Bedford’s Valiant Boys

How the National Guard Bedford Boys Gave Its All on D-Day
On the morning of June 6, 1944, thousands of Allied warships assembled in the English Channel as part of the biggest invasion fleet the world had ever seen. Intent on invading Normandy and breaching the Atlantic Wall as part of Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious assault in history was underway. That morning, roughly 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces were to land on five beaches along a 50-mile fortified coastline in northern France. By the end of the day, the Allies had suffered 10,000 casualties battling the German defenders, but they successfully established a foothold in France. It was one of the most important battles of World War II. One of the American units at the forefront of the invasion was a National Guard infantry unit based out of the small town of Bedford, Virginia —Company A of the 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division. When the company assaulted Omaha Beach that morning, there were 35 Soldiers from the town assigned to the unit. By the end of the day, 19 of the Guard Soldiers would be dead with four more dying before the end of the campaign. On that day, the town of Bedford, located just below the Blue Ridge Mountains, suffered the greatest proportion of losses of any town in the United States, and the men were forever immortalized as the Bedford Boys.