Original subtitles

NARRATOR: December 1944.

(gunfire)

U.S. Rangers capture a Nazi stronghold

on the German border.

(explosion)

But a series of counterattacks and artillery tree bursts...

(explosions)

leave just a handful of men to defend their critical capture.

In their extreme vulnerability,

the Rangers must consider an unthinkable plan

to ward off the next attack.

MAN: It's that desperate.

They have to call the artillery strike

on their own position

and hope to survive.

(explosions)

NARRATOR: On June 6, 1944,

Allied forces finally land troops in Normandy

to open the Western Front.

(music)

(yelling in German)

But Nazi fanatics and diehards

continue to fight ruthlessly for survival.

(gunfire)

D-Day was a battle.

The Allies still need to win the war.

(music)

December 7, 1944.

Bergstein, Germany.

Members of the American 2nd Ranger Battalion

go behind enemy lines

to reconnoiter the German stronghold

of Hill 400.

As second in command,

Lieutenant Len Lomell scouts for Dog Company.

The Rangers are not here to fight.

They creep through the darkness

to identify the German bunkers and machine gun nests

they will need to capture

when they launch their assault on Hill 400 in the morning.

After the rapid collapse of Nazi forces in France

over the summer,

the fight moves towards the German border.

PETER LIEB: In autumn 1944,

the entire situation for the German soldier changes.

It's the first time now in this war

that he's fighting on home ground.

This is something that gives him a new motivation to continue.

NARRATOR: Adolf Hitler orders defenses to be strengthened

along Germany's borderlands,

which run through

the Hurtgen Forest.

The Allies call the 390-mile series of fortifications

the Siegfried Line.

(explosions)

By December 1944,

German forces have bogged down the Allies

in the Hurtgen Forest

for nearly three months.

And Allied armies

have pushed the Western Front

up to the German border...

and to the base of Hill 400.

MAN: Hill 400, to some extent,

is the key to the Hurtgen Forest.

NARRATOR: The hill is a natural fortress--

rocky, tree-covered,

and 45 degrees on its steepest slope.

To these natural defenses,

German troops have added bunkers and machine gun nests.

Holding the hill permits its occupier

to observe troop movements for miles around,

including the Cologne Plain.

JOHN C. McMANUS: If you get Hill 400,

you immediately can put artillery observers

atop that hill.

At that stage,

then you can call down U.S. artillery

upon any German movement in the area.

Hill 400 emerges as this, like, solid-gold real estate

that both sides understand they have to have.

NARRATOR: The Rangers now have orders to seize the hill.

Lomell's scout is the first step.

PATRICK K. O'DONNELL: He went up Hill 400

and scouted out the different positions

and was able to bring back that crucial intelligence,

which helps shape the attack on December 7th.

NARRATOR: Lomell and the other scouts

slip into the town of Bergstein at the base of the hill.

Just before 6 AM,

Lomell's men of 2nd Ranger Battalion's Dog Company

prepare to jump off.

SOLDIER: We've got an MG on the left side.

And there's one on the right.

NARRATOR: Most have arrived

just in time to move into the line.

The men have had little or no sleep.

SOLDIER: There's one right at the end of the road.

(explosions)

(gunfire)

SOLDIER: Suppressing fire!

NARRATOR: At 0600 hours,

the Rangers charge from their positions.

They must fight their way through Bergstein

to their first objective.

O'DONNELL: As they move from the cellars,

they're receiving incoming artillery fire from the Germans,

and men are being shredded by these artillery shells.

They're also being sniped at.

(gunfire)

NARRATOR: American forces hold just a sliver of the village.

They are surrounded on three sides.

O'DONNELL: And they can easily be cut off by the Germans

and annihilated.

The Germans wanted it back at all costs.

NARRATOR: They only need to advance a few hundred yards,

but combat in built-up areas like towns

is a challenge.

The walls provide shelter to both sides.

It is also easy to get disoriented.

O'DONNELL: Urban combat is some of the most difficult combat

that any soldier can encounter.

It's not a situation

where you're firing at somebody a hundred yards away.

You're firing at them at point-blank range,

and in many cases, it's hand-to-hand.

SOLDIER: Move, move, move!

(explosions)

(soldier yelling)

NARRATOR: Men from Fox Company join Dog Company

as the American Rangers

continue to fight to the edge of town.

(gunfire)

(gunfire)

(music)

(explosion)

SOLDIER: Ahh! Ahhh!

SOLDIER: Medic! Medic!

Medic!

SOLDIER: Ahhh!

NARRATOR: The battle for Bergstein will rage

even after the attack on the hill begins...

the Germans relentless

in their attempts to drive out U.S. forces

and the Americans equally determined to hang on.

(gunfire)

(explosion)

Lomell and the two companies

finally close in on their first objective.

O'DONNELL: They converge in front of the hill

in front of the field,

and it's been described as a sunken road

where there's a little bit of cover

from the defenders on top of Hill 400,

as well as the machine guns

that are arrayed at the base of the hill.

NARRATOR: Lomell has fought with many of these men

for a long time.

Six months earlier, on D-Day,

Lomell, along with Staff Sergeant Jack Kuhn,

destroyed five of the Germans' main artillery guns

at Utah and Omaha beaches.

O'DONNELL: Len was shot in the side

as he was scaling the cliff.

But despite this wound, this gaping wound,

kept climbing

and completed the mission.

He fought through the maze of fortifications on the top

and found the guns on top of Pointe du Hoc

and disabled them with thermite grenades.

NARRATOR: This action had a profound impact on D-Day,

saving countless lives.

Lomell would earn citations

from the American, British, and French governments.

Lomell now eyes their next objective.

The U.S. 2nd Ranger Battalion must take Hill 400

and hold it for 24 hours, until relieved.

By 0700, 120 men from Dog and Fox Companies

have made it to the base of the hill.

Between them and the tree line is a field 100 yards wide.

The Rangers know

once they begin, they cannot stop.

O'DONNELL: Cross an open field

under machine-gun fire from MG-42s--

what was called 'Hitler's bone saw'

because it rattled off over 1,200 rounds per minute.

The entire field itself

was mined with Bouncing Betty mines,

and these are mines that would shoot up into the air

and then detonate around the area of your groin

and sever legs and body parts.

The odds were definitely stacked against the Rangers

on December 7th.

NARRATOR: German artillery and mortars

begin targeting the Rangers' position.

(music)

The first shells fall 75 yards behind the Americans.

The German gunners fine-tune.

(firing)

(explosion)

The shells start to drop closer.

Meanwhile, U.S. artillery responds

and shells German positions in the tree line.

SOLDIER: Fire!

(explosions)

O'DONNELL: Basically what's known as a rolling barrage

or a creeping barrage.

This is American artillery

that is creeping in front of the Rangers.

(indistinct conversation)

(explosions)

NARRATOR: As the German shells drop closer

to Dog and Fox Companies from behind,

the Rangers are pinned between the two artillery barrages.

(explosion)

(rockets firing)

Among the artillery weapons aimed at the Rangers

is the Nebelwerfer 41.

The German rocket launcher

fires 5.9-inch shells.

Each salvo fires six rockets

one second apart.

Concussive force alone

can kill,

even if the high-explosive

fragments miss.

(explosion)

As the rockets close in on the American Rangers,

an unexpected order is given.

O'DONNELL: These are very battle-hardened troops,

but somehow in the mix of this,

there was an unseasoned, untrained officer

that ordered a scout to go out and reconnoiter the field.

NARRATOR: Fox Company's Sergeant Herman Stein

is one of several Ranger NCOs

to question the order given to one of the enlisted men.

O'DONNELL: And they universally said,

'Don't go out there. Don't go.'

