ONE AMERICAN TOWN'S ULTIMATE D-DAY SACRIFICE
THE
BEDFORD BOYS
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The poignant story of the boys from Bedford who landed on the beaches of
Normandy-and the small town they called home On June
6,
1944, landing craft dropped the
boys from Bedford, Virginia
—
in the shallow
Beach, part of the to hit the
— population 3,000
water off Normandy's
Omaha
wave of American
soldiers
first
beaches on D-Day. Within minutes
No
nineteen were dead.
other town in America
suffered a greater one-day loss.
Later in the
campaign, three more sons of Bedford died of
gunshot wounds.
you cannot
a story that 7
It is
easily forget
one that the families of Bedford It
was, and
Here
young men,
—from
anxious
is
the intimate true story
their friends,
the girlfriends they
made
the buddies they
barracks
never forget.
Bedford's longest day.
time
for the first
of these ilies
still is,
will
—and
in
and left
their
behind
in basic training,
England
to
fam-
the
to
from
bloody
beaches of Normandy. Based on extensive
inter-
views with survivors and relatives, as well as on diaries
and
letters,
some remarkable
The Bedford Boys focuses on
individuals
one of the most poignant II
— the
went
to
story of
and families
stories of
to tell
World War
one small American town that
war and died on
Omaha
Beach.
The
Bedford Boys
The
Bedford Boys One American Town's Ultimate
D-Day
Sacrifice
ALEX KERSHAW
V4 DA CAPO A Member
PRESS
of the Perseus Books
Group
Copyright
All rights reserved. in a retrieval
No
© 2003
by Alex Kershaw
part of this publication
may be reproduced,
stored
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.
Designed hy Brent Wilcox Set in
1
1
-point Fairfield Light by
Cataloging-in-Publication data for this book First
is
The Perseus Books Group available from the Library of Congress.
Da Capo Press edition 2003 ISBN 0-306-81167-7
Published by
A Member
Da Capo
Press
of the Perseus Books
Group
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Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S.
by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, Center, Cambridge,
MA 02142,
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2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9—07
06 05 04 03
1
1
Cambridge
or (617) 252-5298,
3
1
1
CONTENTS Acknowledgments
ix
The Bedford Boys
xi
Maps
xiii
H-360
1
War
7
1
D-Day,
2
Going
3
Moving Out
23
4
Cruel Seas
41
5
England's
6
"29, Lets Go!"
67
7
Slapton Sands
81
8
The Sausages
93
9
The Empire Javelin
to
Own
53
1 1
Wave
10
The
11
Dog Beach
129
12
"Medic!"
139
1
Every
14
Bedford's Longest
15
Bocage
173
16
The Longest Wait
189
17
His Deep Regret
197
18
Coming Home
209
19
Memorial
225
First
Man Was
121
a
Hero
1
Day
165
VI
49
Vlll
CONTENTS
The Bedford Boys and D-Day
239
Bibliography
241
Notes
243
Index
263
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book could not have been written without the help and cooperation of
many
extraordinary people in Bedford.
chanting town below the Peaks of Otter, kindness.
It
was
a great
honor
to
I
On
several visits to this en-
was treated with the utmost
spend so much time trying
men and
memorate such
a
nity that reared
them. Bedford represents
wonderful group of
all
the families and that
is
great
to
com-
commu-
and gracious
about America. I
would
like to
thank the following
perts for providing
me
relatives, veterans,
and various
ex-
with information and photographs, and in some
cases enduring several hours of interviews and many,
many phone
calls
over the last three years: Eloise Rogers, Johnny Powers, Earl Boyd Wilson, Dorothy
Goode, Hazel Clifton Pierce, Linda
D-Day Foundation, John
willer of the National
garten,
Gilley,
Carol Tuck-
Barnes, Harold
Baum-
Marcia Apperson, Mitch Yockelson of the National Archives,
Jimmy Kilborne of the Staunton Armory, Russell Bob Slaughter, Lucille Hoback Boggess, Ellen A. Wandrei and
Elizabeth Teass, Major Pickett,
her wonderful staff helpful Michael
at
the Bedford
County Museum, the astonishingly
Edwards of the Eisenhower Center, Bettie Wilkes
Hooper, the outstandingly patient Roy and Helen Stevens, Ray Nance, Eleanor Yowell, Elaine Cockes, Allen Huddleston, the marvelously hospitable Pride
and Rebecca Wingfield, Bertie Woodford,
Gamiel Draper, Bob
Sales,
Jimmy Green,
Jack Mitchell, Earl and Elva Stewart, Billy Parker,
Ivylyn Hardy,
Newcomb, Verona
Mary Daniel
Billy Parker,
Mabel Phelps,
Lipford,
Anna Mae
Heilig, staff of the Bedford Bulletin,
Beulah Witt, Ellen Quarles, David Draper, Michael Zimmerman, Sibyle Kieth Coleman, Gary Bedingfield, Laura Burnette, Octavia White
IX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
X
Sumpter, Kevan Elsby, Judy Monroe, George Gillam, Peter Viemeister,
and Linda
The
my
Gilley.
staff of the following institutions
research:
The New York Public
provided invaluable help with
Library, the
Sawyer Library
at
Williams College, Loyola Marymount Library in California, the Imperial
War Museum, Bedford County Museum, the
McCullogh Free Library
in
the National
Bennington, and the Eisenhower Center.
have been exceptionally lucky to have had such an astute,
I
Da Capo
and enthusiastic editor as Robert L. Pigeon of thank him and his team enough agent,
am and
D-Day Museum,
generosity.
My wife,
to
him
in every
skilled,
cannot
way he
My
possibly could.
I
for his long-standing patience, support,
Robin, and son, Felix, once again tolerated
absence and obsession and brought untold the Loerch family, and of course port.
I
for their support for this project.
Derek Johns, once again helped
enormously grateful
Press.
my
joy.
own,
I
would
also like to
my
thank
for their long-standing sup-
THE BEDFORD BOYS
Company A: C,
Abbott, Leslie
Sergeant
Broughman, Cedric C, Technician Carter, Wallace R., Private First Class
John D., Private
Clifton,
Coleman, Andrew
First Class
Private First Class
J.,
Crouch, George E. Technician Draper,
Jr.,
Edwards,
Frank
P.,
Captain
Fellers, Taylor N., Fizer,
Sergeant
Robert D., Sergeant
Jr.,
Charles W. Private First Class
Gillaspie, Nicholas N., Private First Class
Goode, Robert
L.,
Sergeant
Hoback, Bedford T, Private Hoback, Raymond
S.,
Sergeant
Huddleston, Allen, Sergeant Lancaster, James, Private First Class
Lee, Clifton
C,
Private
Marsico, Robert (Tony) E., Sergeant Mitchell, Jack, Sergeant
Nance, Elisha R. (Ray),
First
Newcomb,
Earl R., Sergeant
Overstreet,
Glenwood
Lieutenant
(Dickie) E., Private First Class
Parker, Earl L., Sergeant
Powers, Henry Clyde, Sergeant
Powers, Jack
C,
Private First Class
Reynolds, John E, Private First Class Rosazza,
Weldon
Schenk, John
B.,
A., Private First
Class
Sergeant
XI
Xll
THE BEDFORD BOYS
Stevens, Ray O., Sergeant Stevens,
Roy
O., Sergeant
Thurman, Anthony M., Sergeant Watson, James White,
Jr.,
W,
Gordon
Private First Class H., Sergeant
Wilkes, Harold E., Sergeant
Wilkes, John
Master Sergeant
L.,
Wingfield, Pride, Sergeant
Wright, Elmere
P.,
Sergeant
Yopp, Grant C., Sergeant
Company
C:
Dean, John
W,
Company
F:
Parker,
Master Sergeant
Joseph E.
(Earl's brother),
Companies A, C, and F were by Colonel Charles
D.W
Sergeant
part of the
1
16th Infantry Regiment
Canham. The 116th was
commanded
part of the 29th Division
commanded by Major General Charles H. Gerhardt. Brigadier General Norman D. Cota was Assistant Division Commander of the 29th.
Operation Overlord D-Day, June
6,
1944
Omaha Beach June
Dog
Dug
Dog
Eas\
Green
White
Red
Green
6,
1944
Red
Fox Green
Comp* uuiintr
I.
Colleville
Dog Green
at
June
Omaha Beach 6,
^a,;
\
iJi.
\
1944
D-Day, H-360
JUNE
1944, 12:30 A.M.: The
6,
Javelin,
steamed steadily across the English Channel.
sengers were thirty-four young ford.
They belonged
hundred man
A
Company
United States' 29th Division
American
her pas-
A, a select two-
Company Army of the
twenty months of arduous training,
had been chosen from among the 15,000 GIs
cal
Among
the small Virginia town of Bed-
116th Infantry's
to the
unit. After
men from
Empire
British troopship, the
to
in the
spearhead the most dangerous and
criti-
assault of the entire war.
Below decks, twenty-five-year-old Sergeant Frank Draper Jr. scribbled notes in his
diary.
rally ebullient,
The army had been
the making of him. Draper, natu-
with finely chiseled features and a superb physique, had
grown up on the wrong
side of the tracks in Bedford, poor even by the
woeful standards of the Depression. Since leaving home, he had become a first-rate soldier,
and he was determined
to bring
honor
to his unit as
well as to his hardscrabble neighborhood back in Bedford,
scavenged for coal as a boy to
be sure he was prepared
to
keep
his family
warm. As
—4 A.M. Hit water—4.30 A.M."
— 2.30 A.M.
De-
handsome farm
boy,
1
Twenty-four-year-old Sergeant Roy Stevens, a tried to get
some
sleep but was too
he wanted
he wrote himself a note:
for the next day, so
"Sleep in your trousers, shirt and gas mask. Breakfast parture
ever,
where he'd
afraid, so
he went on deck. Fellow
Bedford boys and other GIs were crouched
in small
groups
in the
darkness, trying to keep cards and dice from flying or tumbling away across the heaving deck, betting fortunes in poker and craps games:
"It
The Bedford Boys
2
didn't matter
whether you won or
lost.
money back
going to get a chance to win your
Roy scoured the blacked-out deck England a
camp, Roy had
at a training
whole
lot
of
dred dollars."
2
money and
anyway."
for his twin brother, Ray. "hit a streak at
given Ray half of
Perhaps Ray was using the
hands of rook, the Bedford boys'
The Stevens
You knew you probably weren't
last of
brothers had shared everything except
their
most intimate
fears
few
game.
favorite card
women
could remember: poker winnings, uniform, Red Cross
from home, and
hun-
a couple of
to play a final
it
in
won
blackjack and
maybe
it,
Back
and hopes. But
since they
parcels, in a
news
few hours'
would not share the same
time, after years of being inseparable, they
landing craft bound for the beaches of northern France. For the
first
time since they had joined the National Guard, a week apart in 1938, they would not be side by side.
They would
together.
arrive
on
They would not
Omaha Beach
Roy looked around. He wanted sounded and they went
together,
in different boats.
Ray before the
to talk to
to their action stations.
had bought
of the farm they
face their greatest test
and of
He wanted their
ship's
to
alarm
remind him
dreams of making
it
successful after the war, and he wanted to arrange to meet at the cross-
roads of a small village above
A
Omaha Beach
fellow Bedford boy, Lieutenant
few hours of
to get a
aristocracy,
sleep.
Ray Nance, twenty-eight, managed
Nance could
spoken.
much
He was
Nearby were
Guard
exiles.
as far
Like other Bed-
back
as
1933 out of
Nance was
highly intelligent and soft-
also fastidious in everything
he did and awoke around 2
as patriotism.
A.M., dressed in full
of
trace his heritage to British
George Washington, and Huguenot
ford boys, he had joined the National
necessity as
called Vierville sur Mer.
five
combat
He had not even removed his boots. from Company A. By lunchtime, three
gear.
fellow officers
3
them would be dead. In the
men
noncommissioned men's
sat in silence, alone
live to
write another.
few
men
dozed
fitfully.
Most
with their thoughts. Other Bedford boys lay in
bunks writing last-minute not
berths, a
letters
He
felt
home. Nance knew
responsible for
them
that all.
some would
He had grown
H-360
D-Day,
up with these men, trained them love letters to girls
he knew back
to
be superb
in Bedford.
3
censored their
soldiers,
The men under
his
com-
mand were family. Their parents and lovers had entrusted Nance and Company As Captain Taylor Fellers with their lives. At the same time that Nance got up, twenty-one-year-old
Sub-
British
Lieutenant Jimmy Green was woken by an orderly and told that his flotilla
commander wanted
command that told:
of the
but in
flotilla
A
would land Company eighteen
LCAs
him
to see full
urgently.
command The
in France.
Green was second
of the
flotilla
first
in
wave of boats
had twenty
craft all
LCPs [Landing
[Landing Craft Army] and two
Craft Personnel].
Green's
commander
him the boats would have
told
to leave earlier
than planned because weather conditions in the English Channel were so bad.
Green grabbed
a
cup of tea and
weapons from the Empire Javelin's lay ahead.
There would be heavy
a "bite to eat"
store.
He had no
changes
in
told his
men
about what
illusions
men and
his boats. 4
about the weather conditions and consequent
course and timetable, Ray
to eat breakfast:
his
casualties. In his last shore briefing,
he'd been told to expect to lose a third of his
As Green
and then drew
Nance went
to the officers'
pancakes, sausages, eggs, and coffee.
Few
mess
actually ate
the hearty meal, served by upbeat orderlies in starched white uniforms.
"Over breakfast, we Stevens.
"We were
—everybody was
scared.
Nance stepped through and and looked out
They were putting on
Nance gathered
heavy canvas curtain stopped
at the
light
his kit
Roy
breeze,'' recalled
laughing, joking, carrying on but you could
phony
After breakfast,
around and shot the
sat
a
good
and climbed up
tell it
front."
was
5
a gangway.
A
seeping onto the deck from below.
into pitch blackness. 6
He went
to the rail
dark waters, swelling ominously Suddenly, he no-
ticed Captain Fellers at his side. Fellers had, like
Nance, grown up on
a
farm outside Bedford. The two were cousins. Twenty-nine-year-old Fellers was
and
rolling gait.
He was
tall
and
thin,
with a prominent chin
suffering badly from a sinus infection and
looked tired and concerned. Before embarking for France, Fellers had
The Bedford Boys
4
confided in Nance, telling him that very few of the officers and
Company A would come back
men
had studied the Allied
alive. Fellers
ligence and countless aerial shots and concluded that
in
intel-
Company A was
being sent to face certain slaughter. Fellers
"We single
An
and Nance both looked out
to sea.
stood there awhile," recalled Nance.
word
to
each
other.
I
guess we'd said
gun broke the
anti-aircraft
"We
didn't say a word, not a
it all."
7
silence, tracer bullets spitting through
the sky, and then a searchlight caught the blaze of an exploding plane.
"That brought not an exercise." Fellers
A
still
it
home
to
me," recalled Nance. "This thing
didn't say a
word and then turned away and went below.
loudspeaker called the British naval crew to
knew
is real. It's
8
they would be next. Ray
Company A would assemble on
Nance made
its
his
stations.
way
The
troops
quickly to where
deck.
Bosuns' whistles sounded.
"Now, hear
As
this! All assault
thirty-four
Bedford boys emerged from below into the cold dark-
Nance touched
ness,
troops report to your debarkation areas." 9
every one of
them
lightly
on the arm. 10
"It
was
a
gesture, a goodbye," he recalled sixty years later. "They were the best
men
I
have ever seen
loved those men."
in
my
life.
It
was
a privilege to be their officer.
The men included husbands,
three sets of brothers, pool-hall hustlers,
a couple of highly successful Lotharios, a
minor league baseball player
destined for great things, and several Bible-reading, quiet young
who
I
11
desperately missed their mothers and dreamed of
Although they were supremely
fit,
many
cooking.
of the Bedford boys
slowly to their debarkation stations, weighed
been issued an assault
home
down by
jacket, a sort of vest-like
men
their kit.
moved
"We had
garment with many
pockets and pull-strap fasteners to yank off in a hurry," recalled one of the few privates
pockets
we
grenades, a
who would
still
be
alive
stored K-rations, a quarter
by
pound
smoke grenade and medical
kit
nightfall. "In the various
of
TNT
with fuses, hand
with syringe and morphine.
D-Day,
M-l
Besides our regular
ammo
slings of
entrenching stuff in." 12
bayonet, and a
The mens
The men's M-l Garand wrappers finally
On
weighed well over
kit
to the
German
to protect their
found a use
rifles,
among
rifle],
our backs,
pounds.
sixty
the few Allied
equivalents, were
wrapped
weapons in
that
cellophane
working from sand and water. Some
for their
5
we had two we carried an poncho and whatever else we could
clips [for the
belts across our shoulders.
tool, a
were superior
M-l Garand
H-360
men had
Army-issued condoms and tied them around
keepsakes, lucky charms, and even small Bibles that they wanted to
keep
dry.
Around each man's waist was buckled
which would
inflate
by squeezing a
CO-2
"Mae West"
lifebelt
tube.
The Bedford boys checked weapons and
home
a
kit,
exchanged scribbled
addresses "just in case," wished each other good luck, and tried to
bolster others
"This
is it,
who suddenly men,"
a
looked
terrified.
loudspeaker blared to the
up and put
sion. "Pick
it
end of the
line. 29, let's go!" 13
it
on, you've got a
men
one-way
of the 29th Divi-
ticket
and
this
is
the
Going
NONE let
OF THE BEDFORD
B
OY S
thirties,
Roy Stevens. "We'd dated each
schools, played baseball together.
Roy and
Company
his twin brother, Ray,
.
.
get
Back
in the
more akin
to
.
other's sisters,
And we were
week I]
big family," re-
gone
to the
so young!"
it
same
1
had joined the National Guard
A] and we'd matched for
War
outfit,
"We were one
apart in 1938 at the age of eighteen. "There
[World
combat,
than a military unit, for a "dollar a day" and to play soldier
with their brothers, cousins, and buddies.
joined a
to see
for military service.
they had joined their local National Guard
a social club
called
had intended
alone spearhead arguably the most critical American assault in
The boys had not volunteered
history.
War
to
a
week
had been one opening
[in
and he'd won," recalled Roy.
"I
we were something else. We wore these brown uniforms and leggings that we never did manage to
later.
wrapped up
We
thought
just right." 2
Bedford's prettiest
girls,
sipping sweet lemonade on the porches of
whitewashed antebellum homes, watched the Stevens brothers and their fellow National
Guardsmen march through Bedford
of July and could not help but be impressed. felt
every Fourth
The Depression was
still
acutely in Bedford and other rural communities throughout the
South
in the late thirties:
cast-offs
Smart uniforms were
and hand-me-downs that were
all
a bright contrast to the
most young men
in
Bedford
could afford.
The Stevens
brothers and their buddies enjoyed the attention their uni-
forms brought and the sense of
civic pride the
National Guard engen-
The Bedford Boys
8
dered.
Then
there were the two weeks of paid training each summer, at
New York
Manassas or
in
swank
where
hotels
and sometimes on Virginia Beach, close
wore revealing woolen bathing costumes and
city girls
them
the Bedford boys would sweet talk
away But above
Monday
all
a
as they jitterbugged the night
the Bedford boys were looking to pocket a dollar every
night after marching practice at the Bedford armory. 3
men
Like most of the
up on
to the
in
Company A,
the Stevens brothers had grown
farm just outside Bedford, a tight-knit community of three thou-
sand whose English ancestors had settled the area
By
in the 1700s.
1754, the town lay at the heart of arguably the most bucolic county in all
Virginia:
764 square miles of
tains reaching
rolling hills
4,200 feet above sea
and lush
valleys with
moun-
The county was named
level.
John Russell, the fourth duke of Bedford, who served
after
as Britain's secre-
tary of state before the Revolutionary War.
Even
Bedford was
in the 1930s,
The names carved most
all
back
to English
still
into headstones in
British; several of the town's
a quintessentially English
its
Greenwood cemetery were
merchants could trace
craftsmen and artisans; and
and heirlooms dated
to the early colonists.
in
The town was
"the best
little
in
1890 and
town
The Stevens
in
to this
box
at
first
Yorktown.
It
named was
day has signposts boasting that
re-
it is
family had farmed in Bedford since anyone could re-
and had attended
to
furniture
America."
member. Roy and Ray were two
their family
al-
their trades
many homes
Liberty after the Colonial victory over Cornwallis at
named Bedford
town.
a
of fourteen children (including triplets)
one-room schoolhouse before finding jobs
to help
through the Depression. Fiercely competitive, they learned
an early age and by the mid-thirties were regularly fighting each
other to earn a few cents: "There was a
we would
go out there some
filling station
home and who had box-
near our
nights with an older brother
ing gloves," recalled Roy. "He'd put up a kind of ring, call folks over, and
We
then take a collection.
we were done girlfriend in
never did see
he'd take the money, ask
Roanoke."
4
much
of that money.
somebody
for a
lift,
Soon
as
and go see
a
Going
The Stevens brothers were no
strangers to tragedy.
War
to
The
9
triplets all
died shortly after birth. In 1934, Roy had watched helplessly as an older brother died from a seizure.
"I
ened up so much, the doctor
was putting
boy/'
The
loss
had
left
on and he
later said, that his veins burst.
ing right beside him. First person 5
his socks
I
ever seen die.
Roy heartbroken but
also
I
He was
determined
just tight-
was standgood
a real to
do
all
he
could to protect his remaining siblings. After leaving high school,
towns
of the
Ray
largest employers, a mill called Belding
in a grocery store.
separable. "A twin ter,"
Roy worked on the production
is
a
Once
close." 6 For a
one
Hemingway, and
they knocked off for the day, they were in-
little bit
recalled Roy. "They
line at
different than an ordinary brother or sis-
depend on each other
few months, they even dated two
a lot more.
sisters,
Emma
We
were
and Jane
Thaxton, sometimes taking them to one of Bedford's two movie theaters
which showed such
classics as Bette Davis in Jezebel
Traceys Boys Town. The Liberty Theater, the
more conservative of the two cinemas.
at the heart of
and Spencer Bedford, was
In 1937, under pressure from
Bedford's powerful Ministerial Association, the theater's
manager had
stopped showing movies on Sunday. In 1938, the Stevens twins acquired a 136-acre farm as a their parents
and
as a place they
hoped
to
work on
full-time
home for when the
Depression ended." They got the property, complete with several pastures ideal for dairy farming, at a bargain price
were deferred until the
working
for several years,
but they
— $3,700—and payments
knew
they would have to wait
economy rebounded before they could hope
to
make
a living
it.
After the Wall Street crash in 1929, prices of crops had collapsed in
America, and hundreds of thousands of farmers had been forced to
sell.
In 1930, the Brookings Institution discovered that 54 percent of the nation's
farm families
By the
— 17
late thirties, little
million people
had changed
—earned under $1,000 per
year. 8
in rural areas. Small-holders
who
could actually afford to support families were a rare breed. Although farming had been in their blood for generations, however
much
they yearned
The Bedford Boys
10
Stevens brothers could do was hope and wait until prices
to farm, all the
of crops rose again. In the meantime, their day jobs and the extra dollars
they earned in the National Guard helped feed their siblings. In
August 1939, the Stevens brothers joined other Bedford boys
for
their yearly exercises, sharing a tent for thirteen days in northern Vir-
ginia near the
town of Manassas. They camped beside
young men from Bedford imaginary
some
lines,
in
Company A, who
a
hundred other
spent each day attacking
wearing gray armbands and shouting the battle cries of
of their great-grandfathers
who had won undying
glory in previous
wars.
Company A belonged World War
I.
1
16th Infantry Regiment
which had not seen combat since the trench
of the 29th Division, of
to the 1st Battalion of
The
1st Battalion's
Company B was drawn from
battles
the city
of Lynchburg, Virginia, twenty-five miles to the northeast of Bedford.
Company C hailed from Harrisonburg in northern Virginia. Company D comprised men from Roanoke, thirty miles to Bedford's southwest. Many Bedford boys would still be in Company A on D-Day. By then, Corporal Elisha Ray Nance, from a respected tobacco-farming family,
would be
a lieutenant.
Second Lieutenant Taylor N.
County board
the chairman of the Bedford
Fellers, the
of supervisors,
son of
would com-
mand the company after a series of rapid promotions. Company As privates first class that summer of 1939 included roaddigger Earl Newcomb, ex-miner John Wilkes, and twenty-six-year-old Earl Parker, a lighthearted young man madly in love with one of the prettiest and most popular girls in Bedford, Viola Shrader, who worked at Belding Hemingway.
Then
there were the
family was
Schenk, dening,
had
named
privates:
Weldon Rosazza,
nineteen,
whose
after an Italian town; twenty-three-year-old John
slightly built
who worked
buck
with penetrating blue eyes and a passion for gar-
in a
hardware
store;
and Grant Yopp, eighteen, who
lived with the Stevens family since the age of thirteen after his fa-
ther had deserted his family. three stripes on their arms,
By D-Day,
becoming
all
three would have earned
sergeants.
1
Going
Many
of these Bedford boys were aware of their
He had joined
the National
who had
1934, listing on his application an uncle
War
Division in World
man and sons
I
and two other
who had
William Wright,
Army
1st Brigade,
During the
War
1
towns distinguished
Elmere Wright, a twenty-four-year-old minor
history in arms, including
league baseball player.
to
relatives,
Guard
as far
back as
fought with the 29th
William Henry New-
Thomas
enlisted in General
J.
Jack-
of the Shenandoah, during the Civil War.
First Battle of
Manassas on July
21, 1861, Wright's an-
cestors and other Virginians had fought so valiantly that they inspired their fellow Southerners to victory.
was reputed
olina
son
like a
to
have shouted
General Barnard Bee of South Car-
to his
men: "Look! There stands Jack-
stone wall. Rally on the Virginians!" Ever
would be known
after,
the Virginians
as "Stonewallers."
The Bedford boys reenacted
the First Battle of Manassas during their
annual exercises that August of 1939. They
won
the reenactment
Mason-Dixon
against a group of 29ers, recruited from above the
line,
who wore
blue arm-bands. To have lost would have brought permanent
shame on
their
hometown. Then they returned
to
Bedford sweltering in
The
the lee of the hazy Peaks of Otter in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
peaks
— Sharp Top and
to rapture
ford,
Flat
—had
and poetry and accounted
'The Peaks of Otter
The boys had
Rifles."
inspired generations of Virginians
for
Company As nickname
Bed-
their kit,
and stowed
it
in their spot-
Bedford armory, when they learned that Nazi Ger-
attacked Poland. Although the Poles put up a fierce resis-
tance, their antiquated
army was no match
for the ruthlessly trained
superbly equipped Wehrmacht, which stormed towards
ning speed.
On
September
Germany. World War
On
in
9
unpacked
barely
less lockers in the
many had
Top
II
4,
had begun.
than thirty million in U.S. homes by then
war and that
I
"I
at stun-
1939, Britain and France declared war on
Labor Day, Bedford gathered around radios
pledge neutrality:
Warsaw
and
—
have said not once but
hate war.
I
to
— there were more
hear President Roosevelt
many
times that
say that again and again.
I
I
have seen
hope the United
The Bedford Boys
12
States will keep out of this
war
.
.
.
and
I
you
give
assurance that every effort of your government
my
assurance and
re-
be directed to that
will
end." 10
When Company A next met at
the Bedford armory in the basement of
the courthouse at the center of town,
would be for
some men predicted
were openly
called to active duty for a year. Politicians
America
to
come
to the aid of imperiled
that they
democracies
in
calling
Europe.
Other Bedford boys disagreed. Hitler wasn't Americas problem, Roosevelt
with
would keep
his
many Americans'
tion after the Great
had been
told.
word. Isolation was the sanest option and
reluctance to go to Europe's aid barely a genera-
War
of
As long ago
Washington had warned
1914-1918
— the war
in his Farewell
Besides, the last thing most boys in
and jobs
for twelve
to
end
all
wars, they
as 1796, America's first president
months of
George
Address against "interweaving
our destiny with that of any part of Europe."
families
fitted
1
1
Company A wanted was
to leave
serious military training. Fighting
the Battle of Manassas was one thing; a year in Uncle Sam's army was quite another. But as 1939
and more
likely.
drew
to a close, mobilization
Events across the Atlantic indicated that democracy
would soon be under threat across the
The
globe.
Poles had surrendered on October 5 to the
Russians,
looked more
who had
from the
also invaded
American press called
a
east.
Germans and
to the
There followed what the
"phony" war lasting until spring 1940 as the
French and British argued and prevaricated about what course of action
would be
in
both countries' interest. Meanwhile, Hitler
pose National Socialism on early April. Later that
all
of Europe.
Denmark
laid plans to
fell to
im-
the Nazis in
month, German stormtroopers frog-marched
through Oslo, capital of Norway.
On May tect of
10, Britain's
appeasement
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, an archi-
in the thirties,
was replaced by Winston Churchill.
But even the "Bulldog," as he soon became known, could not halt Hitler's lightning Hitler's
most
advance across Western Europe. Late that spring,
brilliant generals,
notably Erich von Manstein and panzer
3
Going
commander Heinz Guderian, Blitzkrieg attacks
By
orchestrated
had barely evaded capture of
1
successful
their expedi-
Dunkirk and stood alone. Only twenty-three miles of the
English Channel and brave young gaining complete
less
stunningly
War
on Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and then France.
July 1940, the British
tionary force at
man
to
RAF
prevented the Nazis from
pilots
hegemony over Europe: France had
fallen to the
Ger-
onslaught of Stuka dive-bombers and massed tank formations in
than
six
weeks.
That August,
as the Battle of Britain raged
Company A
skies,
at Virginia
soldier
by
about the
Beach.
again gathered for
Once more
day, drinking
its
above England's
annual training camp,
summer time
this
the Bedford boys spent two weeks playing
beer around campfires
availability of girls in the nearest
at night,
town. But
and speculating
now
there were de-
bates as well as drunken sing-songs of old Confederate war tunes. Should
America remain
from fascism?
isolated or should she save the world
There were new faces around the
fireside,
many
of
them
Bedford High School. Eighteen-year-old John Clifton, older siblings,
was nicknamed
D." and was
"J.
because he had delivered the Bedford Bulletin
"He was wasn't
a real nice kid," recalled
mean
or ferocious.
ingly
handsome, thanks
warm
eyes,
and
lips that
He was to a
known to local
Gamiel Draper,
quiet,
and
nice."
all
fresh out of
who had
around town
homes
as a boy.
a schoolmate.
12
five
He was
"He
also strik-
Cherokee ancestry: high cheek bones,
always seemed set to smile.
Another recent high school graduate was Gordon "Henry" White,
who had joined
the National
Hitler invaded Poland.
sionate about farming.
Of
Guard
all
in
October 1939,
the Bedford boys,
a
few weeks
after
White was most pas-
As a young boy, he had raced
home from
school
every afternoon, changed into work clothes and stuffed apples into his
pockets to snack on as he labored until nightfall on his family's farm.
"He
liked to plow,
he just liked
to
be out on the farm," recalled
Octavia White Sumpter. "He just liked the Eighteen-year-old
dirt."
Raymond Hoback had
his sister
13
joined the National Guard
that spring, wanting to be with his older brother, Bedford. Like the
The Bedford Boys
14
Hoback brothers had been
Stevens twins, the
on
raised
a small
farm just
outside town.
Army
Bedford, twenty-four, had sewed in the Regular
E of the 35th Infantry before joining Company
Nicknamed "Motor-Mouth," he
Don Juan
carefree
told
tall
stories
A
Company
February 1937.
in
and pretended
knew he was devoted
but everyone
with
to
be a
to his fiancee,
Elaine Coffey
"Everybody thought [Bedford] was married Stevens. "If you asked him, he'd
you a dollar I'm
not.'
You never knew what he'd say
Hoback had
Elaine Coffey and Bedford
a
Roy
to her," recalled
bet you a dollar
say, '111
am, and
I
next."
I'll
bet
14
tempestuous relationship,
often arguing about Bedford's wild ways. But they had been in love with
each other
for
most of
their
young
lives.
Elaine, twenty-one, a petite
brunette with a snub nose and slim hips, had ditched her previous boyfriend for Bedford as soon as he had returned, tanned and lean, from a posting to
wanted
to
Hawaii
in
1936. Since they could remember, they had always
be together. They had
in fact
been childhood sweethearts, pass-
ing notes to each other at age nine in a two-room grade school. 15
In contrast to his brother, self-disciplined officers
—
ideally suited to
and men such
several years.
as
two-door Chevrolet.
New
He was
"Raymond was more eventually
In
—he
left
first
the eyes of
Company As for
school in the eighth grade and worked
Deal roads, saving enough
to
buy
a
$750
often to be found with his head in a Bible.
become
his platoon sergeant.
keep
in step. Finally,
just couldn't get the rhythm."
September 1940, Congress passed
the
life in
sincere [than Bedford]," recalled
soldier but he could never
him
army
hard-working, and
Ray Nance, who had been with the guard
Raymond had
as a laborer building
who would
Raymond was modest,
Roy Stevens,
"And he was
we
just gave
a great
up on
16
a selective service
bill,
ushering in
peacetime draft in American history. Eight hundred thousand
men were
called to arms, dwarfing the
which had been limited
to seventy-five
numbers
in the
Regular Army,
thousand men. Senior
officers in
5
Going
Guard
the National
began
change
to
and those with
in
to
War
1
talked ominously of mobilization. Subtly, things
Company A.
Officers grew
more
serious.
"essential" civilian jobs left the unit.
On
Older
men
September
8,
President Roosevelt declared a state of emergency and called for the creation of an Office of Production
armament and other every
way
materials to defend America and help Britain in
"short of war."
October
In
Management, which would produce
it
into the federal
was announced
army
for a year,
Company A would be mobilized beginning in early 1941. None of the that
Bedford boys had seriously considered that joining the National Guard
would actually lead
months
to twelve
in the
Regular Army. Most had
never been outside Virginia. All but the married
and not one had ever
parents,
would be the
bilization
ruary
3,
many
lived with their
fired a shot in anger. For all of
the next few
jobs, finding relatives or friends to
out wills, and in
still
them, mo-
great test of their lives.
first
The Bedford boys spent
men
fill
months arranging
their places
cases arranging
life
to leave their
on the farms, making
insurance.
On
Monday, Feb-
1941, they reported to the Bedford armory, were issued
new
The new shoulder patches on
their
woolen uniforms, and then sworn
in.
uniforms, inspired by the Korean
were one part blue, one part
gray,
monad symbol
that represents
life,
explaining the 29th Division's popular
name, "The Blue and Gray." The colors represented the deliberate mix of Northerners and Southerners in the division, which had been formed after Reconstruction.
"Six officers
fantry
.
.
.
were duly inducted," reported the Bedford
emonies were transfer
men
and ninety-two enlisted men of Company A, 116th
and allegiance.
... In
.
.
.
and around the armory, young stalwart
commands;
Induction into the United States
great organization of fighting .
cer-
wearing their country's uniform casts an atmosphere reminiscent of
responses.
.
"The
brief but impressive as the khaki-clad line took the oath of
the war-torn days of 1917-18. Crisp, sharp
.
Bulletin.
In-
hangs the future of
men who know no
this nation." 17
quick, snappy
Army adds defeat;
credit to that
and upon
whom
The Bedford Boys
16
Just twenty-four hours before, Wallace R. Carter, barely eighteen, had enlisted in
Company
A. 18
baseball team, which ford,
A
drew
Wallace had worked
Mud
popular player for the
Alley Wildcat
players from the poorest streets in Bed-
its
at a
Bedford pool
hall after high school.
The
job paid a pittance but Carter usually had a thick wallet thanks to his ball." 19
winnings "playing eight
"[Wallace] was a fun-loving guy," recalled Morris Scott, a childhood friend. "His family
had so much fun extra a
dime
poor.
together.
for a movie." 20
young man of
jumped
was
We were
He
all
attended
Beneath
fierce emotions.
poor, but
lots of
we
didn't
He
movies.
know
it;
always had an
his fun-loving exterior, however,
He
we
was
once, according to Roy Stevens,
off a bridge after falling out with a girlfriend. Fortunately, his fall
was broken by
a
bank and he was only
slightly injured.
Before Wallace Carter and his fellow Bedford boys
Guard
the day of their induction, National eighth and
sixty-first Articles
and going absent without
rigors of military discipline.
they'd received for any
of
leave.
was
the crimes of desertion
a disturbing introduction to the
They now faced
misdemeanor
the armory on
officers read out the fifty-
War concerning It
left
far greater penalties
at school.
"The
officers
than
would read
out those articles a few more times in the coming months," recalled Roy Stevens. "They wanted to
make
sure
we
hadn't forgotten them." 21
Stringent medical examinations the following Saturday reduced the enlisted in
Company A
to eighty-six
men. Roy Stevens was deemed
fit
but ordered to get dental repair work, as were other Bedford boys whose teeth, like those of so
Army embarked on thousands of
its
many
a massive dental
program
prevent hundreds of
to
gum
from becoming casualties of severe
soldiers
ease. In 1939, the U.S.
dentists
inductees in 1941, were so bad that the U.S.
