The Bedford boys

Description

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.

First Sentence

JUNE 6, 1944, 12:30 A.M.: The British troopship, the Empire Javelin, steamed steadily across the English Channel.

Subjects

Other Editions

• The Bedford boys: one American town's ultimate D-Day sacrificeDa Capo Press2003-01-01
• The Bedford boysDa Capo Press2003-01-01
• The Bedford boysThorndike Press2003-01-01
• The Bedford boysSimon & Schuster2003-01-01
• The Bedford BoysAudio CassetteBBC Audiobooks2004-04-30
• The Bedford BoysAudio CDBBC Audiobooks2004-04-30