They said it several times,

and they tried to stop the man from going.

NARRATOR: Stein and the others

knew the order meant certain death for whoever went.

Can the weight of their experience

force the officer to back down?

SOLDIER: No. Don't go!

NARRATOR: December 1944.

The American 2nd Ranger Battalion

prepares to attack a key position.

They must take Hill 400,

which overlooks the town of Bergstein,

just inside the German border.

As they wait to jump off,

a newly assigned officer

orders a man to scout the field out front.

The non-commissioned officers argue it is too dangerous.

O'DONNELL: The officer then looked at the man and said,

'This is a direct order.

Go out into the field.'

And he actually did,

and as he went into the field,

he was shot in the gut.

NARRATOR: What might have triggered a court martial

in another unit

is a hallmark of the 2nd Ranger psyche.

O'DONNELL: In 1942,

the United States didn't have

special operation forces or commandos.

The Rangers were a new thing.

They were all volunteers,

and they had a very tough weed-out process.

These men had to march and climb and shoot and fight.

Very few people

were able to make it through the actual training.

NARRATOR: It molded men who could think outside the box,

question orders, and take initiative

if they thought it was in the best interest

of the mission.

That mindset

would prompt Fox Company Sergeant William McHugh

to action.

McHugh realizes

that the German mortars are closing in

and would strike them before their jump-off time.

O'DONNELL: Sergeant McHugh shouts,

'Let's get the bastards!'

And then he raises his tommy gun over his head,

and they charge across the field.

(men yelling)

(gunfire)

And it's been described as like a tsunami--

a band of screaming, shooting Rangers

descending on these German machine gun nests,

crossing this open field.

NARRATOR: McHugh spurs Dog and Fox Company

to charge straight towards the German guns.

(gunfire)

Because they jumped off early,

some of the incoming artillery they dodge is American.

O'DONNELL: There's a real danger

of being hit by their own friendly fire

from this artillery,

but the fact that they leave only a few minutes early

saves many of their lives.

Men were being hit by the artillery,

by the German bullets,

and then even by mines as they were crossing the field.

But they didn't have a chance to look back

or even help anybody.

They were just moving forward.

(gunfire)

NARRATOR: Standing in the Rangers' way

is a regiment of the 272nd Volksgrenadier division,

commanded by Captain Adolf Thomae.

(music)

The Volksgrenadier divisions are formed

after the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler

by senior officers in July 1944.

LIEB: The idea behind the Volksgrenadier divisions--

you can already see this in the name 'Volks,'

which means people,

kind of grass-root formation

inspired with Nazi ideology,

with a belief of one community serving for a common cause.

NARRATOR: As Germany grapples with manpower shortages,

older men and teenaged boys are conscripted from civilian life

to form a replacement army loyal to Hitler.

Members of the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine

report for combat service.

Injured soldiers also return to the lines faster.

Heinrich Himmler mobilizes 49 new Volksgrenadier divisions

in about eight weeks.

Himmler ensures that they are well-armed,

but hurries them into battle.

While overall results have been mixed,

the 272nd has fought well in the Hurtgen Forest.

At Thomae's disposal

are 36 pieces of direct artillery support.

(gunfire)

Just that morning,

his troops had planned to retake Bergstein.

LIEB: But the U.S. Rangers were the first ones to attack,

and this puts Thomae very quickly

into a defensive position.

(explosion)

NARRATOR: The Rangers' premature attack

gives them a slight advantage over the Volksgrenadier.

O'DONNELL: The artillery is actually coming in

right as they're crossing,

and it keeps the Germans' machine gunners' heads down.

NARRATOR: The Rangers who make it across the field

capture the German outer positions.

(gunfire)

O'DONNELL: The Germans that are overrun

are either bayonetted, in many cases,

or they're fleeing for their lives

up the top of Hill 400.

NARRATOR: The U.S. Rangers press on.