Army had
had pulled more than
just
250
dentists.
fifteen million teeth
dis-
By 1945, 25,000
from American
men
allowed to wear general-issue uniforms so long as they had "sufficient teeth (natural or
artificial) to
Because new barracks
to
subsist
on the Army
ration." 22
house the 29th Division
at Fort
Maryland were not completed, the Bedford boys stayed on
Meade
in
in
Bedford
Going
for a fortnight, attending training sessions at the in
time for supper.
was
It
War
17
armory and going home
more akin
a strange interlude,
to
to
being
at col-
new
lege than in the army. Boys sat around the kitchen table in their
uniforms, listening to the Grand Old Opry on the radio, doing their chores before bedtime, milking the cows before dawn.
On
February 17
—the day before
their departure
—the Bedford boys
marched behind the towns widely acclaimed Fireman's Band
High School,
a
stately brick building fronted
to
Bedford
by forty-foot white
columns, where a farewell party and dance were held until the early
Over two hundred people danced the night away, alternating be-
hours.
tween formal square dances and wild and often drunken
Cans
of "Old Virginia" beer,
ten cents.
A
thick haze of cigarette
Strike also cost just a
and
dime
—hung
their girlfriends as they
jigs.
nearby Roanoke, were
in
smoke
—
a
in the air
all
of
pack of Camels or Lucky above the khaki-clad boys
leg" to
twanging banjos playing
When
the home-stilled whiskey ran
"shook a
by Old Grandpa Jones.
billy classics
out, the
brewed
band packed up and the Bedford boys took
off
home
hill-
or into the
night with their dates.
next morning was "right cool" 23 as the Bedford boys gathered at
The the
station at the heart of
rail
called
"Mud
Alley."
It
was
town near the hardscrabble neighborhood
a clear
day with wonderful
visibility
— the
Peaks of Otter, snowcapped, pierced the bright blue skies. Roy Stevens
remembered
that perhaps as
many
as three-quarters of the boys nursed
heavy hangovers from the night before. Most of the town seemed
to turn
out for the send-off before the boys boarded trains headed for the 29th Division's
main camp
at Fort
Meade.
As the Bedford boys embraced families and loved ones, many looked sad and close to tears.
would shame themselves and cording to Roy Stevens, its
rose
when
men mixed overs.
it
several
None
their friends.
who was
more
cried, however, afraid that they
leaving
bottles of
But plenty
home
felt like
it,
ac-
for the first time. Spir-
whiskey were produced and the
with the Cokes they were drinking to ease their hang-
The Fireman's Band broke
into an upbeat
marching song and
"
—
to
board the
The Bedford Boys
18
Company A
then
finally
formed up on the platform, ready
train.
Twenty-one-year-old Jack Powers, over
hundred pounds from
—
muscle
and weighing two
six feet tall
— stood proudly
in line, a
few yards
his brother, Clyde, five years his senior, "a clean-cut guy,
more con-
servative
and
all
of
it
a little shorter than Jack,
Powers brothers had grown up
Looms
mill,
where
their father
Jack could see his
in
who was more
Bedford not
far
outgoing." 24
from the Hampton
worked.
little sister,
sixteen-year-old Eloise,
beaming
as she played clarinet in the forty-strong Fireman's Band.
out of school to see them all
going on a big adventure."
man who practicing. Some hearted
"We'd been
would remember Jack being
a
handsome,
A, and 27
floor with him.
a kitten,
and
I
"One
to
Tommy
a
Bedford
girl
my
memories of
of
best
26
Dorsey tunes as well as any
man
in
enjoyed a spin around the dance [Jack]
was [when]
I
had
had taken him out of the box and was playing with [him]
on the front porch," recalled tens,
big-
neighborhood children got together and
of the
many
let
"He was always
recorded some songs. Those wax records didn't survive long.
Company
him
25
loved to dance and play the guitar.
Jack could jitterbug
at
she recalled. "They looked like they were
off,"
Sixty years later, Eloise
The
Eloise. "[Jack] stepped
and he was so heartbroken, he gave
me
on one of the
his skates to
make up
kit-
for
the kitten." 28
Also standing in formation was Harold Wilkes. The same age as Clyde, curly-haired, five-foot-eleven-inch Harold was nonetheless the Powers's uncle.
"My
mother's father was married three times," explained
Eloise over sixty years
later.
one of them was Harold.
"With
He
his third wife,
he had two children
lived just over the road, so
over at each other's houses. Harold was very close to us sidered
A
my mom
as his
mom."
we were all,
new
and he con-
29
front-page report in the Bedford Bulletin raved about
the boys looked in their
always
how
splendid
uniforms. "Not only the physical appear-
ances but the splendid attitude which they have shown has been the
9
Going
to
"There has been an entire lack of grousing or complaining.
most of the Bedford boys found
citing challenge.
and how
erly
cally that tests
They learned how
to strip a
and immunization
it
.
The town
it
life at
Meade an
Fort
and address
ex-
officers prop-
back together so mechani-
blindfolded, and they were given physical
were issued M-l Garand
nightlife in local
many
.
shots. After painting their hastily built bar-
new
sent on exercises with
like
to salute
weapon and put
some could do
racks, they
.
empty." 30
feels strangely first,
1
hometown paper added.
subject of discussion and commendation/' the
At
War
allowed to
rifles,
fire
them, and
radios and motorized vehicles.
towns was even better than
Beach, and un-
at Virginia
of the Bedford men's homes, Fort
The
Meade had
central heat
and running water. According
to the
29th Division's
weather blew across [Fort Meade].
.
freezing
official history, "cold, .
Barracks orderlies stoked
.
fires
clumsily in their inexperience, as they cursed the complicated furnace units.
But the weather was no complaint of the men,
roads,
and
less
for
it
meant frozen
time spent in cleaning of overshoes, or in pushing the old
two-wheel-drive trucks out of the mud, an assignment which became theirs
when
the temperature moderated." 31
By summer 1941, boredom had become mind-numbing routine and close-order not used to taking orders
week
were homesick. Leave was
in,
week
a problem.
drilling
out.
rarely granted
began
Above
The
constant,
to grate
on
men
the Bedford boys
all,
and passes issued
for
no longer
than two days. Yet the drive to Bedford alone was seven hours, weather permitting. Despite the distance, Bedford
ends, often taking several other Bedford sided station wagon. Lucille, "and
"He charged two
would pack
in as
many
At Fort Meade and other bases
came
a
Hoback
men
got
dollars a piece," recalled his sister
as
he could
in the
fit."
32
United States discipline be-
widespread problem that summer as morale
lows, mostly because of resentment that the their families
and jobs
for
home most week-
with him in his wood-
fell to
men were
distressing
being kept from
no clear reason. Very few were convinced by
The Bedford Boys
20
warnings Hitlers
in
Congress and the press that America would be next on
for conquest.
list
magazine printed a story on August
Life
lessness and
boredom
Times ran an
article that
staff
when
needed
caused an uproar among the army's general
Army: "They compare
without a schedule of
men
The
did not believe they were
team
to a football
it
in training
games." 33
That November, Company Carolina.
8 about "the growing rest-
of the great civilian army," and the Neiv York
the paper reported that most
in the
1
A
again played war, this time in North
entire 29th Division split into "Red"
and "Blue" armies
which chased each other through woods and frosted
river valleys.
The
Bedford boys again joked and argued around campfires each evening about
who had been
many
a 29er, the
the
men
The
To the fury of
killed or taken prisoner that day.
outspoken broadcaster Walter Winchell claimed that
of the "29th are hiding in the hills of North Carolina." 34
military
games stretched
were soon shivering
into early
in sleeping bags
December. The Bedford boys
and cursing army
life
as never be-
When December 7 arrived, they were slogging through North Carolina mud and ice. A bitter wind blew. Their destination was a tented fore.
camp
at A. P. Hill in Virginia.
Meade, where they expected the
They would then to
take trucks back to Fort
be discharged and sent
home
early in
New Year.
As the men trudged along with upturned together to keep
warm and
damned army and back
talking about
to their families
collars,
rubbing their hands out of the god-
finally getting
and
jobs, orders
suddenly came
along the line that they were to stand down. There was astonishing
news.
Men
nese had
quickly gathered around radio sets. That morning, the Japa-
bombed
Waves American
Pearl
Harbor
in Hawaii.
of torpedo-bombers and fighters had killed citizens
more than 2,500
and wounded another thousand. Six of the
greatest battleships
had been irreparably damaged
ginia, Tennessee, Arizona,
or sunk: West Vir-
Nevada, Oklahoma, and California. In a matter
of minutes, an estimated half of the United States' naval lost.
U.S.'s
power had been
Nearby Hickam Field airbase had been peppered with bombs. The
Going
Air Corps lost
all
but sixteen of
been attacked so viciously and
its
to
War
2
1
bombers. America had never before
effectively.
In Bedford, people also learned of the attack on their radios. Lucille
Hoback, twelve-year-old
sister of the
Hoback
church that Sunday morning and listened sister,
my
it
meant the boys would be sent
men eager to sign At Camp A. P. Hill, the
outrage, and anger.
nearby South
days, there
was
a rush
Bedford boys reacted with a mixture of shock,
to see a
and Lucilles brother
his brother Ray,
Gene Autry western
Hill, Virginia.
interrupted the movie.
coming
up." 35
Roy Stevens,
Bedford Hoback went in
off to war," she recalled. "That
father never left the radio. In the
of local
ema
with her parents, a
to reports
and another brother. "Everybody was very worried because we
thought day,
brothers, returned from
Another news
The men went
that night at a cin-
flash
to a local bar
on the bombing
and started drinking.
Bedford described the Schofield Barracks that had been bombed
Hawaii
— he
had been stationed there
beers, growing angrier with every sip.
"I
in 1936. didn't
in
They ordered more
even know where Pearl
Harbor was," recalled Roy Stevens, "but we had those beers and we got right still
mad. Man, we were so confident
be
home
The day Fort
—we were going
to
wup them and
for Christmas." 36
after Pearl Harbor,
Meade. During the
stretch their legs
trip,
and have
a
Company A boarded
trucks
the caravan stopped so that the
bound
men
for
could
smoke. Second Lieutenant Ray Nance and
several other officers gathered in a ditch
below pine
trees, out of the bit-
ing wind.
A
few yards from Nance, the 116ths regimental chaplain
portable radio and tuned needles,
Nance and
it
to a
news
his fellow officers
station.
soon
On
set
up
a
a carpet of pine-
sat transfixed as
they
lis-
tened to President Roosevelt make what would become perhaps the
most famous speech of
his Presidency.
Dressed
Roosevelt stood alone at the rostrum in the
in a
formal morning
House
of Representatives
and opened a black notebook. The entire Congress then stood and gave him the
first
joint ovation since 1932.
Roosevelt gripped the rostrum.
suit,
in
unison
The Bedford Boys
22
"Yesterday,
December
7,
1941
—
which
a date
will live in
infamy
—the
United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked. Hostilities exist. ritory
is
no blinking
and our interests are
at the fact that
in grave danger.
forces
inevitable
The chaplain turned trucks.
They were
from poverty.
Now
had bought
of our people
.
ter-
our
—we
Company A clambered back
"in for the duration." it
in
.
37
so
off the radio.
our people, our
With confidence
—with the unbounding determination triumph — help us God." gain the
armed will
There
.
The buck
a day
onto
had saved them
a ticket to the frontlines.
As the trucks
neared their camp for the night, the Bedford boys did not sing or joke as usual.
"We kept our
much
to say.
war."
38
feelings to ourselves," recalled
The president had
laid
it
on the
Nance. "There wasn't
line.
We
were going
to
Moving Out
IT
WAS AFTER DARK ON
December
8
when
Meade. Company A formed up and then marched
at Fort
rison. Extra sentries
the Bedford boys
now on
high
alert. In their
wondered what would happen
they be shipped out West, bound for the Pacific?
Christmas before going
for
A few
days
later,
to
the Bedford contingent, Fellers
to
them
next.
Would
Would they be allowed
war?
The only
career military
announced
would be granted, though they would be
man among
that Christmas furloughs
short.
tough disciplinarian and fiercely ambitious, Fellers had worked
hard to
command
his fellow Virginians' respect.
well-to-do family, "a real through,"
1
any other also
barracks that night,
Captain Taylor N. Fellers returned from a two-week
officer training course in Georgia.
A
into the gar-
had been posted around supply dumps and outside
the gates: America was
home
the trucks unloaded
officer in the
knew
"A
lot
that Bedford
1
he commanded more intimately than did
16th Infantry.
He had grown up
would be looking
was expected of
to
him
Taylor," recalled his
Woodford. "He was always very serious even as competitive
spirit.
long, long way."
Nicknamed
He was
all
oldest child of a
and lanky country boy through and
tall
men
he knew the
The
soldier
with them.
to bring its
younger a
He
boys home.
sister,
Bertie
boy and had
a very
—everybody thought he would go
a
2
"Tail Feathers"
track team, Taylor
way department
was one of
by fellow sprinters on his high school
six
children and had joined the local high-
straight out of high school, eventually
23
becoming
a fore-
The Bedford Boys
24
man.
remembered Taylor doting on her and
Bertie, ten years his junior,
a sister, Janie,
who had
polio
and was forced
piano lessons for Bertie, ferried her Nazareth Methodist Church, wrote with
gifts at
and we had
all
to
Sunday school
to
He
wear braces.
to her regularly,
paid for
at the local
and showered her
Christmas and birthdays. "He was the oldest
in the family
looked up to him," remembered Bertie. "He just
felt like
he
He was promoted
to
to take care of us." 3
In 1932, Fellers joined the National Guard.
sergeant in 1935 and then took military correspondence courses to qualify for officer training.
Bedford County
His job on the highways paid better than most
Depression and he was able
in the
coupe, a notable status symbol in rural Virginia thirties,
he joined Mason Lodge No. 245
in
to
buy
at that time. In
a
in
Buick
the late-
nearby Forest, Virginia.
In early 1940, Taylor converted a schoolhouse in his birthplace,
home, and soon after moved in named Naomi Newman. He jokingly
Cifax, ten miles from Bedford, into a
with his bride, a striking blonde
from officers training school
told his family, after returning
that
one day he would
"and get a black
Anson
Peter
Fellers,
from Georgia
Back
in
Bedford County,
wives of Bedford men,
on Main
Street,
who
were
from what might be their Bettie Wilkes had, on
Wilkes of to see
cook
all
his meals." 4
His father,
in the
Bedford Bulletin that their
el-
command Company A. in the
young wife waited nervously
store
to
and mother, Annie Elizabeth Leftwich-Fellers, were
immensely proud when they read dest son would
Southern gentleman, buy a farm,
live like a true
woman
in Georgia,
to
weeks
after Pearl Harbor, Fellers's
hear from her husband. Several other
shared coffee and gossip in Green's drug-
also set last
August
Company A. When
on squeezing whatever joy they could
Christmas together. Eighteen-year-old
10, 1941,
married Master Sergeant John
she heard about Pearl Harbor, she vowed
John whenever and however she could before he was posted over-
seas. If
he couldn't come
to her,
she would go to him.
John Wilkes had grown up on
a 149-acre
farm nine miles south of
Bedford, one of eight children. His father, Leo D. Wilkes, a plainspoken
Moving Out
man
with a
West
Virginia.
moral code, worked as a coal miner in North Fork,
strict
he could, but
He would send money and return to the farm whenever he was much missed by John and his siblings. "Daddy said
he didn't want any of
his boys going
Wilkes Goode, one of John's farm.
.
.
.
John was
all
sisters. "That's
He
boy.
down
played
Money was
why he brought
ball,
he married
record player, and then,
my
protected me, helped
my mother when
filled
5
electricity
Momma
came, a
playing.
She'd play them
and John loved dancing
all,
He was just
a natural."
with music.
"My Daddy
because she loved music.
would be something
Polka."
us up on a
scarce but the Wilkeses never "went hungry or cold."
Their farmhouse was a joyous place, often to say
Dorothy
a mine," recalled
mother with the cows and the two mules we owned."
used
25
had
radio,
We
had
a
and always there
a banjo, a guitar
and
a piano.
to tunes like "Beer Barrel
6
After leaving high school at sixteen, John worked part-time mining
He
feldspar on a local farm. extra dollars
and quickly proved himself
had ever seen. Because of pline,
He wanted
As with Taylor tion; the
men
things
Fellers,
he was quickly promoted
.
nose!'
Bettie Wilkes
.
.
We
also played poker,
Sam
Ruff.
Sam was
and
a different
as passionate as she
at a football
game
at
in the
at
all.
to cross
him.
"He used
and he used
to
to joke
man
in John:
That
little fella
—he
7
deeply sensitive, romantic,
was about movies and bowling. 8 They had met
her high school, the
outside Bedford. "John and
growing up
master
seventy pounds lighter
right.
John would say and then laugh."
saw
to
furlough back in Bedford one time and got into a
with a fellow called
my
self-disci-
done by the book, the army way, or not
than John, but he just happened to hit him
broke
few
a
Company A
and immense
long before the war," recalled Roy Stevens.
how he was on
make
he detested any kind of slacking or insubordina-
play a lot of pool in town.
fight
to
he inspected each morning were careful not
knew John
about
father,
Guard
as tough a soldier as
his trustworthiness
both inherited from his
sergeant.
"I
joined the National
I
Academy,
just
typical of
most young people
late 1930s,"
she recalled. "[We]
were probably
prewar America of the
New London
The Bedford Boys
26
had not traveled were things
in
beyond the confines of the farm or be learned
like the jitterbug to
"Deep Purple" a
far
to
be sung, money
to
be saved
movie which was an unheard-of four hours
most respects, safe and carefree." Christmas 1941
long!
but there
dances, songs like
at local
to see
village,
Gone with
A
time to be envied
9
Bedford was not carefree. The community
in
A
crowded the town's Methodist and Southern Baptist churches. ford Bulletin editorial advised: "This Christmas season give
way
and
to forebodings
despair, but rather
niversary of the Prince of Peace as the
men
Bed-
not a time to
use the an-
most appropriate time
in
which
mind and
body,
to the
world the peace and justice he proclaimed two
10
Special services were held in recognition of the
thousand years ago." county's
is
we should
to dedicate ourselves to the task of striving, with spirit,
toward bringing
Wind,
the
in arms. After singing
gregations prayed, above
"O
Little
Town
of Bethlehem," con-
for the safe return of their loved ones.
all,
Some
parents were confident that the following Christmas the seventy-odd
Company A from Bedford would be back home and the war over. Others now regretted the day their sons had joined the National Guard.
men
in
That Christmas was especially poignant year-old Dickie Abbott,
Dutch,"
who
his father
had done
so.
regretted the decision.
now
a possible
a beautiful old inn,
"The
aged seventeen, Dickie had begged his
in Bedford. In 1938,
ther to sign papers allowing
above
lived
for the parents of twenty-
him
National Guard. Reluctantly,
to join the
Three years
The papers
with America
later,
that
fa-
had made
his
at war,
he now
son so happy were
death warrant.
Dickie Abbott typified his fellow citizen-soldiers from Bedford. rode around town on horseback, rolled his
own
cigarettes
He
from tobacco
he grew himself, kept an elaborate scrapbook, and was utterly devoted his large God-fearing family. sitting
down with them
There was nothing he enjoyed more than
after a long
fresh buttermilk, cornbread,
to
and
day
in the fields
and feasting on
fried chicken.
Dickie had been raised mostly by his grandmother, Mrs. W. B. Abbott,
and shared her infectious sense of humor.
A
joke was never far
Moving Out
from
his lips.
"He loved
"He was
just a fun guy," recalled his cousin Morris Scott.
You could
to laugh.
27
tell
him anything and he'd
just laugh." 11
Before he returned to Fort Meade, he promised to write to his family
and wanted them
to
send
all their
news
as often as possible, especially
about his grandmother. For the married
men
denly painfully precious.
Company A that Christmas, time was sudEvery moment with their young wives was to
in
be savored. They made love knowing they might not see them again.
had married nine-
In 1940, twenty-six-year-old Sergeant Earl Parker
The couple were eager
teen-year-old Viola Shrader.
soon as possible.
One
whom
would experience
the Piedmont Label
Company, which
of three brothers,
combat, Earl had worked
at
to start a family as
of
all
printed labels for canned goods, after graduating from Bedford High School.
He had grown up on
Earl's
POW, ing.
youngest brother,
a 300-acre beef
Billy,
farm just outside Bedford.
who would
later
become
a
recalled Earl's great passions as a boy being baseball
Able
to hit a
to take turns
dime
at thirty-five yards
with his brothers
when
with a .22
rifle,
German
and hunt-
he was forced
they hunted quail and rabbit
to-
gether with a .410 gauge shotgun. "Every shot counted because bullets
were expensive back then," recalled eighty-six. "Earl didn't
Billy,
who was hunting
have any clear idea what he wanted
to
at
age
do other
than get a job that paid money. Like everyone else he joined the guard for the dollar." 12
All too quickly the
and share "I
he
don't
a ride
back
know how
day came for Earl Parker to Fort
to leave his
young wife
Meade.
you'd go shoot anybody," Viola told Earl just before
left.
"If
it's
me
or them," he shrugged,
"I
guess
In bitterly cold weather, in the second
practiced anti-invasion procedures on goal
was
to
ward
I'll
week
have
in January,
Cape Henry
off groups of 1st Division
to.'"
Company A
in Virginia.
marauders pretending
Their to
be
the enemy. "Digging gun emplacements in the frozen ground wasn't
The Bedford Boys
28
easy,''
recalled one of the defenders, "but
crafts
through icy surf was worse.
erwise."
sions
'Leather Necks' were paralyzed
water and had to be rescued.
after hitting the icy 13
Many
wading ashore from landing
Ironically, three years later
who would join
forces to invade
it
War
would be the
hell, real or oth-
is
1st
Omaha Beach on
and 29th D-Day.
new weapons and
In April 1942, while the Bedford boys tested
fended the Eastern seaboard, Britain and the United States planning
staffs to
Divi-
set
up
de-
joint
coordinate operations against Nazi Germany. Their ul-
timate goal was a successful cross-channel invasion intended to defeat Hitler in the west. But such an operation, eventually
would be the
lord,
would not be
feasible until, at the very earliest,
Whenever
summer
possible, the Bedford boys tried to get
gether to pay for gas the loan of a
if
who owned
Pride Wingfield,
mouth" Bedford Hoback
a
a shiny
1943. to-
weekend pass and
Company As
clerk,
1938 Plymouth. Others paid "motor-
buck each way
Nineteen-year-old mess sergeant Earl
with a friend from Roanoke. But
and
home, clubbing
they were lucky enough to get a
Earl Parker often drove back with
car.
codenamed Over-
greatest logistical challenge in military history
when
for a seat in his station
Newcomb
usually
wagon.
came home
his friend couldn't get a pass,
he
paid Bedford Hoback the buck without a word of complaint. That spring,
he had gotten engaged
to a feisty nineteen-year-old
mother of
three, Elva Miller.
Elva was a remarkably resilient and mature young
many
woman,
as
of her working-class peers in Bedford. She had been brought
were
up
to
work hard and make the best of even the most meager opportunities.
Her
may
father
had
set the
—he had turned
and running
its
In 1935, Elva
Bedford woolen struck.
his
hand
a filling station to
pression was at
had
example of how
muddle through come what
anything to
make
make ends meet
in
a buck, selling cars
1932 when the De-
worst.
had joined the production mill,
meeting
in
Hampton Looms, the long after. Then tragedy
line at
and she was married not
She was widowed
crash. Before
to
to
1938 when her husband died
Earl, she struggled to bring
in a car
up her three small
Moving Out
children,
Bill,
Nancy, and Garland, on
$10 a week. While she was bent over
little
more than her
loom from 7 A.M.
a
mill
29
wages of each
to 3 P.M.
day, her aunt cared for her children in Elva's home, a five-room log cabin
on the outskirts of town.
Newcomb had joined
Earl
dreamed
farmer, he
to
find. After a
CCC
Farm
in Kelso at the foot of the
camp
for
erosion on
soil
brought
much needed
New
period of unemployment, he
Deal.
Newcomb
Nicknamed
revenue
to
to
Fancy
The
CCC
Depression-era communities
like
also
Bed-
money.
their
On summer maneuvers and
pro-
He
month and
also learned to
cook
with the National Guard, he
this led to his eventually
becoming Company
sergeant.
and
nately, Earl
due
acres.
enrolled for two years, pocketing $30 a
also prepared meals,
pass that
at
by 1942 as well as pre-
billion trees
helping to build a road up into the mountains.
camp's mess.
New York,
"Roosevelt's Tree Army/'
more than twenty million
where enrollees spent
Elva's
like Elva's fa-
unemployed Americans who benefited from the
venting
As mess
of a
Peaks of Otter.
gram planted an estimated three
in the
The son
Corps was one of the great achievements
Civilian Conservation
the 500,000 young
Earl
was forced,
unemployed men, mostly from
of President Roosevelt's
ford
in 1934.
be accepted into the Civilian Conservation Corps, which
ran a
The
Guard
of working the land but
any job he could
ther, to take
was lucky
the National
Earl's
wedding date was
set for
June 27, 1942. Unfortu-
could not get a pass in time. But Bedford Hoback was due a
weekend and agreed
to
come home," explained
swap
his for a later date.
Elva. "But his brother
"Bedford was
Raymond
didn't
have a pass. So Bedford told Earl to take his pass because he would wait until
he could ride home
that way."
summer:
14
in his car with
Sadly, neither
When
Raymond.
It
would be cheaper
Bedford nor Raymond made
Earl returned to Fort
Meade from
his
it
home
that
honeymoon, he
Company A was moving out. On August 17, 1942, Company A marched with full kit onto an old train. No one knew where they were headed. Soon, the stale air in their
learned that
The Bedford Boys
30
compartments got depots, the
men
sticky.
After an endless day shuttling between drab
were headed
realized they
to Florida.
When
the train
fi-
nally stopped, they formed up and marched into the vast military base at
Camp
Blanding near Jacksonville, until recently
sion,
which had
The
1st
home
to the 1st Divi-
just departed for England.
Division would, by November, be part of Operation Torch, an
Allied invasion of North Africa. Torch
was
aimed
partly
at relieving pres-
sure on the Soviet Union, which had fought a ferocious battle against
the
Wehrmacht
since June 1941
when
dred divisions of his best soldiers Barbarossa, as the
German
the bitter winter set
in,
Hitler hurled
at Stalin's
more than
hun-
a
Red Army But Operation
When
invasion was codenamed, had failed.
Hitlers finest armies
became bogged down
in
desperate sieges. In the Pacific, the
Americans had
just
begun
to turn the tide against
Japanese forces, which had since Pearl Harbor swept across a vast ex-
panse of ocean, conquering Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaya,
and the Dutch East Indies craft
had surprised
a
in rapid succession. In
Japanese
fleet cruising
hundred miles northwest of the Hawaiian
damage
June 1942, U.S.
towards
and
Islands)
Midway
(a
inflicted so
air-
few
much
that the Japanese lost naval air superiority in the Pacific. After
Midway, the Japanese would
fight a largely defensive
war against the
"third-rate power" they had so viciously attacked at Pearl Harbor.
On tities
the homefront, America was gearing up to produce the vast quanof material
democracy
in
and other arms needed
Europe and the
were quickly being converted
masks.
Hampton Looms was
enemies of
throughout the nation
wartime production.
Rubatex began
to
produce rubber gas
also converted to military production, turn-
ing out woolen uniforms. Like
comb
Pacific. Factories
to
In Bedford, a plant called
to defeat the
many workers
across America, Elva
New-
and her fellow loom-operators had to work harder but started to
Hampton Looms increased wages by six cents an hour after management made a deal with the local Textile Workers Union. Earn-
earn more.
Moving Out
would continue
ings
to rise
31
throughout the war: For most Americans,
world war had brought an end to the Depression.
Other developments were not quite so welcome. Rationing began in
May
1942, with most citizens limited to a pound of sugar every two
weeks and twenty-five gallons of gas each month. In Bedford, the
on sugar use caused widespread complaint because so many
strictions
homes their
re-
on
relied
own
it
to
produce
The
sustenance.
fruit
limit
preserves to
markets and for
sell at
on consumption of gas was even
less
popular because Bedford had no public transportation to speak of and cars
and trucks were essential
to
movement around
the far-flung
community.
While America girded
to
become
the free world s arsenal, and as total
war raged around the globe, the Bedford boys got accustomed
new
barracks in Florida.
now
at least a long day's drive. For the
But
frustrating.
They were
further from Bedford than ever
for the unattached,
married men, the distance was
Camp
Blanding's proximity to
bustling Jacksonville, forty miles away, was a distinct
camp
every other
mous throughout brothels,
back-room gaming
somewhere
lar craving,
Despite
its
improvement on
or base they'd stayed in. Jacksonville's nightlife
The
the U.S. Army.
or
tables,
of roads and block-houses that
another thing going for
under canvas. To their
it.
all
city
its
If
a
in Jacksonville
GI had
a short
easy;
many
At
least
walk away.
hastily erected buildings
looked the same,
Camp
back
to
it.
and maze
Blanding had
The Bedford boys would not be sleeping
delight, they
had bunks beneath roofs that
Finally, the living
looked
like
it
palm
was going
nei-
trees to
be
of the boys quickly developed deep suntans.
one of the Bedford boys wasn't the
what Jacksonville had get
fa-
a particu-
would cater
ther sagged dangerously nor leaked. Pristine white sands and
were
was
had dozens of nightclubs,
and cinemas.
some woman
vast drabness, with
to their
to
to offer. All
slightest bit interested in
Sergeant John Schenk wanted was to
Bedford so he could marry his fiancee, a bewitching and
smart elementary school teacher, Ivylyn Jordan.
The Bedford Boys
32
John and
both twenty-five, had met on a blind date the day
Ivylyn,
Company A was
inducted into the federal army The date was arranged
who had heard Schenk
by a mutual friend
say
how
he strolled past her and a friend one afternoon
The two had dined in the pitch
first
town and were
darkness of Route 122 just outside town.
and
They were
in-
night they sat up and talked in Schenk's car "I
talked and
"We
talked and talked until three in the morning," recalled Ivylyn. lock, stock
as
downtown Bedford.
at a small restaurant just outside
That
stantly infatuated.
in
was
pretty Ivylyn
fell
barrel." 15
rarely apart in the following days.
At night, they
jitter-
bugged. By day, they planted rows of vegetables and tended John's gar-
"He was
den.
a very
good gardener.
We gardened every day we could. He
loved being outdoors," Ivylyn remembered. gust 24, 1942.
Then
it
was
off for a
16
two-week honeymoon
tage in Natural Bridge, not far from Bedford.
husband and wife talked of
a partner
John
in
wrapped
gether, to
Moneta,
said.
—
his
to
make
life.
"We wanted
a
boy and
a girl, at
a
in
all
too soon.
They returned
to Ivylyns apart-
few miles from Bedford, and spent
a last night to-
each others arms, vowing they would find some time
would be 10
P.M.
day.
"We had an appointed
each night, and mine was
to
be
she
5 P.M.,"
18
On
her stoop the following morning, Schenk took his slim wife in his
arms, kissed her and turned. "I
manager had promised
be alone and think about each other every
time
John had been
17
The honeymoon ended ment
nearby as
got out of the army They would be able to give
their children a decent start in least," Ivylyn said.
in a small cot-
A creek babbled
starting a family after the war.
a clerk in a Bedford hardware store; the
when he
They were married on Au-
"He asked me
did. ...
I
made her swear to stand
not to
move an inch
on that porch and wait
waited a long time."
until
he
re-
for him," she said.
19
When Schenk arrived back at Camp Blanding in early September he found Company A again preparing to move out. This time, the 29th Division
was headed overseas. But thousands of men were
still
on
fur-
Moving Out
lough,
some
as far
away
as Baltimore.
33
Telegrams were dispatched across
the States. In nearby towns and Jacksonville, trucks fixed with loud-
speakers drove through the streets crowded with soldiers, blaring orders
camp. Those watching that summer's
hit
Dandy and Casablanca, were amazed when
the
for the division's return to
movies, Yankee Doodle
— order "RETURN TO
BASE"
Cagney and the luminous
—flashed on screens, replacing James Bergman.
Ingrid
Two rail lines left Camp Blanding. One went north, the other west. Which would they take? No one wanted west. That meant the Pacific, the death islands of Guadalcanal and an enemy who would show no mercy sibly
If it
was
end up
in
to
be north, they would follow the
North
Africa.
To
1st Division
and pos-
man, the Bedford boys preferred sand
a
to jungle.
There was
send
little
port. All other
equipment had
be removed from uniforms ing the identity
move
—
be issued,
to
in massive crates for trans-
be waterproofed, and
a precaution against
Wilkes heard that
She called other wives and
and take the
had
all
insignia
German
had
to
spies detect-
and destination of the 29th Division.
in Bedford, Bettie
out.
to
a quick telephone call or
New weapons
Cosmoline grease, and stored
treated with
Back
make
time to do more than
a hastily prepared telegram.
train to Florida?
boys. Elaine Coffey
worked
fiancees.
would be
It
in the
same
Company A was Did they want
their last
mill as Bettie.
Their manager said they could both take a day
off.
chance
about to
to join
her
to see the
She was up
for
it.
Viola Parker eagerly
joined the group.
The
girls
clothes and
pulled out their best
summer
make-up
and headed south. Viola was especially
into valises,
frocks,
crammed
a
change of
anxious to see Earl: She had just discovered she was pregnant.
The
train
was packed with
soldiers
and with other families from Bed-
ford hoping to see the boys one last time.
Among them was
sixteen-year-
Company As Frank Draper Jr. Verona had never missed a day of school or been tardy. "My mother took me out of school for a whole week so we could go down to Florida together,''
old Verona Lipford, sister of
The Bedford Boys
34
Verona recalled.
"It
was so
on her suitcase
to sit
we made
death. But
full
of soldiers that Viola, bless her heart, had
That
in the aisle.
"We had
Blanding:
my Kodak
picture with
fore they left
a great time.
Brownie.
American
shown on
graph,
soil."
It
To
of
asked one of the
I
was the
comfort
down It
her.
don't you
a sultry
and
The
keepsakes, fighting back tears.
one
for
be
her a ring and tried
Company A
milled about. Other
men, handing over
light started to fade.
coming back, you can believe
There was time
to
he told her as tears streamed
wives, relatives, and girlfriends mingled with the
"I'm
photo-
last time.
evening.
still
into
the boys together be-
He handed
cry," 22
her face and they hugged one
was
to
to take a
September 22, 1942, Elaine Coffey was able
"Now
all
21
alone with her fiance, Bedford Hoback. to
last of
men
this day, Bettie cherishes the
the cover of this book.
The afternoon
just shaking us
and slipped with them
Bettie Wilkes got her girlfriends together
Camp
was
train
20
it."
that,"
John Wilkes
told Bettie.
Then Master Sergeant Wilkes
last kiss.
stepped away. "Well, looks like time
we
Wilkes turned towards "All right,
Company A.
men!" he shouted.
The men snapped the
got to shove off," he said.
"Fall in!"
into perfect formation.
Not
a
head turned towards
women.
"Forward, march!" Wilkes ordered. "Hut, two, three, four! Bettie and the other Bedford girls
looked very
fine," recalled Bettie.
Company A marched up an
Hut ..."
waved goodbye. "Oh my, they
"They made us
feel proud." 23
incline towards the train station.
The
girls
jogged alongside until they could follow no more, choking back sobs,
watching
until the silhouette of
ness over the brow of a tion
wagon and
hill.
Then they
disappeared into the dark-
traipsed to Bedford Hoback's sta-
set off in silence for the day-long drive
Meanwhile, the Bedford boys bling,
Company A
and joking. "For
all
sat in their train,
we knew, we could be
home.
chain-smoking, gam-
fighting in a
few weeks,"
Moving Out
35
Newcomb who sat in a nonsmoking compartment with men and played poker. "But no one seemed too bothered.
recalled Earl
three other
We were
in a pretty
good mood. We'd got used
being moved around
They were going
all
the
to sitting in trains all day,
time." 24
north, thank
God. The Japanese would have
until they'd licked
Uncle Adolf. Armed guards were posted
doors whenever
stopped.
ian:
The
The men were not
polite stranger asking
cover German.
someone
it
When
said they
main staging area
about
word
to say a
to wait
at the train's
to
any
civil-
the army might be an under-
life in
they passed through their old base, Fort Meade,
must be going
for troops
to
headed
Almost twenty-four hours
Camp
Kilmer in
New
to Britain.
Bedford boys
after leaving Florida, the
wearily filed off their train in a
Jersey, the
downpour
New
at a station in
Jersey.
