to be employed in a conventional role. The Ranger leadership
constantly struggled with organizational problems in its attempts to balance the need for additional
firepower and combat power with the need to retain its identity as a right, mobile, flexible strike force.
The evolutional process depicted in this paper illustrates the difficulties encountered by military
units that are given inappropriate missions for their force capability. When the Rangers were utilized
in their designed roles in appropriate missions and within organizational constraints, they achieved
outstanding successes. When these organizational constraints were ignored and Rangers were used in
a conventional role, disaster resulted as at Cisterna when the Rangers were unabtl to counter the
German armor threat.
In Rangers: Selected Combat Operations in World War II, Dr. Michael J. King presents a multifaceted
work that blends battle narrative, operational lessons, and doctrinal considerations into a paper
that provides a useful historical perspective into Ranger operations, The relevance of these historical
case studies to current and future elite force operations is evident, Force designers, doctrine writers,
and commanders will greatly profit from the valuable information contained in this Leavenworth Paper.
One needs only to study these lessons and apply them.
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