Speed and surprise add to their arsenal.

(explosions)

(gunfire)

Both Allied and German artillery

continue to fall on the base of the hill.

The Rangers have no choice

but to continue to the next line

of German defenses.

NARRATOR: Fighting is heavy as two companies

of the American 2nd Ranger Battalion

charge up Hill 400,

a stronghold on Germany's border.

(gunfire)

Rangers try to clear German bunkers and machine gun nests

as they move uphill.

(gunfire)

(gunfire)

O'DONNELL: This is close-quarters combat.

This is personal.

In some cases,

it's directly hand-to-hand fighting,

with bayonets and knives,

pistols.

That's the level of intensity

that these men had to go through

just to get up that hill.

(music)

(yelling in German)

NARRATOR: Lieutenant Len Lomell,

second in command of Dog Company,

is amongst the first Rangers to reach the summit.

(gunfire)

Others quickly catch up.

(gunfire)

Their ascent has taken less than an hour.

(gunfire and yelling)

(gunfire and yelling)

Members of Fox Company use grenades and gunfire

to force the surrender of the German hilltop bunker.

(yelling and gunfire)

(music)

By 0830, the Rangers have claimed Hill 400.

To that point in the war,

it is one of the deepest incursions into Germany

by U.S. or other Western allies.

O'DONNELL: These men were all running on adrenaline.

Their nerves were taut from the charge itself,

the artillery that was falling,

the close-in combat.

SOLDIER: Get these bodies outta here right now.

O'DONNELL: They get to the top of the hill--

that was an exhilarating feeling.

That's what they told me.

NARRATOR: The capture of Hill 400

is a remarkable achievement.

O'DONNELL: But it was just the beginning.

NARRATOR: Lieutenant Lomell orders the Rangers to dig in.

On the exposed hillside,

security is elusive.

O'DONNELL: The only real refuge that they had

was the command bunker,

an observation bunker on the top of Hill 400.

NARRATOR: Some Rangers take shelter

in positions captured from the Germans,

but that is not always possible.

O'DONNELL: The German foxholes

that were facing the American lines,

they weren't facing the sides or flanks of the hill

where the Germans were going to be coming from.

NARRATOR: New foxholes

prove difficult to dig in the rocky soil.

O'DONNELL: The ground is frozen solid.

They're barely able to claw through it,

and some of the men actually use their fingernails,

and they're bloody as they claw through the dirt

the best they can

to dig this shallow hole with their trench knives

and their bayonets.

Anything that they can to just get a little semblance of cover.

NARRATOR: Foxholes are a critical perimeter defense

against the inevitable German counterattack.

LIEB: German doctrine very much cherishes

the idea of offensive action.

So even if you lose a position,

you are supposed to attack, counterattack

as quickly as possible.

NARRATOR: German high command considers Hill 400

to be of vital importance for a top-secret reason.

Seventeen German divisions, totaling over 200,000 men,

amass in the nearby Ardennes Forest.

Hitler has been planning a surprise offensive

in a bid to turn the tide of war.

Their leaders go to great effort

to conceal the build-up from Allied reconnaissance.

LIEB: If the Americans sit on Hill 400,

they can spot German assembly areas

in the rear.

NARRATOR: Captain Adolf Thomae receives a battalion

of the 6th Fallschirmjaeger regiment,

an elite group of paratroopers,

as reinforcements.

Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model

offers Thomae's men an added incentive.

LIEB: Field Marshal Model promises the German unit

re-seizing Hill 400

an Iron Cross for each individual soldier

and a seven-day leave.

NARRATOR: Having pre-ranged

all the positions on the hill with his guns,

Thomae begins to shell the Rangers.

(firing)

LIEB: When the Germans attack Hill 400,

the infantry attacks along the slopes towards the hill,

and the German artillery

is putting fire onto the U.S. soldiers

sitting on top of the mountain.