They formed up on the platform before Master Sergeant Wilkes and awaited orders, sodden uniforms soon clinging to their skin.
Overseeing the transfer of the tall
and lean
officer,
16th Infantry to
1
Colonel Charles "Stoneface"
one of the most gifted soldiers of sergeant, he Point.
A
Camp
25
Kilmer was a
Canham,
forty-six,
his generation. In 1921, as a lowly
had been accepted into the
elite military
academy, West
notorious "ball-buster" with a Hitler-like moustache and iron-
rod posture, he had been brought into the 29th Division to toughen up the National
Guardsmen and
turn
them
into effective killers. Before the
year was out, the Bedford boys would fear and detest him.
Around "Well, "It
we
A.M., a major with an artillery battalion noticed
got
them
off the trains pretty fast, didn't
could've been a lot faster
Canham. In
1
if
Colonel?"
you'd poked them in the ass," snapped
26
Camp
Kilmer, the Bedford boys were surprised to discover that
some men's wives were waiting
New
we
Canham.
in
motels and campgrounds in nearby
Brunswick, thirty miles from Manhattan. Most were from Mary-
land and Baltimore,
When
home
to approximately half the
the Bedford boys arrived in their
doughboys headed
new
29th Division.
barracks, built to process
for Flanders in the last war, they
were greeted by a
The Bedford Boys
36
barrage of orders and
and the army,
it
new
The boys were headed
regulations.
overseas
seemed, was determined they would take everything
they could possibly need with them.
"New
World War dishpan
coal-scuttle helmets replaced the flat First
denim
version and blue
fatigues
were exchanged
Bob Slaughter
herringbones," recalled
of
new-issue green
for
Company
D, then seventeen
years old. "Photographs were taken and identification cards given that
would be carried
from the army. Immunization
until our separation
shots for every disease
known
where the sun doesn't shine."
to
27
man were
given in both arms and
Slaughter had grown up in Roanoke,
the nearest city to Bedford, and at age fifteen, with his parents' consent,
had joined the National Guard age
—
Beach
Virginia
to
two," he recalled.
six foot
be with his buddies.
"We
"I
got a dollar every
was
tall
my
for
and went
drill
to
summer." 28 Slaughter would grow another three
in the
inches by D-Day.
Meanwhile, Bettie and her
on Sunday, September 23.
had arrived back
girlfriends
When
accompany
her.
to follow
"We thought
New York,
where we were due
Their train was again
The journey seemed ness. Every
let
me
out,
on Monday
The
track
if
she was
New
we boarded night." 29
needed
repairs.
sick-
all right.
that anymore," Viola finally replied. "If I'm not
all right,
you know." 30
The early
to last forever.
troops.
they might be in
And Viola now had morning
few minutes, Bettie asked
"Don't ask I'll
crammed with
to arrive
him. Viola Parker
worn
Jersey for a while," explained Bettie. "So, tired and a train to
late
she got home, Bettie discovered John's
new whereabouts and immediately decided again eagerly agreed to
Bedford
in
train
shuddered
autumn
chill
was
to a halt in in the
air.
New York's
Bettie
Pennsylvania Station.
and Viola crossed
An
a sea of uni-
forms and suddenly found themselves on a sidewalk, overawed by Manhattan.
It
was
up and marvel
seemed
to
their first time in
New York. They
couldn't help but look
at the skyscrapers jostling for attention,
touch the
stars.
lit
up so high they
Moving Out
They walked were checking
several blocks until they
in,
found a decent
hotel.
a ballroom.
As they
They
they heard the familiar sounds of a big band.
lowed the notes and peeked into
37
fol-
The legendary Tommy
Dorsey had just played. His road crew was packing up trombones and double basses and moving on for another
gig.
Late into the night, Bettie and Viola tried to get a
men
Camp
at
Kilmer.
They were
told the
call
camp was
through to their
They kept
sealed.
but no messages could be given to the men. They put their
calling,
heads down for a few hours. The next morning they decided
to return to
camp was surrounded by
Bedford. "Earl wrote later [that] the
looking through wire wouldn't have been great," Viola recalled. a foolish trip, but
At
I
was
wire and 31
"It
was
trying/' 32
two Bedford boys were, however, allowed out of the camp.
least
Ray Stevens and pencil-mustached nineteen-year-old Sergeant Grant Collins Yopp were lucky
enough
to
be issued twenty-four-hour passes.
Stevens and Yopp headed for Washington, D.C., and finally got off a streetcar at Third Street Northwest.
an apartment shared by Yopp's
young
wife, Elsie Foutz,
It
was
sister,
a short
walk from there
Anna Mae
who both worked
to
Stewart, and his
Washington central
in the
post office. After a few drinks, the "I'm
I'm
gonna go kick the
men
got to talking about going overseas.
shit out of the
Germans," said Yopp, "and then
coming home.''
Ray wasn't
so gung-ho. "Well,"
he
said, "if
I
go over,
I
won't be coming
back."
you know better than
"Ray,
Ray was deadly
to say things like that," said
He had
serious.
could take his share in their farm
The 29th was among the
way
to
first
already told his brother
—he wasn't going
to
Roy
that he
come home.
divisions to pass through
Camp
Kilmer on
Europe. The extensive preparations were infuriating and frus-
trating as everything, strictly
the
Anna Mae. 33
down
by the book. Every
to
packing replacement buttons, was done
man was
issued two
kit
bags
—A and B —one
The Bedford Boys
38
for a ship's hold,
and one
to carry
on board. The
list
of contents for each
took minutes to read, and there were frequent changes to the
men
lists.
The
spent days packing and repacking their bags.
Finally, early
on September 26, 1942, Company A formed up outside
barracks and then marched to the nearest train station in
New
Brunswick. As their train moved slowly towards Hoboken, the
men
its
waved
to
crowds lining the route,
had not yet become jaded
at the sight of
Hoboken, the men learned
In lantic
and honking horns. Locals
flying flags
that
boys leaving for war.
many
on the most impressive ocean
of
them were
to cross the At-
—the magnificent,
liner in history
81,000-ton Queen Mary, launched to great fanfare and praise in 1936, the year Hitler had occupied the Rhineland. Two-thirds of the 29th Division
— 15,000 troops —would
rest
would take her
The
liners
cross the Atlantic aboard the Mary.
sister ship, the equally
had been requisitioned
in
The
imperious Queen Elizabeth.
March 1940 by
the British
Admi-
ralty.
Ferries took the Bedford boys across the dark.
choppy Hudson River
Because of blackout conditions, the ships
west side Man-
at the
hattan docks were indistinct silhouettes until the
men walked down
gangways onto the piers owned by the Cunard-White Star again, Colonel
Canham was on
after
patrol, barking orders.
line.
Once
There were no
more bands, no cheering crowds. Nervously, the fore
men formed
long lines and then inched forward. Be-
them loomed the Mary but she looked nothing
Ribbon record holder they'd seen newsreels.
Her
bright red, black,
in the
like
the dashing Blue
pages of Life magazine and
and white coloring had been masked
with what the British admiralty called "light sea gray." 34 As they got close, the
Bedford
men had
to
crane their necks to take in her
full size;
the sun deck was seventy-five feet above the water line.
Boarding was done
strictly
forward with his number chalked on his helmet, his called out.
He answered
man stepped last name was
"by the numbers": As each
with his
first
name and middle
then checked off by Transportation Corps
men
initial,
and was
wearing red and gold
Moving Out armbands. The Bedford boys, carrying heavy duffel bags, wearing
combat uniform
— including cartridge
belt,
walked aboard and were given directions
canteen, and
to their berths.
rifle
39
full
— then
As they headed
below, they were handed a letter from President Roosevelt. "You are a soldier of the
United States Army,"
for distant places
where the war
is
it
stated simply. "You have
being
fought." 35
embarked
Cruel Seas
BEDFORD BOYS DID NOT
THE
expect to find the
art
deco op-
ulence they had read about and seen in newsreels. But they were
how
surprised by six
spartan the conditions on the
Mary
Her
actually were.
miles of carpet had disappeared, as had 450 deck chairs, 220 cases
of china,
wooden and
and
silver,
door.
Now
crystal
walls of sandbags, endless hinged metal shutters,
a drab decor greeted the
In the
A
from the famous dining rooms, and every
new
passengers.
section of the ship, deep
down
in her bowels, a long
way
from the lifeboats on the upper decks, the Bedford boys dumped their packs and realized
this
was going
to
be no pleasure
eighteen inches between their bunks stacked in
would have tain,
to lie
Gordon
on them and wait
Illingworth, gave orders allowing
Bedford Hoback had crossed
hundred thousand ten thousand
rum
last journey.
certain
to
There were just
tiers of six.
them
Hawaii aboard
soldiers in the entire U.S. army.
men on
the
Mary
alone.
to
move
— there
about.
his exact destination
they
1
a troopship in the less
Now there
than a
were over
Thoughts of garlanded hula
cocktails in coconut shells
Now
And
hours until the ship's cap-
But that was before the war, when there were
mid-thirties.
serving
for several
trip.
girls
had no doubt buoyed Bedford's
was unknown. One thing was
wouldn't be any lounging around on surf-pounded
beaches wherever they were going.
Hoback walked over From
experience, he
was calm,
it
to
knew
was better
choose a "rack," as the bunks were he'd be better off in a top bunk.
to sleep
below and be able
41
If
called.
the ocean
to get out of the
The Bedford Boys
42
berthing quarters without having to clamber
The Bedford boys
his guts out just a
Mary
the
felt
pull
sounded the
were able
to
many opted
so
A
move around
if
There
to sleep.
few inches above.
away from the
steam slowly down the Hudson River and through nally Captain Illingworth
over five men. But
bunk was the only place
the crossing got rough, the top
would be no one puking
down
all-clear,
and then
pier
New York harbor.
Fi-
and the Bedford boys
deck. But they could not yet go up on top,
to stay in their racks.
The Mary, designed
to
accommo-
date three thousand at a push, was bursting at her seams with a vast
human
cargo.
wearing
Men crammed
The Mary moved down
the river leading towards Ellis Island. Finally,
permitted to go up on top. They found a deck already
crowded with other companies, ing
and
Manhattans skyscrapers Ray watched
his brother
kit bags,
and shouldering guns. 2
lifebelts,
Company A was
every passageway, lugging heavy
all
smoking,
glide by.
From
New York's
it
appeared, and
the sun deck,
all
watch-
Roy Stevens
skyline disappear into the dis-
tance to be replaced by endless gray waves.
For
many
of the
men,
their last sight of land
was an emotional mo-
Company As two hundred men were leaving American shores for the first time. They knew many of them would never return. "I feel scared," Ray told Roy, voicing many of the men's feelings. "I ment. Almost
never
felt
all
of
scared like this before." 3
Roy was confident They'd be lucky
if
they'd be
back soon enough. Ray wasn't so
they even got to Britain
—three thousand miles
sure:
across
an ocean infested with dozens of "wolf-packs" of German U-boats. The
enemy was
hellbent on sinking the Mary, thereby knocking out an entire
U.S. division and landing a crippling blow to American morale.
Dubbed
the Gray Ghost because of her color and speed, the
Mary
had
so far outrun every attacker, her elusiveness so infuriating Hitler
that
he was
who sank
now
her.
offering a
But
$250,000 reward
how much
Bedford boys were crossing
to the first
Nazi submariner
longer would the Mary's luck last?
The
at the height of the Battle of the Atlantic;
U-
boats were sinking more than 187,000 tons of Allied shipping every
43
Cruel Seas
month. In
the Allies were very close to defeat, barely managing to
fact,
more ships than were being sunk. And
build
the
if
be a chance
a successful attack, there wouldn't
Germans
did launch
Bedford
in hell of the
boys being fished from the Atlantic by a merciful enemy.
The
day aboard the Mary was particularly bad for John Schenk,
first
who
suffered acute seasickness. Like most
been
to sea. Yet
day
he managed
men
to write to his wife
aboard, he had never
and
to think of
promised time. "He was so sick he could not stand up,"
at the
"Whenever he was on
called Ivylyn.
water, he got very nauseated."
Perhaps the Mary's only design fault was her tendency to
when
her each re-
4
heavily
roll
the wind got up. This motion was exaggerated by her zigzag
which changed
course,
at least every eight
minutes, and by her speed.
The fastest an attacking U-boat could go was twelve knots on the surface and just seven thirty- two knots.
war
drawback
rolling
—
far less
their first injuries of the
falling to the floor in corridors
was nothing compared
as a troopship
take showers.
Noncoms
sands quickly
filled
—lack of
and cramped quarters.
to the Mary's
ventilation. Officers
most serious
were allowed
to
could not, and the stench of unwashed thou-
make matters worse, most
every deck. To
went without showers: None wanted
men when
than the Mary's top speed of
many men nursed
Before long,
—bruises from
But the
submerged
to
officers
be caught naked in front of their
an alarm sounded.
While the weather was brisk and
cold, the stench
was almost bearable.
But when the Mary headed south, so she could be out of range of U-boats for as
much
forced
of the crossing as possible, higher humidity and temperatures
some men
was soon
fierce
ocean breezes.
were allowed Idleness as possible
traction
is
to sleep
with handkerchiefs across their noses. There
competition to go on deck and
Many wished
to sleep
the
was the
to
one's lungs with clean
summer
on the top decks under the
enemy
was done
they were on a
fill
men
occupied.
when men
stars.
of discipline and morale in
keep the
crossing
all
armies:
As much
The most popular
daily testing of the Manx's anti-aircraft batteries,
were commanded from a platform
set
up on the Veranda
Grill
dis-
which on the
The Bedford Boys
44
boat deck. There were sometimes contests between artillery companies
who could be quickest to fire the guns. 5 The men were expected to attend several lectures during the crossing. The most popular was about their destination, England. Every man to see
Army
aboard was also given the U.S.
A
phlet,
Short Guide to Britain,
friendly terms with the
He
look like a
they can hold
The mens
in Britain
bum"
you look
that
British
can be a pal in need.
mixed company
like it.
is
how
of advice about
to stay
—
'Tommy." Don't rub
It isn't
a
good idea
it
in.
Play
own
fair
to say "bloody" in
one of their worst swear words. To say
it is
offensive to their ears, for to the British this
your
on
Brits. 6
You are higher paid than the with him.
full
pam-
Special Services Division's
backside.
The
"I
means
British are beer drinkers
—and
7
Company A's mess sergeant, Earl Newcomb, was suddenly viewed with a new respect. His meals may not have been much to write home about but compared
first
taste of British food did not
to British "grub" they
Company D would
ter of
bode
well.
were gastronomic marvels. Bob Slaugh-
always cringe at the
memory
of the Mary's
bland, mutton-based meals. Actually, the food was remarkably good given the
number
eating
it,
and
vastly superior to the average Britons
diet at that time. It
took the Bedford boys most of the voyage to get used to other things
British.
Only
after several
rounds of rook, a popular card game, did some
understand the British currency, with bits,"
its
mysterious half-bobs, "tuppeny
half-crowns, shillings, and bobs. Private Nicholas Gillaspie, an
avid baseball player and fisherman before the war, was particularly skilled at rook.
"They
all
"Nick loved rook," recalled
loved that game.
They played
up with four brothers and gone twins. Tall, light-haired, quiet,
known
in
to a
and
it all
his niece
Melba Basham.
the time." 8
one-room school
He had grown
like the
Stevens
utterly dependable, Gillaspie
Bedford for his impeccable manners and constant smile.
was
45
Cruel Seas
The most
serious gamblers congregated in bathrooms along with the
heaviest smokers
—smoking was banned
Lucky Strike fumes,
men
most other
in
Spotters were posted to give advance warning of
up games. Junior
areas. In a fog of
kissed the dice and small fortunes goodbye.
officers, especially "ninety-day
MPs who would
break
wonders" with the rank
of second lieutenant, usually turned a blind eye, thankful that the
were preoccupied. In any case, many played stud poker
in their
men own
quarters in the former state rooms.
Company A had more than
its fair
share of heavy gamblers. For
twenty-year-old Bedford boy Wallace Carter, nicknamed "Snake Eyes"
because of
won
or lost, "Snake Eyes" always
pecially a
Then
who his
his passion for dice, the crossing
Western or the
there
could
way
sit
dime
to
for
hundred
Humphrey
day,"
dollars. 9
in
"We used
Newcomb
Bogart.
Company A,
to take their
time about
was not unusual, with so many men on board, relatives in other regiments.
have some
to
recalled. "Mostly,
because some of the boys didn't
They wanted
and even
a movie, es-
hours with an inscrutable face, and sometimes bluffed
games around pay
thing in one go.
friends
watch
was Earl Newcomb, the best poker player
just bet with quarters
It
a spare
thirties film noirs starring
to pots of several
pretty good
had
passed quickly. Whether he
On
we'd
like to lose everyit."
to
10
bump
into old
September 28,
less
than forty-eight hours after leaving America, Grant Yopp ran into one of his four brothers, Herbert, in a corridor.
since January 1942 ing
camp
air corps.
in
when Herbert had been
drafted and sent to a train-
North Carolina with an observation squadron of the army
Neither knew that the other was aboard. 11
The second day out was notable
many
They had not seen each other
for
another incident, one that put
of the Bedford boys on edge for the rest of the journey.
Roy
when
sud-
Stevens and several buddies were shooting dice in a hallway
denly the Mary pitched to one side so violently they thought she was
going to capsize. Their dice flew against a wall and then the Mar)' quickly righted herself. There was a nervous silence while several
picked themselves up and then loud sighs of
relief
and even
a
men
few brave
The Bedford Boys
46
"Some
jokes.
Roy Stevens.
of us thought: 'What
What
if
we'd gone over?'" recalled
could have been the end of 10,000 people.
"It
12
have been a terrible disaster."
from now on
alized that
if?
For the
first
time,
many
It
would
of the boys re-
and death would be separated purely by
life
luck.
When
he wasn't gambling, Roy bunked beside
deck. Ray could
sit
for
At
listen for a
few minutes
as
"We were berthed those boys
On fights
it
that long but he
Ray quickly summarized each chapter.
men
in his platoon.
we could keep an eye on them. knew where you were. For most of
close to the privates so
You knew where they were and they
Dad."
sit still
once an hour, Roy would go check on the
least
A
hours and read passages from a Bible or cheap
army-issue paperback edition. Roy couldn't
would
Ray on
his brother
must have been almost
like
being on a
trip
with
Mom
and
13
the third day out, tempers began to
between men sick of waiting
being woken by the snores of
fray.
in line at
men
There were rumors of
water fountains, tired of
inches from each other's faces, un-
able to get air on deck after dark, and resentful of the officers' privileges.
For those with appropriate rank,
it
seemed, the Mary was
still
a plea-
sure boat. In addition to showers, the officers had stewards to clean their kit
and serve food;
sun deck
was rumored
that they
Most noncommissioned men soon shared
the senti-
a Private
that
I
Eventually, the temperature dropped
the
even had the run of the
Sam Shapiro who had written to Yank magazine "Well win this damn war but can't face the trip back." 14
ments of June:
at night.
it
Mary began her approach
to Britain.
and the weather closed
They were now
in
in as
waters latent
with menace, close to the U-boat pens in the Brittany port of Brest.
October
1
the
,
Mary entered the
cruisers
British
Greenock.
When
that
Irish
On
Sea and was met by a convoy of
would escort her
to
the
Scottish
port
of
15
October
clouds in the
sky.
2,
1942, dawned, the sun shone and there were no
Several Bedford boys walking around up top enjoyed
exceptionally clear views.
They were
in high spirits; soon, they
would be
47
Cruel Seas
rid of the pitching
Mary and be
and
sleep.
a
good nights
able to get a bath or shower, decent food,
HMS
Five destroyers and a British cruiser, escort the Mary,
Curacoa was an since the
who continued
and provided essential protection
enough guns
yet have
The
her zigzag course that morning.
anti-aircraft cruiser
Mary did not
Curacoa, were sent out to
to
ward
off a serious air at-
tack by the Luftwaffe. Just about 10 A.M., the Curacoa reached her designated rendezvous
position five miles ahead of the Mary. 16
company each other zigzag pattern. For
its
The two
weaving back and forth
to the Forth of Clyde,
armament
to
boats were then to ac-
be effective, the Curacoa had
in a
to stay
close.
The Curacoa s
captain, John
Boutwood,
a veteran of
World War
serious reservations about the close-in escort system because
cations were not good
had taken two hours lamp.
What
between the
for a
message
On
ships. to
communi-
a previous escort run,
be passed
the Mary by
to
down under
escort.
It
it
signal
was extremely
cult for the Curacoa, built before the last war, to stay
Even on her
zigzag course, the
Mary clipped along
At 12.30
p.m., the
108.
ahead of the Mary. at
26.5 knots
—
1.5
AM DOING MY BEST WHEN YOU ARE AHEAD
Curacoa signaled,
SPEED 25 KNOTS ON COURSE WILL EDGE ASTERN OF YOU."
diffi-
17
knots faster than the Curacoa s top speed.
"I
I
Captain Boutwood went below
have lunch just after the signal was sent. 1
had
bothered Boutwood more were the standing orders forbid-
ding the Mary from slowing
around
I,
When he got back to
to
the bridge
he saw that the Mary was catching up with the Curacoa,
P.M.,
so he ordered a change of course for the Curacoa. 18
Aboard the
Mar}', Senior First Officer
Noel Robinson had been on
watch since noon. At 2:04, the wheelhouse clock chimed. utes
later,
back
few min-
Robinson noted that the Mary was now quickly gaining on
the Curacoa.
went
A
He
into the
ordered the quartermaster to "port a
wheelhouse
to the bridge,
to
check
he was shocked by
his course.
how
little"
When
and then
Robinson got
close the ships
now were
to
The Bedford Boys
48
each other.
When
the Curacoa rolled, Robinson could see
"down her
funnels."
Robinson turned "Hard-a-port!"
to the
wheelhouse.
19
The Mary's quartermaster spun
mammoth
turning such a
vessel
the wheel as fast as he could. But
was
a slow process.
.
.
.
Telegraphist Allin Martin was a radio operator on the Curacoa
s
lower
bridge:
The upper
bridge speaking tube clanged and
ber] indicated that
Queen Mary was
the
outside, where, to
bearing
white
my
down on our
any camera was
horror,
I
to
hand
a particularly
good view of
port quarter at about fifty yards range. as
num-
I
stepped
saw the enormous bulk of the Queen Mar}'
tall
as a
house and
within seconds of being torn apart.
was 2:12
"oppo" [opposite
Unclipping the bulkhead door,
available.
bow wave seemed
we were
It
if
my
P.M. Suddenly, the
I
it
seemed
dived for
81,000-ton Mary,
Her huge
inevitable that
my
lifebelt. 20
now moving
at
28.5
knots, hit the Curacoa 150 feet from her stern, breaking through three-
inch-thick armor and bulkheads as
On
if
they were cardboard.
deck, the Bedford boys could not believe their eyes. "There were
several of us there," recalled Earl
close to land
and we'd gone up
clean in two."
Newcomb. "We knew we were
getting
The Mary just
cut her
to get a first look.
21
when he felt the collision. "My first thought was that we Curacoa s stern going down one side
Corporal Bob Slaughter was sunbathing
Men
shouted and ran to the ships
had been torpedoed.
...
of the Mary, and the
bow down
coa still
s
crow's nest
was
I
saw the
rail.
—cut
the other
parallel to the water,
right in two.
and there was
a sailor in there
doing semaphore signals. His eyes looked enormous
frightened. All
"'God, here
we
we could do was throw are, haven't
British sailors.'" 22
life-jackets.
I
The Cura-
—he was so
remember
even got overseas, and we've
thinking:
killed all these
49
Cruel Seas
Deep below on gone over
a log
the Mary, the collision
—
a jarring
and
rowing boat had
felt as if a
a screech
but nothing spectacular.
Twenty-one-year-old Sergeant Allen Huddleston,
who had worked
as a
soda jerk in Lyle s drugstore in downtown Bedford before the war and
was married on
to Private
Nicholas Gillaspie's cousin, Geraldine, was lying
bunk when he suddenly
his
felt a
"small"
jolt. "I
looked out the port-
hole and saw half a ship going down," Huddleston said. "There were
people
still
in her." 23
Roy Stevens was
getting ready to disembark
pened. "The boat jarred.
saw the Curacoa sinking
The Mary's Captain
He
"Was
the collision hap-
was very quick. Soon, everybody was running
what happened."
upstairs to see
lided.
It
when
When
in the Mary's
Illingworth
Stevens got to the top deck, he
wake.
was
also
below when the ships
col-
immediately rushed to the wheelhouse.
that a
bomb?" he asked.
"No, Captain," the Mary's quartermaster replied, "we
the
hit
cruiser." 24
Aboard the forward section of the Curacoa, Captain Boutwood was still alive.
"Abandon
ship!"
he shouted. 25
There was suddenly a deafening screech
jumped
off the ship
shrouded the surface,
badly
area,
making
wounded
only Captain
it
as
steam pipes ruptured.
Men
wherever they stood. Clouds of dense black smoke
and
oil
from the cruisers fuel tanks soon covered the
harder for
men
to
hold onto wreckage.
started to slip into oblivion.
Boutwood and
a Lieutenant
Among
The burnt and
the ships officers,
Holmes were
still alive.
swam from the ship, knowing they could be sucked under Suddenly, the bow lurched into the sky and what remained of
Survivors
with
it.
the Curacoa sank. Escaping air created a final anguished groan.
The Cu-
racoa disappeared beneath the waves at 2:24 P.M., ten minutes after
being struck.
Aboard the Mary, Captain Illingworth struggled tions.
Although he could see many survivors
to contain his
in the water,
emo-
he ordered
his
The Bedford Boys
50
men
to
continue their course. There were more than 11,000 troops on
board: To stop would be to risk
their lives.
all
Seventeen-year-old Private Bob Sales of
deck
to get
some
He
air.
couldn't understand
Company B had gone on why the Mar}' did not stop
to pick up survivors.
man," a soldier told him. "The Mary,
"You're crazy as hell, in the
water
—
a
German submarine could blow
sitting
still
[us] off the face of the
earth." 26
They were only hours from Scotland, but would they make
how
it?
Indeed,
badly damaged was the Mary} Captain Illingworth ordered Staff
Captain Harry Grattidge
to find out. Grattidge
had been awakened by
the impact and had arrived on deck just as the remnants of the Curacoa
disappeared beneath the ocean. 27
The speed was
column
to the Mary's
forepeak
still
on the ship when
I
reached the forepeak. By the
light
could see the water racing in and out of the forepeak, a great
I
of
he rushed
damage:
to assess the
of a torch
Now
it
forming a kind of cushion from the collision bulkhead, the
watertight reinforced steel wall that rises from the very bottom of the ship to the
main deck.
If
that
of the Mary's chances.
not a crack.
Not
every length of
I
bulkhead were weakened
sweated through
a break.
I
wood you can
to the Captain." ...
home
to
me
anywhere
and
I
was
silent inspection.
find,
sick at
bosun. Get
much
as
But
had no equal anywhere
it
down
finally,
here and
you possibly can.
what we had done,
terrible impregnability of the
that she
did not like to think
turned to the bosun and the carpenter: "Get
strengthen that collision bulkhead as
at the strange
my
I
yet
I
I'll
report
marveled, too,
Queen Mary.
in the Atlantic,
It
came
perhaps not
in the world. 28
Relieved that the Mary had suffered no life-threatening damage, Illingworth set a course, at thirteen knots, for Greenock.
He
also or-
dered the destroyers in the escort to go to the Curacoa survivors' rescue. It
was well over two hours
after the collision
when
the rescue ships
Cruel Seas
reached the scene of the
disaster. Survivors
Some
last
held on with their
clung to
and
rafts
strength to debris. Captain
51
floatnets.
Boutwood was
pulled near death from the water by the crew of a whaleboat from the
Bramham
destroyer.
Only 101 men from the Curacoas crew of 439 were saved. Twentyone bodies would
wash ashore along the coast
later
of Scotland.
Mary from the boats quarterdeck had been
at the
Gray Ghost was the
last
liers
were called down
Nance and
to the Mary's
had been taken down and the
29th Division officers
killed.
The
thing they saw.
Later that afternoon, Lieutenant Ray his quarters
one
men who had
from the stern of the boat survived. All but a few of the marveled
No
floors
ten other officers in
main lounge. The chande-
planked
sat waiting nervously.
over.
Hundreds
Captain Illingworth
formed them that the tragedy could not be mentioned under any
of in-
cir-
cumstance. Information about the sinking would not be public until the
war ended.
The
tragedy's
shock
great
combat there.
impact on the Bedford boys was enormous.
to see that
before.
Was
on edge.
very
Now many
ing catastrophe, before they
own
On
eyes they had
October
die like those
omen? The near
who drowned
had even encountered the enemy, meant the
now
3, a bitterly
capsizing had set the
others worried that such a gut-wrench-
29th Division was cursed with bad luck. their
a
disturbed." 29
the collision yet another bad
superstitious
was
happen," recalled Roy Stevens. "We'd not been in
We'd never seen people
The men were
"It
seen
One
thing was certain
how expendable men were
—with
in war.
cold and overcast day, they finally arrived in
the Forth of Clyde and boarded "lighters" (old channel ferries) that took
them
to
side, the
Greenock
harbor.
war suddenly
skies as they
As the Bedford boys formed up on the dock-
felt
where they boarded an old Railway too
"It
very close. Barrage balloons
marched through terraced
was
happy that
train of the
the dirty
streets to Greenock's station,
London, Midland, and Scottish
gray, cold, raining," recalled
day." 30
filled
Roy Stevens. "We were not
The Bedford Boys
52
The men had no training
camp
idea where they were headed.
in the
Some hoped
for a
south of England. But others predicted they were
going directly to another port to board another troopship, this time
bound
for Africa.
Considering their luck, they could be digging foxholes
in the desert just in
time for Christmas.
England's
COMPANY A
CRAMPED
SAT
together in old British railway car-
Drab terraced homes gave way
riages.
crowding the greasy windows
rolling hills dotted with
to catch
some
the Scottish border country,
walls,
Own
to country.
glimpses of the
Men
landscape in
fall
parts uncannily similar to Virginias
patches of bluish heather, crumbling stone
crooked lanes, and sheep farms. In northern England,
junctions, gaggles of grubby schoolchildren, evacuated from
cause of the faced
Red Cross
As darkness
girls
tea. fell,
air raid siren
ing before.
candy and gum. At several
Blitz, called for
with piping hot
an
offered refreshment
"I
blackout blinds
wailed.
tried to get
back then we
came down
London
be-
tarts,
served
in the train. Suddenly,
The Bedford boys had never heard
some
dice.
didn't
some
stations, pale-
—crumpets and
The war was above them and
gambled and shot
at
1
all
sleep," recalled
We
around them
had been under attack
traveling through a county that years.
were soon
were
all
know what war
Bob
a real warn-
—they were
for over three
Slaughter. "Other boys
ready to go to war. But of course
was." 2
Early on October 4, 1942, the Bedford boys shouldered their hun-
dred-pound barrack bags and marched into an old Salisbury Plain, southwest of London. Their
was called Tidworth Barracks. had been used
men of
it
looked
It
at the turn of the
like a
wood anywhere,
Dark Ages
British
new home,
army base on
said an officer,
dated back to Elizabethan times and
century as a cavalry post. To most of the
prison,
all "steel,
very cold, austere." 3
53
The
brick, rock
—not
a plank
nearest towns were Andover
The Bedford Boys
54
and Salisbury with
magnificent cathedral, and just ten miles away
its
stood the ancient wonder of Stonehenge.
The Bedford
boys'
first
mass of straw and were
task
was
told to
fill
to "go get sacks."
The men discovered
cloth bags to form a mattress.
They then
placed them on "double-decker beds'' knocked up by a bad carpenter.
man
over six feet slept with his knees to his chin.
only source of
warmth
The
at lights out.
—two ancient
It
was
pot-bellied stoves
Company As
next morning, each of
ered there were just two bathtubs with claw feet for
By the second morning
at
Tidworth, the
1
D's
Bob
Slaughter. "To
make matters
four barracks discov-
called a kipper.
It
stank.
Then
a
And
they gave us cups of
our
all
money on candy
to
—what the
tea.
Not
just orange peelings
coffee.
PX
We
[the
felt like
company
Brits
The
and no
we were
store]
and
just horrible." 5
men had
recovered from sca-
began the longest training program any American infantrymen
in
World War
May
ber 1942 to
when
Company
—
Far worse was to come. As soon as the
endured
laid
bars. But the Coca-Cola had no sugar and
was served warm. Everything was
bies, they
over," recalled
there was bread and marmalade.
being starved. Each night, we'd go to the
spend
was
in the mattresses.
smoked herring
bread was hard. The marmalade was bitter sugar.
men. 4
fifty
worse, the British food rations were
was maybe
pretty meager. Breakfast
freezing, yet their
16th's 1st Battalion
all
Any
—was extinguished
low with a scabies epidemic caused by infested straw
"Everybody was just scratching and clawing
a
II.
1944.
It
would
The U.S.
last
over twenty months, from Octo-
chiefs of staff had not yet decided
invade Europe and they were concerned about the American
forces' lack of
combat experience and rigorous
training.
So they opted
to
turn the 29th into as strong an invasion force as possible. For seven days a
week, broken once a month by a forty-eight-hour pass,
was pushed
to its physical limits. Fifty
Tidworth. Each week, that
weeded out
fell
as
one
Bedford had arrived
man
after another
at
was
or assigned to a different unit.
The 29th wanted
number
men from
Company A
Division's
commander, Major General Leonard Gerow,
to prove that his troops, largely
made up
of National
Guard
out-
Own
55
any others
in the
England's
fits,
made
could be
and battle-ready
just as tough
army of the United
A
States.
Virginia Military Institute,
as
plainspoken and popular graduate of the
Gerow was keenly aware
of
how some
of his
fellow generals, namely Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, Chief of Staff of U.S.
Army Headquarters in Washington, D.C., belittled the National Guard troops under his command. If Gerow had to work his men twice as hard as other division commanders to prove West Pointers like McNair wrong, then so be
it.
"Endurance and strength monitor physical
tests called 'burp-up' exercises
were given
Corporal Bob Slaughter. 'Those
fitness," recalled
passed earned the Expert Infantryman's Badge and an extra
to
who
five dollars
in the monthly paycheck. Failing to qualify meant transfer to a noncom-
bat outfit." 6
To in
qualify, first the
men had
army boots and uniform, do
run a hundred yards in twelve seconds
to
thirty-five
across an obstacle course at a sprint,
push-ups and ten chin-ups, get
and then show themselves
deadly accurate with a Colt .45, the Garand M-l
[Browning Automatic
Rifle], the
exposed Salisbury Plain.
"It
and
a
be
BAR
standard issue submachine gun.
was done beneath sullen
All of this
rifle,
to
seemed
to
skies
me
the
on the damp and windfew months
first
in
Eng-
land the sun seemed to be rationed," recalled Slaughter. "Thick fog, a biting
wind and cold
December.
We
enough warm To mark
drizzle
were
typical
accepted bland, scanty food;
clothing."
its first
ally
little
sleep
and
rest;
and not
7
Christmas away from home, the 29th Division held
parties for evacuated British kids.
and gave them
weather during November and
as presents. For
two Christmas dinners: one
Men
took items from care packages
propaganda purposes, there were actuin early
December, staged
for
newspa-
pers back home, and one on Christmas day
At 10
P.M.
about Ivylyn. of
on Christmas, John Schenk took time It
to
be alone and think
had recently snowed and John had sent her a photograph
him and two other Bedford boys clowning about
ing British helmets.
It
cheered Ivylyn
—he seemed
in their shorts, wear-
to
be enjoying himself.
The Bedford Boys
56
The call.
highlight of any day for
Company As
would
Schenk and the Bedford boys was mail
named Ned Bowman,
mail clerk, a Pennsylvanian
deliver mail first to Fellers,
Nance, and other
officers, next to
Master Sergeant John Wilkes, and then walk into the barracks and out
mens names. Some
failed to get a letter
home were
from home or
into
deep depression
Red Cross
a
they
if
parcel. Packages
from
By 1943, the average GI received fourteen
each week and wrote one
many Bedford
Like
fall
shared around, and delicacies and ethnic foods were often
tasted for the first time. ters
boys would
call
letter a
let-
day unless in combat. 8
home
boys replying to letters from
that Christ-
mas, Schenk masked his homesickness with humor. He'd been forced to give
up
quite a
his habit of treat,''
smoking
drew
"I
a picture
9
Ivylyn promptly
and sent
Sometimes
ica.
of the boys
New Year's
By
Among
the
eral of the
South
first to
die
starting to
him
it
County men were
in
appear in the Bedford Bulletin.
was John Canaday, twenty-one,
He had been killed fighting More men from Bedford were being
Bedford boys.
Pacific.
told
a hu-
nostalgic since leaving Amer-
Day, 1943, over 1,500 Bedford
and death notices were
the only
from the Bedford Bulletin which
who had grown
service
"I
is
10
relatives sent clippings
many
is
went out and bought
she remembered.
it,"
would be waiting when he got back."
fascinated
cigar over here
he explained. ''The English think that Churchill
one who can smoke one." midor.
"A
a cigar after dinner.
a classmate of sev-
the Japanese in the drafted every
week
and those who had been deferred so that they could work farms were '
not happy over having to explain constantly
One man, whose and found
The
big
news from home
it
when
highway painted yellow." 11
was the crash of
a
B-25 bomber
the plane hit head-on at 10 P.M. on February
would crash
of the disaster
that winter
went out one morning
Sharp Top, one of the twin Peaks of Otter. Five
Many townspeople saw feared
they are not in service.
this reason,
his fence posts leading to the
into the side of their lives
son was deferred for
why
the
in the
bomber town
fly
itself.
men 2,
1943.
over Bedford so low that they
'Those
who reached
the scene
were sickened by the sheer horror of what they saw,"
ported the Bulletin. "All
lost
re-
the bodies were cruelly crushed and mangled,
England's
some were dismembered, and one one of the
men had
Own
57
of the searchers said that the head of
not been found
when he
left." 12
For the
first
time,
the war had truly hit home.
Back
in
England, the Bedford boys grew ever more miserable: The win-
1942-43 was one of the coldest on record
ter of
training program,
got worse.
MPs
much
five-mile "yomps." to
it
to
make
sure every
One New Yorker in
march out with heavy
be fighting frozen icicles
The damp
chill in
can't figure the
"I
man completed the weekly twentyCompany A recalled that it was "not
overcoats, covered with our
England seemed like
we could
remember back
on the Peaks
to the fire.
[of Otter]
Here the people
there
at
seem
to
in
mind
"Us yanks
home," Captain
when Dad used
he would come don't
ponchos and
other." 13
to penetrate everything.
the yard and take a look at the mountains, and ries
on marches;
tolerated
on one side and sweating on the
weather here
wrote his parents.
England, yet the boys'
spent outside, got far tougher as the weather
By February, shortcuts were no longer
were posted
unusual
of
in
if
Fellers
to go out in
he saw any snow
and pull
flur-
his chair closer
the weather at
all."
14
Eventually, the conditions on Salisbury Plain began to improve as spring approached.
the
first
daffodils.
The
And Company A began
commanders: Captain average, the
when
men were
they had
at least
and
colors brightened. Crocuses appeared
left
Fellers
and then
to earn the praise of battalion
was shaping a
first-class fighting force.
seven pounds heavier
—most
of
muscle
it
On
—than
America. Their chest sizes had increased by an inch
their self-confidence
had soared. Several sergeants were
se-
lected for officer training and Jack Powers earned the rare honor of
being chosen to join the 29th Division's
elite
combat
unit,
known
as the
Rangers, the American counterpart of the British commandos.
On March where
I
in
am
27, 1943, Captain Fellers wrote his parents "from
Company As
England" about
beginning to think
it is
hundred we
made
and several more
officers
cers too with a year or
swift progress:
hard to beat a Bedford boy for a
of less than a
left
more
there with will
some-
I
would say about
soldier.
Out
a dozen have
be soon. They are good practical
offi-
of regular non-commission service behind
The Bedford Boys
58
them. just
am
I
hope
I
truly
proud
to
warmer
to
and began
old
hometown
can carry them right on through and bring
In early May, the 29th Division
move
my
be commanding
On May
climes.
was ordered
all
outfit
and
them home. 15
of
to vacate
Tidworth and
formed up
23, 1943, the Bedford boys
journey that would take them 160 miles to the
a six-day
southwest. Four days were spent marching and two in the back of trucks. Exhausted, the Bedford boys finally
dropped
their packs in a
new
barracks near Ivybridge in Devon, twelve miles from the channel port of
Plymouth. The move was part of "Operation Bolero," a long-range plan for transferring
servicemen lied
and then accommodating almost two million American
in Britain in the
commanders had now
When
run-up
an invasion of Europe, which Al-
to
set for the
summer
of 1944.
the Bedford boys explored nearby towns and especially coastal
they were astonished to find palm trees growing in
villages,
some parks
because of the more temperate weather brought by the Gulf Stream's southwest coast of England. But
fect along the entire
tured north, they discovered far less hospitable terrain
when
—
ef-
they ven-
a deserted, god-
forsaken stretch of moorland called Dartmoor.
Some of the men recognized Dartmoor from the successful Hollywood horror movie, Hound of the Baskervilles, starring Basil Rathbone. Even
mid-summer, the area could be
in
wasteland portrayed
was
in the film.
also potentially lethal,
To
it
was
when
also starkly beautiful.
cate wildflowers, and the
weather.
a
a
compass, Dartmoor
mired with boot-sucking bogs and peaty
quicksand. But on the odd day clouds,
just as bleak as the ghoulish
GI without
the sun broke through dirty
There were wild ponies and
deli-
moss and heather changed color with the
16
Company A began
to
camp
out on the moors, even in the most de-
plorable conditions. "You couldn't stay dry," said Allen Huddleston.
"Water would always seep into everything. You'd sheet and before long the water would
come
lie
through.
down on your bed It
was
Roy Stevens remembered one awful evening when the men
pup
tents on the
moors
in a hurry
horrible." 17 set
up
their
because of a downpour: "Captain
England's
came along and knocked down
Fellers
proper
line.
Men
There were
still
Own
59
several tents that weren't in
them/' 18
guys in
did their best to fend off the blues. Wallace "Snake Eyes" Carter
water can with whiskey he'd bought on the black market and
filled his
took a good swig every few miles. 19 Others chanted caustic songs to take their
minds
One
verse
I
and
off their sore feet
was
want
particularly popular:
to
To follow
go again to the moors, their
winding
To stand again on In the cold
Oh,
I'll
and the
rain
and the
gales.
go out to the moors again,
carry
enough
me
well:
explosives, to hell. 20
To blow the place
When
trails,
their lonely slopes,
But mind you and mark I'll
blisters.
the boys passed through villages, locals often lined the route,
shouting encouragement, sometimes providing snacks and cups of If
the Bedford boys
came
across English children, they
chocolate bars and shower the prettiest
Spearmint
More
gum from
their
often than not,
C
with strips of Wrigley's
Roy Stevens walked ahead and
I
miles. hole.'
going.
We
would
him about what
talk all the way,
At night, he'd sometimes say
He just
loved saying that.
you something, he meant
It
was not
strolled
company
be-
line in a hike,
two of us up front together." For hours on end, out of earshot,
the old days back home, and kid
him
of the
would get up on the
they would joke, needle each other, and reminisce.
get
toss
rations.
side Captain Fellers. "Fellers just the
girls
would
tea.
all
it."
was
ask Fellers about
a tough kid
sometimes
he was, and
for twenty-five
as 'black as midnight's ass-
didn't waste his words.
When
he told
21
"yomp" and hard
down winding
He
it
"I'd
slog.
Many
evenings, the Bedford boys
lanes to nearby pubs
where they shared news
The Bedford Boys
60
from home and drank
comb, "but we I'd
been used
didn't
wood
know
"We
sat
supping
called
what
exactly
But we consumed
to.
The few hours
among
"bitter."
it
it all
warm
it
beer," recalled Earl
was
—
it
New-
didn't taste like beer
the same." 22
would be
pints beside roaring fires
the men's fondest memories of Britain.
Weldon Rosazza, Glen-
"Dickie" Overstreet, and other sociable Bedford boys were soon
copying the
Brits, treating the
lounge of their "locals," Ivybridge's "The
Sportsman's Arms" and "The King's Arms," as a
where they would tuck
into
home away from home
good "pub grub," play
darts, gossip, read the
"funnies" in Stars and Stripes, and listen to American jazz on the radio. 23 Liquor, or "spirits" as the Brits called
it,
was
strictly rationed.
What
little
could be found was drunk within an hour of opening. Around seven, the landlady would cry out:
"No more
spirits tonight,
gentlemen." 24
Corporal Weldon Rosazza, twenty-two, was the neatest and perhaps the most cosmopolitan of the Bedford boys, having lived for a while in
Washington, D.C., as a
had the
boy.
"He was
very charming, outgoing, and he
prettiest dimples," recalled his cousin, Ellen Quarles.
them and hated
to
be teased about
them." 25
"He hated
Rosazza had joined the Na-
tional Guard upon graduating from Bedford High School. His
Calisto,
had worked
as a
mechanic
at
father,
Bedford's People's Garage. His
grandfather had emigrated from the small Piedmont town of Rosazza in Italy in the 1890s.
Twenty-two-year-old Dickie Overstreet, one of eleven children, had labored since he was a small boy for his father outside Bedford.
He and
his family
who owned
had somehow got by
a
farm just
in the worst
years of the Depression through supplying vegetables and meat to Dickie's aunt,
"We were
who owned
the
Dutch
Inn, a boardinghouse in Bedford.
very, very poor," recalled sister
Beulah Witt.
"My
parents were
He was essential to running the farm. When he left, my father, Wilton, who was a carpenter, went to work in the shipyards in Newport News to keep us all." 26
very upset
when Dickie went
away.
Just before nine o'clock every evening, silence descended in Ivybridge's less.
pubs
The
as everyone sat
and waited
reports were mostly uplifting.
for the
On
BBC
news on the wire-
the Russian front, the Ger-
England's
mans were
61
in retreat after suffering a devastating defeat at Stalingrad. In
Africa, the Axis
Now
Own
had been routed, losing 349,206
the Allies were working their
way up
dead and prisoners.
in
the jagged spine of
Italy.
Throughout England, General Bernard Montgomery was worshipped with almost the same fervor as Churchill.
The
1st Division, after a
shaky
start,
had proved
their mettle, deci-
GI was an
sively answering the snide British accusation that the rior soldier to the
Tommy. After
Red One" had fought
its
way
Oran
the capture of
England
the 29th Division, sively, as
it
"England's
yet to see
"The Big
in Algeria,
across Tunisia, defeating Erwin Rommel's
Afrika Korps, and then spearheaded the invasion of shortly return to
Sicily.
They would
an invasion of France. As for
to prepare for
was now dubbed by other GIs, somewhat
Own."
few dozen of
All but a
combat and the
infe-
division
was
still
its
deri-
15,000 troops had
the only army based in
Britain.
27
After closing time at 10 P.M., the Bedford boys would trudge back to their barracks
cious
little
where some would write and read
time in the day to one's
town they'd
left in early
pre-
relatives,
now very different from
the small
letters
1942.
Shortages were starting to be in grocery stores
Through
—there was from
self.
they learned that wartime Bedford was
letters
felt
and by Saturday nights most shelves
were bare. Lines were
common
outside
many
stores be-
cause there were too few employees waiting on customers. Butter was rationed at four ounces a week; Tuesdays and Fridays were designated national "meatless days." Kitchen fat plosives.
To men's
delight,
was saved
women's hems
to
rose, in
be processed into
some cases
ex-
as far as
the knee, in a patriotic fashion craze aimed at saving material for uniforms.
Mrs. George ities
on morale
Women
P.
in
Parker noted in a bimonthly report to Virginia author-
Bedford that "labor shortage
is
acute in rural areas.
and children are picking berries who have never been
berry patch before. Huckleberries are being brought
mountains and are bringing unheard of prices but are .
.
.
.
.
.
in a black-
down from the in great demand
housewives are canning chickens and making sauerkraut."
The Bedford Boys
62
Driving for pleasure had been banned and in
reported Parker, had started to play croquet.
many
place
its
couples,
The townspeople were
'calm but anxious about the conduct of the war on the homefront. Disgusted with John L. Lewis and his nient with them, perhaps
unminding of John
L.
remembering
his obligation to labor
that vote in case of a fourth term
members back
a million of his
to
and not
had threatened
denounce
to
war production
to bring strike,
or-
work on May 20 twenty
minutes before Roosevelt went on national radio
though Lewis called off the
le-
for himself." 28
Lewis was leader of the United Mine Workers and had
dered over half
strike that
president was too
strikers; felt the
a two-day
to a standstill. Al-
he and other labor leaders were
granted wage increases.
The underlying cause ment among
for Lewis's militancy
was
a
widespread resent-
blue-collar workers that they were not sharing in the soar-
whom
ing profits of corporations, for
the war represented no less than a
rejuvenation of American capitalism. Approximately seventy big companies controlled three-quarters of wartime production industry, for example, profits
bosses at
and
in the textile
had risen 100 percent each
Hampton Looms and
year.
For the
other Bedford factories, times had never
been so good.
The Bedford boys Stars
and
Stripes, that
tions elsewhere in
also learned, through reports in Life
magazine and
while Bedford was adapting well to wartime condi-
America there was precious
little
harmony. As the Bed-
ford boys prepared to fight Adolf Hitler, in several cities racial tensions
had boiled
over. In
June 1943
in
Los Angeles, white GIs had attacked
blacks wearing "zoot" suits, sparking riots that led to the military declaring the city a no-go area for
all
American servicemen
control of the streets. In Detroit that June,
until
it
had regained
where 300,000 whites and
blacks had migrated to work in war factories, thirty-five people were killed,
600 wounded, and thousands
The most popular
jailed in
two days of
rioting.
attraction for the Bedford boys other than the local
pub was the American Red
Cross's Tidworth House, a magnificent
man-
Own
England's
sion that actually adjoined the 29th Divisions barracks
63
and had once be-
home
longed to the great British general, Wellington. The stately country
was now given over
to entertaining the troops,
tended weekly dances where, for the
Many Britain's
women
of these
women
belonged
time,
many met
English
at-
girls.
Land Army, responsible
for
wartime agricultural production. 'There were some robust
in that army," recalled
over a fence
if
Lieutenant Ray Nance. 'They'd pitch you
you stepped over the
endured three years of
all
first
to the
and the Bedford boys
line." 29
strict rationing
Delicate or robust, they had
and bombing, and
a well-paid
Brylcreamed Yank was the ideal wartime boyfriend. "We had chewing
gum, smart uniforms, American Stevens.
"We
Tommies
said." 30
cigarettes,
and money," confirmed Roy
were over-paid, over-sexed and over here'
really
as the
Radio operator John Clifton was particularly successful with English
women due ing
brown
to
an unbeatable combination of Southern charm, penetrat-
eyes, courtesy of his
muscular build. "He was gether," recalled Stevens.
Cherokee Indian
a real
Cassanova
"They knew how
ancestry,
to get the girls.
five foot six. Clifton
was
he'd snatch your girlfriend from under your eyes
At Bedford High School, with a gentle
spirit.
"J.
a slim but
—he and Rosazza ran
guys would go with them just to get their rejects. That bet he wasn't more than
and
Some
little
to-
of the
Rosazza,
I
a great guy, too, but
all right."
31
D." had been a quiet, trustworthy pupil
His mother, Minnie Lee, was proud that he had
nored the taunts of anti-Semitic local boys
when he had
Edith Bornstein, the Jewish daughter of a manager
ig-
started to date
at the
Hampton
Looms. Edith's delicate features and wonderful singing voice had
capti-
vated Clifton. But in England, according to letters home, he quickly
found solace
in the
soon engaged
arms of an English
ing heavy. looking." 32
also fell in love with
to their sister,
Mabel: "Ray
saw him the other night with
I
he met
at a
dance and was
to her.
Raymond Hoback Bedford wrote
girl
Raymond
later
is
a
an English
girl.
His brother
not married yet but little
Jewish
wrote to his parents about his
girl,
new
is
court-
right
good
girlfriend.
The Bedford Boys
64
"My mother
would
got terribly worried that he
stay
the war and marry her," recalled Lucille, his younger
John Reynolds, Company As runner,
According
certain they
One
to relatives they
Guard
Sunday afternoons
of
war had broken
out, Willie
One women
night,
takes her away!
I
tell
laughed about
pretty
went
their
separate.
much
He
it
to Virginia after the war.
him
they had a special bond
a runner, Fellers
Fellers
and
When
over." 33
Reynolds was responsible for
fer-
and battalion headquarters.
invited to a
was
dance organized by English
talking to a great
comes on
over, pulled
girl,"
recalled
rank on me, and
you, he got the biggest kick in the world out of that! for a long time." 34 Fellers's
marriage was
the rocks. "Fellers and his wife had fallen out. Before I'd
heard through the grapevine that they were about
called her the blonde
about her
—
to
join the National
she had agreed to John's
marches together, Stevens knew
much on overseas,
As
in the fire service. "I
Roy Stevens, "and then
like
bitterly regretted
Company A was
working
From
had
seemed
it
was remarkably close
to let
was
in love that
just reading his letters over
between Captain
rying messages
"It
nearby
in a
Marguerite Cottrell. "She would spend a
sister
joining the National Guard.
He
he had begged
so he could be with his friends.
with each other," recalled lot
were soon so
would be married when they returned
whom
sister.
who was working
of seven children, Reynolds, twenty-one,
his mother, Willie,
in Britain after
an American, Kathleen
fell for
Bradshaw, a nurse from Quinby in Virginia, hospital.
on
bomber but otherwise never
he'd just go out at night and have a ball."
Fellers also enjoyed a platonic relationship with a local
we to
said too
35
widow, a Mrs.
Lunscomb, who was soon mothering him and
several other officers.
"She kind of adopted him," recalled
younger
Woodford. "She
lived
on
a
Fellers's
farm and would
fix
Bertie
sister,
Taylor hot meals.
.
.
.
Tay-
house." 36
lor said
he couldn't believe she had a barn right next
Back
Bedford County, where cleanliness was next to godliness, swine
in
to the
were kept much farther from the kitchen.
Within
a year,
Sergeant Clyde Powers would be considering mar-
riage to a sweet-natured "rose"
named Pam Roberts whom he met
in
Own
England's
Plymouth; Sergeant Roy Stevens would be dating pudlian,
Mickey Muriel Peake;
37
a chirpy Liver-
and company clerk Pride Wingfield
would be seeing Doreen, Mickey's cousin. They shared taught their
girls to jive
and
65
jitterbug,
and
cigarettes,
tried to forget the war.
next dance, the next pub, the next forty-eight-hour pass were
all
The that
mattered.
When how
the Bedford boys ventured into towns and cities, they saw
dead and injured to
had been over 295,000
fleeting life could be. Since 1939, there in air raids.
John Wilkes wrote Bettie:
know our homes and towns 38
here.
Bombed-out
streets
aren't being
bombed
"It is
as they
very nice
have over
and orphaned children, meager meals,
and nightly blackouts were continual reminders of the suffering and sacrifice of
wartime Britons. They worked, on average, fifty-hour
weeks and subsisted on rations that would have been unimaginable back
Most had
in Bedford.
sweetened cup of
tea, or
war had not dented
Many
forgotten what fresh eggs, real coffee, a
an orange tasted
their resilience nor
like.
But three years of
total
diminished their generosity.
families boarding GIs saved rations to provide birthday cakes
and other
treats.
Passes in hand,
some Bedford boys took
their English dates to the
who was buried Nancy Astor, Britain's
grave of Pocahontas, the Indian princess from Virginia, at
Some female MP, who
Winchester.
first
visited another Virginian
invited groups to tea
been born near Charlottesville, one of the
Rumor had
it
Virginia boys after other
for
and sandwiches. Astor had 16th Infantry's hometowns.
she had lobbied the American high
would
stay in Britain as
Yanks had been sent into
Others from
bound
1
—
Company A headed
London,
principal
out,"
was where the
Roy Stevens explained. 39 As
overcharged for everything they bought in
London, and sometimes fleeced by canny English a
army of defense, long
straight for the nearest train station,
women, hung
men were
so that the
battle.
specifically Piccadilly Circus. "That
ladies, or rather the
often as not, the
its
command
horny Yank coming a long way
off,
even
"gals"
who
in the blackout.
could see
Roy Stevens
The Bedford Boys
66
lost a
month s pay when
"We met
night:
them. They
We
these two
girls
said: 'You give us
and were going
some money and
handed them some money but
Private
the
his libido got the better of
1 1
Bob
Circus
Company B was
Sales of
who
6th Infantry
didn't see
buddy one
a
have a great time with
to
we'll get all of us a room.'
again." 40
them
typical of the
young Virginians
in
saved their wages and then headed for Piccadilly
on painting the town
at every opportunity, hell-bent
and blue. As soon
him and
as they arrived in
red, white,
London, they hopped on
a "tube'' to
Soho, army-issue rubbers and crisp "quid" notes stuffing their wallets. In
Gerard
Street, Sales
tarts" sitting
and
his fellow Virginians then bartered with
on stoops, mascara
drawn on
lines
resemble
their calves to
stockings, calling out their price: "Half a pound, occasionally a
she was real good looking.
There was
also a
It
Red Cross
ing.
A bunch of girls from
on,
and laugh
was
hostel
when
it
came
beds.
When
pound
to that.
where we'd spend the night
Spain worked as maids there. They'd
made our
as they
just unreal
"cheeky
The
nice
were
girls
Then
be found
to
in
Covent Garden opera house converted ever saw in your
life.
you'd
you were screwing one of
them two
slip
you didn't
like,
It
was
shillings."
Covent Garden: "Churchill had dance
into the biggest
They had two bands
a girl
there.
One would
hall
you waltzed over
you
play for a If
you
to the stag line
and got another. Wrens, Wacs, always two hundred standing waiting dance. They loved to dance, those English
heaven
as
you could
get."
girls.
Man,
it
was
much
as Sales.
He
in Bedford, Viola
would be weeks
a boy,
couldn't stop thinking about his
had given
reached
pulled out a photograph to tiful as
birth.
and had agreed on
later, a letter
her mother.
to
as close to
41
Bedford boy Earl Parker also visited London but did not enjoy so
.
sing, carry
while then the stage would rotate and another would start up.
were dancing with
.
for noth-
them, the others would sing so the supervisor wouldn't catch on. the darndest thing you ever seen.
.
if
He had been a
Earl. Viola
show
name with
new
quite
family Back
convinced the baby Viola:
had named the
his buddies.
it
Danny.
girl
She was every
A
few
Danny. Earl bit as
beau-
"29, Let's Go!
JULY 1943, THE 29TH
IN
»
Division received a
new commander.
General Charles H. Gerhardt, forty-eight, replaced Major General
Leonard Gerow, who had been promoted said that
hell-bent on knocking even tional
to
command V
Corps.
It
was
Gerhardt was another polo-playing West Point prima donna
Guard.
more sense
into the apparently slovenly
Na-
1
Gerhardt immediately confirmed the rumors by appearing before the
men
dressed like a northern dandy in shiny cavalry boots and wearing "a
polished leather holster and belts, and decorative neckerchief." 2 But the division's
new
chief martinet surprised everyone and ordered an end to
the relentless training schedule and gave off.
the
men
seventy-two hours
Suddenly, Gerhardt was affectionately being called "Uncle Charlie"
throughout the division.
Gerhardt also devised a it
all
be used in every
drill
new
—
battle cry
and even had
it
"29, Lets Go!"
—and
insisted
emblazoned on signposts. And he
much weapons practice as possible: The men enjoyed firing made them feel like true soldiers. Typically, he led by example,
ordered as guns;
it
terrifying locals
by pulling out his Colt .45 and blazing away
at rabbits or
any other convenient target from his spotless jeep, the Vixen driver roared along
become
particularly adept at letting loose salvos at signs
British cars approached. lades.
He was
Tor, as his
narrow country lanes. Before long, many 29ers had
But Gerhardt didnt stop
especially fond of dropping
spotting planes as he
watched
his
men 67
at
and gateposts
impromptu
as
fusil-
hand grenades from Piper Cub
practice maneuvers on the moors.
The Bedford Boys
68
The honeymoon
down on
officers
vate, every
lasted a
few weeks. Then Gerhardt began
and noncoms
man under
alike.
Whether
crack
to
buck
a colonel or a
Gerhardt was ordered to look immaculate
pri-
at all
times and keep helmets strapped under the chin. Equipment and vehicles
were
to
be polished and as spotless as the
was forbidden, cers If
were
to
mens
uniforms. Stubble
mandatory every morning. And
a cold-water shave
offi-
keep their distance when conferring with "Uncle Charlie."
they didn't, he would quickly bark: "That's far enough!"
Although soon detested by many care.
He had
an infantry cers
and
waited twenty years, rising through the ranks to
division. Besides, there
men
Gerhardt didn't appear to
officers,
was good reason
command
for driving his offi-
harder than his predecessor. Gerhardt had been briefed on
plans for a massive Allied invasion of France,
codenamed
"Overlord."
If
they proved up to the challenge, the 29ers could be selected for the
most audacious and
risky
amphibious operation
in U.S. military history.
Gerhardt's time had come.
Overlord had been the goal of the U.S.
Army and
President Roo-
sevelt since the beginning of the war. If successful,
Churchill said, mark the "beginning of the end" of World rope. In January 1943, President Roosevelt,
and the
Allies'
decided
to set
Combined Chiefs
team, soon Overlord.
The
met
at
up an Anglo-American headquarters
known
as
War
II
Eu-
in
Casablanca and in
for the invasion.
COSSAC, would
would, as
Prime Minister Churchill,
of Staff had
would investigate possible locations
it
London
that
The planning
be responsible for the details of
invasion the team planned was set to take place as early
as possible in 1944.
Overlord would entail landing three divisions of thirty thousand
on beaches and dropping two airborne divisions nearby. The
succeeded Africa
in
two previous amphibious invasions
—but had
troops. Overlord failure
—
in Sicily
men
Allies
had
and North
yet to attack a fortified coastline defended by seasoned
would be the greatest
military
gamble of the war.
could deal a catastrophic blow to Allied unity,
doom
Its
the Jewish
race in Europe to probable extinction, and leave Europe under Nazi con-
69
"29, Let's Go!"
Success would depend on absolute surprise, superlative teamwork,
trol.
the weather, secrecy, a vast armada's effective deployment, air superior-
and then
ity,
who had
a full frontal assault
men
never experienced combat.
In early
September 1943, Lieutenant Ray Nance returned from
cial intelligence training
him
by tens of thousands of young
program
in Derbyshire.
be chosen
that the 116th Infantry could possibly
a spe-
Captain Fellers told to
spearhead a
29th Division assault on Europe. There were no specifics about where or
when. That was
were
on
to train to land
we had real
far too sensitive information.
a heavily
But from now on they
defended beach and seize
a very important job to do," recalled
"We knew
it.
Nance. "That's when the
work began."
COSSAC
had, in fact, decided in August at a conference in
Quebec on
the section of French coastline where the invasion would take place. Instead of the obvious stretch of beaches along the Pas de Calais, closest to Britain,
COSSAC
opted for those of Normandy, southwest of the port of
Le Havre, between the mouths of the Orne and Vire
rivers.
This stretch of the Atlantic Wall, as Hitler had called beach defenses
from southern France as the Pas
de Calais.
all
If
the
way
to Holland,
was not
as well
defended
bridges across the Seine could be destroyed, and
the Wehrmacht's response to the invasion thereby impeded, the Allies
would have
a greater
chance of landing enough
men and armament
to
enable an attack directly into the heart of Nazi Europe.
The Bedford boys were soon climbing cargo foot
beams, scaling
landing
craft,
shores. Every
take
cliffs,
nets
hung from
digging shapes in the peat moors to resemble
and storming banks of heather that doubled
man, from Gerhardt down
swimming
thirty-
as imaginary
to the lowliest private,
had
to
And there was no warm indoor pool to hand. the men had to swim in nearby ponds and across
lessons.
Whatever the weather, rivers.
That autumn, the increasingly
chilly
swimming
lessons were forgot-
ten for a few days as the entire division focused on baseball. Three
from Bedford played
for the
"116 Yankees"
in the Allied
Armed
men
Forces
The Bedford Boys
70
Inter-Army championship
London
finals in
in late
September: Elmere
Wright, Frank Draper, and Robert "Tony" Marsico.
The son ford
of Bedford's deputy sheriff, Wright had pitched for the Bed-
High School team and then
Texas.
The summer before
Of
all
women and
song had got
Stevens. "But in England he settled very tricky with the
ball.
I
man, the catcher got the
knew
down and
ball before
I
Another outstanding player
in the
"Mud
He had
and
Roy
He was
one time, and
to swing.
Everyone
3
116 Yankees from Bedford was Jr.,
Alley'' baseball
factory team.
basketball, football,
did real good.
even started
twenty-three-year-old Sergeant Frank Draper
Hampton Looms
to him," recalled
tried to hit [his pitched ball]
he'd be in the majors after the war."
tough neighborhood's
in
seemed most promising.
the Bedford men, his future
"Before the war, wine,
Browns farm team
Cubs had watched Wright and been im-
Louis Cardinals and Chicago pressed.
for a St. Louis
Pearl Harbor, several scouts from the St.
also
who had
played for his
team and then
been
for the
a star in high school
track.
Frank's two younger brothers,
Gamiel and David, had
also played for
Hampton Looms. "We were one, two, three in the batting order," recalled David. "My mother and father hadn't wanted us to play because was nicknamed they didn't want us to get hurt. But we did anyway. I
'Hammerhead' because cause ride
when we were
them
choir,
like
real
a horse.
run, field.
"He could do
He had
a
good arm.
Draper was as capable
He was
pigs
and
happy-go-lucky, sang in the
when he was back home."
By 1943, Frank had matured hitter.
called Frank 'Piggy' be-
young he would jump on the back of
they were
never drank, or smoked
powerful
We
of playing football.
into a superbly consistent outfielder
and
"He could
hit,
everything," insisted David.
He
could have
a soldier as
made
it
in the big leagues." 4
he was an athlete: resourceful,
calm and decisive under pressure, and highly organized. Alone among the Bedford boys, he kept a diary
—
a black
notebook
in
which he would
mostly jot a few quick reminders of his duties the next day. Thirty-four-year-old Staff Sergeant ford boy by five years
and a
Tony Marsico was the oldest Bed-
gifted catcher.
One
of ten children, Marsico
"29, Let's Go!"
had grown up
worked
come
The
Roanoke, Bob Slaughters hometown, where he had
in
Blue Hills golf course. His father, John, had
for a time at the
to Virginia 1 1
71
from
Italy in the 1890s. 5
6 Yankees faced twenty teams drawn from
all
the services in
the European Theatre of Operations, and played four games over four
days at the Eighth Air Force Headquarters, Bushy Park, in London.
Each team was allowed "They
let
those guys play ball because they wanted to keep
explained Verona Lipford, Frank Draper's
minds
off
The
men and one
to field fifteen enlisted
what was going
services
to
newspaper
sister. "It
was
them
busy,"
to get their
happen." 6
Stars
and
Stripes contained the following re-
between the 116 Yankees and the Fighter
port on the final
officer.
Command
Thunderbolts:
Led by field,
way the
their
peppery captain, Corporal Douglas
who came from behind
Mass.,
Gillette, of Spring-
the plate in the fourth to hurl his
into the hearts of the spectators, the field force Yankees
ETO
bolts, 6-3, in the final
stickmen got
ond and
Command
World Series by defeating the Fighter
Va., for a single in the sec-
third innings, but without success.
lead in the sixth
when two men were
safe
.
.
.
The winners took
rallied again in the seventh,
was out
Private First Class Joe Gubernot, of
second. Gubernot
field.
a
They
Sergeant Frank Draper, of Bedford, Va.,
getting his second triple of the game, but
when
the
on errors and scored when
batted ball got past the second baseman and went into right
score
Thunder-
played here this afternoon. The Thunderbolts'
Elmer Wright, of Bedford,
to
copped
came home on an
at the plate trying to
Shamokin,
Pa., hit to
error at first for the final tally of
the game. Wright allowed four hits and struck out five, while Gillette,
who worked on fanned
the batters
all
the way, was touched for three blows and
five. 7
Within eight months, three of the winning teams players would be dead, and another 116 Yankees player, "Chubby" Proffit, would be
awarded the Distinguished Service Cross
for gallantry.
The Bedford Boys
72
Soon
after the final
club's vice president, to
know your curve
game, Wright wrote
William O. DeWitt, replied: "We are mighty glad
ball
and your control are
when you
ready for some high class baseball
Back the It
in
Browns. The
to the St. Louis
America, on October
the
1 1
better.
think you will be
I
get back." 8
New York Yankees
had defeated
Louis Cardinals four games to one in a classic World Series
St.
was sweet revenge
for the Yankees,
who had been
final.
humiliated by the
Cardinals in 1942 and had lost three of their best players in the 1943 sea-
son
—Joe DiMaggio,
Phil Rizzuto,
and Red Ruffing
As winter returned, the Bedford and get home" 9 grew with every
—
to military service.
boys' impatience to "get the job
done
to
know
any thing about England," wrote a thoroughly dejected Grant Yopp
to his
Anna Mae,
sister,
and see
without
but also
many
This
is
one part of
now been
buddies had
his
and
gale. "If
"you will have to wait until the war
for yourself.
Yopp and
bitter frost
my in
life
I
am
England
you want
is
over and
aiming
come
to forget." 10
for fourteen
months
home leave. They were the best-trained men in the U.S. Army, among the most resentful. They had had enough of waiting and
felt that
the 29th Division had
being tested and ordered to
weapon use and tion book.
to
try
out
comply with every
become guinea
pigs, endlessly
new techniques in training and new addition to the army's regula-
"Everybody was always complaining, 'Get
it
over with. We've
been here long enough!'" recalled Bedford boy Allen Huddleston, "but few
didn't
years
if
it.
12
If
I
remember
he didn't have
When "where
mind.
Earl Parker saying he'd stay another five
to hit a beach." 11
an American evangelist erected
will
a
a sign in Ivybridge asking
you spend eternity?" someone scrawled
"in
England" across
the exact location of the Bedford boys' afterlife was in question,
one thing was action soon,
not: If the its
1
16th Infantry didn't get out of Britain and into
hard-won unity and resilience might crumble. After
three years in the regular army, there was one thing every with: Gerhardt's intuitive
war cry
—
agreed
"29, Let's Go!"
—Gerhardt's
There was, however, one morale booster eight-year-old Brigadier General
man
Norman "Dutch"
assistant, forty-
Cota. Tall and rangy,
"29, Let's Go!"
quiet and unassuming in private, from
up
to his
knees
baton, and
in
dawn
mud, clutching an
chomping on an
to
73
dusk Cota could be found
old walking stick as
if it
were
a
be heard
unlit cigar. His resonant voice could
even amid heavy explosions as he yelled encouragement and charged across banks of heather
open
to
and
fire to
fifty
yards from artillery units he had instructed
simulate the sound of war.
amphibious
particularly
assault,
specialist in infantry tactics
Cota would be the
Ray Nance. "You believed
in him." 13
Captain Fellers would often watch Cota and the confer: "Uncle Charlie,"
all
division's highest-
combat. "He was a plain, sound man,"
ranking officer in actual front-line recalled Lieutenant
A
far shorter
Gerhardt
who
swagger, barking orders at "Dutch,"
stood at the appropriate distance with his chin strap hanging loose. Cota
was the only man
in the
29th Division allowed to do
Yet again, another Christmas
cember
"Things are moving along strikes
mum.
we have our
fairly well,
all
generously that
staple items are
if
a person uses
complaining. There shoppers."
is
now
more desperate
Claus
will bring
in early
will take
but
you
December.
suppose you it
will
The
lots of things if
"I
sure hope
I
you are a good
will
Christmas
on Earl Parker,
little girl,"
and think she
is
day, 1944, the
tell
real sweet. all
he wrote
be there next Christmas.
my
love,
I
mother that I
wish
I
I
don't
don't believe I
said this,
could be there
Daddy" 16
29th Division no longer had Britain
Being a Yank armed with pass and a
much
for
"Dear Danny, Maybe Santa
us long to get acquainted. Don't
New Year's
self.
at a mini-
no reason
streets are full of
particularly hard
to see his daughter.
with you and Mother tonight. With
By
at all there is
know your Daddy when he comes home.
love her a lot
I
as
15
The weeks before Christmas were ever
such
difficulties
rationed, but they are rationed so
any judgment
plenty to buy.
De-
news from the homefront:
and complaints yet considering everything, these are Nearly
On
away from home approached.
friend of Captain Fellers sent
3, a
so. 14
fat wallet
to
it-
was no longer so
fun. In a massive build-up to the invasion of Europe, over 1.6 mil-
The Bedford Boys
74
lion other
Americans were soon crowding an area not much bigger than
They would share
Virginia.
this
occupied
'
with well over ten
territory"
million civilians, 1.7 million British troops, over 150,000 Canadians,
and 60,000 from other Allied nations, including
and parachute brigade. In
sion
comprise
six
armored
divisions, thirteen infantry divisions,
and 1,300 warships. Added
divi-
the Americans in Britain would
total,
borne divisions. Ports would soon be craft
armored
a Polish
jammed
and two
air-
with over 4,000 landing
to this colossal force
were 165 U.S. Air
Force squadrons.
