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

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.

This accessible and moving group biography portrays the men of Company A, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, who were part of the first wave at Omaha Beach in WWII. Initially, 103 of them left the small town of Bedford, Va.-now the site of the national D-Day memorial-when the local National Guard was called up in 1940; 34 were still with the company on D-Day. Of these, 19 died in a matter of minutes and three more perished in the Normandy campaign. Men lost ranged from the company commander, Captain Taylor N. Fellers, from a wealthy Bedford family, to Frank Draper Jr., a fine athlete and soldier from the wrong side of the tracks. Long-time National Guardsman John Wilkes died as the company's top sergeant, while Earl Parker left behind a daughter he never saw. Both Holback brothers and Ray Stevens died, while Ray's twin Roy Stevens was one of the handful of survivors. Kershaw (Jack London) includes combat sequences that give a vivid private's- eye view of the particular hell that was Omaha Beach, while one of the most moving portions of the book is the simultaneous arrival in Bedford of nine "We regret to inform you..." telegrams. A capsule history of Bedford before the war, its role as part of the home front during it and its current place as (controversial) memorial site are all covered, but the book's central focus is on the town where a good many survivors remain whose memories have not faded and whose emotional wounds have not healed.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

On June 6, 1944, Allied armies launched their massive invasion of Europe--D-Day, in other words. Among the thousands of soldiers headed for France were 34 men from the town of Bedford, Virginia, aboard Empire Javelin, a British troopship. Nineteen of them were killed in the first minutes of combat, when their landing craft dropped them into the water off Normandy. Two more were killed later in the day from gunshot wounds. No other town in the U.S. endured a greater one-day loss. Kershaw's book is more than just another war story; here is an in-depth account of this blue-collar town and its 3,000 people. The soldiers included three sets of brothers, a pool-hall hustler, husbands, farmers, and a couple of "highly successful Lotharios." Kershaw describes in painful detail how the next of kin were notified of the soldiers' deaths via Western Union telegrams and how the news devastated their lives. Drawing on interviews with survivors and relatives, newspaper clippings, letters, and diaries, Kershaw has chronicled one community's great sacrifice. George Cohen
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"The Bedford Boys is written like Sebastian Junger's A Perfect Storm." -- Orlando Sentinel 6/2/03

"A worthy addition to the history of D-Day, and a memorial to the small Virginia town." -- The Weekly Standard 6/30/03

"An excellent book, painting a series of pictures illustrating the war, the homefront and even the Depression." -- Topeka Capital-Journal 6/06/03

"An exhaustively researched, poignantly rendered account...an excellent, fact-packed chronicle...a literary memorial." -- Virginian-Pilot 7/6/03

"Few books describe the costs of warfare so soberly and so vividly." -- People 6/09/03

"Give[s] us an opportunity to understand what our fathers did to preserve our way of life." -- Roanoke Times 6/06/03

"Gripping...It's through books like this that those brave men who fought so others could be free live on." -- Dallas Morning News 6/29/03

"Mr. Kershaw's book relentlessly reminds us that war is about humans." -- Washington Times 6/1/03

"Powerful and heart-wrenching...Strongly recommended." -- Library Journal 5/15/03

"There are scores of accounts of D-Day, but Kershaw...gives a new perspective...The story of the Bedford boys is worth telling." -- New York Times Book Review 11/2/03

Alex Kershaw is the author of the widely acclaimed and bestselling books The Bedford Boys, The Longest Winter, and The Few, and two biographies: Jack London and Blood and Champagne: The Life and Times of Robert Capa. He lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts.