00:00In complete darkness, at around 1.30, the commando soldiers of the 1st and 3rd units,
00:06ranger battalions with a total strength of 767 men,
00:12supported by 43 soldiers from the reconnaissance unit of the 3rd.
00:17Infantry Division began their advance.
00:20The surprising infiltration seemed to be succeeding for the lightly armed and therefore mobile rangers.
00:26At times, waiting in waist-deep water in the canal, they were able to bypass several German positions.
00:33When it slowly began to get light around half-past 7, the U.S. commandos were close to their target.
00:40But as they began to leave the trench and cross the open ground,
00:45they came under fire from elements of the 715th Infantry Division, a lair battalion,
00:52and elements of the Fallschirm Panzer Division.
00:55H.G. had set up an ambush with several well-camouflaged machine gun nests,
01:01as well as mortar and anti-tank gun positions.
01:06When the surviving rangers, completely surprised by the deadly fire, fled back into the trench,
01:13the H.G. Division also used 17 Panzerfoos in direct fire against them.
01:19Although the rangers had managed to capture two tanks,
01:23the captured tanks were knocked out by comrades who suspected a German trick and used anti-tank weapons.
01:30In general, the U.S. commandos stood no chance from the very first shot
01:35against the perfectly camouflaged machine gun nests of the Jäger and Panzer Grenadiers.
01:41The rangers who had not yet fallen to the German barrage,
01:45neither trained nor equipped for infantry combat,
01:48were either killed by their own comrades firing wildly at them by friendly fire,
01:53or, in total, about 700 surrendered almost without resistance,
01:58entire companies at a time, to the Wehrmacht.
02:01Of the 767 rangers involved in this completely failed operation,
02:08only six made it back to their lines.
02:11And of the 43 scouts, only one.
02:15300 had fallen within a few minutes.
02:18They rest with another 7,858 U.S. soldiers
02:23at the American Military Cemetery in Naitano.
02:27400 survivors.
02:29A little later, they were paraded through Rome as prisoners.
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