As that
this
some
"American occupation" gathered pace, many 29ers discovered
had
Brits
finally
had enough of the braggart Yanks, spreading
venereal disease, packing every decent restaurant and pub, and stealing
70,000 British
their girls: over
women would
marry their Yank boyfriends
immediately after the war and return to the United States with them.
New 1944,
it
faces started to change things in
was under strength;
from Bedford. sions
Many
less
Company A
than a third of
its
too.
By February
remaining
men were commis-
of the original Bedford boys had received
and been transferred. Others had
failed increasingly stringent
physicals and stamina tests. Having formed the nucleus of the unit since Pearl Harbor, however,
most of those issuing orders were
still
Bedford
born and bred.
To bring the
1
batches of up to
16th Infantry up to fifty
full strength,
replacements arrived
men. Most were drafted northerners
year-old John Barnes, the son of devout Catholics,
twenty other noon.
17
New Yorkers
in the
"full
he had weighed
of foreboding" 1
and
still
Barnes's truck stopped and the a
many
others,
if
would
to the scales?
New Yorkers
filed into a
New
Baumgarten. The son of Austrian immigrants and a
after-
wondered what he'd have done
cocky and streetwise Jew from
Baumgarten had made
arrived with
induction medical in 1942,
19 pounds rather than 120. Like so
he have gorged himself and returned
They included
who
nineteen-
back of a freezing truck one grim
A pound over the cut-off weight at his
Barnes was
like
in
a
Quonset
hut.
York City, Hal
superb athlete,
remarkable fifty-four-yard return punt for his
"29, Let's Go!"
75
high school team the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed. In June 1943, he'd been offered a college exemption from the draft. His professors had
advised
him
to take
it,
for the opportunities
on July
"He
officer
first
Two
told us:
afforded his family, he was sworn into the army
it
and soon proved
10, 1943,
man, especially with "The
but he did not. Determined to repay his country
a
be a spectacularly gifted marks-
to
1903 Springfield bolt-action.
we met was Colonel Canham,"
recalled Baumgarten.
out of three of you are not going home.'" 18
Barnes and Baumgarten were ordered to go to one of the First Battalion's four
down
pathway between more huts and then someone barked:
a foggy
"You, you, lit
companies: "Able, Baker, Charlie or Dog." 19 They walked
you
—
fall
out here!" 20 Barnes and Baumgarten entered a well-
There they found
building.
a
heavy
tough-looking Virginian with
set,
three stripes on his shoulder.
"My name
is
Wilkes. Master Sergeant John Wilkes."
The men stood "You
ETO
men
at attention.
have been assigned
to
A
Company.
[European Theatre of Operations]
ready for combat. You
men
will
for eighteen
be ready
Another man stepped forward
—
have been in the
months and we
are
too."
and
tall
We
lean, with
two
silver bars
on
his uniform.
"My name
is
Captain Taylor
ble Virginia drawl. "This
company
in the invasion of Europe.
the war.
Good
luck!"
huts.
first night,
"Why
will
men
be
will
in
an almost
in the leading
unintelligi-
wave of
infantry
be part of a great force
to
end
21
Barnes's heart sank.
That
You
he said
Fellers,"
"What have
I
gotten into?" he thought.
the replacements
are they sending
bunked
in
Company As Nissen
you kids over here?" several Virginians
asked nineteen-year-old Baumgarten.
A couple
of days later, the replacements
nearby. For several weeks, they lived in
an increasingly
muddy
field.
were ordered
to sleep in tents
under sodden canvas without heat
To other
recruits
Roach, Gil Murdock, and Thomas Valance,
it
such as riflemen George
seemed
that the Southern-
The Bedford Boys
76
were deliberately testing the northern replacements, ostracizing them
ers
were deemed tough and
until they
fit
enough
to eat
Company A. "The Bedford men were Baumgarten. "When we came out of our
and sleep beside the one big
stalwarts of
like
called
tents to line
morning
for reveille, they
kidding with each other.
were
The
calling
all
captain
each other by their
knew
every one of
family/' re-
up
first
in the
names,
them." 22
After a month, the replacements were finally allowed to join the rest of
Company A under
site
a roof. Hal
Baumgarten
slept
on
a top
bunk oppo-
Jack Powers. "He was very good to me. He'd trained to be a Ranger
and wasn't too happy great soldier
to
and taught
be back
me
was disbanded]. He was
[his unit
a lot of tricks.
a
Bedford Hoback was also
" friendly. 23
At
first,
however, most replacements
made uneasy
bedfellows. "Those
boys from up North, you had to ride them or they'd ride you," recalled
Mess Sergeant they'd forget
had
to
Earl
who you
have them."
Other
Newcomb.
men
"You had to holler at them sometimes or
They
were.
didn't
want
bridled at
some
of the
new
even slower.
the infernal Yankees.
many tion,
a fierce
"I
still
The
night,
Civil
Among them
house lawyers. gets
you
preconceptions of
hicks.
Accents got
shared their grandfathers' contempt of
War was
not over yet, and there was slavery, reconstruc-
Captain Fellers would do a bed check before
Run and Gettysburg
find the battle of Bull
over again.
like
battles of the war.
wrote his parents. "They
them
Some
dumb
but mostly good-natured debate about
and the key
Each
be disciplined
city boys'
the Southerners in the 29th Division as thicker, drawls
to
24
It is
sit
around and smoke
going on," Fellers
their pipes
and
are diplomats, statesmen, politicians,
really interesting just to listen.
back from pass and
description you would
lights out.
starts telling
about a
fight
it all
and guard
And when one
girl
of
he met, from his
wonder how Heddy Lamar and Lana Turner ever
got so popular." 25
Before turning Fellers
in,
one of
A
Company's four lieutenants
would censor the men's mail
to
be sent
to
or Captain
America the following
77
"29, Let's Go!"
day.
The rhyming
ings fascinated Fellers.
"Those boys
"And from the
local mail
the local lassies too."
As
to express their feel-
there," Fellers told his par-
that the
same
tactics
work with
26
became more involved with preparations
Fellers
lied
back
seems
it
used
have a technique on some of
really
their phraseology to the girls they left ents.
men
slang and private codes
for Overlord,
more than ever on Master Sergeant John Wilkes
to deal
he
re-
with prob-
lems of morale or discipline. Wilkes was particularly tough on replace-
ments who and to
enough
didn't adapt quickly
strict regulations.
undermine the
A
bunch
Company As
to
rigid discipline
of rowdy, slack city kids were not going
he and Fellers had primed since Fort
fighting force
Meade. Wilkes had put on twenty pounds since leaving Virginia and when angry was so intimidating that one
huge
"wall" about to
ginia tobacco
fall
on him.
New Yorker
He
often
thought he looked
chewed
a potent
and on several occasions reminded new
stand to attention by spitting a large
wad between
brand of
arrivals
their legs.
like a
Vir-
how
to
Men quickly
learned to salute correctly with their heels firmly locked together.
One
morning, John Barnes woke up with a terrible pain in his jaw
Knowing Wilkes would make him
couldn't bear shaving in cold water.
shave, Barnes reported sick to another company's medical station.
desperate.
would be It
knew
really
I
couldn't
chewed
didn't take long for
out."
shaved every day!
From then
show up
to roll call
was
with stubble because
I
what Barnes had done.
to find out
for the last three weeks,"
Go back and
whose camp was known
to
he barked, "and
shave."
on, Barnes toed the line.
He
mild in comparison with the regimental fantry,
"I
27
Wilkes
had a skin infection
"I've I've
I
He
many
soon realized that Wilkes was
commander
in the
of the 116th In-
29th Division as "Colonel
Canham's Concentration Camp." 28 "The
officers in
Roy Stevens.
"I
had
England were scared a sore
on
my foot
to
death of Canham," recalled
one time from
all
the marching and
The Bedford Boys
78
I
had
you
go to
to
can't
shoe
off!'
aid so
first
wear
He must
if
wore
a proper shoe
men
on that
takes
it
and kept
thirty dollars
foot, you'll
the shoe.
men
him
like
to
'If
go barefooted. Take that
win
a
—he was
so
war." 29
returned from forty-eight-hour passes just a few minutes
perhaps having missed a
late,
Canham saw
a tennis shoe.
have been ashamed of himself sometimes
tough on the men. But
Even
I
in
camp
last train
from London, they were fined
month.
for a
Canham had
punishment, which led even Major General Gerhardt
decided on the
to
complain one
day that he was "too hard on the men."
"Goddamn commanding
it,"
Canham
replied, "this
I
the one
men
don't
mind
that thirty dollars but
thirty days." 30
they hate that 1
my regiment and am
it."
"You know," said Gerhardt, "the
The
is
16th's officers took their
cue from Canham, driving their
harder and harder that winter as the planned invasion got closer.
Company A now formed up ranks. If he
parade
will
saw
a sloppy
never march!"
for drill, Fellers
men
When
would prowl along the
uniform or stubble, he shouted
angrily: "This
31
Increasingly, soldiers vented their anxieties
and frustrations outside
camp. By 1944, there were outraged reports about GIs' heavy drinking
and boorishness throughout
she invited to her home: "Boys,
much
to drink
them
New
Lady Astor now
told the Virginians
you're out on the
town and have too
Britain. if
and any English people ask you where you are from
New
Jersey, or anyplace
but Virginia.
I
English people that Virginia boys don't drink and rough
it
York,
But Virginia boys did drink and many loved
to
rough
it
have told the up." 32 up.
"Most of
the boys never really drank before," recalled Roy Stevens. "The
knew how
down was
for
to drink.
We
didn't.
an hour and drink
a record!
We
drank
it
it,
They could but
down
if it
Tommy
take a bottle of beer and
lasted
tell
two minutes with
sit
us, that
in one." 33
Snake Eyes Carter and John Reynolds were among Company As heaviest "boozers." Both narrowly avoided being thrown in the lock-up for
drunken behavior. "Poor old Jackie [John Reynolds], he was
a real
79
"29, Let's Go!"
much one night he came back to the barracks and peed in John Clifton's bed. He was like a lot of those boys. Most of them didn't have much chance here wild guy," recalled a Bedford contemporary.
in
"He drank
so
Bedford but they were good-looking, and over there they put that uni-
form on and they were something." 34
Knowing in
their
Company A
"number would soon come
started to
"come
covered without a pass by
found himself
in
up," other "good-time guys"
a cropper," as local landlords put
MPs
one
night, Dickie Overstreet
Dis-
it.
suddenly
charge of a flamethrower, arguably the most dangerous
job in the infantry. 35 Sergeant Jack Powers, one of the finest soldiers in
Company
AWOL. Although Company A after his
A, also got busted, apparently for going
pleased to be back with his childhood friends in
29th Rangers had been disbanded, Powers was also dismayed that his
months of intensive
some spent with
training,
Scotland, had been in vain. For going sergeant's stripes,
same
making him
AWOL,
British
commandos
Fellers stripped
him
in
of his
had done the
a private first class. Fellers
Bedford Hoback for eating a sandwich without permission dur-
to
ing a march.
The demotion
didn't
seem
bother Bedford too much. In a
to
Mabel he expressed an ever more nonchalant view
his sister
was smoking
far too
much, but what the
going to enjoy himself
hell, life
happy?
I
too but
I
smoke too many, more than will die
happy with
In nearby Ivybridge, the
my it
who had
day,
not
and
let I
many
but so
them
die
cough much
out.
a battleground at
There was nothing
New
like a
week-
good
fight
replacements were advised
to
and bypass the town when they received
their
John Wilkes spent many Monday mornings disciplining
men
to the nearest city
pass.
why
kills
cigarettes." 36
to relieve bottled-up aggression.
first
pack each
town center was now
ends as drunken GIs slugged
head
a
He
life.
was short and he was
come what may: "Smoking never
people and they were going to die anyway. So
of
letter to
fallen afoul of
MPs
in Ivybridge
over the weekend.
Increasingly often, the fights in Ivybridge had to do with race. In
America, blacks were
still
segregated. But in Britain there
was no color
The Bedford Boys
80
divide.
many
Black soldiers were treated the same as white GIs,
Southerners. "The truck
company over
to the fury of
there was black," recalled
Lieutenant Ray Nance. 'They'd meet the outfit in the pubs, and the troublemakers would get to work. There was something going on pretty
much all the time with the black men." 37 What most upset many Southerners was the sight of English women dating black Americans. 'The men were not used to seeing that, and couldn't get used to
Nance
A
it,
though I'm sure they could
if
they had tried,"
said. 38
black lieutenant, Joseph O. Curtis, was also stationed in the area.
That March, he wrote know, the more
to a friend
back
see of the English, the
I
in segregated
more disgusted
America: "You I
become with
Americans. After the war, with the eager and enthusiastic support of every negro
who
will
have served in Europe,
send white Americans back ica."
shall start a
movement
England and bring the English
to
to
Amer-
39
In local pubs,
from the bat was
and
to
I
Company A
1st Division. like: horrific
Fellers's ranks.
of weeks.
If
be shipped
would be
One
ran into blacks but also weary veterans
They were and very
brutally honest
when asked what com-
short, especially for officers of
They could expect
to fight for
no more than a couple
they were lucky, they'd receive a "million dollar"
home
Nance's
wound and
as an invalid. The only other way back to Bedford
in a coffin.
day, as the 29ers
marched along
in perfect formation,
"29, Let's Go!," a 1st Division soldier shouted back:
be right behind
you!" 40
"England's
Own" were
so
"Go ahead
goddamned
chanting 29, we'll eager, so
naively gung-ho, and so well-disciplined they even kept their chin straps
buckled.
7
Slapton Sands
THE COUNTDOWN
TO THE
March 1944. Company As boat teams and the exercises the thirty
men
real thing finally
became
serious.
1
From now
train, eat,
60mm
The teams included two
officers, a
man machine gun
men responsible for and four men armed with
for
blowing holes
harmony
four-man
crew, five
obstacles, five riflemen,
in wire.
to "assault
head by neutralizing
until
and sleep
D-Day,
together.
mortar crew, a fourdemolition of beach
Bangalore torpedoes
Everything they did was focused on working in
enemy beaches and be all
in early
four platoons were reorganized into six
each boat team would
in
began
able to establish a beach-
obstacles and pillboxes." 2
Suddenly, the Bedford boys found themselves with very specific roles that they
would perfect on the moors and
sault training centers
at a specially built series of as-
(ACTs) around Woolacombe and Braunton on the
south coast. Buck privates as well as General Gerhardt praised these cilities as
superb.
Ray Stevens, Roys brother, led thought to be the most accurate
He was
fa-
a
man
so proficient, in fact, that he
mortar squad and was widely in the
company with
was placed
in
the
60mm.
charge of training the
company's other squads.
John Schenk, Company As communications sergeant, was now sponsible for making sure that the six boat teams walkie-talkie radios
and that the
men
operating
enormous pressure. Far shorter than Captain
all
had operational
them could do Fellers,
re-
so under
Schenk would
scurry after his captain on maneuvers relaying orders to each of the
The Bedford Boys
82
teams. "Tail Feather" Fellers darted around with a sprinter's pace,
prompting some Bedford boys Fellers
"Long Legs."
enough
or exited
When
to
the Bedford boys did not form up quickly
mock-up landing
goddamned
slow, too slow, too
we
"Several times
left
nickname Schenk "Duck Legs" and
craft clumsily, Fellers
would bark
"too
go on a
full
slow!" 3
our headquarters
at Ivybridge to
dry-run operation," recalled John Barnes, a rifleman in Roy Stevens's boat team. "This would involve marching to the railroad station near the
assembly point.
village or a truck
through Ivybridge, railway tracks.
up
lining
like
its
We
left
houses dark and people
often thought at the time,
I
sheep off
forced us to obey
no further? Was
camp
why
to the slaughter that
when our
silent,
did
and marched
up the
we
go?
.
.
hill to .
the
Were we
we knew was ahead? What
heads, our hearts, and our feet wanted to go
the fear of military discipline?
it
at night
Was
it
patriotism, love
and country?" 4
of flag
The
trains
and trucks took the Bedford boys
Weymouth. Then
the
men would walk
to a sealed
in their boat
camp
near
teams up gangways
onto a British troopship, the Empire Javelin, to be ferried to Slapton Sands.
An
area designated on England's south coast since 1943 for prac-
ticing large-scale
beaches
in
amphibious
assaults, Slapton
Sands resembled several
Normandy: gently sloping stretches
of sand
and shingle
flanked by a five-foot-deep salt marsh. Several miles out at sea, in pitch blackness, the Bedford boys would
crawl
down
LCVPs
cargo nets flung over the ship's side and step into bucking
(landing craft, vehicle and personnel), which would take
Slapton Sands.
The
Eisenhower, would boats, with
Allied
all
later credit these craft,
winning the war.
commonly known
allow a fast
even
in
The
and could carry up
into
combat
boats were thirty-six feet long and
made from plywood with
exit,
as Higgins
5
other crafts combined.
ten feet wide,
to
Supreme Commander, General Dwight D.
Over 20,000 Higgins boats would carry more Americans than
them
a
metal ramp that lowered to
to thirty-six
men
quickly to shore
rough seas. Highly moveable and powered by a very reliable
Slapton Sands
diesel motor, the Higgins boats only defect
was
that
83
shipped water
it
heavy seas, causing acute seasickness. The
and bounced around
in
British equivalent, the
LCA
(landing craft assault) was produced in far
fewer numbers, but had benches to
sit
down on and some
protection
from the elements.
Over
several weeks,
Company A
refined their landing techniques on
two-day exercises and tried
to
now
barbed wire blown by Bangalore torpedoes.
as they crawled through
keep their nerve: Bullets flew overhead
"The beauty of the Bangalore was that they blew aprons of barbed wire
men
by exploding sideways and not towards the wire," recalled rifleman
enabled us
The men
to
blow
Hal Baumgarten of boat team number
They
fired at targets.
smoke was used caused too
it
dug
confusion and would not be employed on
sumed
in the beach, in all
and then
firing
D-Day, thereby providing crucial protection. Mines had
and then carefully uncovered with bayonets.
Dummy
When
real to
it
was
beach on
be scouted
positions stormed
homes emptied
Wilkes's boat team. Fifty years
Roach was
later,
in
he would
Master Sergeant John
vividly recall the proce-
dure for storming a beach:
As the boat would land
at the
tenant would be the
one
riflemen
who would be
pedo people and wire
beach, the ramp was dropped. The
by four or
five
by Bangalore
tor-
off the boat, usually, followed
in a position to fan out, followed
cutters, then the flame thrower
lieu-
and
his assistant,
then the demolition team which carried pole charges of TNT, then sec-
ond
in
command,
in
[my
of
before.
Assistant flamethrower George
first
as-
the beach had been se-
cured, the Bedford boys had to climb bluffs and seize
months
—
itself.
blown
into craters,
beach exercises that craters would pepper the
British residents only
D-Day
from awkward positions
and concrete pillboxes blown with TNT.
first,
was decided that the smoke
Machine-gun operators practiced jumping down or
'They
tested different forms of grenades. At
to provide cover but then
much
six.
of barbed wire rapidly" 6
many rows
a path through
barbed
in front of the
boat], Sergeant Wilkes.
.
.
.
The Bangalore
tor-
The Bedford Boys
84
pedo people would run up
where the barbed wire was, throw
to
charge across the barbed wire, explode follow on and
from
us,
fire at
it
so that the riflemen could then
the pillbox which was usually situated at a distance
and then the flame thrower would
activate his flame thrower at
come up and
the embrasure and then the pole charge people would their
TNT packages
against the embrasure
and blow
a hole in
it.
down
very quick you had to stay
The U.S. army allowed
alistic
to
Company
bruised egos
some
elite
realized
keep your head." 8
to
among
SS combat
Hitler's
most
A, there were minor injuries
"loss of lives
when Bedford boy Andrew Coleman
and
casualties,
on Slapton Sands.
— sprained
until
ritu-
fanatical followers.
in every fullscale rehearsal
—but no serious casualty
units, the al-
masochism attended the
Hal Baumgarten, there was
which were hushed up," In
In
to 15 percent: a cathartic
preparations for killing
According
low as you could
percent casualties in training, far less than
for 5
Germans and Russians.
lowance was 10
as
lay
7
"Man, Slapton Sands was tough," recalled Roy Stevens. "You
the
a pole
ankles, cuts,
and
one particularly cold day
collapsed with
pneumonia
aggra-
vated by the cold and wet conditions.
Coleman had grown up
in a lovely old two-story
home on Grove
Street in the heart of Bedford, the son of a widely respected carpenter.
Perpetual pain had cast a long shadow over his
life:
For most of his
youth, Coleman's mother had been severely crippled with arthritis. "She lay in
bed
in a
room downstairs,"
recalled Sibyle Kieth
wife of one of Andrew's nephews. "She couldn't
any of her
fingers, hands.
She had
In the hospital in England, Bright's disease,
The
which made
move her arms, her
terrible pain."
legs,
9
Coleman developed
his
Coleman, the
a kidney complaint,
"whole body and stomach swell up." 10
infection rapidly developed into chronic nephritis
which causes
progressive, incurable kidney damage. In the days before dialysis
and
kidney transplants, patients could expect only a slow and agonizing death.
Coleman was soon
the end of April 1944.
11
so
ill
that he
was shipped back
to
America by
Slapton Sands
85
Boat teams practiced over and over until the assault procedure went like
clockwork.
If
teams couldn't get
it
they were taken out onto
right,
the moors where they trained until Captain Fellers was satisfied.
Sunday
drizzly
March
in late
when
nique for blowing up a pillbox
package into the
was
pillbox's slit
perhaps because of a faulty or
The death stunned killed
team was
a boat
the
man
killed; the
damp
by an explosion. "Seeing that [man
"They
all
seen
[to pieces]."
you
it,
see.
we were
And
his
a
trying to perfect the tech-
assigned to lobbing a
TNT
TNT
exploded in his face,
fuse.
the Bedford boys.
anything else the whole time
On
No
one had yet seen
man
a
boys more than
die] hurt those
in training," recalled
Roy Stevens.
body was mangled, blown pretty well
12
Even on practice invasion runs, John Schenk found time each night at
10 P.M. to stop and think about Ivylyn. Back in Bedford, she was
struggling to recover from headaches
On March
nightmares.
mare, "I
God had
she had
17,
this violent
exchanged sentences with God.
my husband
gether.
John and
when he came By
April,
seemed on form
I
wrote
back."
I
headache," explained Ivylyn. I
would probably be
said to
him
that
also
Would they kill?
speculated as to where and
some
on edge. Tempers
Men
World War
are carried out."
15
I
was had
he could lives to-
flared. Officers
wondered how they would
per-
would they
find
disgrace themselves or
fire for
when
the
first
time.
Over and
over,
said,
they
they would finally gamble with death.
of the Bedford boys read Liberty magazine's bold
prediction: "There will be no needless loss of in
didn't think
There was no way of knowing, veterans
they would behave under
Army
I
"It
a widow.
the time to each other about having children
all
particularly short fuses.
April,
In the night-
13
14
Company A was
in actual battle.
That
woken up screaming.
provoked by
because we had not had our children and our
the courage to fight and
how
partial paralysis
John would not come back.
told her
was awakened with
the beginning of understanding that
take
and
II if
life in
the
the orders and plans of our High
American
Command
— The Bedford Boys
86
But the experience of American troops
from reassuring. At Anzio, the Germans had contained the
far
Allies effec-
preventing them from reaching Rome, and causing demoralizing
tively,
casualties as they
Monte Cassino, bogged down
bombarded trapped troops
the Allies had also
met
in a battle of attrition that
Normandy
belly" as Churchill
had predicted
in
—
far
mountainous spine did not augur well on French
threatened to
from
I.
it.
slog
for the Allies
and become
become
was no
Italy
The
week. At
after
as bloody
"soft
under-
up the country's
once they had
ar-
soldiers able to
impose severe casu-
they fought defensive actions in Italy and on the Eastern
where the Russians had
Front,
week
soil.
The Germans were formidable alties as
for
fierce resistance
World War
as those fought in
rived
was
in Italy that spring
1944 attack. But they were
far inferior to the Allies in
tary intelligence. In order to
summer
yet to launch their massive
maximize
matters of mili-
this critical advantage,
Over-
lord's
planners set up Operation Fortitude, a plan to convince the Ger-
mans
that the Overlord forces
were double
and that
their actual size
the invasion would take place on the Pas de Calais far from the Cotentin peninsula. Fortitude created
phantom
divisions, a British Fourth
Army preparing to invade Norway, and a U.S. First Army Group, commanded by General George S. Patton, that was poised to land on the Pas de Calais any day. Run by an ultra-secret intelligence committee, "The Twenty Committee" (so-named after the Roman numerals XX double cross), Operation Fortitude was arguably the most successful of
all
after
preparations for Overlord.
D-Day they
still
It
so convinced the
Germans
that even
believed that the main Allied attack would be in
the region of the Pas de Calais.
On had
April 13, Sergeant
told
"Looks
him
like
that
Raymond Hoback wrote
who
most of Bedford's young men had now been drafted:
they will get
all
we come back. Well, the 26, Company A performed
the boys before
army won't hurt them much." its final
to his parents,
16
On
April
dry-run invasion on Slapton Sands, Operation Fox, sailing on
the troopship Empire Javelin from
Weymouth and
landing at
dawn
in
87
Slapton Sands
British-built in
LCAs. The boat teams worked
in perfect
barbed wire were quickly blown, the beach
men
were no casualties. The
for the real thing.
enough
be the
cially
to
exits secured,
Company A had proved
29ers to land in France.
hard and competed to be the
Nance. "We had
tried to
pride and honor.
And
it
and there
returned to their barracks confident and
keyed up
first
harmony. Gaps
first
on the beach," recalled Ray
be the best in training.
We
worked.
was good
it
"We had worked espeIt
were chosen
was
to
a
matter or
be the
first to
land." 17
Many
29ers believed they deserved, simply by virtue of having
spent so long in England, to be
first in line to
invade Europe. They
had trained longer and harder than any other American
division. Al-
though they had never seen combat, they were tough, risk-taking, and aggressive troops. General
Gerow and General
Gerhardt's training
regimes had given the Bedford boys great stamina and a proud, almost cocky, confidence.
Time and
again, British officers
American buck
private
was not
would
concede that while the
later
Tommy
good as the
as
in saluting
other barrack-room discipline, he was often more gung-ho.
were paid three times
as
much, had been reared with
and
The Yanks
a "can-do" atti-
tude, and were supplied by a vast industrial capacity. But the crucial dif-
ference lay in memory.
bloodbaths of World che. There ticians
—
The Somme, Paschendaele, and other
War
I
had
was no enthusiasm
a generation
left
scars
in the direct line of fire of
British psy-
among
British tac-
and then walk across
German machine
guns.
had charged towards death during the
three generations ago.
on the
had been culled between 1914 and 1918 due
callous orders to "go over the top,"
cestors
permanent
for full frontal assaults
horrific
Company A had
war or the resentment of senior
No Mans Land
The Bedford
Civil
to
War
boys' an-
but that was
not grown up with a loathing of
officers that
had resulted from the mas-
sacre of Britain's youth.
Their lack of combat experience actually increased their confidence,
some
historians have argued.
It
was
to the Allies'
advantage that so
many
The Bedford Boys
88
men had
not seen combat; young
men who
are far less likely to rush headlong towards
have seen the horror of war Naivete can perhaps be a
it.
powerful weapon. Only one of the eleven American divisions in Britain before
—the
D-Day
The Bedford
1st Division
boys' senior
lieved the troops
longed
firefight
But
figured,
vital to
in the last
among many
The boys
resistance.
didn't
—they beneed
because they did not envision
to
be
a pro-
senior
success in such a risky operation as Over-
weeks before D-Day confidence evaporated
American generals and
their self-assurance to slip
disasters of
little
also confident
on the beaches.
Confidence was lord.
commanders were
would meet
combat veterans, they
—had seen combat.
World War
II.
officers.
What caused
was witnessing one of the greatest
Near Slapton Sands,
in
military
one night of mis-
communication, panic, and organizational chaos during an invasion dress rehearsal,
beaches. terrible
Many
more Americans died on survivors
all
but one of the Overlord
and witnesses viewed the catastrophe
as a
omen.
On April
27, 1944, barely twenty-four hours after the Bedford boys
had
practiced their Omaha-invasion scenario by storming Slapton Sands for the final time, Operation Tiger sion
—began
—an invasion
after dark. Twenty-five
rehearsal for the 4th Divi-
thousand
men were due
to land
on
Slapton Sands, which had been prepared to resemble Utah Beach in
Normandy Three hundred
Navy providing an
British Royal
any German
because the
had been and the
thirty-seven ships were involved, with the escort and protection from attack from
The men needed
craft patrolling the channel. 4th's previous exercise
"far
on Slapton Sands, "Exercise
men who
Lyme
Beaver,''
from successful: co-ordination between units broke down took part remember
it
mainly for the confusion." 18
Shortly after midnight on April 28, nine into
the practice
Bay, close to Slapton Sands.
German
torpedo boats
moved
Lured by heavier than normal
radio traffic, the E-boats suddenly found themselves in the midst of
eration Tiger.
Op-
89
Slapton Sands
German havoc
E-boats, "Schnellboote," were designed to wreak
in the channel.
A
hundred
feet long,
maximum
armed with two torpedoes
and powered by 6000-horsepower Daimler Benz engines, painted black for nighttime
camouflage, able to attack
knots, the boats also carried two tracer bullets that
up
lit
far
from
20mm
at a
maximum speed
40
of
cannons, which fired green
their source to prevent Allied vessels
from quickly identifying their position. The rehearsals slow moving
LSTs
(landing ship tanks) were no match.
Because of widespread confusion among the British escorts, that night the E-boats were able to get close enough to the Tiger convoy
(codenamed T-4)
to
launch their torpedoes. Warnings had been issued
about the Germans' presence but no preventative action taken. The
was an unmitigated
sult
One LST was trapping many of the
disaster.
other burst into flames,
seriously crippled.
re-
An-
victims below deck.
A
sank immediately, sending hundreds of U.S. 4th Division soldiers
third
to their deaths.
As bodies washed ashore along England's South Coast
in the days
the official death count rose to 749. Quartermaster soldiers on
after,
LST 531 were among the hardest hit. The 3206th Quartermaster Service Company was virtually destroyed. Of its 251 officers and men,
board
201 were killed or wounded.
Navy Medical Corpsman Arthur
U.S.
LST
Victor survived the sinking of
507, which had been 'packed with about 500 soldiers
ous [vehicles], jeeps, trucks other, top
.
.
deck and tank deck.
.
.
.
.
amphibi-
loaded from one end of the ship to the
We
were
a floating arsenal." 19
Like hundreds of other survivors, Victor would spend the night clinging to a
By
also I
life raft
been swallowing
started puking.
good fall
as his
countrymen slipped
3 A.M., the channel waters
it
felt
away
I
by hypothermia.
into death
were "almost unbearably
cold. ...
had
water that made me nauseous, and my pants to feel the warm. remember how my thighs." 20 Victor watched buddy after buddy
pissed
pouring over
I
into the black waters, unable to struggle on. Soon,
half of those
I
oily tasting salt
who had
clung to the
life raft
after
more than
507 sank were dead.
The Bedford Boys
90
man
After three hours in the water, a
ships engine. Another LST, 5
1
LCVPs
lowered three
5
by Andrew Higgins wards
to
He had
Victor.
Number
515, had
come
to the rescue.
a
The
and one of the boats designed
into the water
storm enemy beaches quickly made
way
its
to-
held a fellow survivor's hand most of the night but
man
now, only minutes from rescue, the
came
ludicrous thought
shouted that he could hear
to
mind
that
I
gave up.
"I
was so mad
could have killed [him]."
that the 21
Julian Perkin, a British warrant officer candidate, arrived off Slapton
Sands aboard appalling.
HMS
Obedient near daybreak on April 28: "The sight was
There were hundreds of bodies of American servicemen,
full battle gear, floating in
heads blown
off.
.
.
.
the sea.
Many had
their limbs
literally
scooping up bodies.
The dead were buried
wounded were
It
was
craft with their
a ghastly sight!" 22
were
told to
word
anyone before the invasion. "We
to
keep our mouths shut and taken
to a
camp where we were
quarantined," recalled 4th Division infantryman Eugene Carney.
we went through two
for
the mess line
example,
29,
we
"When
weren't even allowed to talk to the
we wanted two
fingers. If three, three
On April
The
segregated for days from other troops and, according to
survivors, told not to say a
If,
ramps
graveyards around England.
in military
some
cooks.
their
Those the doctor pronounced dead were pushed
back into the sea [where] small American landing
down were
and even
in
potatoes,
we were
told to hold
up
fingers." 23
corpsman Arthur Victor joined other
survivors
who were
taken to a "dilapidated barracks, under guard, for three days, and ordered, under threat of court martial, not to discuss the incident with
anyone outside our immediate group." 24
On
the evening of April 29, General Eisenhower wrote to General
George C. Marshall, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of ton.
The
disaster
meant
Overlord's success.
"We
that the Allies
Staff, in
Washing-
had no reserves of LSTs,
are stretched to the limit in the
LST
vital to
category,"
wrote a concerned Eisenhower, "while the implications of the attack and the possibility of both raiders and bombers concentrating on
major ports make one scratch his head." 25
some
of our
Slapton Sands
More worrying
to
Eisenhower than the communications
91
failure that
had exacerbated the disaster was the 4th Division's woeful performance
once
had actually landed on Slapton Sands. Harry Butcher, Eisen-
it
hower's aide, was, like his boss, deeply troubled by "the absence of
toughness and alertness of the young American officers
They seem
this trip.
to regard
happy time.
are having a
war
They
as
whom
one grand maneuver
saw on
I
which they
in
are as green as growing corn.
.
.
We
.
should have a more experienced division for the assault than the 4th
which has never been vision that
in a fight in this war." 26
was not green, the
the joint operation to seize
and due
1st Division,
the 29th Division's inexperience,
it
Omaha
But there was only one
had been slated
the
knowledge,
Germans
survivors,
it
concerns about
to join the 29ers in
Beach.
Secrecy about the Slapton Sands disaster was crucial.
mon
to
became com-
If it
would have an irreparable impact on morale and
to Overlord. Yet despite the
rumors spread
fast
di-
through
many
gag order imposed on
alert
many
Some were
officers' quarters.
so shocked by the scale of the botch-up that they began to question their roles in Overlord. officer,
some
The
Taylor Fellers,
survivors
area for the
1
tragedy also affected
who may have heard about
were temporarily housed
16th Infantry. "He was
all
at
it
could have been us guys.
We
hands.
It
"It
when he
A
well: "It
me
told
upset him a whole
about
lot.
He
had done exactly what they had
made
us even more
had these young men's
lives in
our
deeply affected us." 27
Officers
pany
We
commanding
the disaster because
done, only two days before them. [Operation Tiger]
aware of our responsibilities.
A's
Blandford, near the holding
excited
the disaster," recalled Lieutenant Nance. said
Company
Nance and
about the
Fellers did not say a
disaster.
According
to
would have given us something
ready had a
lot
So did the
had happened
on our
word
to
anyone
Roy Stevens, else to
else in
this
was
worry about.
.
.
.
Com-
just as
We
al-
mind." 28
Allies' senior intelligence officers.
to the officers involved in
What, they wondered,
Operation Tiger
who knew
the
The Bedford Boys
92
details of Overlord? Staff headquarters for
a panic.
"There was a whole day
when
it
General Montgomery was
was seriously contemplated
ing to alter the [D-Day] operation because of the knowledge
enemy must now be presumed most everything we
to
have
—the
in
try-
which the
detailed knowledge of
al-
planned." 29
But over the following days the bodies of every intelligence officer
were found, even though hundreds of other corpses were never recovered.
It
was "one of those amazing miracles which characterize
Overlord was intelligence In
still
know
a secret,
it
war." 30
seemed. But only on D-Day would Allied
for sure.
Company A, one
thing was certain: Captain Fellers had changed.
Before Operation Tiger, he had been infectiously confident and assured.
Now
he was
full
of doubt.
self-
8
The Sausages
ON May
At LAST,
^Jl trucks
1944,
18,
and were driven
to
the Bedford boys climbed into
containment camps
in preparation for
Operation Overlord. The camps were called "sausages" because they
were located alongside roads and actually resembled sausages on maps.
By D-Day they would contain over two million men, the
greatest gather-
ing of personnel in the history of war.
The Bedford
boys' "sausage"
was code-named D-l and located ten
miles north of Dorchester, a half-hour truck drive from the English
Channel.
"Its tents
contained the entire
recalled Hal Baumgarten.
the
camp
.
.
A
"Company
1st Battalion,
was
116th Infantry,"
in the northeast corner of
Foxholes were dug in the calcified English earth. There
.
were outhouses with collecting ularly burned,
pails.
and shipped away
The
collected excretions were reg-
for fertilizer.