So there is a danger

that German shells will also kill German infantrymen.

(firing)

NARRATOR: The artillery proves persistent.

O'DONNELL: This is every minute,

this is every hour

it's coming in.

And there's no place to run or hide,

and it's random death from above.

NARRATOR: Along with standard artillery rounds,

part of Thomae's strategy is to create tree bursts.

(firing)

O'DONNELL: The Hurtgen Forest had conifer trees

that were over a hundred feet high

in some places,

and the Germans designed their artillery barrages

to strike above the canopy

so that not only would deadly shrapnel

rain down on the Americans,

but also splinters that were razor sharp

that could slice through the body.

(explosion)

NARRATOR: Standard Allied training

was to drop to the ground in the face of incoming artillery.

During a tree burst,

such a move would prove fatal.

Soldiers had to overcome their instincts

and stay upright

to let their helmets protect them.

O'DONNELL: If there was a tree nearby,

they'd actually hug the tree

because it would prevent the shrapnel,

and splinters from the wood wouldn't be able to hit them.

(music)

NARRATOR: As the Germans start to counterattack,

Lieutenant Len Lomell and his fellow Rangers

are dangerously exposed.

(firing)

(explosions)

NARRATOR: Captain Adolf Thomae

rallies more than 100 German troops

against the American 2nd Ranger Battalion,

who have just captured Hill 400.

(gunfire)

The German Volksgrenadier and the Fallschirmjaeger

attack in small groups.

The result is brutal close-in fighting.

(grunting)

The Volksgrenadiers possess an extremely effective weapon

for this kind of battle.

The MP-44.

The world's first assault rifle.

Equipped with a 30-round magazine,

the gun can switch from single-shot to rapid fire,

with the flick of a lever.

(gunfire)

The MP-44 has an effective range of 164 yards

in the full-automatic position

and 437 yards in the single-shot mode.

Armed with both MP-44s and its precursor, the MP-40,

some German forces approach a location

defended by Dog Company Sergeant Ed Secor.

LIEB: When the Germans counterattack,

they are not running into open fire,

they're trying to infiltrate the enemy positions

and try to circumvent the strong points.

NARRATOR: Secor and a private had secured good coverage.

O'DONNELL: Sergeant Secor was positioned

under an overhanging boulder in a shallow foxhole.

(gunfire)

NARRATOR: But a German bullet

renders Secor's weapon inoperable.

In response, the usually mild-mannered Secor

charges out to recover guns from dead German soldiers nearby.

(gunfire)

O'DONNELL: He immediately grabbed

two MP-40 machine pistols,

and then with both hands,

fired into the mass of oncoming Germans.

(gunfire)

(gunfire)

(gunfire)

(gunfire)

NARRATOR: When they are empty,

he then pulls out his pistol and continues to fire.

(music)

Sergeant Secor's daring actions

thwart the German counterattack.

(speaking German)

Captain Thomae and his men retreat

to regroup and try again.

(speaking German)

(music)

During the German attack,

Lieutenant Len Lommel's hand is injured by shrapnel.

Despite his own wound,

he must devise a defensive strategy for the Rangers--

now down to about 40 able-bodied men.

He has Herm Stein from Fox Company

bring his men closer to Dog Company.

He also needs more information.

O'DONNELL: Len Lomell really understood reconnaissance,

so he sent out two-man scouts

to sort of probe portions of the hill

to find out where the enemy was.

(whistles)

NARRATOR: So many of the Ranger radios have been damaged,

communication is difficult.

O'DONNELL: It was hand signals,

or a runner would run up to a position

and say what is going on.

NARRATOR: In response,

Lomell then has the Rangers concentrate

in front of the German build-up

so they can meet the attack with full force.

When Captain Thomae leads his troops back up the hill,

Lomell, Stein, and their fellow Rangers

are ready for them.

(explosion)

(music)

(gunfire)

(gunfire)

The Germans, however,

do not attack on a single front.

