One of the main elite groups in the US army, the rangers (also known as black berets) were used as special and dangerous action troops that remained notorious in US military history, as well as being used as heroic characters in the movies. Hollywoodians.
The history of the name adopted by the group goes back to colonial times, when English emigrants arrived to North America and began to fight against the indigenous people to expel them from their own territories. The first reference to rangers took place around 1670, when Captain Benjamin Church formed a troop to fight the indigenous peoples in the forests, using guerrilla techniques in practices similar to those adopted by the indigenous peoples. They appeared again during the American Revolution, when the US became independent from the English Empire. This military division reappeared during several moments of US military history, as in the War of 1812, for the conquest of territories in the Great Lakes region, in the Civil War (1861-1865), in World War II and in the Korean War (1950-1953). In the current formation of the troop, only the name of the group is the same, and its actions differ from the initial formation, due to changes in war techniques. The episodic formation of this group, which consisted of shock and assault troops, remained until the War of the Vietnam, when they gained permanent units, relying on battalions and other administrative structures military.
As in almost all elite military troops, soldiers are placed under severe conditions of training, preparing them to face the greatest difficulties and to deal with their enemies. The training of rangers It prepares them for surprise attacks, conquests of protected installations, reconnaissance in high-risk areas, infiltration into enemy territory, among other actions. To be a Ranger, soldiers must have already gone through the army and the Parachute School, and the training physical-military makes them prepared for actions in urban terrain, desert, jungle, snow, mountains and war amphibious.
It was during World War II that the rangers became famous in the military milieu. The first Ranger battalion was activated on June 19, 1942, and eight more were later formed to fight in Asia, the Pacific and Europe. At the landing of US troops in Normandy, on June 6, 1944, the Rangers played an outstanding role. Also known as D-Day, this date marks the beginning of the turnaround in favor of the Allies in the fighting developed on the western front. The action consisted of climbing a 45-metre seawall on the beach at Point du Hoe, which was later achieved. the difficult climb to neutralize a strategically placed Nazi troop to avoid taking the region. At the same time, a second company of the group was traveling along Omaha Beach, located below the wall, facing and breaking the enemy encirclement to find the troop that had carried out the climb. After this moment, they began to fight hand to hand through the trenches, creating the conditions for the army to take the Normandy region.
Despite victorious actions such as World War II, there were also disastrous actions in the history of the rangers. One of them occurred in 1993, when together with another elite force, the Delta Force, they fought against Muhammad Aidib's guerrillas in Operation Restore Hope, being defeated in two. occasions, on August 26, after 18 hours of battle, and on October 3, when two helicopters were shot down by the guerrillas in an urban combat, with 16 dead and 57 injured.
By Tales Pinto
Graduated in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/guerras/rangers-uma-tropa-elite-dos-eua.htm