The
acrid odor of the
smoke was very unpleasant." At the southwest corner of D-l stood an old English ancestral home, Doulish.
The Bedford boys were now way out would be on
a truck
sealed off from the outside world.
bound
for
Weymouth where
board the Empire Javelin and then cross to France.
sued
to
anyone
for
The
only
the boys would
No passes would be
any reason. "Sentries were posted everywhere
to
is-
keep
us from escaping," recalled John Barnes. Barbed wire curled along high
perimeter fences, giving D-l the look of a
At
first,
the
men were
kept busy with
POW enclosure.
final kit preparations.
Every square
inch of their uniforms had to be gas-proofed, waterproofed, and then cam-
93
The Bedford Boys
94
ouflaged. That done, they sat for hours, speaking
thoughts, writing letters to loved ones.
many
Overlord but
little,
They could not
own
nursing their
write a
word about
hinted in letters that they were about to see action.
Captain Fellers ordered his
be especially attentive when cen-
officers to
soring the men's mail. John Barnes remembered that 'any attempt to pass
on news of the upcoming invasion was censored by cutting out the
Any
fending words.
deleted. I'm sure our letters looked "It
was
tenant
with
my turn
Nance
illegible
more
like
to read the boys' letters
recalled.
"Once,
I
came
words repeated over and
over.
It
for."
my
wife
LOVE YOU
knows what
it
1
censor them," Lieu-
across a suspicious-looking
letter,
some kind
looked
like
Nance
called the private
the letter into his office. "This doesn't
said. "Well, I
ribbons than anything else."
home and
code, which we'd been warned to look out
who wrote
of-
any person, place, or thing was
slight reference to
make
sense,"
of
Nance
means," said the private.
were the only words the private had almost learned
to
write. 2
Earl Parker wrote as often as he had promised, at least once a week,
never failing to
tell
Viola about the latest "flick" on base, as the Brits
He had seen around England. He asked called films.
kept the boys
his first castle in Scotland
about Danny,
name because she thought
now it
and other
sites
over a year old. Viola had
would make Earl happy.
Dickie Abbott had always written "cheerful letters" to his grandmother.
He
hadn't realized
When
England.
farm with Uncle all
down
in the
how much he
he came home, he wrote, Jerry."
But
in his
"I
and help you and bring you
tle
Dickie
is
On May
"I
most recent
would letter,
like to
he was
work on the
"sad, blue
and
dumps." 3 His grandmother wrote back expressing so many
other grandparents' hopes:
each dear child
loved her and his parents until he got to
pray our Dear Lord to be with you, protect
safely
in the service of
the prayer of
home. God
bless
and be with you, and
our country. Dear God, be with dear
Grandmother and
24 Raymond Hoback wrote
all
the folks back home."
to his parents.
lit-
4
He had been
in
the hospital with severe nosebleeds, a medical condition that ran in the family, it.
and had consequently been offered
Nothing was going
to separate
him from
a discharge but his brother
and
had refused friends. 5
The Sausages
John Schenk asked Ivylyn then added: "Only God, a now."
6
He hoped
had turned
hair
That sion
spring,
send him
to
lot of
Schenk had
also a
when
had the opportunity
commission
home
sent from
canned ham and chicken. Ray
and
a belt,
me
she saw him: His
to avoid the inva-
in a different outfit.
—candy, good cookies,
tried to get
home, and he wanted
"Ray
recalled Ivylyn Schenk. "They
second lieutenant]. But John thought
a lot longer to get
and
luck and a deep foxhole can help
Nance and John [Schenk] were buddies,"
we
billfold
7
— he had been offered
[as a
new
she would not be disappointed
gray.
shared packages
a
95
John it
to take the
fruitcake,
commission
would mean he would take
to stay
with the Bedford men." 8
Company A would have felt tantamount to desertion. On May 27, Sergeant Grant Yopp celebrated his twenty-first birthday. Two days later, Captain Taylor Fellers assured his family all was well and that as "soon as we take Hitler, we'll be back." He was looking forward Leaving
to his thirtieth birthday
Back
on June
in Bedford, several
wives shared news from the boys over coffee in
Some joked
Green's drugstore.
10. 9
that
Company A had an
official letter
who mimicked each man's handwriting and repeated the same message. Many had read a poem their men had sent in letters as a jibe
writer
against the censors:
Can't write a thing
The censor
to
blame
Just say I'm well
And
sign
my name
Can't say where we're going
Don't
know where
we'll land
Couldn't inform you
met by a band. 10
If
In their letters from
were
America
just as careful as their
men
to the
men
in
Company
A, the wives
about what they wrote. The U.S. Gov-
The Bedford Boys
96
ernment's Office of
War
Information had warned citizens in the "interior
men
zone" not to unsettle the
possible. "Dear John" letters,
even marriage, could send
announcing the end of
men
market
many
drafting of
as positive as
a relationship or
over the edge.
The news from Bedford was mixed. for black
They should be
overseas.
Several
men had been
prosecuted
There was widespread concern about the
activities.
fathers in Bedford that
signs that severe shortages might be
March. But there were
coming
an end.
to
On May
also
3,
the
Office of Price Administration in Washington ended meat rationing ex-
cept for choice cuts of beef.
May
often the most beguiling
is
month
Evenings are
in Bedford.
scented with jasmine, the Peaks of Otter blaze with rhododendrons, the days are mild without too
and
early
He had
summer was
much
humidity. Ivylyn
John's favorite time, as with any keen gardener.
planted white pines around his parents'
a windbreak,
plants were
Schenk knew spring
and Ivylyn often wrote describing flourishing. Despite a drought she
home before the war as how the trees and other and other
"victory" gar-
deners were confident of eventually producing even more food than the year before.
President Roosevelt had urged Americans to cultivate plots wherever
home
they could and by 1944 "practically every
ground"
in
with even a small plot of
Bedford had a victory garden. In a report
to the
Common-
wealth of Virginia Conservation Commission, Bedford native Mrs.
George Parker noted that "experience has taught [townspeople] what plant,
how
to cultivate
it,
and how best
While vegetable patches sprang up had battled
to stay solvent.
to save their 'truck.'" all
over town, Bedford's farmers
By summer 1944, finding
local
and harvest crops was nearly impossible. The previous
POWs
had been trucked into the county
at
worked
came from
the foot of the Peaks of Otter, where Earl
in the thirties. In early 1944, the
camp had
conscientious objectors, more than half of them of Brethren, Mennonites, or Quakers.
Of
men fall,
to plant
German
and other
to pick apples
crops. But the largest pool of "captive labor"
camp
to
11
the old
fruit
CCC
Newcomb had
started to
members
house 153
of the
Church
over ten million American
97
The Sausages
men
World War
drafted in
approximately 43,000 became conscien-
II,
tious objectors, three times the total in
World War
nority Six thousand were sent to prison but
grams
News cals.
one
like the
the
at
CCC
camp
I,
but
most ended up
in
work
of the arrival of conscientious objectors had incensed
Bedford Bulletin, and several Clippings had found their
to
men based
many
men
lo-
in the
the newspapers editor.
vitriolic letters to
way
pro-
in Bedford.
There had been a paid advertisement denouncing these
soldiers,
a tiny mi-
still
in
England.
Two Bedford
Lloyd Ayers and Jesse Jones, wrote from their base ''somewhere "[We] hate to think we're fighting for these fellows, who,
in England:"
able-bodied and perhaps in perfect condition, (except in mind) are
shunning what a
come we can
really true
return home.
my part.'
American must endure so going to be a great day
It's
we can
say 'did
foot of
good old Peaks of Otter." 12
that in years to
when
it's
over and
Don't forget the yellow flag pointing toward the
Bedford native Rebecca Lockard, a perky eighteen-year-old, worked in a "five
and dime"
objectors.
store in Bedford that
was popular with many of the
"They would come into the store and be seen elsewhere
around town," she recalled. "They weren't thought of that you didn't want
objectors.
who worked
as
maid
Men
in
mind
were scarce around here. There was
a girl
town who even married one and had
By May 1944, the Bedford boys were not the only absent two thousand
men from
also in service, roughly
placing
many
men where
Over
County were Mrs. George
one
in every fifteen inhabitants.
reached their places of work. in
sons.
14
—not
a drop to be
have doubled up, shared rides, walked
though
a child." 13
the town and surrounding Bedford
Parker noted: "Gasoline scarce
close,
and
didn't
with them, but some
to associate
them being
women
highly,
No
when
had
at times.
possible,
industrial plants have
instances labor shortage
is
acute.
Workers
and somehow been forced
Women
to
are re-
possible." 15
Every week, there was news of another Bedford man's death overseas.
The Bedford
Bulletin
bands
in this
war inevitably resent comments that the casualties are only
a fraction of
what some extravagantly pessimistic people predicted they
commented: "Those who have
lost
sons or hus-
98
The Bedford Boys
would
be. In the
dier, or
den of
homes
been darkened by the death of
that have
a sol-
have welcomed back the shattered remnants of youth, the burwar's tragedy
have been worse."
16
is little
lightened by the reassurance that
By May 1944, gold
it
might
death of a
stars signifying the
son were displayed in two dozen Bedford homes. By wars end, there
would be another hundred had
window."
a star in its
—
so
many
that
it
"seemed
as
every house
if
17
Despite the death notices appearing in the Bulletin every few days, boys
volunteered, eager to serve.
still
also joining the 15,
women's wings of the armed
twenty-seven
who had
And by
women were named on
joined up. "They would
cated,
.
.
.
Most had
similar
and certainly unprepared."
an incomplete
and
backgrounds
Bond
would go
many bond
after
ment appeals
—untraveled, unsophisti-
18
and collections
drives,
Bedford "responds conscientiously
—war bonds, scrap metals, waste
Bedford people
to
at local
of
to all govern-
paper, fats, etc." 19
American prisoners had
white heat, and has helped to boost the Fourth
auction sale of bonds which brought more than local
ominously:
News
"infuriated
Loan Drive which was launched January 29 by the Lions Club
One
high.
still
Parker proudly informed the state authorities that
inhuman treatment
of Japan's
in mili-
precedents. Whatever people could spare, they
all
effort.
of locals
the courthouse," re-
off they
drives continued to be well supported,
gave to the war
On April
list
Mrs. George Parker also noted that the town's morale was
churches exceeded
were
girls
services in droves.
rally in front of
called Bettie Wilkes, "say their goodbyes, tary buses.
1944, Bedford
War
in
an
$50,000." 20
campaign, funded by several Bedford businesses, asked
"How many
of our boys from Bedford won't
come back? No-
body knows the exact number. Nobody. But the number who do come
—on
back
their
own two
feet instead of in a flag-draped
exact proportion to the job
we do
here
at
home."
box
—
will
be
in
21
Several Bedford wives suspected their husbands were about to be in-
volved in an imminent invasion of France.
ported on the possibility every day.
The
When
radio
and newspapers
re-
not at factories, they spent
evenings trying to stay busy, knitting, canning goods, and preparing care
99
The Sausages
men
packages for their
—anything
to
keep them from worrying
an
for
hour or two.
Each Tuesday, Bedford library
Bettie Wilkes joined other wives in the
bandages
to roll
wounded
for
basement of the
There was some-
soldiers.
thing of a competitive element to the work, with ambitious targets
The
set.
wrapping was sometimes interrupted by air raid sirens, sending fam-
ilies to
basements and reminding them
their
windows.
Many
A bell
to pull
rang at 9 P.M. to warn children of the wartime curfew.
of the wives, reported Mrs. Parker,
'parental
homes
conservation of
helping haul
blackout curtains over
or doubled fuel." 22
wood
up
for
had returned
companionship, convenience, and
More than
ever they relied on each other,
each others' homes, sharing rides
to
driven buggies, which had
made
a
comeback because
to
in horse-
of gas rationing,
caring for children while friends worked at Rubatex or
Looms, pooling resources
to their
Hampton
send Bedford boys special care packages
for their birthdays.
Like other wives, twenty-year-old Viola Parker tried to stress the positive in
her
letters,
although
life
was increasingly hard without
Earl,
what
with trying to get by and support Danny. By day, she worked on her parents' farm,
where she and Danny were
hood bedroom, Danny
in a small crib in
living.
an adjoining room. Every night
that May, Viola drifted off to sleep with the to her ear. After a
The
dial
was
few
restless hours, she
set to a station in
Viola slept in her child-
low whisper of a radio close
would wake up and lean
closer.
Washington, D.C., that was usually
first
with breaking news. 23
When
they weren't writing letters and watching movies at
camp D-l
,
the
Bedford boys relieved their tension through physical exercise and games of baseball
and tackle
threw curve
balls at
at college.
football.
Frank Draper
and Elmere Wright
Jr.
Hal Baumgarten, who had been a
''Whenever we had spare time,
I
pitched to me," Baumgarten said. "Wright was ble sponge in the glove.
He was
first-rate
catcher
put a glove on and they fast.
I
had
to
put a dou-
big too, about six foot three, and he had
a large, prominent nose like the guy in the cartoon
— Dick
Tracy." 24
The Bedford Boys
100
John Barnes recalled playing a game organized by Jack Powers, the Ranger, that was meant to
confidence in one other.
instill
"We were
When my turn
the line.
came,
my
the line and landed straight on
A
few days
now
I
down without
my
Company
down
flew in one bounce over out." 25
containment camp, section Sergeant
charge of two squads of machine gunners, pracboy, Sergeant Robert
Goode,
A. "The aim was for the other guy to take you
We
using a weapon.
ankle,"
I
was knocked
unarmed combat with another Bedford
a jeep driver in
ing
in
so light that
head.
after arriving in the
Allen Huddleston, ticed
was
I
put
to
our trust in our buddies by leaping upon their open arms and bounce
ex-
Huddleston
both went
He would
said. 26
down and
sit
fell
badly, break-
out the invasion.
Close by the famous Life photographer, Robert Capa, entered a simi-
containment camp, or "sausage." Capa had volunteered
lar
first
wave with the
"we were
1st
Divisions 16th Infantry. Before long, he recalled,
suffering from the strange sickness
all
Being amphibious troops had only one meaning
happy
in the
to land in the
water before
known
we would be
for us:
we could be unhappy on
as 'amphibia.'
the shore.
.
.
.
There
were different degrees of 'amphibia' and those who were scheduled the
first to
reach the beach had
it
"Amphibia" affected everyone having seemingly off
steam
as
if
made
their
threw a
clip of
differently.
M-l
Some men became
fate.
they were at high school again. 1
One
incident caused a few
16th Infantry's 1st Battalion.
all
them up
his tent.
on edge.
"On May
Company B of the from Company A to Company B
in training in
was transferred
1
28
20,
16th Into bring
John Barnes was
sur-
when Second Lieutenant Edward Gearing came
into
to strength," recalled
prised one morning
set
last-minute changes to boat teams.
men were blown up I
Someone
directions. Fortu-
no one was injured, but many men's nerves were
fantry [and]
serene,
.30-caliber bullets into a burning barrel. Bedford boys
There were many sixteen
be
Others regressed, letting
ran for cover as the bullets exploded, ricocheting in nately,
to
worst." 27
peace with
minutes of panic throughout the
un-
Gearing asked Barnes
sistant to his flamethrower.
Hal Baumgarten.
to join his boat
team.
He needed
"Do you have any objections
an
as-
to using this
The Sausages
weapon?" Gearing asked. Barnes said he'd he managed
to light the fuel spitting
some
the jet in the direction of
ford boys Harold Wilkes, Charles
Stevens, Gearings second in
Bob Slaughter had spent mandos
"We
ing:
movies
new
Fizer,
They were quickly
boat
team. 29
He
ablaze.
They included Bed-
Clyde Powers, and Sergeant Roy
command. several
months
ate the best food,"
go to the range and
ball, cards,
a go. In a nearby field,
training with British
com-
Highlands. Conditions in the "sausages" were a
in the Scottish
pleasant surprise.
it
from the flamethrower and pointed
haystacks.
then met the other members of his
give
101
fire all
—good
For breakfast you could
recalled. "[It was] easy
the ammunition you wanted
liv-
play foot-
to,
The Red Cross women were
times.
tell
he
there, too.
them how you wanted your bacon, and
of
course they had powdered eggs, and flapjacks or whatever. They gave us
lemon meringue
pie.
We
hadn't seen that since the States." 30
The "good times" ended when
company comman-
the 1st Battalion's
ders were called to a briefing on their specific role in Overlord. talion's
four companies, plus a
company
of Rangers,
The
bat-
would land on "Dog
Green," one of eight sectors of a beach codenamed Omaha, somewhere across the channel.
Omaha was far the
one of
five
beaches targeted by the Allies
most heavily defended. In
a sixty-one-mile front.
beaches
all,
five divisions of
The Americans would
and Sword beaches
Day, "Operation Neptune," detailing
inches thick. Essentially, vehicles onto ships that ness. This force
waves forty
seize the
after
it
to the east. all
but the
D-Day, and by
men would
— Utah and Omaha— and the Canadians
seize Gold, Juno,
for
land on
westernmost
and British would
The
overall plan for
air assault,
entailed loading 185,000
D-
was three
men and 20,000
would cross the channel under cover of dark-
would then be landed on the beaches
H-Hour, scheduled
for
in successive
6:30 A.M. on the American beaches,
minutes after sunrise.
Before the landing craft headed for the beaches, an airborne force of
20,000 would
arrive over "drop zones" inland in a
thousand transport
The Bedford Boys
102
planes and gliders. These paratroops would secure
German
tions,
vital
communica-
defensive installations, junctions, and other objectives,
thereby aiding the rapid establishment of a beachhead. Before Allied troops actually stormed the Calvados coastline, a massive
bombardment would
soften beach defenses.
throughout the 29th Division that
made
ever
just prior to
an assault.
B-24 bombers would drop 1,285
It
was widely believed
would be the heaviest bombing
this
On Omaha,
tons of
from H-30
bombs on
to
H-5, 280
thirteen target zones
Germans' beach defenses. Many
that covered every strongpoint in the
generals believed that the Allies' superiority in air power
—the Luftwaffe
—would be the
decisive advan-
had been tage of
May 1944
crushed by
D-Day
Naval
The
largely
would begin
fire
forty
minutes before touchdown on Omaha.
battleships Arkansas and Texas
would
fire
from 18,000 yards
shore; from a tenth of that distance, eight destroyers
rounds also
German
at
open
off
would throw 2,000
defensive installations. Various smaller ships would
few minutes before H-Hour.
fire until just a
When
the
first
wave of troops was three hundred yards from Omaha, nine LCTs armed with rocket-launchers would
fire
any of the defenders, thought
man 716th
wave. The
the coalition
it
basically a
protected
it
DD
tanks of the 743rd
DD
fire
from the water's edge
for the
tank was an Anglo-American development that,
like
symbolized, had strengths and weaknesses. Designed to
from a
it
Sherman tank
"skirt,''
"floating''
would swim ashore, having been launched 6,000 yards
use a propeller to power
ters
If
resistance.
minutes before H-Hour,
Battalion
canvas
Germans.
be inexperienced elements of the Ger-
out to sea, and then provide covering first
at the
invaders would also be aided by specially designed amphibious
vehicles. Five
Tank
thousand rockets
Division, were capable of action after this firestorm, they
would surely not put up much
The
to
a
fitted
LST
[landing ship tank], the
DD was
with special exhaust vents and a bulky
pneumatically raised, which covered most of the tank and
from the
but tended to
seas.
swamp
The
tanks were highly effective in calm wa-
with potentially
fatal results in
heavy seas.
103
The Sausages
It
would not be machines, however, but men who would determine
success or failure on D-Day.
On Omaha,
by Major General Clarence R. Huebner, would land
to the east of
Ger-
29th Division. During D-Day, the 29th Division's 115th and
hardt's 1
commanded
the 1st Division,
16th Regiments would be under
sumed command
of
Huebner s
them on the day
of specially trained Rangers
control until Gerhardt re-
after the landings.
would attack
a series of
Two companies
cliffs,
Point du Hoc,
Omaha Beach. The Americans would, meanwhile, land companies of 200 men in waves of seven boats on each of eight sectors. Company A would land on Dog Green first and spearhead the 116th Infantry's ground assault. Colonel Charles Canham would command these "Stonewallers" on the beach. marking the
far
The Bedford tide
—
western limit of
boys'
first
a journey of five
With covering
challenge would be to cross
at
low
hundred yards dotted with defensive obstacles.
provided by sixteen
fire
Dog Green
DD tanks,
the Bedford boys would
engage the German defenders concentrated in emplacements and a concrete pillbox at the
time, they
mouth
of a crucial
would provide covering
Special Engineer Task Force
fenses to allow
The
crucial
Once
sur Mer.
LSTs
draw codenamed D-l At the same .
fire for
who would
to deposit
demolition experts from the
clear lanes through
thousands more
D-l draw led up 150-foot bluffs the Bedford boys had secured
it,
men and
Mer,
six
aided by the other com-
was
to
And
so,
If
won
liberate
eight miles away. it
to
succeed, the Bedford boys
that the Allies
were coming and had prepared ac-
Overlord succeeded, their eventual defeat was inevitable.
given the enormity of the threat, Hitler turned to his most
liant general, the
be
inland, taking
overcome formidable obstacles.
The Germans knew cordingly
town of Isigny
a hugely ambitious plan. For
would have
move
hundred yards from the beach, and then
their final objective, the It
vehicles.
to the village of Vierville
panies in the 1st Battalion and Rangers, they would Vierville sur
beach de-
or lost
maverick "Desert Fox"
— Erwin Rommel. "The war
on the beaches," Rommel had declared upon
bril-
will
first visiting
the beaches in January 1944. "We'll have only one chance to stop the
The Bedford Boys
104
enemy and first
that's
while he's in the water, struggling to get ashore.
twenty-four hours of the invasion will be decisive.
Germany,
as well as
will
it
be the longest
and
Intelligence reports
day."
Normandy
it,
and covered by water
Huge
A
coastline.
to stop
walls, thickets of
For the Allies,
Rommel
waist-high stake with a mine attached to
iron crosses covered with limpet
beaches
.
lethal obstacles along the
high tide, was Rommel's
at
.
31
photographs made clear that
aerial
had ordered the placement of ingenious and entire
.
The
own
invention.
mines were scattered across
amphibious vehicles and tanks. Tank
traps, defensive
barbed wire, and acres of minefields were also spread
along the entire coastline from Brittany to the Pas de Calais and beyond.
On Omaha, with the
the most heavily defended sections of the beach bristled
range of
full
German mines,
traps,
and obstacles. Because the
only clear exits from the beach, other than by infiltrating up steep bluffs,
were four gully, or
gullies, these areas
Germans had
draw, the
manned by
were the most heavily
men who
seventy
at least
up
set
fortified.
At each
Stutzpunkt (strongpoint)
a
operated
MG-42 machine
guns,
mortars, and armor-piercing howitzers.
The most formidable Stutzpunkt was designated as D-l, overlooking
would land tralize
H-Hour.
at
was
continuous
a
It
combat
tactics that
ammunition rifle,
its
MG-42 machine gun
the
neunests
could provide an arc of line.
in
times faster than any American equivalent, was to maintain,
many German
for the
fire
more Americans than any other weapon
kill
fired three
the Bedford boys
bombing and DD-tank
along three hundred yards of water
fire
more durable and easy
issue
vital that
panoramic view of Dog Green and
The MG-42 would Normandy.
base of the Vierville draw,
Dog Green, where
the D-l Stutzpunkt and especially
which had
far
It
at the
MG-42
and was so essential
riflemen were loaded
to
German
down with
extra
rather than for their slow-firing standard
Mauser Karabiner 98k, which was
bolt-action, unlike the
superior American M-l.
The Bedford boys could trigger
fire
and then slam a new
the
M-l
clip of eight
as fast as they could pull the
rounds into the gun
in just a
The Sausages
few seconds. But that the
in
combat, they would soon
realize,
105
wouldn't matter
it
gun allowed them greater firepower than any German rifleman.
In a firefight against
German squads armed with MG-42s,
armed only with the M-l would be cut
a rifle platoon
to ribbons.
During their briefing by 29th Division intelligence experts, Captain including Lieutenant Ray Nance, examined a
Fellers
and other
officers,
model
replica of
Omaha Beach
built to scale
and
up on
set
a so-called
"sand table." They were not told the date of the invasion. Nor were they
where
told
Omaha was
the channel."
The
Normandy, "only
in
that
it
was
briefing deeply troubled Fellers.
According
to
called
them where they were
what they were going
going,
pany commander, Taylor
and deny that beach normally talked Fellers
me
Fellers, told
to
do
to
later that
etc.,
he
told
my com-
said, 'Colonel
and get on that
cliff
any infantry group/ And he wasn't a fellow
who
can take one Browning automatic
I
Nance: "When the
and the battalion commander
company commanders were
[Canham],
France across
in
32
like that, [but] later
he
said,
rifle
'Ray we'll
all
be
killed!"' 33
and other skeptics were assured that inexperienced troops of
the
German 716th
ing
would quickly decimate these inept defenders and destroy pillboxes
Division were holding
and other obstacles. Others were things on the beach ... tleships
it
would be
would blow everything
Omaha.
Besides, heavy
told that "there a piece of
off the
map
—
would be no
cake" 34
bomb-
living
and that "the bat-
pillboxes, artillery, mortars,
and the barbed wire entanglements. Everything would be blasted smithereens
—
a pushover."
to
35
Several of the 29th Division's most senior officers shared Fellers's reservations. Brigadier General
tant
Cota, the 29th Division's assis-
commander, would lead the Blue and Gray
had studied
in great
believed that
The
Norman
assault
on Omaha.
He
depth various amphibious landing plans and firmly
bombing the beach, even
best time to attack, he argued,
in daylight,
was
at night
would be
when
the
not see and surprise could be maximized. "The beach
is
ineffective.
enemy could going to be
The Bedford Boys
106
fouled-up in any case," insisted Cota. "Darkness will not substantially alter the
—not enough
percentage of accuracy in breaching
to offset the
handicaps of a daylight assault." 36 Cota's views were ignored. After the officers had been briefed, platoon leaders were assembled
and
Roy Stevens studied the sand
their roles outlined in detail.
with the replica of
Omaha
table
memorizing every contour,
for a long time,
every possible place for cover, and particularly the Germans' defensive positions. Stevens noted that at
yards of
flat
low
sand between the water and the
knew how
training, Stevens
long
were some three hundred
tide there
it
cover, a sea wall.
first
would take
a fully loaded GI, with
over sixty pounds on his back, to sprint to the sea wall
but an eternity
if
he was constantly under
bombed, creating protective pecially
if
DD
From
But
fire.
—about
a
minute
the beach was
if
might not be so tough,
craters, the going
es-
tanks led the advance and the pillboxes and machine gun
nests dotting the flanks of the
draw had been bombed
effectively.
Stevens listened carefully as an intelligence officer pointed to a
"promenade" road that ran
parallel to the
beach and then sloped steeply
towards Vierville sur Mer. Before the road
left
the beach at the D-l
draw, there was an old house just to the east. This would be the
The
jective for Stevens's boat section.
briefing over, Stevens
men and explained what lay ahead. "I what we were facing. We were really going his
all right.
That was
Company
B's
for sure."
Bob
many
some
fire,
his
same pubs and tramping around
Sales asked about the threat of har-
company commander, Captain
pacosta, replied: "Don't you worry about that.
and
air force will
take care of
"They also told
all that."
us," recalled
had
to
be dug
The
naval
Bob Slaughter to
of
bombardment
Company
D, "that
be twenty-two strong
one or two of them would be manned.
in real well
Ettore Zap-
38
where we were landing, there was going points, but only
Company
after
of the Bedford boys after eighteen
of the
When
moors and parade grounds. rowing machine gun
them
do something now
would land sixteen minutes
Sales
of drinking in
to
tell
37
A. By now, he recognized
months
have
ob-
assembled
wasn't too keen to to
first
because there would be
a
.
.
.
Then we
counterattack
af-
"We were poor but we
know
it." The Powers family in 1928; oldest brother and above Jack. To sister Eloise's right is Archie Russell. Clyde, Billy, and Jack would all experience combat. One would be killed on D-Day; one would endure a brutal POW camp; and the other would be severely
Clyde stands
didn't
to the left of Billy
shell-shocked. Eloise Rogers.
!
"We were
so young!" Left to right: Billy
Parker, Pride Wingfield, at
m^B ^mmm
•
^W ^PUPf Wi^WRm
and Earl Parker
Wingfields childhood home, where he
this day. Earl Parker would be on D-Day. Wingfield transferred to the Army Air Force in 1943 and was at home in Bedford on D-Day. Rebecca and lives
to
killed
m
'
„,„
Pride Wingfield.
m'
~'~
%%%
.
Mm
*
"Who
said eat?"
The Schenks run to suphome in Bedford. John
per outside their
Schenk
"--,
is
to the far right beside his
bride Ivvlvn. /it/vh Hardy.
young
I
he wrong side of the tracks. Frank Draper
Jr. s
childhood
home was
only yards from
the Norfolk and Western railway line in Bedford. Draper collected coal from passing trains to keep his family
warm
during the Depression. Warren Draper.
The Bedford Fireman's Band, 1940. sister of
Company A
leader at center.
Bedford
in
Sixteen-year-old clarinet player Eloise Powers
brothers Clyde and Jack Powers
The band played when
February 1941. Eloise Rogers.
—
stands to the
left
of the
band
the Bedford boys were mobilized and
left
most respects, safe and carefree." Master Sergeant John young bride Bettie near a waterfall in Bedford County, summer
"A time to be envied in
Wilkes with
his
1941. Bettie Wilkes Hooper.
m Top
left:
Harold Edward Wilkes, one of the fortunate few to return home. Eloise Rogers.
Top
right:
Frank Draper Jr., superb athlete and even better soldier. Warren Draper.
Above:
Glenwood "Dickie"
who would be
Overstreet,
badly
wounded
on D-Day, one of the most sociable and popular Bedford boys. Beulah Witt.
.'."I-
Right:
Dickie Overstreet, center, with family shortly before shipping out.
Beulah Witt.
-*
Clyde Powers and Jack Powers on furlough in edford,
summer
1941.
Eloisc Rogers.
Bedford boys
at
camp
A.
P.
Hill in Virginia, 1941
ter of front row. Pride Wingfield.
.
karl Parker
combs
his hair at cen-
"He was
all
Fellers, the
soldier."
Captain Taylor N.
Bedford boys' hometown com-
mander. Bertie Woodford.
"We shared
everything." Sergeants
and Virginia Historical Association.
Roy and Ray Stevens, twin
brothers.
Roy Stevens
"Exact opposites." Brothers
Omaha
Raymond and Bedford Hoback. Both would be
killed
on
Beach. Lucille Hoback Boggess and Virginia Historical Association.
Left: Leslie Abbott, the first of the
come home
Bedford boys
to
Company As
best dice player. U.S. Army.
in a casket.
Army. Right: Wallace "Snake Eyes" Carter,
U.S.
Left:
John Clifton, Company As "Casanova" who had Cherokee Indian ancestors.
U.S. Army. Right: Charles Fizer survived
D-Day
only to die a few days later in the hedgerows of
Normandy. U.S. Army.
Left:
Nicholas Gillaspie, the mild-mannered Southern gentleman. U.S. Army.
Right:
"He
just liked the dirt."
White. U.S. Army.
Quiet and deeply religious farmboy Gordon Henry
Left:
Andrew Coleman, the
first
Bedford boy casualty. U.S. Army.
Right:
Clifton Lee, fiercely patriotic and thought to have died beside several of his friends
within minutes of landing on
Earl
Parker,
among
the
Mary Daniel
the only father
Bedford Heilig.
boys.
Omaha
Beach. U.S. Army.
Above: Earl Parker on
maneuvers
in
North Carolina
a
few months before Pearl Harbor.
Pride Wingfield.
Below:
Company B from Lynchburg, just after the at Fort
Bob
Bedford boys
The boys from this company would land second wave on Omaha Beach. Picture taken
Virginia.
in the
Meade, February 1941. Seventeen-year-old Bob Sales kneels
Sales.
at front.
Top left: Ace poker player and Company Newcomb. Top
right:
A
mess sergeant Earl Newcomb. Elva
Robert "Tony" Marsico, one of the few
came home. Laura
who landed on Omaha and then
Burnette.
hi
iRM
H ?,/,!..
"He had
the prettiest dimples."
Weldon
Rosazza, one of the Bedford boys
enjoyed great
women.
success
Ellen Quarles.
with
who
English
who played for the undefeated "116 Yankees" in 1943. London, summer 1943. Left to right: Elmere Wright, Tony Marsico, Pride Wingfield, Frank Draper Jr. Pride Wingfield.
"1
16 Yankees." Bedford boys
Photograph taken
in
E.T.O. World Series Baseball Champions, 1943. Victorious "116 Yankees" players
with uniformed Colonel Charles
Canham,
center.
Middle row:
right
to
Bedford boys Draper, Wright, Marsico. Three of the team would die on
Beach
in a
matter of months. Bettie Wilkes Hooper.
left
Omaha
Lieutenant
Ray Nance,
the only surviving officer
who landed on D-Day with Company A. Ray Nance.
Company As
officers a few weeks before D-Day. Left to right: Lieutenant Ray Nance, Lieutenant Edward Clearing, Lieutenant John Clements, and First Sergeant John Wilkes. Ray Nance.
Left:
John Wilkes and John Schenk in England before D-Day. Ivylyn Hardy.
Below:
"Who
says England doesn't
get snow?" John Schenk, far right,
and friends standing
outside their barracks, winter
1942-43. Ivylyn
Hunk
Pride Wingfield and John Schenk
in
[vybridge,
England,
summer
1943. Ivylyn
Hani).
"We on a
really
right,
were overpaid, oversexed and over there." Dickie Overstreet, in uniform "gals," a Company A buddy, and English children outside
with two English
swimming
pool,
summer
1943. Beulah Witt.
The Sausages
107
terwards that
the
armor,
we had to be worried about. We would have to use and the German Panzers would try to drive us back into
the
sea." 39
But the counterattack would
Company A
Victory was not in doubt.
fail.
Murphy Scott recalled being told he would be in week and then Company A would be shipped back to the
Paris in a
rifleman
states to train other units. 40
Among America's most senior generals, there was no such optimism. General Omar N. Bradley, commander of American forces on D-Day, recalled that "Overlord represented both [Hitlers] greatest danger
and
greatest opportunity. If the Overlord forces could be repulsed
trounced decisively on the beaches, Hitler knew time indeed before the Allies tried again
might yet
—
if
it
ever.
would be .
.
.
his
and
a very long
The Third Reich
41
prevail.
Bradley's superior, General
was "seething with the
Eisenhower
—
overall Allied
commander
gravity of the invasion," according to a recent bi-
ographer, Carlo D'Este. "His health again deteriorated from a plethora of
As D-Day neared
ailments. ... a day." 42
At the end of
April,
V
smoking had increased
his
packs
to four
Corps commander General Gerow had
written to Eisenhower outlining serious reservations about cooperation
between the
on the beaches. Eisenhower rebuked Gerow, an old
stacles
his skepticism.
simply
Gerow
replied that he
was not being "pessimistic" but
Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was also
telling a senior
Pentagon
John
official,
had "Turkey on our
liked to have
J.
side, the
General
Sir
Danube under
in
Normandy
in
best
it
Staff,
it
may
British
had faced
Only hours before H-Hour he wrote
he was "very uneasy about the whole operation. At the
will fall so very very far short of the expectation of the
people, namely
worst
The
1940 before the British Expeditionary
Force's narrow escape at Dunkirk. in his diary that
threat as well
[Overlord]." 44
Alan Brooke, chief of the Imperial General
Germans
of doubts,
full
McCloy, that he would have
Norway cleaned up before we undertook
the
friend, for
"realistic." 43
Britain's
as
and American assault troops and defensive ob-
British navy
all
those
who know
nothing about
bulk of the
its difficulties.
well be the most ghastly disaster of the whole
At the
war!" 45
The Bedford Boys
108
It
was
essential that the 29th Division
and other invading Allied armies
have complete confidence in Overlord even not.
And
May
so in late
if
some
of
its
architects did
every general of standing with the invasion
forces appeared at various "sausages" to rally the troops. "In the final
we embarked,"
days before
recalled Bradley,
"I
made
a point of visiting
as many American units as I could, both to allay the growing rumors that we would suffer heavy casualties and to give the men some final words
of encouragement." 46
On May
29th Division's
16th Infantry.
1
wooden platform on single
camp holding
30, Bradley visited the D-l containment
a
Some 3,500 men
windswept
the
stood around a small
Bradley spoke slowly into a
hillside.
microphone. "You should consider yourselves lucky," he con-
show on
cluded. "You are going to have ringside seats for the greatest earth." 47
Baumgarten stood
Private Hal
helmets shined with
band played.
I
wear mine.
My
going to drown
When Roy
my head new
including best
was
buddy
told
shaved.