They probe the Ranger line for weaknesses.

Lomell counters by constantly shifting his men.

O'DONNELL: This is a situation of very scarce resources--

the resource being the GI or a Ranger.

So they had to be very smart in how they defended the hill,

and that's what they did.

They moved his men around according to the threat.

NARRATOR: Lomell's mobile tactics

lead the Germans to believe

that the Rangers occupy the hill in great numbers.

Had the Germans realized,

they could have easily overwhelmed

the American forces.

But as the Rangers repel

the second German counterattack,

they suffer further casualties.

Just after 1600 hours,

Lomell sends a message to his superiors in Bergstein

that he's down to 25 men,

who remain surrounded

by German troops.

O'DONNELL: It is like

king of the castle.

They're holding a perimeter

on the top of the hill.

NARRATOR: The Rangers bring the wounded they can reach

to the observation bunker at the crest of Hill 400.

O'DONNELL: And that becomes the field hospital.

They don't have any real medical equipment

or anything like that.

They just have some bandages.

If they're lucky, they might even have a morphine syrette,

but that's scarce, too.

There's very little in terms of medical supplies.

NARRATOR: But many others lay out of reach

and remain exposed to incoming shrapnel.

In daylight,

there was no way for the Rangers

to evacuate their casualties.

O'DONNELL: If they had to bring a wounded man down,

they had to fight their way down the hill.

SOLDIER: Help me!

NARRATOR: The injured and dying Rangers call out.

SOLDIER: Help me!

SOLDIER: Help me!

NARRATOR: Finally,

Lomell can't take their cries any longer.

O'DONNELL: Len felt completely helpless on that front,

and then he felt helpless

by the men that were dying in the bunker.

And there was a real question

whether or not they were going to be able to hold out.

I mean, the whole hill

was about to be overrun at any moment.

LOMELL: Gather round.

(music)

I suggest that we leave.

NARRATOR: Lomell proposes the unthinkable.

That the Rangers abandon Hill 400.

(music)

NARRATOR: After a series of German counterattacks

to retake Hill 400...

(explosions)

Lieutenant Len Lomell proposes a shocking plan

to the remaining members of the two U.S. Ranger companies.

Desperate to help his injured men,

he suggests handing Hill 400 back to the Germans.

O'DONNELL: There was a real question

whether or not they had enough men to hold that hill,

because of the constant artillery

and the counterattacks,

and it was at this point

that he was, you know, proposing a solution

to save his men.

NARRATOR: Lomell explains, based on his experience,

the Germans would care for the American wounded

if they surrendered the hill.

McMANUS: His willingness to do so

was an insight into how bad the battle was becoming

and how slim a chance some of these guys had

of surviving their wounds.

It's an indicator into what kind of crisis you're dealing with

at Hill 400.

NARRATOR: Lomell believes it will be the fastest way

to get Ranger casualties treatment

and save the lives of the dying.

In World War II,

American and German soldiers

generally treat each other's wounded and prisoners

according to the Geneva Convention.

German soldiers captured by American and Western allies

had a death rate of less than one percent...

while four percent of U.S. soldiers

died in German captivity.

Relatively low numbers by wartime standards.

But...

McMANUS: That would only be the case

after the intensitive combat had ebbed.

NARRATOR: If the hill fell in heavy combat,

the wounded would likely be overrun as well.

O'DONNELL: Lomell was at an inflection point

in the battle.

The men or the mission.

And he floated the idea,

do we move off the hill and leave the wounded

so that the German medics can tend to them?

LOMELL: What do you think?

(gunfire in distance)

O'DONNELL: The Ranger response is unanimous.

It's a no.

No. Absolutely not, no.

SOLDIER: I say we stay, too.

NARRATOR: They are outnumbered,

and the wounded vulnerable,

but to abandon the hill

would mean their sacrifices have been in vain.

LOMELL: Well, all right.

