The Bedford Boys....One Small Virginia Town's Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice

[1srelluc]

As the sun began to rise on June 6th, 1944, 180 men from Company A, 116th Infantry, 29th Division, landed in the first wave on Omaha Beach. They were greeted with furious machine-gun fire and relentless shelling. In minutes, Omaha was a bloodbath. Among the dead of Company A were boys from the small town of Bedford; three more would later be killed an appalling sacrifice from a tiny rural community.

Bedford paid a high price in World War II. In all, 35 young men from this small mountain town of just 3,000 people in 1944 were in the first wave to hit Omaha Beach on June 6th, 1944. The opening scene of the movie Saving Private Ryan reenacted this horrific battle.

Nineteen boys from Bedford died in the first few minutes of D-Day, and more died later. The young men who died were immortalized forever as "the Bedford Boys." None of them was regular Army. They were all soldiers in the local Virginia National Guard unit: Company A of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division, a mobilized National Guard unit made up of citizen-soldiers who only the year before had been farmers, miners, mechanics, schoolteachers, and construction workers, and novices at combat.....Later in the campaign, four more boys from this small Virginia town died of gunshot wounds. Twenty-three native sons of Bedford died in less than a week.

more....

The National D-Day Memorial is in Bedford, Virginia.

National D-Day Memorial - Wikipedia

 

[odanny]

Always wanted to read this book. I've read Kershaw before, he is a very accomplished author.

 

[1srelluc]

Many were said to have fell afoul of Heinrich Severloh, a German soldier in charge of an MG42 postion during the assault.

He fired for nine hours, using up 12,000 machine-gun rounds.

 

[Weatherman2020]

As the sun began to rise on June 6th, 1944, 180 men from Company A, 116th Infantry, 29th Division, landed in the first wave on Omaha Beach. They were greeted with furious machine-gun fire and relentless shelling. In minutes, Omaha was a bloodbath. Among the dead of Company A were boys from the small town of Bedford; three more would later be killed an appalling sacrifice from a tiny rural community.

Bedford paid a high price in World War II. In all, 35 young men from this small mountain town of just 3,000 people in 1944 were in the first wave to hit Omaha Beach on June 6th, 1944. The opening scene of the movie Saving Private Ryan reenacted this horrific battle.

Nineteen boys from Bedford died in the first few minutes of D-Day, and more died later. The young men who died were immortalized forever as "the Bedford Boys." None of them was regular Army. They were all soldiers in the local Virginia National Guard unit: Company A of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division, a mobilized National Guard unit made up of citizen-soldiers who only the year before had been farmers, miners, mechanics, schoolteachers, and construction workers, and novices at combat.....Later in the campaign, four more boys from this small Virginia town died of gunshot wounds. Twenty-three native sons of Bedford died in less than a week.

more....

The National D-Day Memorial is in Bedford, Virginia.

National D-Day Memorial - Wikipedia

Their story inspired Spielberg to do Saving Private Ryan. He donated $1M towards the building of the memorial.

 

[Oddball]

Many were said to have fell afoul of Heinrich Severloh, a German soldier in charge of an MG42 postion during the assault.

He fired for nine hours, using up 12,000 machine-gun rounds.

Have seen him and one of the Bedford survivors interviewed on a few documentaries...Chilling stuff for a fact.

 

[whitehall]

Every small town in the United States felt their own losses over D.Day but Bedford Va. won the statistical lottery.

 

[Deadstick]

I was in Normandy last month for the commemorations, my third visit, the Americans had it very hard on their Omaha beach, on my visit i went to all the beaches and Bayeux military cemetery to pay my respects to a family member who was KIA on the 18th of June, just 12 days after landing on Gold beach, he was just 17 years old which i find unbelievable.

 

[Deadstick]

Have seen him and one of the Bedford survivors interviewed on a few documentaries...Chilling stuff for a fact.

I believe that German kid was only a teenager, i saw him a while ago on TV, it looked to me like what he did on that day bothered him for most of his life, from his account he was just raking the Beach at Omaha with an MG 42, i believe that put out about 1200 RPM, he must have been responsible for many deaths.

 

[whitehall]

Ike was prepared to send a million kids into the meat grinder if that's what it took. D-Day boiled down to the side that could take the most casualties and the U.S. won the lottery after about a two month breakout. The media did it's part in pretending that Normandy was secret and Germans didn't notice a freaking armada off shore.