Finally,
A
me
$10,000
whom
left
life
their
it
altered for a closer
didn't
Hal,
it
it
it's
was too
—
fit
a deci-
Bedford boy, Stevens
insurance policy. Frank Draper
at the time,"
Canham
weapons and
to
kit for
recalled lining
"We were
where we were going
they
wear
a lot of I
Jr.
made
a fiancee, Nellie
he wished he had married before leaving for England.
a large whetstone.
Colonel
'don't
mother even though back home he had
Thomas Valance
was called
not to
—
bitterly regret. Like every other
men checked
Private
Division
had been given
Stevens tried on his assault jacket, he found
also issued a
McKinney,
We
"Our
you.'" 48
would soon
his out to his
talk.
assault jackets for D-Day.
loose around his shoulders so he had sion he
pep
Our bayonets gleamed. The 29th
oil.
had had
new equipment,
listening to the final
he
also issued said.
spend
up
to
the last time.
Company
sharpen his bayonet on
some French
francs, script
it
"There was no explanation exactly
49 it."
ordered that a message be read to
the containment camp: "There
is
all
the
men
one certain way
before
to get the
109
The Sausages
War is not child's play and requires hatred of the enemy At this time we don't have it. hope you will get it when you see your friends wounded and killed. Learn to take care of yourself from the start. Remember the Hun is a crafty, intelligent enemy
out of action and that
is
to kill
him.
I
and
fighter
have any mercy on you. Don't have
will not
each one of you Happy Landing and come off those hell."
it
on him.
...
To
craft fighting like
50
At a meeting of
man Cota
warned: "This
you've had so
far.
General Nor-
his staff officers, a cautious Brigadier
.
.
.
is
The
different air
from any of the other exercises that
and naval bombardment and the
support are reassuring. But you're going to find confusion.
on schedule and people are going
craft aren't going in
wrong
place.
Some
won't be landed at
all.
to
The enemy
The landing
be landed will
try,
have some success, in preventing our gaining a lodgement. But
June
2,
Company A was
in the
and
will
we must
51
improvise, carry on, not lose our heads.
On
artillery
camp
ordered to break
the following
morning. To their dismay, the Bedford boys learned that Captain Fellers
was
lying in a cot
on the second
converted for military use
at
the southwest corner of their
had a bad sinus infection and would not be Morale plunged. That fusely,
home "sausage." He
floor of Doulish, the ancestral
fit
to lead
them on D-Day.
had trouble sleeping. Sweating pro-
night, Fellers
with a bright rash on his face from the infection, he
a matter of hours
Bedford's sons to
At some point
that in
Master Sergeant Wilkes would order thirty-four of
fall in
and then board trucks bound
for a
in the night, Fellers struggled to his feet.
ficer tried to get
knew
him
to
channel
port.
A medical
of-
go to a military hospital. Instead, Fellers dis-
charged himself and returned to his company. "He'd been with those
men
a long time
wanted
to see
the sick bay.
and trained with them," explained
it all
He
the
way through."
too got to his feet
52
his sister, Bertie.
Grant Yopp was also
and returned
to
the advice of medical personnel. According to Yopp's
some kind
of respiratory illness.
he went AWOL and rejoined
why
did he do that?'
When
laid
Company A sister:
"He
up
in
against
"[Grant] had
he heard about the boys leaving,
his buddies. I've always thought: 'Oh, gosh,
He just wanted
to
be with his buddies." 53
The Bedford Boys
110
Company As mess ford boys George
busy
sergeant Earl
checking that
Company A were
to feed
Newcomb was
the mess.
in order. Fellers
—he should not have gone."
54
to go in [with the
to those boys,
I'll
Roy Stevens morning:
suddenly appeared in
his appearance:
"He looked
so
Fellers confide in a fellow officer: "I
Bedford men].
If
don't
I
and something happens
never be able to go back to Bedford again." 55
recalled seeing Fellers appear before the
our
"It really lifted
Fellers said, "I've trained you.
Company A
frantically
As Newcomb prepared Company As
meal on dry land, he overheard
want
Bed-
his cooks,
the equipment and supplies
all
shocked by
sick
final
two of
Crouch and Cedric Broughman, had been
for several hours,
needed
Newcomb and
spirits. I'll
We
men
early that
had our leader back again." 56
die with you too
if it
comes
to that." 57
loaded into trucks and then joined a huge convoy trundling
south towards the sea. "Hedges that lined the narrow, winding roads were
green and fragrant," reported the Baltimore News-Post. "Gorse splotched the broad and rolling moors with gold.
From
the tops of
hills,
patches of farms spread in kin-folk shades of brown and green." In
towns and
villages,
olive gray trucks
crowds soon formed, lining the road as the drab
sped along with
MPs
Children were held up for soldiers waiting to
move
irregular 58
directing traffic at every junction.
to kiss
closer to the coast. Every
when
the trucks dawdled,
few miles, the
men gaped
at
huge stockpiles of weapons, trucks, explosives, and endless rows of jeeps
and
artillery
They were
part of an invasion force so vast
it
had
filled
most of southern England with troops and supplies. Thirty-nine sions
were leaving the crowded "sausages." Over 175,000
involved with Overlord on
D-Day Standing by were
1 1
divi-
men would
be
,000 planes other
than strategic bombers, and 6,939 boats were assembled along the coast
—the
greatest invasion
Company A side.
finally arrived in
Again, Colonel
in history. 59
armada
Weymouth and formed up on
Canham prowled
Company A marched
towards
its
the dock-
the wharves, barking orders.
troopship, the
Empire Javelin.
"Are you ready, men?" asked General Gerhardt, as he stood watching
on the dockside. "Yes,
sir,
general!" replied Bedford
Hoback. "We're sure ready" 60
9
The Empire
COMPANY A Javelin.
Javelin
HMS
FILED UP THE gangway of the
From
the main
deck, British
Empire
Sub-Lieutenant Jimmy Green
watched
as the Bedford boys and their fellow Stonewallers of the
Infantry
came
ing craft that
hours.
1
aboard.
in
Company A was scheduled
Green and other "the Suicide
somehow
to land at
—the men under
sacrificial. 'Actually,
we
Fellers looked so
—"H-Hour."
young and
naive,
we were
all
quite proud of
2
Green had already met Captain
Fellers during
maneuvers near Slap-
ton Sands. Their conversations had been brief and mostly limited to gistics
and landing procedures. As the Empire Javelin now prepared
leave harbor "It
was
on June
4,
Green and
Fellers's first action.
He
Fellers got to
told
me
fire
over their heads to give
need
they'd
all
above his men.
It
that Fellers
to
were National Guard,
fire.
He
asked
if
I
could
got near the beach, and
them moving
would ask him
said
forward." 3
to place covering fire
betrayed a lack of confidence. During exercises,
had been composed and
friendly, if a little too serious for the
"He regarded us navy chaps
as rather lighthearted in our approach.
Fellers Brits.
when we
lo-
other better.
them some encouragement. He
the help they could get to get
Green was surprised
know each
his troops
and he was worried how they would react under put them ashore as quickly as possible then
A
also referred to ourselves as the sui-
cide wave," recalled Green, 'and to be honest
the label."
6:30 A.M.
had already dubbed Company
British naval officers
Wave"
16th
command of the flotilla of six landCompany A in Normandy in a matter of
Green was
would deposit
1
1
The Bedford Boys
12
Although we were serious and professional, we talked about Wrens and [soccer]
matches rather than what we were going
had changed since they had
son, Fellers eyes, Fellers
was
as
if
now seemed
to do."
met
last
For some rea-
in April. In Green's
very reserved and enormously burdened.
It
he "had a premonition of doom." 4
As the Bedford boys
Empire
settled into their berths aboard the
Javelin, at Allied
Headquarters General Eisenhower faced the most mo-
mentous choice
of his
wave action were predicted wrote
"Low
life.
clouds, high winds, and formidable
make landing
to
"The meteorologists said that
later.
ble, naval gunfire
would be
inefficient,
boats would be rendered difficult."
a
air
most hazardous
affair,"
he
support would be impossi-
and even the handling of small
5
Should Eisenhower order a postponement or proceed General Montgomery, who would
command
all
planned?
as
land forces in Nor-
mandy, said the invasion should go ahead. Eisenhower deliberated and then decided question
would have
it
now was whether
form and land
as
to
be postponed one
day, until
June
6.
The
the largest armada ever assembled could re-
planned within twenty-four hours?
Many
ships were
al-
ready in the Irish Sea, where gale forces had caused considerable prob-
lems and confusion. All Eisenhower could do was hope and pray that his staff
would be able
to reorganize in time. 6
That afternoon, Company
came
that the invasion
A
learned of Eisenhower's decision. "Word
had been changed from June
5," recalled
Robert Walker of the 116th's regimental headquarters
staff.
Captain
"We
heard, along with every kind of rumor imaginable, that in the U.S.
also
it
had
already been broadcast that the invasion had begun. There was surprisingly
little
reaction
Or maybe
to the situation.
The his
among
the troops, as it
eternal wait resumed.
was
just
if
everyone was already
because they were good
Roy Stevens
tried to stay busy,
the British food aboard
He
—too much
fish.
soldiers."'
sharpening
He
didn't like
So he bought plate
after plate
bayonet and dagger and visiting the Javelins canteen.
of cookies.
numb
shared some with his equally nervous brother and a
tery Earl Parker.
A young man who
jit-
had been an acrobat distracted them
Empire
The
113
Javelin
by walking down steps on his hands. "We knew somebody was going 'and
die," recalled Stevens,
At 9:30
P.M.,
wasn't going to be long."
it
RAF Group
to
8
Captain James Stagg, chief meteorological
for Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, stood just
officer
SHAEF
inside the entrance to the library at
headquarters, Southwick
House, near Portsmouth, England. Before him, the leaders and architects of Overlord settled into
"Gentlemen," Stagg
said,
couches and armchairs.
"some rapid and unexpected developments
have occurred over the North Atlantic. In particular a vigorous cold front ...
is
now and
approaching Portsmouth
areas tonight or early tomorrow.
proved weather from will
Monday
.
.
.
through
will pass
There
will
be
channel
all
a brief period of im-
afternoon. For most of the time the sky
then be not more than half covered with cloud and
not often be below two thousand to three thousand feet.
its
base should
Winds
will de-
crease substantially from what they are now. These conditions will last
over
Monday
night and into Tuesday."
Stagg answered several questions concerning relatively
good weather would
tions reliably
last
how
long the
window
of
and whether he could predict condi-
beyond the next three
to four days.
Air Chief Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory looked grave. "With the
cloud conditions Stagg has given us," he said, "there's certain to be culty getting markers
down
accurately,
and the bombing
diffi-
will therefore
suffer."
Eisenhower's deputy, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, also looked anxious. Air power, he believed, would win the war and
make
all
He and Mallory had fought hard to secure RAF Bomber Command and the United States
the difference on D-Day.
enough bombers from
Strategic Air Forces in Europe.
had threatened
It
was only
to resign that they
after their boss,
Eisenhower,
had been given the requisite planes
that April.
Tedder agreed with Leigh-Mallory:
and medium bombers
will
Eisenhower looked over
"Yes, the operations of the
probably be a at
bit chancy."
General Montgomery.
heavy
The Bedford Boys
114
"Do you see any reason why we should not go on Tuesday?" he "No," replied Montgomery without hesitation.
"I
asked.
go!" 9
would say
Late into the night the question of whether to launch Overlord or not
was debated. Just about 4:15 A.M. on June back and forth slowly
5,
Eisenhower again paced
another meeting of Overlord's top generals in
at
the library at Southwick House. "His head was slightly sunk on his chest, his
hands clasped behind
his back," recalled
neth Strong. "From time to time he stopped
head quickly and rapid question at
him
.
.
.
then resumed his walk."
sat
down
5
and
still
fired a
10
Eisenhower walked over
for five minutes,
launch the invasion. At
to a sofa
weighing whether or not
to
A.M. Eisenhower finally said: "OK, we'll go." 11
By mid-afternoon on the
Men
as
turned his
in his stride,
jerkily in the direction of those present
Montgomery looked impatient and then
Major General Ken-
Empire Javelin was heading out
5th, the
to sea.
gathered nervously on the ship's main deck to watch the vast armada
dotting the horizon. Typically, to ease the tension, Master Sergeant John
Wilkes joked that every landing in France.
back of
12
man
in
Company A would get
Hal Baumgarten made
his field jacket
he had painted a
his
the Bronze Star after
way
large Star of
to the bow.
David using
dard issue "Eversharp" blue ink pen. He'd etched "The Bronx,
around
it.
the
his stan-
New York"
At the bow, Baumgarten struck up a conversation with Morris
Saxtein, a balding, overweight forty-five-year-old fellow
who had just joined
"Why
On
the headquarters staff for
Jew from
New York
Company A.
are you here?" asked Baumgarten.
Saxtein puffed on a pipe. "All
want
I
is
one German
—whether you
morning
like
it
.
.
.
You, Hal, will be a hero tomorrow
or not." 13
Baumgarten would never see Saxtein Earl Parker stood at the "It
was
a
solemn
about what
again.
Empire Javelins
thing," recalled
rail
with the Stevens twins.
Roy Stevens. "We
we would do when we
sat
got back home."
14
around and talked Suddenly, Parker
pulled out a picture of his sixteen-month-old daughter, Danny. "If
could just see her once," Parker
said, "I
wouldn't mind dying."
15
I
Empire Javelin
The
It
was
evening with dusk beginning well past 10 P.M. Groups
a bright
of officers huddled, cracking siping, signing
But
showed
it
each in
115
Mark Twain
jokes about the weather, gos-
other's 100-franc notes, trying to control their fear.
many
of their eyes.
were of not being equal
to facing
They were
as afraid of death as they
it.
As the Empire Javelin and hundred of other ships crossed the English Channel, General Eisenhower visited Newbury for the 101st Airborne, the
American paratroops
airfield, a
launch area
"Screaming Eagles," who would be the
to land
behind enemy
first
lines in France, shortly after
midnight. Eisenhower was not expected. Taking his time, he wandered
among
haircuts, chutes, eral
and packs neatly stacked
He
at their sides.
asked sev-
where they came from. Texans, Missourians, Californians, and
many
others cheered as they heard their
men good
After wishing the
them board
and leave Newbury on
gliders
of a press release in case things
Our
state
named.
their
way
to the blackness of
in his eyes. In his wallet
went
was
a draft
wrong:
terribly
landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfac-
tory foothold this
home
Eisenhower stood and watched
luck,
occupied France. There were tears
and
I
have withdrawn the troops.
My
decision to attack at
time and place was based upon the best information available.
troops, the air
could do.
If
and the Navy did
times to consult
ine photographs of to the deck, they
clouding over.
At 11
P.M.,
all
that Bravery
and devotion
to
The duty
mine
alone.
16
Fellers visited the Javelins operations
room
sev-
any blame or fault attaches
Meanwhile, Captain eral
Mohican
the young men, their faces blacked up, hair shorn in
to the
attempt
maps etched with red and blue
Omaha
Beach.
When
it is
lines
he and other
and
to
exam-
officers returned
could not help but notice that the evening sky was
The wind was
rising.
darkness enveloped the Empire Javelin.
blowing. Every officer
now had
the
same concern
weather could destroy the invasion just as
it
A
gale
was now
as their generals
—bad
had destroyed the Spanish
The Bedford Boys
116
A strict blackout was
Armada.
imposed and smoking banned on deck
fear that even a lighted stub might alert
German
for
E-boats and the disas-
Slapton Sands would be repeated.
ter at
Below decks, the 116th Infantry attended Barnes went
to
what he thought would be
religious services.
John
was deeply
his last mass. "I
my parents' (especially my mother's) great prayer was that would grow up to become a priest. When graduated from
conscious that [their]
son
I
high school, religious night,
I
had
I
life.
was
It
thought
morrow, and
become
a
I
didn't think
disappointment
a great
would make
I
I'd
and especially
to tell her that
to her.
a bargain with
a priest.
Then
bad bargain, either
for
I
was cut out
I
God.
As
My
I
to follow
prayed that
life
spared
to-
thought that was a bad deal,
Him
or me, so
I
said I'd take
my
chances." 17
The
crossing got rougher as the night wore on.
Many men became
thought that John Schenk lay groaning in his
terribly seasick.
It is
bunk, clutching
a sick-bag,
when he dozens who had
courtesy of the British navy,
wasn't up on deck vomiting over the ship's
rail
with
also taken their standard issue seasickness pills. British sailors
working
the decks briskly reminded the green-gilled Yanks to puke "to leeward,
mate
— leeward!"
Hal Baumgarten was also feeling under the weather as he talked with
Company As
Private
Thomas
chussets. Mullins gave feine
— not
profusely
with
if
Mullins, a medic from Worcester, Massa-
him some "APCs"
realizing the aspirin
—Aspirin Phenacidin Caf-
would make Baumgarten bleed more
wounded. Mullins was one of two medics who would go
Company As
headquarters boat led by Lieutenant Nance. The
other was Cecil Breeden, a soft-spoken and unflappable
who
called Colorado
Wilkes had pointed
Company A: "Be
home.
at
18
During
training,
that
man from Iowa
Master Sergeant John
Mullins and Breeden and then told the rest of
nice to them! You
may need them one day" 19
At 4 A.M., the Bedford boys stood on deck ready
LCAs
in
hung over the
sides of the
to
climb into the British
Empire Javelin suspended from
The Empire Javelin
For a few moments, they stood in silence.
davits.
ever each silence
man was
some communal
thinking formed part of
was broken
as
seemed
It
an officer read Eisenhowers
final
1
1
that whatprayer.
The
words of en-
couragement over the Javelins public address system:
and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are
Soldiers, sailors
about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven
many months. The
these
eyes of the world are
march with you.
prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere
with our brave
allies
and brothers
bring about the destruction of the
in
upon you. The hopes and
arms on the other
German war machine,
of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe,
company
In
fronts,
you
will
the elimination
and security
for
in a free world. 20
ourselves
Company A went to its boat stations. Groups of thirty men were assigned to six boats. An additional seventeen men, including Lieutenant Ray Nance, went
to a
seventh boat that would land nineteen minutes
after the others with vital
numbers would go thanked
men
his
be careful. "This
Roy
communications equipment. Boats with even
in to the right of the
for their is it,"
Stevens's boat
spirits, tell
gether.
now
him
he added. "This
was number
agement he could
is
the real thing." 21
five of
the seven. His brother Rays
trying to spot his brother.
back
that now,
in
Bedford soon working their farm
more than
ever,
Ray needed
in the darkness,
Roy saw an obviously
in Roy's boat team.
gling nerves
all
his to-
the encour-
get.
distressed Jack Powers,
the powerfully built, normally unflappable ex-Ranger
Clyde was
He was
wish him good luck, slap him on the back, buoy
they'd be
Roy knew
Nearby
to
Fellers
hard work during training and asked them to
was number two. Roy looked around, desperate by
odd ones. Captain
whose brother
Roy was surprised by Jack's
had gotten the better of him: "He was
behavior. Jan-
just carrying on, all
nervous. Things were very tense. Everybody was ready to go, ready to do
something
at last." 22
Stevens looked around.
It
seemed
that the
men
fell
The Bedford Boys
118
into
two groups. Those who had already decided they were 'going
die,"
and those who hoped
make
"to
Roy suddenly stumbled
into his twin, Ray. All the other Bedford boys
were shaking hands, wishing each other
Ray stuck out
Roy refused
hand
his
for
Roy
luck.
to shake.
it.
shake your hand
"Ill
to
through." 23
it
in Vierville sur
Mer," he said, "up
at the cross-
roads above the beach, later this morning sometime."
Ray bowed
head and held out
his
Tm not gonna make Of later
.
.
Since first to
again.
refused to shake Rays hand. He'd do
still
after they'd crossed
Omaha
Beach.
Company A would
land on
Omaha Beach
first, its
at
same
the
level as the deck.
They
in their boat
row metal gangplank,
them
On command,
teams and simply walked across a nar-
a yard in length,
boats that would deliver
men were
did not have to climb
nets and ropes as later waves of troops would do.
men formed up
it
hung above the
leave the ship. Their British-made landing craft
choppy water,
the
hand
his
24
course he would. Roy
.
down
it."
and then clambered into the
most heavily defended beach
to the
in
history.
Twenty-year-old Second Lieutenant Edward Gearing and Roy Stevens stepped into their a
craft,
LCA
buzz cut but you never realized
member
of their boat crew.
ginia
and was the kind who
men,
25
a very
good
officer."
911. "Gearing was just a kid with
it,"
recalled John Barnes, a fellow
"He had been
to a military
just took charge,
The kind
was sympathetic
of officer thirty older
follow, possibly to their deaths. "[Gearing] didn't stand
what
to do," recalled
Roy Stevens. "He did
Roy directed the boat team
to
its
academy
it.
He was
to all the
men would
back and a
tell
positions. His buddy,
Clyde Powers,
men
down. Powers's uncle, Sergeant Harold Wilkes, lumbered aboard,
medical
kit
crammed with
a quarter
pound
of
you
leader." 26
took a position on one of the three rows of benches for the
sault jacket
in Vir-
TNT, K
rations,
to sit
his as-
and a
containing morphine. John Barnes went to the back of the
The
Empire Javelin
1 1
boat and took his seat beside the flamethrower, a normally cheerful and slightly built
young man from Tennessee named Russell
were hollering back and forth
rail
into their boats.
men just
stepped over the Empire
think Roy Stevens shouted out to his
I
in different boats. 27
brother. Everybody had buddies
Sub-Lieutenant Green stood
LCA
in
910, giving orders to his
coxswain. Captain Fellers stood a few feet to his
how
boarded, Green was struck by
"They had go in
far too
We
light.
much
gale
weight.
know why
don't
I
in so heavily
sixty
the
didn't appear to
It
the craft from the mother ship.
was
A landing craft
in the
wave did not
"We
dark
hit
to
lower the craft
Green's astern. 29 There
difficult in the swells to
didn't
the ship's side or capsize," recalled Green.
calm conditions but not
first
kit.
weighed down." 28
number 911
be any damage.
pounds of
commandos, and they
British
was blowing. At 4:30 A.M., winches began
into the water. Suddenly, boat
As more men
they struggled to even stand upright
had worked before with
would not have gone
A
left side.
swaying boat, their packs stuffed with over
in the
"Guys
each other once the boats were hanging
at
out there," Barnes remembered. "The Javelins
Pickett.
want "It
to get
unhook
bashed against
was straightforward
in
in a gale." 30
carrying a group of the
1
16th Infantry's senior officers
would
later get
stuck for thirty minutes just below the Javelins sewage
outlet.
"During
this half-hour," recalled
of the ship's
company made
have sought since 1776.
one of the
officers, "the
bowels
the most of an opportunity that Englishmen
from the boat were unavailing. Streams,
Yells
colored everything from canary yellow to sienna brown and olive green,
continued
We
to flush into the
command
group, decorating every
man
we cried, and we laughed, but it kept coming. When we started for shore, we were all covered with shit." 31 As Company As landing craft formed up, Jimmy Green's coxswain in aboard.
LCA
cursed,
910 suddenly heard
a
beep through
down below had bad news. They were lision
had damaged the boat
after
have a look. Water gushed into
all.
LCA
his voice pipe.
taking on water
—the
The
stoker
earlier col-
Green scrambled along the deck 910's engine
room through
to
a small
The Bedford Boys
120
hole.
Green alone had Company As course and other
structions.
He
keep them
afloat,
decided
landing in-
vital
signalman could
to continue, confident that his
using a hand pump, long enough to
make
the beach
and get back. John Barnes stood
we were
in the
beach."
From
few
feet
water and away,
and they waved back. 32
a
We
from Roy Stevens
we
all
waved
men
911. "Once
in other boats,
the Empire Javelins deck, the seas had looked cold and
felt violent
and ominous:
just rolling
and
rolling,
"I
in 911, the slapping
waves
and there were white caps way out where we
Other Bedford boys began alone across
down
never saw water that bad. [The seas] were
were, [12 miles] from the coast.
let
LCA
were confident that we would get across that
choppy. Now, as Roy Stevens hunched
France,
at the
in
Omaha
It
to
was
really, really
rough." 33
wonder whether they would
Beach.
get to
10
The
ii6th's 1ST BATTALION headed
THE of
Wave
First
LCAs. In each LCA,
for the
coxswain in
LCA 910.
a voice pipe to the stoke hold,
petrol engines.
The
waves
in
a British coxswain steered the craft
cockpit that had light armor-plating. Sub-Lieutenant right beside his
beach
from a
Jimmy Green
stood
"The coxswain was connected by
1
where
a stoker operated
two powerful
stoker had to be small and extremely agile to get into
the hold through a small hole on the aft deck. There were two other
crew members
main
ship,
—one forward and one — aft
and the other
unhook the boat from the
to
to lower the landing-craft doors
and work the
boat's anchor."
Green had been ordered tain Fellers
watch.
and
The
his boat team.
his flotilla
now
LCAs
until
he landed Cap-
formed up, he checked
his
6:36 A.M.; he had just over two
beach was approximately twelve miles but
to steer a "diagonal course, "
twenty miles. The tions but
As
for
direct route to the
Green had
keep radio silence
Company A was Omaha Beach.
H-Hour
hours to get to
to
could move
the seas were,
if
making the
at
total
journey close to
about 10 knots in good condi-
anything, rougher than
when Eisenhower
had postponed the invasion. Nevertheless, Green was confident he would get Company A
Green gave the in
Omaha on time. order for Company As six boats to
two columns of three
craft.
could see Fellers and his
men
to
approach the beach
Whenever he looked over sitting in tense,
just boys, pleasant, fresh-faced country boys.
121
glum
his shoulder,
silence.
They looked
he
"They were
like nice lads
The Bedford Boys
122
on
around the
a trip
also thought they
The two columns
as
rest of [the British
seamen
our
in]
were a nice bunch. But not assault troops
flotilla
in the sense
were heavily laden with 60 pounds of equipment." 2
that they
fixed
The
bay.
of three boats ploughed ahead.
Green kept
his eyes
on a landing-craft control boat guiding him towards France. So long
Company As
craft followed the control boat,
Green had taken
course.
a tour of the boat
it
would
and been impressed by
of the art navigational devices, including one of the
equipment
nificent piece of
first
its
right
state
radar sets: "a mag-
showed the contours
that even
on the
stay
of land."
Five miles from France, the control boat broke away, signaling: "You're
on the
right course.
checked
There
is."
his course as the flotilla
men now
Company A was on
own. Green
its
plowed forward, bucking
in the swells,
puking into paper bags and even their helmets.
Suddenly, Green
came upon
making very slow
a
group of
Omaha
carrying tanks destined for
"What
it
LCTs
[Landing Craft Tanks]
Beach. In the heavy seas, they were
progress.
are they doing here?" asked Green.
"They're supposed to go in ahead of us," replied Fellers.
"But they won't get there
in
time for
might have
to go
ahead of them.
We
must
get there
"Yes.
The
Is
"
positions.
blown
in the
cluster behind
all
first
In the far distance,
air
as they
advanced and
A
A
with cover:
fired
on Ger-
would have only
and naval bombardment
Green spotted what looked
Omaha Beach
we
wave up the beach and were
and providing Company
them
think
"I
right?"
Without the tanks, Company
beach from
Green.
3
tanks were supposed to lead the
The men could
man
that
on time.
essential to destroying resistance
six thirty," said
craters
for protection.
like land.
started to take form. In the
A
murky
few minthe
utes
later,
tidal
waters off the beach looked as unforgiving as those out in the chan-
nel.
Company A
still
light,
cruised forward in two columns of three.
It
oc-
curred to Green that the legendary British Admiral, Horatio Nelson, had
employed the same formation greatest naval
at the battle of Trafalgar in
engagement of the Napoleonic Wars.
1805, the
The
Eleven miles out
at sea, a troopship carrying the
First
Wave
123
second wave from the
USS Charles Carroll, pitched and rolled in heavy swells. Colonel Charles Canham and Brigadier General Norman Cota struggled down a 29th,
LCVP
cargo net slung over the boat's side and boarded
They were scheduled
vehicles and personnel).
White, several hundred yards
at
to
A
heard a massive explosion. firing
enormous fourteen-inch guns erupted, shock
the ship's
waves threatened
Mer draw 4
westward. The battleship Texas was
to their right,
Omaha; when
on Dog
to land at 7.30 A.M.
to the east of the Vierville sur
Three miles from the beach, Company
The men looked
7 1 (landing craft,
swamp
By now,
the boats.
men,
severely seasick
in-
cluding John Schenk, barely had the strength to bail with their helmets.
Some had
collapsed with exhaustion.
Just after 6 A.M., Lieutenant
bow
of his
LCA.
beach, obscuring
many
at the
head down.
few
feet
of
smoke hung
of the bluffs.
Nance
told
him
to bring
it
command
Nance closed
off in
little
narrow
the
slot,
keeping his to repair his
heavy seas. Should he abandon it
later
on the
chance of setting up Company As
post. Clifton shouldered the
broken
set.
Medic Cecil
Breeden, broadfaced, five-foot-ten-inches, 180 pounds, sat nearby.
was emblazoned on an arm-band and
cross
slot
storm cloud over the
along and they would repair
beach. Without radios, there was first
like a
a
from Nance, John Clifton struggled
The antenna had broken
radio set. it?
A
A pall
Ray Nance peered through
A red
a canvas shoulder bag that
was crammed with medical supplies. 5 In
LCA
911, Roy Stevens watched a volley of rockets flash overhead.
'Take a good look!" a
man
shouted. "This
is
something you
will tell
your grandchildren!" "Sure,
if
we
live,"
thought John Barnes. 6
"There was a lovely firework display," recalled Jimmy Green. "The rockets shore, it.
I
went up
in the air
nowhere near the
was
furious.
and then down
in the sea
They
few
coast.
They'd come
doing! Bang, bang, bang!
It
all
killed a
that
way
about a mile off the
fish
but that was about
just to misfire. Doing, doing,
woke those Germans up who
were already coming, but that was
it."
7
didn't
know we
The Bedford Boys
124
The question
whether or not the planned naval bombardment
as to
with rockets and shells was woefully inadequate remains highly contro-
Many
versial to this day.
bombing did have an and
in
some
areas most
Out
after-action navy reports confirmed that the
Guns had been
effect.
Germans had
"Were on our way
to
coxswain gunned
someone
in,"
seem
to care
"We're sinking!"
Water gushed
Mer's church.
life
if
LCA
911s engines.
said.
men
beside him were so seasick
they lived or died. Mortars and
artillery fire
relt
LCA
into
Then
the craft
belt but as
and Clyde Powers.
Fizer,
8
to bail frantically.
Barnes
Omaha
drop into the seas. In Stevens's boat were fellow Bedford boys
Harold Wilkes, Charles
began
along
survived.
Stevens said a prayer. Most of the
began
all
sections were destroyed. But in the most heavily defended
at sea, a British
they did not
identified
911. Stevens whipped off his helmet and
John Barnes glimpsed the spire of
the front fall
ol
Vierville sur
911 disappeared beneath the waves.
away below. He squeezed the CO-2 tubes
in his
he did so the belt flew away The buckle had broken.
man
turned and grabbed a
He
nearby and managed to keep himself from
going under by climbing on the man's back. 9 \t
the head of the
were not
to stop
Jimmy Green heard
flotilla,
and turned around just
in
time to see
1
men from
911.
head above water, weighed down by sault jacket,
go under. His orders
"I'll
case, his boat
be back," Green
ate breaths
sixty
struggling to keep his
pounds of
kit as
well as his as-
sodden and crammed with ammunition, which now
well he couldn't get rid of
it.
fit
so
Stevens gulped sea water between desper-
and then grabbed hold of
a Bangalore torpedo.
Somehow, he
to stay afloat.
Clyde Powers was as a
shout for help
10
Roy Stevens could barely swim and was soon
managed
man
a
and pick up men from the water. In any
did not have space for the
shouted.
LCA
91
a
good swimmer, having spent many summer days
boy plunging into swimming holes and on the shores of Bedford
The
County Lake,
few miles from Bedford:
a
swim.
thirty that couldn't
I
would say
was quite
"It
was eight
it
[despite having tried to learn in England]."
swim,
like
those
who
his uncle
bunch
of the
who couldn't Those who could
11
Harold Wilkes, did their best
man wore
to
prop up
Mae West
but their
and packs were so heavy when soaked that even
men who
couldn't. Every
assault jackets
a
125
or nine
swim
Powers and
Wave
First
an inflatable
could swim had to kick hard simply to keep their heads above water. "I'm drowning!" 12 one of the
and saw
men
suddenly shouted. Stevens turned
his boat team's radio operator, Private
slapped Stevens in the face.
He wiped
salt
James
Padley.
A
wave
water from his eyes. Padley
was gone.
Aboard stallations
LCA
910,
men
could
on the beach
"Yes.
is
One
looked particularly
bottom of the D-l
at the
Green thought, "we've had
Green turned "This
see vague outlines of defensive in-
and other landmarks. Jimmy Green spotted some "nasty look-
ing pillboxes along the coast."
in there,"
now
lethal,
positioned
anybody
Vierville draw. "If there's
it."
to Fellers.
where we're going
Land me
to land,
that
is
this side [west] of the
OK?"
draw and the others on the other
side." 13
Green gave the command see any in
approach
He
still
couldn't
started to splash
around them with
greater frequency.
Suddenly, off to Green's
which ripped through
left,
arm
as
that the other
men
tried to get
he
bad," recalled Draper's trying to stand." dirty sea
14
water and began
Jimmy Green looked
He checked
sat in the
sister,
Finally,
an
LCA was
hit
by an antitank
rifle
just above the water line, tearing off
Draper's upper
draw.
at full speed.
Germans but everybody knew they were now ready and waiting
some strength because mortars
much let
to
middle of the
Frank
to lay
craft. "I
was
fell to
Frank
later told
down he was bleeding
Verona. "But he wouldn't do
Draper
bul-
it.
He
so
kept
the floor awash with vomit and
to lose consciousness.
at the pillbox
his watch.
It
looming
at the
mouth
of the D-l
was 6:25 A.M. He then saw something
The Bedford Boys
126
moving along the top of Omaha Beach. train going along say
from
thought: That's strange
ning a
—
Cherbourg
Vierville to
in the
middle of
a loud
bang
in
Green's right
(landing craft gun) with 4.7-inch guns.
like a
—along the
this lot, they're
all
somebody
significantly. "If there's it."
He
ear.
steam
coast.
I
run-
still
turned to see an
suddenly
It
let rip
LCG
with a barrage
draw and appeared
that hit the pillbox at the base of the D-l
had
me
train!"'
There was
it
looked to
"It
to
damage
thought Green, "they've
in there,"
15
The
LCG
and then disappeared
fired again
as fast as
had
it
After the ear-splitting naval barrage and the rocket display,
it
arrived.
was sud-
denly eerily quiet. There were the steady plops of mortars landing in the
water and the odd antitank round but still
out of range of
little else.
and machine-gun
rifle
fire.
seemed they were
It
16
Several hundred yards behind Green, out at sea, 91 struggling to keep from drowning.
l's
boat team were
"Our heads bobbed up above the
"We could
face of the water," John Barnes recalled.
still
see
sur-
some other
boats moving on to the shore." 17 Barnes grabbed for anything that might
help him stay alive
—an
M-l carbine wrapped
in a flotation belt,
and
then a flamethrower that was floating around with two belts wrapped
around
it.
The water was
freezing,
numbing
Barnes hugged the flamethrower for dear other men.
Then Lieutenant Gearing was
termination on his face.
whipped out
swam
a bayonet,
He grabbed
hands and
his life.
He
feet.
heard the shouts of
at his side, a fierce
look of de-
Barnes by his assault jacket,
and cut the straps
to Barnes's pack.
Others
over and helped free Barnes of over sixty pounds of deadly ballast.
Barnes kicked his legs and found that he was
now
able to keep his head
above water.
There was
a
operator. He'd his back.
crest of
—
head count. Just one man was missing gone down with
Roy Stevens
still
waves he could see
ing craft carrying
a forty-pound
clutched
at his
SCR
300 radio strapped
to
Bangalore torpedo. At the
Omaha Beach and
Company A. They were
Padley, the radio
the remaining five land-
closing on the beach.
The
In
LCA
910,
Jimmy Green scanned
had expected
to see craters
bombing
was planned
and the
that
blown to
all
First
Wave
127
the fast approaching sands.
along the beach
—the
He
result of the
precede the landing. But there were none,
above looked unharmed.
bluffs
Three hundred twenty-nine Liberator bombers had indeed dropped 13,000 bombs between 05:55 and 06:14 A.M., but because of thick cloud cover and fear of hitting incoming troops, their bombs landed well
The bombs
inland.
dents but
the sands of
left
Omaha was
Omaha and
as "flat as a pancake," in
The Bedford
boys' hearts sank.