We'll stay.

NARRATOR: At 1652,

Lomell sends an urgent call to his superiors in Bergstein,

the town below the hill,

for reinforcements.

(gunfire)

Another German counterattack

tries to break the remaining Rangers.

(gunfire)

The Americans hold them off

in hand-to-hand fighting with fixed bayonets.

O'DONNELL: The forest is so black.

You're not able to see somebody

unless they're right on top of you,

and it's close-in and intimate

because you are face-to-face with the enemy.

(gunfire)

(gunfire)

(gunfire)

NARRATOR: A platoon of reinforcements

from the 2nd Rangers Easy Company

finally arrives from the village below.

LOMELL: It's good to see you.

SOLDIER: Good to see you, sir.

NARRATOR: And help Dog and Fox companies

fight off the next German counterattack.

(gunfire)

LOMELL: Move!

(gunfire)

(yelling)

(music)

SOLDIER: You all right?

NARRATOR: Lomell sustains another injury,

this time in his upper thigh...

and is now one of the many Ranger casualties

who needs medical care.

(gunfire)

(music)

They hope that some can be evacuated

under the cover of dark.

Rangers from Charlie and Dog Company's mortar battalion

climb the hill with litters for the wounded.

The stretcher bearers work silently.

German troops continue to occupy the slopes.

O'DONNELL: And just picture

the dead weight of a wounded man on a stretcher,

and you've got to somehow haul this person down.

It's a broken hill with tree roots all over the place,

and it's so easy to trip

or get caught by the enemy.

It's extremely perilous.

NARRATOR: Though wounded,

Lomell oversees the evacuation of the Ranger casualties.

At 2140 hours,

he is amongst the last of the injured

to leave Hill 400.

O'DONNELL: Lomell was losing a lot of blood.

His finger was dangling from his tendon.

He did not want to leave his men,

but his wounds basically forced him off the hill.

NARRATOR: Sergeant Herm Stein

is now in charge of Fox Company.

The night is broken by periodic shells and sniper fire.

(firing)

If the few dozen Rangers survive until morning...

they know that another German counterattack

will surely come.

(gunfire)

NARRATOR: The 2nd Ranger Battalion

has kept Hill 400 out of German hands

for much of December 7, 1944.

And by 1700 hours on December 8th,

they've withstood two more counterattacks

coming from three sides of the hill.

McMANUS: Hill 400,

you can't think of it as,

oh, here's the Americans controlling the whole hill.

It's more like, here's a handful of guys

in little clumps here and there on that hill

who control the ground they stand on, kind of,

controlling the entry points, the exit points,

controlling an area 30 yards away.

That's problematic.

(gunfire)

NARRATOR: Another heavy artillery bombardment begins--

a sign that the next counterattack is imminent.

(firing)

Sergeant Herm Stein of Fox Company

endures the bombardment...

(explosions)

with an assortment of weapons at the ready.

The Rangers who remain on the hill

keep the weapons of the killed and wounded

and collect those abandoned by the Germans

to prevent running out of ammunition.

It's risky.

O'DONNELL: There's a real danger

with using captured German weapons

because they make a distinct sound,

and if you're an American combatant

hearing a German weapon,

you could potentially think it's a German firing that weapon

and fire upon your own men.

(gunfire)

NARRATOR: As the artillery eases,

150 German troops

under the command of Captain Adolf Thomae

charge the hill.

(gunfire)

The fifth counterattack is the strongest yet.

German troops advance to within 30 yards

of the observation bunker on the top of the hill.

(gunfire)

The Ranger numbers continue to dwindle.

(firing)

They resort to desperate measures

to hold their position.

They call in artillery support,

virtually onto the hilltop.

O'DONNELL: It's that desperate.

They have to call the artillery strike

on their own position

and hope to survive.

SOLDIER: Blow!

(firing)

NARRATOR: It's a system

the Rangers have a lot of confidence in.

