WASHINGTON, May 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Returning to Normandy last year, 60 years after the D-Day landing, Roger Neighborgall was wondering how he and his fellow Rangers had managed to climb a 150-feet (about 45-meter) cliff and capture a German artillery battery that could devastate the entire beachhead.

    "We landed here, climbed there and put them down," recalled Neighborgall in a recent interview with Xinhua, pointing to one of the slides he uses for history lecture to high-school students.

    "Last year, I went back to Pointe du Hoc. I looked down for the first time and I thought: How did we go up the cliff?"

    Neighborgall had been a student at Duke University for nearly two years before he enlisted in 1943 as a US Army Ranger. The Rangers received special training to carry out difficult raids and operations.

    "To be a Ranger, you had to volunteer and show courage, initiative, determination and physical ruggedness as well as a high state of mental readiness," he said. More than 60 years later, the qualities of a Ranger can still be seen in Neighborgall.

    At the age of 81, Neighborgall works full time at Noesis, Inc., a consulting firm based in Arlington, Virginia. He is also president of the World War II Ranger Battalions Association and president of a local organization dedicated to protecting an old local trail.

    At a meeting room in his Arlington company, Neighborgall showed two Nazi flags he captured during the war and told his stories in graphic detail and with witty humor.

    "At the middle of the war, I was really scared after seeing so many soldiers die, so I went to our Chaplain Lacey. And he told me:¡¯ Everyone is scared, but don't let the people you lead know you are scared.'"

    "Two days later, I was in a foxhole fighting the Germans. Suddenly I heard a noise behind me. I turned around and found the chaplain was crawling. I pulled him into the foxhole and then he said: 'I was just passing through the neighborhood and thought I should drop by," Neighborgall said, laughing loudly. "He came to comfort me."

    On June 6, 1944, Neighborgall landed at the Omaha Beach of Normandy as a member of the 5th Ranger Battalion, one of the two Ranger battalions formed for the D-Day landing. After suffering heavy casualties, his battalion overpowered a German artillery battery which overlooked and fired on the whole beach.

    "We were the first troops that landed and after capturing the artillery battery our main mission was to operate behind the German line," he said proudly.

    The Rangers became so formidable that the Germans offered a bounty for killing any one of them. "So we took our Ranger patches off," he said.

    Neighborgall said few people nowadays know about the Zerf Operation, the most successful but also the most disastrous Ranger operation of World War II, in early 1945.

    On Feb. 23, 1945, Neighborgall and his 5th Ranger Battalion colleagues were ordered to climb a mountain to go behind the German front line and block a main German supply road near Zerf, a small town in western Germany. Since the mountain was presumably unclimbable, the Germans decided not to defend it.

    "When we got to the first German pillbox, the guns were not manned and the door was open," he said. "The German soldiers thought we were Germans in American uniforms." "We soon made them prisoners but not before they radioed our presence to other pillboxes. The value of surprise disappeared," he said.

    They finally took their objective and blocked the road where it ran through a cleft. They were supposed to be relieved of their missions in 48 hours, but eventually they were left there for nine days.

    "Supplying us by parachute was unsuccessful so our only alternative was to take half of the German prisoners' food and use their rifles and ammunition," he said. They also put the German prisoners on top of the pillboxes to protect themselves from German shelling.

    "Eighty-five percent of the 450 Rangers were killed or wounded," Neighborgall said. But the loss for Germany was heavier: 378 killed, 550 wounded, and 562 captured.

    Neighborgall was wounded several times during the war. Once, the position of his battalion was hit by several German artillery shells. "All of the people around me were killed. I was knocked down and out. I awoke when someone was picking me up by my boots and head to throw me into a pile of dead soldiers," he said.

    During the interview, Neighborgall showed a big photo frame onto which dozens of medals he won in the war were pinned. Among them was a Silver Star Medal and a Bronze Star Medal. Behind every medal there was a story of courage and determination.

    On one occasion, he pulled an injured soldier for three miles (about 4.8 kilometers) through the snow on a sled he made with small tree trunks and jackets; On another, he gave first aid to fellow soldiers who were injured when their machine gun position received a direct hit, and he put the gun back in action to assist in repelling the German attack.

    "What does the real world of combat look like?" he asked. "In real battles, soldiers get killed, and soldiers get wounded," he said.

    But when recalling an occasion during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, the largest land battle of World War II, his tone became humorous.

    "We were riding on tanks. Then we ran into Germans. We jumped off the tanks and started firing at them. I fired my rifle with the gunstock by my cheek," he said, using his hands as the imaginative rifle.

    "It was so cold that my rifle got stuck onto my cheek," he said.¡± My friend beside me said: 'You keep firing while I blow warm air on your cheek."

    After the Germans surrendered, Neighborgall stayed in the military government in Munich for three months before his battalion was sent home. "The plan was to send us to fight in Japan," he said. "But while we were at home, the Japanese surrendered."

    Neighborgall continued to pursue his university education and began his profession in various High-tech companies, most of them in marketing.

    "I did not talk about the war for more than 20 years," he said.¡± I had a lot of nightmares after the war."

    It was not until last year that he decided to share his wartime stories with the public, especially the students. "This afternoon, I¡¯ll have a history class with high-school students. Next week, I'll have two." He has recently told his stories on The History Channel.

    "I don't want people to forget the war," he said. "Many people today can't imagine the United States was once in a war that the American people were totally backing."

    "Jews, Russians and Chinese all were victims of genocide," he said. "That's one of the lessons of the war."

    When Neighborgall went back to Europe last year to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landing, this time with his Ranger badge on, he found himself surrounded by young people asking for his signature.

    "My wife said I was like a rock star!" he said. President George W. Bush and Army Chief of Staff General Peter Schoomaker sent him letters to thank him.

    How do the younger generations perceive his sacrifice more than half a century ago? Neighborgall showed a short composition written by Susie Hyland, his six-year-old granddaughter, at school. The title was "My Hero."

    "My hero is my grandpa... He fote in a wore. But I don't know witch. And I love and trust him. He's the best grompa," Neighborgall read, pointing to the spelling and laughing heartily. Enditem (By Tan Xinmu )