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The Bedford Boys: One Small Town's Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice, by Alex Kershaw
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The memorable opening scene of "Saving Private Ryan", which portrayed the appalling scenario on Omaha Beach, where allied bombs had failed to knock out German gun emplacements or do any damage whatsoever to beach defences was loosely based on Bedford's story. The first wave of seasick young GIs were being tipped out into the tide to be picked off by waiting machine gun fire and shelling, acting more as target practice than a tangible threat. Incredible bravery and luck did in some instances prevail, and with the help of a more successful bomibing campaign later in the day, Omaha was finally taken. Company A was in that first wave of landings - known, jokingly as "the suicide wave" by soliders before the attack. Many of Bedford's young recruits to the US Army found themselves training and fighting together in Company A of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division - a company which was all but obliterated by the end of the Longest Day. From small town lives - wives, fiancees and childhoods - to training in the UK and those fateful D-Day landings on on to the aftermath, this book creates a vivid portrait of one town's loss.
- Sales Rank: #497137 in Books
- Published on: 2003-06-02
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 304 pages
About the Author
Alex Kershaw is a British journalist and screenwriter. Since 1990, he has been a regular contributor to THE SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, OBSERVER and GQ magazine. He is the author of the widely acclaimed biographies of Jack London and Robert Capa.
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Five Stars
By Amazon Customer
arrived from England promptly and was in very good condition. can't ask for any better. Thanks
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
The Bedford Boys
By Kristen Alexander
This wonderful book focuses on the young soldiers from Bedford, Virginia, who joined Company A, 116th Infantry, 29th Division, and explores the impact of the Omaha Beach assaults on the boys, collectively referred to by Kershaw as the Bedford boys, and on their small hometown. By weaving together recollections from survivors and other townsfolk, as well as extracts from letters, Kershaw has constructed a moving account where the reader gets to know and care for the young soldiers.
None of the Bedford boys had anticipated being involved in combat. Company A was a National Guard unit and most of its members had joined up during the Depression, for the "dollar a day". The atmosphere of the unit was like a social club and the boys were amongst family and friends. Kershaw introduces us to the boys and explores their rational for joining up, and impresses upon the reader the close-knit community ties of the boys. In October 1940, after Congress had passed a selective service bill, Company A was advised that it would be mobilised into the federal Army. Ultimately, they were destined for overseas service.
After they arrived in England, they began the longest training program that any American infantrymen undertook during World War II. It lasted over twenty months from October 1942 and culminated with the D-Day landings in June 1944. Their training was gruelling, and they were pushed to their absolute physical limits. 50 boys from Bedford had arrived, but that number continued to fall as each week, one after another was weeded out or assigned elsewhere. The training was so intense because, if they proved up to the challenge, the 29th Division would be selected for an audacious and risky amphibious operation. Their commander, General Charles H Gerhardt, knew this, and he would ensure that they met the challenge. Ray Nance, a Company A officer, and one of the few officers to survive, recalled that they "had tried to be the best in training. It was a matter of pride and honour. And it worked. We were chosen to be the first to land".
On 6 June 1944, 180 men from Company A landed in the first wave on Omaha Beach. By the end of the day, nineteen boys from Bedford were killed, and later in the invasion, three more were killed: twenty-two of the original fifty who arrived in England; twenty-two of the remaining thirty four who had been touched lightly on the arm by Ray Nance as they emerged from their debarkation areas.
The boys knew beforehand that there would be heavy casualties, and that many would not return. Kershaw explores this aspect in some depth, and I was particularly weighed down with this heavy pall of inevitability. Ray Stevens said that " if I go over, I won't be coming back". Roy Stevens, Ray's twin brother, admitted that everyone was scared, but they were putting on a good front. Before they embarked, his brother Ray wanted to shake his hand in farewell. But Roy refused, saying he would shake when it was all over. He continues to regret not shaking his twin's hand. British Sub-Lieutenant Green, who was in command of the flotilla of six landing craft that would take Company A to Normandy recalled that " we ...referred to ourselves as the suicide wave, ... and to be honest we were all quite proud of the label." In his last shore briefing, he was told that he should expect to lose a third of his men and his boats. Earl Parker, who had never met his young daughter said that "if I could just see her once, ... I wouldn't mind dying". He never met his daughter. Even though I knew the fates of these boys (the list of those fallen appears at the back, and you can work out the survivors from the notes) I was moved by their bravery and stoicism in the face of near certain death, and could not stop reading.
When the Bedford boys arrived on the shores of France, waiting for them were almost two thousand men from the German 352nd Division. At least three MG-42 machine guns fired over a thousand rounds a minute. Mortars were fired. Two dozen snipers picked off the advancing men, and those who had fallen, ensuring that they did not arise from the sands. It was a bloodbath, but ultimately, the sheer numbers of the Allied forces ensured victory. But for the town of Bedford, it was a disaster. Perhaps one of the most poignant passages of the book (which is also used on the cover blurb) comes from Elizabeth Teass, who operated Bedford's teletype machine. When she turned on the machine, she received the initial message "We have casualties". Elizabeth read the first line of copy, and expected the message to end. But it did not. "Line after line of copy clicked out of the printer. Within a few minutes as [she] watched in a `trance like state' it was clear something terrible had happened to Company A. `I just sat and watched them and wondered how many more it was going to be' ".
This book is well written, and Kershaw easily evokes the reader's emotions. The book successfully operates on a number of levels: as a straight history; as a moving testimony to the courage of the Boys; and as a social history of the effects of battle. Kershaw satisfies the reader's curiosity of "what happens next" by telling of how the survivors coped, how the town adjusted and of how, many years down the track, attempts were made to create a D-Day memorial.I was enthralled by this book. It reads easily, and is difficult to put down. And it touched just about everyone of my emotions: empathy; despair for the boys who did not return; admiration at their amazing courage; sympathy for their grieving families; laughter at the occasional black humour; and hate for the German snipers who struck down those on the beach, and especially hate for the pilot who strafed and killed the last Bedford boy who saw action on D-Day, Charles Fizer, as he and several others lay sleeping on 11 July 1944. Highly recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
It was amazing to learn the back story not only of the ...
By Bobbie J. Johnson
Riveting account of the young men from one small town in Virginia who gave the ultimate sacrifice in WWII. It was amazing to learn the back story not only of the young men, but also the women who loved them and watched them go off to war. I am familiar with this group as I live in Virginia but have yet to see the Memorial in Bedford. Like so many who fought in WWII, these were normal young men, trying to make a living in the newly post Depression Era. What they endured is amazing and to have lost so many of them in one battle adds a depth that many communities will never know. If you enjoyed Saving Private Ryan, then this is a book you will definitely not want to miss.
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