McMANUS: By December 1944,

U.S. artillery is among the best in the world,

very sophisticated forward observation,

communications equipment,

accuracy.

It certainly is better and available in more quantity

than German artillery.

(firing)

NARRATOR: American artillery rings the Rangers' positions.

While dangerous for the Rangers,

it achieves the desired objective.

Many Germans are killed.

Those that are not are forced to retreat.

(soldiers yelling)

(gunfire)

But the battle still exacts its toll from the Rangers.

Even with the reinforcements from Easy Company,

the Rangers are now down to 22 able-bodied men.

O'DONNELL: Lieutenant Kinnard

went directly to the commanding officer at corps

to beg for reinforcements.

They're now... it's way past 24 hours.

Corps comes back and says,

you must hold that hill at all costs.

and he goes back and reports back

that the reinforcements weren't going to arrive.

NARRATOR: Even worse,

they start to run critically low on ammunition.

(gunfire)

(gunfire)

As a second night falls,

the remaining Rangers dig in again.

O'DONNELL: What happens to most people

is that you don't think about death or life.

You just think you're going to die anyways,

so it doesn't matter.

And I think that's what a lot of those Rangers felt.

(gunfire)

(music)

NARRATOR: Then out of the darkness,

a relief force finally arrives.

A battalion from the U.S. 13th Infantry,

8th Division, ascends.

Originally tasked to hold Hill 400 for 24 hours,

the Rangers have survived 40.

O'DONNELL: It was all about the collective sacrifice

that they had made

and all the men that had died prior to that point in time,

that they said no, absolutely not.

We will not give an inch.

We will hold this hill.

NARRATOR: At 2230 hours,

Sergeant Herm Stein is one of the last Rangers

to walk off Hill 400.

In taking and holding the position,

the 2nd Rangers suffer 23 men killed

and 106 wounded.

Four are missing in action.

450 German troops are killed

and 64 taken prisoner.

German Captain Adolf Thomae

would receive the Knight's Cross

for his defense of Bergstein

and repeated attempts to reclaim the hill.

Herm Stein from Rangers' Fox Company

is later awarded

the Distinguished Service Cross,

for extraordinary heroism on December 7th,

and serves out the rest of the war.

Len Lomell also survives the war

and was presented with the Silver Star

for his heroic leadership on Hill 400.

O'DONNELL: I think in some ways

it represents like the gold standard

of who we are as Americans.

These are individuals that are willing to sacrifice their lives

for something larger than themselves.

It's pretty extraordinary.

NARRATOR: While Hill 400

is one of the deepest penetrations into Germany

by American or British forces to that point in the war,

the Allies fail to capitalize.

Depleted troops

cannot advance further

and do not discover

the massive German build-up

in the Ardennes Forest.

McMANUS: Maybe the best term

is that they are now

combat ineffective.

When you suffer 33,000 casualties

in the space of five weeks or so

and almost all them concentrated in the rifle companies

among the forward-leaning combat troops...

this is definitely going to have an effect.

So, in most of those companies you are talking about anything

from about a 50 to 100 percent casualty rate,

and especially among the officers.

LIEB: The Germans are able to slow down significantly

the Allied advance in the Hurtgen Forest.

However, at the same time,

the Germans also suffer drastically in these battles,

and these are casualties

the Germans actually cannot afford.

NARRATOR: Only eight days later,

on December 16, 1944,

Germany launches its last major offensive of the war,

which would come to be known by the Allies as...

the Battle of the Bulge.

LIEB: The Germans want to drive a wedge between the Allies,

between the Americans and the British.

(explosions)

NARRATOR: Hitler's army

would take them completely by surprise

and effectively end the fighting

in the Hurtgen Forest.

The Battle of the Bulge would prove to be

one of the largest and bloodiest battles

fought by the U.S. during World War II.

The setbacks suffered

mean the war in Europe will last another six months.