Darby's Rangers take part in the Normandy Invasion?

What if Darby's Rangers (1st, 3rd, 4th Ranger Battalions) participated in the D-Day invasion instead of being wiped out at Anzio?

What if in the winter of 1943 the Rangers were pulled off the line and sent to England for prepare for Operation Overlord? What if Eisenhower insists on taking the veteran Rangers along with the 82nd Airborne Division (minus the 504th PIR) for the upcoming invasion?

If you feel that Mark Clark would not give up the Rangers then as a compromise what if one battalion stayed in Italy and was joined by the new 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions who are sent to Italy in the fall of 1943 instead of England? If you feel that Clark would give up the Rangers then how would 5 Ranger Battalions be deployed on D-Day?
 
Most likely use would be to reinforce the early beach assaualts. Might make sense to keep one back for fighting inland the next day or something.

Alternately they could be used further to the flank. North alng the Cotientin east shore was the fishing villiage of St Vaast la Hougue & a bit further north Barfluer. Seizing either small port with a ranger group & follow up with a infantry regimental combat team would have compounded the problems of the German corps defending the area.

However the best use would have been in Italy, in the mountains. Having them infiltrate & raid in regions like the Arunci Mountains would have been better than as assualt elements in amphibious landings.
 

TFSmith121

Banned
The thing is, the special operations capabable units

What if Darby's Rangers (1st, 3rd, 4th Ranger Battalions) participated in the D-Day invasion instead of being wiped out at Anzio? What if in the winter of 1943 the Rangers were pulled off the line and sent to England for prepare for Operation Overlord? What if Eisenhower insists on taking the veteran Rangers along with the 82nd Airborne Division (minus the 504th PIR) for the upcoming invasion? If you feel that Mark Clark would not give up the Rangers then as a compromise what if one battalion stayed in Italy and was joined by the new 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions who are sent to Italy in the fall of 1943 instead of England? If you feel that Clark would give up the Rangers then how would 5 Ranger Battalions be deployed on D-Day?

The thing is, the special operations capabable units of the western Allies didn't really fit into the campaign in NW France, other than the units (SOE and OSS) that helped organize and support the FFI, for example.

The Commandos (Army and RM), the Ranger battalions, the 1st SSF: almost all ended up being used as - essentially - line infantry in one capacity or another, and the line infantry (generally) ended up getting missions like the Normandy assaults, the major river crossings, etc.

SOFs can be very useful at the company to platoon level and below; but entire SO-type battalions (much less brigades) can rarely find a mission worth their commitment, and so the operational headquarters end up either becoming the equivalent of a planning and administrative HQ for the smaller company-and-below sized operations, or the entire unit/formation/organization ended up fighting like a line brigade/ regiment/ battalion.

In which case, the same 500 or so highly-trained and capable SOFs would - presumably - provide more capability if dispersed as cadre, with 4,500 line volunteers or even as many draftees...

In almost any conventional conflict - and the Allied campaign in NW Europe in 1943-45 was exactly that - one good, 5,000-strong brigade group/RCT(+) was (and is) much more useful than one excellent 500-man battalion, in any army.

Best,
 
I tend to believe, like the 1st SSF, that the Ranger brigade would have led the way into Rome, and then Southern France, and after that probably been broken up (as the 1st SSF was). Same reasons... the particularly high quality replacements needed were also needed by the Airborne Divisions (which were far more flexible) or as leaders in regular outfits.

As it was, the survivors of Darbys Rangers mostly ended up in the 1st SSF, and those that survived that, along with the 1st SSF, mostly ended up in the 10th Mountain, the Airborne Divisions or regular infantry units

Although damned few of the original members of either Darbys Rangers or the Devils Brigade survived to make that transition
 
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