06/06/2026
June 6, 1944. D-Day. 24-year-old Point Pleasant Beach High School graduate SGT Leonard “Bud” Lomell led a platoon of US army Rangers, climbing hand-over-hand by rope, up the sheer, 100-foot Pointe du Hoc cliffs in Normandy, France, in one of the most crucial actions of the Second World War. The objective of his platoon was a cluster of German 155mm artillery guns capable of firing up to 15 miles which threatened the entire allied D-Day landing force on the nearby Omaha and Utah beaches. Lomell, already wounded on the beach by a German machine gun, scaled the cliff under heavy gunfire, a shower of grenades and with the Germans trying to cut their ropes. After the Rangers fought their way from the cliff edge in small groups, sustaining heavy casualties, Lomell and another sergeant, Jack Kuhn, located the five artillery pieces camouflaged in an apple orchard almost a mile inland. Lomell put three of the guns out of action with thermite grenades, destroying their recoil mechanisms and sights. He had to crawl away to get more grenades from his platoon before putting the other two out of action. For his actions in disabling the Pointe du Hoc guns, Lomell received the U.S. Army's Distinguished Service Cross, the British Military Medal, and the French Légion d'honneur. In addition to his Silver Star, Lomell also received a Bronze Star. In 1994, he was inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame. Lomell was recognized by historian Stephen Ambrose as the single individual — other than Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower — most responsible for the success of D-Day.
Lomell returned to New Jersey in 1945. He enrolled in law school at La Salle University and Rutgers University, passing the bar in 1951. He established his law practice in 1957, purchasing the Washington Street, Toms River, residence of the late Double Trouble Company founder Edward Crabbe. The former Crabbe residence was the location of Lomell's law office for decades. Bud Lomell passed away March 1, 2011.
This painting, "The Point" by artist Larry Selman, shows SGT Lomell firing his Thompson sub-machine gun as one of his platoon helps their radio man on to the clifftop. A copy hung in Lomell’s office in the old Crabbe family house. A monument is dedicated to Lomell in Point Pleasant Beach. He is interred at Riverside Cemetery, Toms River. [ ]
