Overview

The Bedford Boys is the astonishing true story of twenty-one young men who were killed during the first horrifying minutes of D-Day and the friends and families they left behind in the small town of Bedford. Twenty-one sons killed-no other town in America suffered a greater loss in one day. It is an unforgettable story of triumph, courage, and tragedy based on extensive interviews with survivors and relatives as well as diaries and letters. Alex Kershaw's remarkable book brings to vivid, heartbreaking life the hitherto untold story of one small American town, their sons, and the brutal, bloody war that deprived them of their futures.

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9780792732075

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Reviews

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...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. -- Booklist 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; thirty-four were still with the company on D-Day. Of these, nineteen died in a matter of minutes and three more perished in the Normandy campaign...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. -- Publishers Weekly A poignant story that humanises the D-Day sacrifice. -- The Observer (London) A powerful reminder of the human cost of war. -- Washington Post

A powerful reminder of the human cost of war.

A poignant story that humanises the D-Day sacrifice. -- The Observer (London) A powerful reminder of the human cost of war. -- Washington Post 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...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. -- Booklist 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; thirty-four were still with the company on D-Day. Of these, nineteen died in a matter of minutes and three more perished in the Normandy campaign...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. -- Publishers Weekly

"A poignant story that humanises the D-Day sacrifice. -- ""The Observer (London)"" A powerful reminder of the human cost of war. -- ""Washington Post"" 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...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. -- ""Booklist"" 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; thirty-four were still with the company on D-Day. Of these, nineteen died in a matter of minutes and three more perished in the Normandy campaign...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. -- ""Publishers Weekly"""

Author Information

Alex Kershaw is the British author of several popular books about World War II, most notably the New York Times bestsellers The Longest Winter and The Bedford Boys. Previously, Kershaw has been a writer at the Guardian, Independent, and Sunday Times and has worked in television, writing and producing an award-winning documentary on Bobby Kennedy. Along with his other nonfiction work, Kershaw is also an accomplished biographer. He currently lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts. William Dufris attended the University of Southern Maine in Portland-Gorham before pursuing a career in voice work in London and then the United States. He has won more than twenty AudioFile Earphones Awards, was voted one of the Best Voices at the End of the Century by AudioFile magazine, and won the prestigious Audie Award in 2012 for best nonfiction narration. He lives with his family in Maine.

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