The Bedford Boys : One American Town's Ultimate D-day Sacrifice

June 6, 1944: Nineteen boys from Bedford, Virginia -- population just 3,000 in 1944 -- died in the first bloody minutes of D-Day.They were part of Company A of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division, and the first wave of American soldiers to hit the beaches in Normandy. Later in the campaign, three more boys from this small Virginia town died of gunshot wounds. Twenty-two sons of Bedford lost--it is a story one cannot easily forget and one that the families of Bedford will never forget. The Bedford Boys is the true and intimate story of these men and the friends and families they left behind. Based on extensive interviews with survivors and relatives, as well as diaries and letters, Kershaw's book focuses on several remarkable individuals and families to tell one of the most poignant stories of World War II--the story of one small American town that went to war and died on Omaha Beach. On June 6, 1944, nineteen boys from Bedford, Virginia--population 3,000--died in the first bloody minutes of D-Day when their landing craft dropped them in shallow water off Omaha Beach. They were part of the first wave of American soldiers to hit the sands of Normandy. Later that day, two more soldiers from the same small town died of gunshot wounds. Twenty-one sons of Bedford killed--no other town in America suffered a greater one-day loss. It is a story that one cannot easily forget--and one that the families of Bedford will never forget. It was, and still is, Bedford's longest day.The Bedford Boys is the intimate true story of these young men and their friends and families in Bedford. It portrays a neighborhood of soldiers before and during the war--from the girlfriends they left behind to the buddies they made in basic training, from anxious barracks in England to the bloody beaches of Normandy. Based on extensive interviews with survivors and relatives as well as on diaries and letters, Alex Kershaw's book focuses on several remarkable individuals and families to tell one of the most poignant stories of World War II--the story of one small American town that went to war and died on Omaha Beach. On June 6, 1944, 19 boys from Bedford, Virginia, USA - population 3,000 - died in the first bloody minutes of D-Day when their landing craft dropped them in shallow water off Omaha Beach. This is both the story of that tragic day and of the small town they called home. An account based on interviews, letters, and diaries traces the stories of twenty-one young men from Bedford, Virginia, who died on D-Day, noting how their lives and deaths continue to impact their families and their community Chronicles the experiences of the young men from Bedford, Virginia, who invaded Normandy's Omaha Beach as part of the first wave of American soldiers who hit the beaches on D-Day JUNE 6, 1944, 12:30 A.M.: The British troopship, the Empire Javelin, steamed steadily across the English Channel.