Even
bombs had
if
the
craters for shelter: for high
cows and some
killed plenty of
Most
hit the
of the
its
French
local
resi-
defenders unscathed. Indeed,
Greens words.
beach, there would have been no
bombs were 100-pound
devices designed
fragmentation and had "instantaneous fuses" that would "pre-
vent cratering of the beach and consequent delay in the traffic across it."
would be
18
movement
of
Yet the Bedford boys had been assured that there
craters.
Green gave the hand
signal for
Company A
to
make
the final run to
the beach. His craft touched bottom about thirty yards from the shoreline
and then bucked up and down
in
lowered the ramp, and then turned to Fellers
thanked Green
heavy
surf.
"Good
Fellers:
for getting the
men
He opened
in
the doors,
luck."
on time.
The armor-plated door leading onto the ramp opened. stood, exited,
had It
and then clambered down the ramp. The middle row
him. "They went out in very good order," recalled Green.
filed after
"They
Fellers
didn't
to do."
need
to
be ushered out and about
— they knew what they
19
took over a minute for the other two rows to get out of the boat.
The enemy
still
figure of Fellers
held their machine-gun
and
his
water, snaking onto the
Green examined the ing, dark.
men waded, beach bluffs
fire.
Green watched
as the
tall
guns above their heads, through the
in a long line.
above the D-l draw. "They looked menac-
You knew the Germans were
there.
It
was
creepy, especially
The Bedford Boys
128
because of the silence. We'd been expecting the Germans soon as
we
arrived.
Green saw went back back
to
But they
Fellers
and
didn't. It
his
men
to work, ordering his
pick up
LCA
lie
to
open up
as
was the calm before the storm." 20
down on
a slight incline.
Green
coxswain to pull off the beach and head
911s crew
still
in the water. It
was H-Hour: The
Bedford boys had arrived on the shores of Fortress Europe exactly on time.
11
Dog Beach
FELLERS LAY WITH
CAPTAIN
yards from the D- 1 Vierville draw. to provide covering fire
down
too
much
would have
to
in the
because
his boat
team two hundred
Jimmy Green had
his landing craft
fifty
not been able
had bucked up and
heavy seas. There was only one thing
to
do
—they
run for the nearest cover, making sure they did not bunch
together to minimize casualties. All along the bluffs
vision lay in wait.
above Omaha, veterans of the German 352nd Di-
They had moved
ing the inferior 716th Division.
into the area in recent weeks, reliev-
They
totaled two regiments, almost
two
thousand men.
As
Fellers
dered their
and
men
his
men
to fire.
started to advance,
Above the
German
Vierville draw, the
officers finally or-
352nd opened up
MG-42 machine guns, firing over a thousand and several mortars. Two dozen snipers lurked in
with at least three
rounds
per minute,
nearby
trenches.
The
nine
men
gun
bullets
No
slaughter was fast and merciless. Fellers and the twenty-
in his boat died in a matter of minutes, riddled
by machine-
from several directions.
accurate record exists of the boat roster for
was probably
Day.
It
after
H-Hour. But
it
lost is
have been among those
with
many
Company A on D-
others in the chaos and carnage
thought that the following Bedford boys
who
may
died within yards of their captain: twenty-
two-year-old Sergeant Dickie Abbott; twenty-six-year-old Clifton Lee, the shy but fiercely patriotic private cally
whose eyebrows arched dramati-
above his pale face; twenty-three-year-old Gordon Henry White
129
The Bedford Boys
130
Jr.
who dreamed
of his mother's cooking; the well-mannered Southern
"gentleman" Nick Gillaspie; and the ace dice player, Wallace "Snake Eyes" Carter.
Less than
On
beach.
fifty
LCA
yards away, another
had
also
approached the
board were George Roach, Thomas Valance, Gil Murdock,
and the Bedford boys Dickie Overstreet and Master Sergeant John Wilkes. "We're going to drop this ramp and as soon as going to back out," shouted a British
ready"
bowman,
do, we're
you guys better be
"so
1
The ramp slammed down
into the surf
swung open. Lieutenant Alfred Anderson Valance and seconds
mans found at
we
later
their range.
and then the metal door
by Roach and then Wilkes.
Men
began
Instantly, the
to fall in every direction,
John Wilkes was one of the few who managed
to get out of the shal-
lows and onto the sand, where he and George Roach started to
wards the base of the D-l
Vierville draw.
fire to-
Neither Wilkes nor Roach had
German.
yet seen a
are you firing at?" asked Wilkes.
don't know," said Roach.
don't
"I
know what
I'm firing
Wilkes and Roach spotted Lieutenant Anderson, of them.
a hail
and shrapnel.
of bullets
"I
Ger-
picked off
random, while others miraculously staggered unscathed through
"What
by
exited, closely followed
He waved
for
them
to follow
at."
thirty yards in front
him across the beach. Then
Roach was knocked down. The next thing he knew, the sea was
licking
There was no sign of Anderson or Wilkes. According
at his heels.
some eyewitnesses, Anderson was cut
in
two by
a
machine gun.
to
It is
thought that Master Sergeant John Wilkes was shot and killed as he fired his
M-l Garand
rifle at
the defensive installations at the base of
the D-l draw.
Dickie Overstreet also
made
it
to the sands.
flamethrower and picked up a dead man's
rifle
He had dumped
as he
waded
ashore.
his
He
then took cover behind one of two American tanks that had landed the
mouth
at
of the D-l draw. Suddenly, the tank took a direct hit, possi-
Dog Beach
Germans were
bly from a mortar. Overstreet realized the
any spot where vehicles
men
—knowing
clustered
—burnt out landing
he
The ammunition
in the tank started to ex-
took
"I
he recalled. 'That was when
finally
made
wounded
bullets
it
to the sea wall
couldn't
open the
running along the top of the
lie
finally
be taken
spend
six
I
called for
come
had
to
weeks recovering from multiple
"He
me when
to
Overstreet re-
He was
so nervous he
for myself." 3 Overstreet
many
bullet
tidal
Mae West and
he came home," recalled
runnels on
even
down by filling his
to the shallows
wounded, unable
lay
erate
it
his sister
his kit,
gas
instead.
to get
casing with air.
air to
back
to
his
help him get
Murdock had then
and was now crawling up the beach. Two
Murdock
4
one of
punching the CO-2 tubes on
mask
to fire a mortar.
Beu-
life."
feet of water in
Omaha, and had then fought
buoyant. Finally, he had surfaced and gasped for it
wounds. "He wouldn't
suffered from stomach problems for the rest of his
the surface, weighed
made
when he would
7,
England, where he would
Boatmate Gil Murdock had plunged into nine the
Dog Green
first aid,"
me.
do that
to
and then
to a hospital ship
about the war with
lah Witt.
kit.
"I
beside the sea wall until 4:30 A.M. on June
would
talk
aid
first
2
Overstreet in the stomach and leg but
got a guy to
"I finally
started running, criss-cross-
off,
got hit."
I
sector assigned to the 1st Battalion.
membered.
and immobilized
huddled behind them,
plode. Overstreet ran for cover.
Machine gun
zeroing in on
entire platoons could be
frozen with shock and panic.
ing,"
craft
131
men
A sergeant ordered Murdock to op-
got to the mortar
and
fired a
couple of rounds
but they didn't explode.
"Murdock, you
dumb
bastard," shouted the sergeant, "you're not
pulling the firing pins!"
Murdock managed
to get off several
more rounds, which
ploded, then began to crawl towards the sea wall.
but
it
He
tried to fire his rifle
was jammed with wet sand. Then he came across
gaping
wound
dock gave
it,
in his arm.
The
a soldier with a
soldier asked for a shot of morphine.
wished him luck, and kept crawling,
antitank obstacle.
actually ex-
Murdock found two men
this
Mur-
time towards an
already cowering behind the
The Bedford Boys
132
obstacle.
To advance seemed
marginally less
Men
fatal:
suicidal but to stay
where they were only
were now being picked
by
off
a score of
snipers along the bluffs.
Murdock suddenly "What happened?" looked
It
either
A
like all
spotted George Roach crawling towards them. 5
said Roach.
Company's
officers
were dead, and every sergeant
dead or wounded.
They
tried to catch their breath. Suddenly, tracer fire sputtered to-
A German
wards them:
machine gunner had spotted them.
Fortunately,
the tracers crackled above their heads. Every few seconds, another burst
went high by just
man
a
few
feet.
Murdock
wasn't lowering his aim.
target
Then he looked up and saw
—an antitank mine strapped
blow anything within several yards
They had
man
why
the Ger-
the German's
direct hit
would
to pieces.
As the group
soldier's left leg
A
to the obstacle.
Murdock, before
better get the hell away, thought
finds his mark.
one
that
couldn't understand
Murdock noticed
the obstacle,
left
was soaked
that Ger-
in blood. "You're
hit!''
damn fool," the soldier replied. "So are you." 6 Murdock looked down. Two machine-gun bullets had
he shouted.
"You
and ended up
in his right ankle.
"Look, I'm a good "Let
me swim
looked
at
swimmer and
you out
Murdock kept
He
pierced his leg
it.
a
to that
you're not that badly hurt," said Roach.
knocked-out tank
photograph of
in the
water out there."
his fiancee in the liner of his helmet.
Roach grabbed the helmet and threw
it
away
angrily.
out to sea.
They
finally got
"Let's get going."
Roach propped up Murdock
as they
swam
to the knocked-out tank.
A few yards away,
and down. They looked
closer. It
was the
bobbed up
three men's heads
tank's crew, their faces disfig-
ured by powder burns.
The tank commander
sat
behind the
turret.
from the knee down. His shin bone dangled useless.
shot?
They wouldn't
carry out orders.
His
left leg
in the water.
Could they
give
was missing
His
him
a
men were morphine
Dog Beach
Murdock crawled pulled out
there.
inside the tank turret, found a first aid package,
some morphine and gave
The commander
said
he wanted
Murdock and Roach he persuaded
Finally,
him
into the water
tide
was coming
his
the
commander
crew to
to
the shot.
to get to the beach.
disagreed. But the
and began
It
would be
commander was
safer
insistent.
do what he told them. They helped
swim
in a
group towards the beach. The
in.
Murdock watched
as they got closer to the shore. Suddenly, the cur-
rent snatched them, pulling
Murdock and Roach
them eastwards and then under. on the tank. Shells started
sat alone
To make matters worse, the
nearby.
133
tank. Soon, they stood
behind the
was
tide
turret,
starting to
to land
submerge the
and then actually on the
turret
to avoid drowning.
Roach shook
insisted
a landing craft.
He watched Roach swim
furiously
sight of him.
Murdock would soon be picked up by
a later wave.
Roach would
would
also
Murdock
for getting
him
away and then
lost
wished him good luck, and thanked him
his hand,
off the beach.
he could swim out and reach
a landing craft
be rescued, by an army control
from
craft,
and
also survive the war.
Back
in the shallows, their
boatmate Sergeant Thomas Valance cow-
ered in knee-high water, scanning the bluffs.
He
German. But the enemy was
bunkers and trenches
along the bluffs.
A
The
air
there,
hidden
in
crackled with bullets.
had walked onto the wrong end of a
spat from the concrete pillbox at the
It
seemed
firing range.
mouth
been immobilized by the naval barrage
couldn't see a single
as
if
after
all.
Company
Suddenly, tracer
of the D-l draw.
The
all
It
fire
had not
pillbox actually
faced eastward, allowing machine gunners a clean sweep across the
mouth
of the
draw and the
Valance fired
entire length of
at the pillbox
Dog Green
beach. 7
and several beach houses shrouded
smoke. They too were supposed
to
in
have been flattened by American
bombers. All around Valance, Bedford boys were dying. In some spots, the sea ran red. Valance struggled to keep his balance. his kit
and sodden pack
a bullet pierced his knuckle
As he threw
off
and exited through
The Bedford Boys
134
the palm of his hand. Valance
felt
only a small sting but his adrenaline
surged as blood spurted from the wound.
Not surf
far away,
Company As
Private
Henry G. Witt
rolled over in the
and faced Valance. "Sergeant," he cried hopelessly. "They're leaving
us here to die like
Just to die like rats." 8 Valance didn't feel aban-
rats.
He was determined to get out of the water, to push forward, to and then get Company A's objectives achieved, whatever the
doned.
find cover,
conditions. There
was
still
a job to be done.
Valance crawled towards the sea wall
at
the western edge of the
beach, where he finally collapsed, blood gushing from several bullet
He would
wounds.
there for the rest of the day along with a small
lie
Company A survivors. few dozen men from Company A who were
group of other badly wounded
Back still
in the shallows, the
alive
were having
a hell of a time simply
keeping afloat or moving
forward without exposing themselves to withering
fire.
The smartest
lay
with their nostrils just above the water so they could breathe but with every other inch of their bodies submerged.
Now
the
Germans were
shooting at anything that resembled a body, exploding the heads and bellies
of the prostrate, turning areas of the beach into a bloody slaughter-
house.
By 6:45
A.M., the
first
beach and pulled away.
The
wave boats had deposited Company
next wave to approach the shore included an
tenant Ray
A
Nance and seventeen other headquarters
LCA carrying staff,
Lieu-
including the
medic Cecil Breeden and Bedford boys John Reynolds and John
They came
on the
9
Clifton.
planned, nineteen minutes after the rest of
in exactly as
Company A. Nance's craft Nance's right
down!"
bottom. The British bowman, standing a few feet to
in a steel
lever to let the 10
hit
compartment
pulled a
ramp down. The ramp lowered but then stopped. "Get
it
shouted Nance.
The bowman yanked started to
at the front of the craft,
fall.
the lever again and again. Finally, the
Nance gave
it
a shove.
ramp
Dog Beach
"Up and
at
em
bowman.
mates," 11 cried the
Nance took two
down
steps
the
ramp and jumped
into the water.
wave crashed down, almost submerging him. He began sodden pack pulling
his
him down,
135
rifle
to
wade
A
forward,
above his head. The next thing
he knew, he was lying winded on the cold sand. Nance looked around.
He
couldn't see any other
men from Company
A. Feeling terribly iso-
lated,
he struggled on up the beach. Soon he realized what had hap-
pened
to
Company A
—corpses
lay
bumped
strewn across the sands and
against each other in the shallows.
Suddenly, he was not alone. of Nance's runners; to the
pany As Cassanova
and
useless,
it
—
left:
Men
appeared nearby. To the
his radio operator,
crawling, his radio
made him
still
on
He
a sitting target.
John Clifton
his back.
should
one
right:
The
—Comwas
radio
dump
it
fast,
thought Nance.
"Keep moving, keep moving," shouted Nance. "I'm hit," cried Clifton.
"Can you move?" asked Nance. Clifton didn't answer.
Nance ducked and then looked up Nance spotted "Spread
stacle.
mouth when verely
four other
Nance
had disappeared.
men huddled down behind
a steel tank ob-
shouted Nance. The words had barely
out!''
a mortar
wounding the
again. Clifton
round landed,
killing three of the
left his
men and
se-
other.
couldn't see a single
German. He
fired a
few rounds towards
A
piece of
few inches from
his face.
the bluffs but then another mortar shell exploded nearby.
shrapnel took a chunk out of his
rifle,
just a
"The Germans were so accurate with those things," Nance recalled, "they could put one in your back pocket
Tracer
fire
if
they spotted you." 12
spurted towards Nance, kicking up sand, ricocheting off
the stones, stitching the hard beach with bullets.
spotted
was
him and were zeroing
definitely the target.
the draw, half
way up
The
in.
fire
the bluffs.
The machine gun
came from
a
The Germans had snarled again.
bunker just
He
to the right of
— The Bedford Boys
136
Nance
positioned his body so he was facing the machine gun head
on, providing less of a target. If he did get hit, a shot to the head.
He
looked
at his rifle;
it
would be over quick
it
was
useless.
Wet sand had
gotten into the workings.
Nance held body began his right
—
a
to
his breath as the
shake with
Company A
terror.
Then
bullets got louder.
Another burst of
He
bullets.
volleys.
Nance recognized
his
looked to
rifleman was up on his feet and sprinting,
machine gun
ing to escape the
sound of the
try-
the runner.
It
was twenty-two-year-old John Reynolds. Reynolds stopped, knelt down and raised
saw him
his rifle to return fire.
fall
He
never got to pull the
Nance
trigger.
dead.
stopped spitting across the beach towards Nance.
Finally, the bullets
Perhaps the Germans had found another runner. There was no retreat for
man on D-Day
any
aiming for a
cliff-face three
Frank Draper
felt like
—he had
Jr.
to
push on. Nance crawled forward,
hundred yards away. Suddenly
had
hit
it
his right foot
with a baseball bat. Part of his heel
had been shot away. Bullets again stitched the sand, again heading direction. I
"They came so
close," recalled
thought there was no more hope,
anything up there. But feeling.
felt as if
I
Nance
lay as
I
still
I
Nance. 'Then, suddenly, when
looked up in the
something
felt
somehow
I
was going
settle over
to live."
for
line of bullets
me
again, like
my
its
He
strap
on
again.
warm
Germans
targets for the
wouldn't
let
me
14
sand and shingle with
looked deep enough for a
Nance
to
He'd
come back
tried in vain
his hands.
man
be.
Then he
disappear be-
surface.
Nance crawled ters.
It
got this
13
he was playing cat and mouse."
spotted a tidal pool.
I
didn't see
I
way, pass on to another target then
to dig a shallow foxhole in the
neath
now
Dog Green. "That machine gunner just
send a
me.
sky.
he could, hoping the machine gunner would
as
think he was dead. But even corpses were
above
in his
filled his
his
Some
as fast as
lungs and ducked down.
World War time
he could, slithering into the
later,
I
binocular case.
when he came up
pool's tepid
wa-
Suddenly, a bullet pierced the
Nance ducked down for
air,
again and
there was a soldier from
Dog Beach
New York
not far from him.
again turned to face
The machine gun
them head
on.
He
bullets returned.
told the
New
137
Nance
Yorker to do the
same. The bullets moved away.
Nance and the
cliff.
At
the
last,
pouring from his
New
they
Yorker scrambled across the
felt
shingle beneath them.
But
he was
Nance
He
yards towards
last
collapsed, blood
looked out to sea.
"I
recognized two [dead] officers. They were face up, lying in the water.
A
lot of
men were
men would The
tide
have
foot.
at least
caught by the
made
it."
tide.
safe.
Had we been on
dry land, a lot of
15
had crept up behind Nance, drowning Company A
no longer had the strength
to crawl.
Among
them,
it is
men who
thought, was Ray-
mond Hoback. Nance had trained them. He had tried to be good to them. He had read their last love letters. As he now lay on the bloodstained pebbles below Vierville sur Mer, he
them, every
last
one.
the finest soldiers
I
"I
was
their officer.
ever saw."
16
It
still felt
was
my
responsible for
duty.
.
.
.
They were
12
"Medic!"
THAN N AN C E
OTHER
,
thought that just one
it is
from Company As headquarters boat
He wanted
They must
follow his example.
get
up and
survived
—medic Cecil Breeden. As
soon as he reached the sands, he stripped off his pack,
and boots. Then he stood up.
man
other
men
shirt,
to see
helmet,
him, and to
free of the kit that could soon
drown them. "Medic! Medic!"
Breeden walked back into the water beach, away from the advancing
packs and began to help.
tide. Slowly, a
They now
supplication.
few others shook
They peppered
A
to ribbons but they
were
in
to save
them. The lazy machine gun-
By some
hit.
"[stayed] with his
vate Russell Pickett
not
could not crawl and American
ners shot rescuers in the back. Snipers aimed for the forehead.
As Breeden
still
who
soldiers
own necks
miracle, Breeden wasn't
the
off their
wounded men with arms outstretched
riddled
teenagers risking their
wounded men up
1
The Germans had cut Company satisfied.
to pull
came
to
work indomitably," 2 Company As
and found himself
Pri-
on wet sand. Just
lying
before his craft had landed, he had heard a "low rumble" and had then
been knocked unconscious.
him up the beach, now feet.
He
couldn't
move
A
dead man,
whom
he guessed had pulled
The
tide lapped at Pickett's
lay twelve feet away. his legs.
He
didn't
know how
conscious. All he had was a combat knife.
pack.
"I
around
began to feel
to think I'd
but
I
been
hit in the
Someone had back and
couldn't find anything wrong."
139
long he'd been un-
3
I
pulled off his
worked my arms
The Bedford Boys
140
Petrified he
would drown with the incoming
grabbed for
ately
He
nearby.
began
Mae West
preservers
desper-
among macabre
flotsam
put one under each arm and another around his chest and
He saw
to float ashore.
"Whitey"
life
tide, Pickett
—he only knew
names. "He got shot and
a
replacement from Ohio nicknamed
men
a handful of
Company A by
their real
knocked him down and he got up again and
it
they hit him again, in the
in
leg,
and spun him around," Pickett
"Then he crawled away, out of my
recalled.
even after he'd been
sight,
hit
twice."
Pickett recognized another man, a Lieutenant Fergusson, a recent
replacement I
knew him
who had
played football for the U.S. Army. "He was huge.
pretty well because he'd sneak around
us guys in training. He'd been hit real bad.
down
top of his head was
over his face. You couldn't see anything but a mass of bloody
flesh. It "I
The
and play poker with
was
like his scalp
can't see,"
"Turn
left
had peeled down over
his face."
shouted Fergusson.
and
go!" 4
Fergusson turned
left
but was cut
down
within a few yards by a ma-
chine gun. Pickett fought to keep his head above water as he floated towards
the shore with the tide. Eventually, he would be fished out of the water
and taken back
to the
Empire Javelin.
The Americans kept coming, Company B erator
Bob
Company
arriving at 7 A.M. Radio op-
Sales stood a few feet from Captain Ettore Zappacosta,
B's
commanding
officer.
As
right at the base of the Vierville draw,
up on the edge and see what you can
their craft
Where
in
"on target,"
Zappacosta told Sales
to "crawl
The beach was
a stone's
see."
5
throw away but Sales couldn't see anybody from just corpses.
came
Company A
fighting,
were the Bedford boys and their buddies?
Had
they landed elsewhere? "Captain," shouted Sales, "there's something wrong. There's ing everywhere on the beach!"
"They shouldn't be on the beach." 6
men
lay-
141
"Medic!"
on the beach but
Sales hadn't seen a living soul
was obvious that
it
plenty of machine gunners were in the bluffs: Bullets sprayed back and forth, tearing
A
bowman
British
down
up the beach
in puffs of sand.
he was going
said
Zappacosta was the
again.
immediately. "I'm
first
drop the ramp. Sales ducked
to
out.
MG-42
bullets riddled
I'm hit/' he called out. Every
hit,
Zappacosta down the ramp met the same
man who
him
followed
caught in a relentless
fate,
crossfire.
would have been
Sales
balance, and
fell
damned
He
he didn't get
struggled under water to release
thing off his back, he
yards in front of the craft.
Men
were
still
the ramp. "Everybody Sales said. "Those
Up
recalled one
only thing I
shoot."
it; if
knew he would never
fill
exiting,
still
I
was getting cut down
to the touch. "It
know
is
was the
in 1964. "I don't
that
I
his lungs with
He was
several
dropping the instant they appeared on
German machine guns
German
still
The machine guns were now enjoying open
as
—they
soon as they came
went
to
first
off,"
just ate us up." 7
above on the bluffs, triggers of the Germans'
guns were hot
lost his
He was
Sales finally ripped the pack free and surfaced.
air again.
season.
but he stumbled as he exited,
into the water off the side of the ramp.
wearing his radio. the
killed too
time
remember
I
MG-42 machine
shoot at living men,"
exactly
my machine gun and
how I
it
was:
shoot,
I
The
shoot,
8
Sales spotted one of the 1st Battalion's surgeons, Captain Robert
Ware,
a fellow Virginian with a flaming red
buzz cut: "He had brought
himself in on an early wave rather than later in the day because he there
was going
to
be a
lot
of
wounded.
When
that
knew
ramp went down,
they opened up and they got him. Just cut the boat to pieces. He'd got
me
a three-day pass to
London. Treated
my knee
after a river crossing in
my home in Lynchburg." 9 again. He couldn't see any other
England, came from near Sales looked around his boat.
A mortar
shell exploded,
stunning Sales.
Some
survivors from
time
later, feel-
ing "very groggy," Sales grabbed onto a log that had been part of a beach
defense.
A
live
mine was
still
attached to one end. Suddenly, another
The Bedford Boys
142
was
soldier
at his side,
helping strip off his heavy assault jacket so he
wouldn't drown. Sales used the log as cover, pushing
wood.
to the
he got
Finally,
in front of him, his face pressed
it
where he spotted
to the beach,
communications sergeant, Dick Wright, who had jumped
He was
pacosta.
saw Sales he
badly
wounded and had been washed
tried to raise himself
But before he could utter
thing.
up on
his
elbows
boats
his
off after Zap-
When
ashore.
he
him some-
to tell
a word, a sniper hiding in rocks along
the bluff shot him.
looked
"It
And
I
like his
head exploded. Pieces
lay there, just figuring I'd
done and seen me,
too.'
And
be next.
just fell about in the sand.
said to myself:
I
evidently something distracted him, an-
other boat maybe, a bigger target, because he didn't get me.
head
in the
waited.
reckon
I
I
far as
I
could, put
lay there thirty
my
got a
I
thing.'
had
I
pecting a to one,
little
fifty
man
And maybe
protection.
yards to go
to kill you.
and then
So
—
I
I
thought:
'If
to
my
buried
head, and
I
just
I
can get
to that
can get another gun or some-
a long way, especially
move
I
10
started using
I
real easy, I'd
my
arms over
minutes.
seen a wall, maybe 150 feet away.
"I'd
wall,
sand as
That sniper
when
dead bodies.
I
you're ex-
would crawl
another one. That was the only
protection." 11 All
men were
around Sales, Company B
being picked off as they
crawled forward. Those lingering on the water tinuous machine-gun careful here."
12
fire.
"Man,'' thought Sales,
Sales inched forward.
The corpses
others dotted the beach, every ten yards or so.
They'd smiled
at
him across
bars.
were raked by con-
line
have
"I
to
be awful
of Bedford boys and
Some
faces were familiar.
They'd passed him on cold parade
grounds. "I
never talked to a living soul from
Sales. "But
I
saw
their bodies.
I
don't
A Company remember
the names.
scared to death. But there was quite a few of them.
Company
I
crawled around
—there was nobody
been dead that quick. There'd be
a
body with
that day," recalled
It
was
I
was so
definitely
A
else that could have
legs off,
sometimes just a
143
"Medic!"
leg,
mangled
pacosta
parts.
I
—couple of
thirty feet of
heard
later that
great buddies
each other."
He'd made
on its
it.
—
Smith had been
him
hit three
"Them's
failed,
Private
times in the face.
"morphine
a
and then bandaged him.
socket,
jab,"
An
off this beach.
would be taken
off the
what
day," 16
he
lived,
into
They
felt like
an
beach that afternoon but would
re-
him
launch going back for wounded on Omaha. "There wasn't a
who
eyeball lay
15
turn before nightfall after persuading a doctor to allow
boat
Smith,
popped the eye back
pair stayed at the sea wall, both in shock, for
eternity. Sales
Mack
14
man," said Smith. "We gotta get
gotta send boats in for us."
The
Company B man,
base of the sea wall. Sales crawled over.
at the
his cheek. Sales gave
—were washed up on the beach within
13
Suddenly, Sales saw another
by a cluster of rocks
Captain Fellers and Captain Zap-
to join a
man
off
my
except me. Not one. Every one of them got killed that
said.
Some men from Company B craft did live,
Hal Baumgarten's landing
in Private
but not many. As his boat neared the shore, slightly to the
east of the D-l draw, icy water crashed in garten's waist.
Company
B's
and was quickly up
Baum-
Lieutenant Harold Donaldson leaned
against the door of the landing craft. "Well,
what the
ing for?" he shouted. "Take off your helmets
and
ricocheted off the
to
LCA. To Baumgarten's
left,
landing craft suddenly exploded, hit by an
hell are
you wait-
start bailing." 17 Bullets
another of
88mm
shell.
Company
B's
Fragments of
men and wood showered down. They moved forward, the thunder
of explosions growing louder and
—
Men exited as fast as they could into the crosshairs of yet another MG-42 machine gun. Baumgarten jumped, rifle above his head. A bullet skimmed his helmet. He landed in six feet of water, bright red from men mown down in louder.
Then
the
ramp was down.
front of him, including
Donaldson
Baumgarten spotted the sea
—
killed as
wall, three
soon as he exited.
hundred yards away Barbed
wire curled along the top. Beyond, a bluff rose a hundred feet or so and
The Bedford Boys
144
was veined with trenches linking
snipers, mortar crews, rocket launch-
and several MG-42s.
ers,
Baumgarten waded ashore, two waterproofed tanks
76mm
fired its
cannon
bullets spattering
Men
to his left.
at the
huddled against them. One
Germans along
hundred yards away. The other was disabled. turret.
The rubber
Where were
had
flotation skirts
around him. There were
now some two A dead man hung from its the bluffs,
fallen off both.
the other tanks scheduled to land at the D-l Vierville
draw?
A
machine gun opened up,
garten's
left.
A
bullet hit his
just
rifle.
German
chest."
wall, slightly to
There was a "clean hole
The seven
in front of the trigger guard.
stopped the
above the sea
Baum-
in its receiver
bullets in the receiver
had
bullet from penetrating the rifle to hit [his]
18
Another Company B man, nineteen-year-old private Robert Dittmar, fell
on
his
"I'm hit
back about ten
Baumgarten dropped a
feet away.
— Ma, Mother,"
he cried and then lay dead.
to his
"Czech hedgehog:" four
knees behind a defensive obstacle called
iron girders
Hoback
shape. Bedford
19
welded together
to
lay thirty yards to his left.
wounded. Three others from Company
A
lay
"There was a pillbox built into the bluff
to
form a
Hoback looked
motionless beside him.
my
right," recalled
machine gun could sweep the beach
What miracle condom from on the bluff
kept the
me
from being
mouth
slightly to
of
my
hit?
[a] rifle,
right
.
.
.
I
and
after
laterally
with
its
Baum-
The
pill-
deadly
fire.
garten. "It appeared to be camouflaged as a seaside cottage. box's
star-like
removed the protective fired at the shine of a
my
shot, the gunfire
latex
helmet
from that
area ceased." 20
Fighting back
from an
88mm
slicing his
felt
shell hit
upper
lip in
and gums were lying freely
good. But the feeling didn't last long. Fragments
Baumgarten
in the face, shattering his
two. "The roof of all
my mouth was
jaw and
cut up, and teeth
over inside," he would recall. "Blood poured
from the gaping wound." 21 The same
shell also hit
Bedford
145
"Medic!"
Hoback square to it
him was
lay
Elmere Wright.
Dick
just like
head dropped
in the face. "His I
was certain
Tracy's in the
able to stand. His limbs
was him because of
for.
Next
his nose;
cartoon." 22
He was in severe shock yet were unharmed. He quickly threw off most
Baumgarten washed blood from still
it
—he was done
his face.
of his kit and then slithered forward using corpses and "hedgehogs" as
There were no reinforcements landing behind him
cover.
Germans'
to divert the
Because beach obstacles had not been cleared on Dog
fire.
C
Green, Companies
two beach sections
D
and
had veered
to the east.
far off
The Germans above
draw had nothing to do but pick off anyone Meanwhile,
a
course and were landing
who
so
the D-l Vierville
much
as twitched.
thousand yards from the beach, John Barnes and Roy
Stevens managed to keep their heads above water. They could hear a fierce firefight
around the
Vierville draw.
As they bobbed up and down
in
the heavy swells, they also heard twenty-year-old Second Lieutenant
Gearings calming voice.
He
urged them to keep close together. That
the weakest stay afloat. 23
way they could help
Sergeant John Laird, a small Scotsman whose family hailed from near
Greenock pany A
in Scotland,
fight its
"Let's
"No,
swim
let's
way
out.
wait here," replied Gearing.
least a
"We
know how
far
it
was.
thousand yards, someone replied, but no one
can't
make
it,"
Gearing insisted. "Too
picked up by some passing boat."
Muscles cramped.
mia
Men
die, as their grips
far.
really
We'll wait and get
24
none stopped. Then,
as
men
Jimmy Green. As promised, he had returned his
started to
on floating objects and each other grew weaker, they
heard the "friendly shout of someone with a Limey voice" 25
Green and
knew.
clung to their buddies desperately, hypother-
setting in. Boats passed but
tenant
Com-
off the beach.
he called
in,"
Laird wanted to
At
thought they should swim ashore and help
crew started
back-breaking work:
to pull the
Some men were
in
men from
— Sub-Lieu-
LCA
910.
the water.
It
was
twice their normal weight. Green
The Bedford Boys
146
and
his
soggy
crew used
their seamen's knives to cut
away leaden packs and
kit.
Roy Stevens was jarred awake. He saw Clyde Powers clambering aboard Greens boat.
me
"Clyde, can you help
here!" Stevens cried.
"Sure." 26
Powers reached out and slowly hauled Stevens into the most of the time they had spent
in the water,
craft.
For
Powers had helped Stevens
stay afloat.
Stevens ered.
Mae
The
fell to
the floor and vomited sea water.
He shook and
shiv-
next thing he knew, a Brit was removing his assault jacket and
West. Another handed out cigarettes. Jimmy Green broke out a car-
ton of 200 Capstan duty-free "fags."
He
apologized as he handed
them
around. "Sorry, chaps, they're only British, no Camels or Lucky Strike on this boat." 27
LCA
910s engines gunned. They were heading out
Many seemed
were upset: They were leaving Roy's
surprised. Others
brother and their buddies to fight stances,
Green
state to fight.
said,
tried to get
Jr.,
"Draper was tank
rifle
bullet
alive
still
"How Green
to the
beach. They were in no
fit
Empire Javelin.
A Company men
shocked but conscious, and Sergeant
but unconscious," recalled Pickett. "[The] anti-
had gone through
his left shoulder
and upper arm. You
beating." 29
Draper was bleeding kill
to the
Under no circum-
covered in blood.
could see his heart
didn't get to
out alone. 28
warm. He recognized two
lying nearby: Russell Pickett,
Frank Draper
it
would they return
They were going back
John Barnes
into the channel.
to death.
He had
less
than an hour to
live.
"He
anybody," his sister Verona later said. "I'm glad of that." 30
about the others said they
had
all
[in
Company A]?" someone
asked. 31
landed safely on the beach, unaware of what
had then happened when the German machine guns opened up.
Around the same proaching
Omaha
time,
Company
in the fourth
D's Sergeant
wave.
A
Bob Slaughter was
ap-
few hundred yards from the
147
''Medic!"
beach, he stood up to get a better look at the bluffs, careful to keep his
head down: Bullets ricocheted
fierce
brush
Dog White
fire
and
a pall of black
smoke hanging over the
sector of the beach straight ahead.
down
The ramp came down. Slaughter
froze.
down
on select
in
craft,
in the surf, so violently
He
bronco."
rose
and
fell
off to the side,
it
was
as
down,
was
if
hit
craft
bounced up and
he were "riding a bucking
jumped
blocking their
in the water.
him spin
Slaughter
exit.
at his
landing craft
They were bleeding
hit.
One man
got caught
"like a top" as
But as
craft started to pull out to sea. it
The
He was
motor. Slaughter watched
The
to
every kind of caliber.
waded ashore then looked back
around
flailing
The Germans seemed
men
buddies from Roanoke had been
some
bluffs of the
with the ramp two or three times. The
hind him couldn't move.
eral
There was
Vierville sur
pouring
be zeroing
by.
Mer church steeple, the landmark to guide Dog Green. Had it. been bombed? Instead, Slaughter saw a
no sign of the
them onto
and whizzed
off the boat
it
up
sev-
badly,
in the craft's
he died.
left
the beach,
ramp
and quickly sank, taking two
British sailors with
A
A
Slaughter could see tanks.
—
be-
landing craft ablaze.
still
it.
GI running
to-
wards him.
A
shot cracked out.
The man went down, stumbling, screaming. "Medic! Medic!"
A
medic rushed
over.
The Germans
got
him
too, "just drilled him." 32
Slaughter finally got to the sea wall where he tried to catch his breath. Several hundred yards to Slaughter's west, Hal Baumgarten
consumed by
rage.
grabbed a dead
It
was
mans M-l
was now
so monstrously unjust, so one-sided.
all
He
carbine and quickly flopped back into the
water, pretending to be dead, joining a raft of corpses bobbing towards
the sea wall with the incoming tide. Baumgarten finally got to the water line.
Then
the wall. it.
To the
dry sand. But there were
From some unknown east,
reserve,
Baumgarten saw
on the sand, dying from
their
still
a
another hundred yards before
he found the strength
group of
wounds.
He
to crawl to
men from Company A, recognized a couple.
It
lying
broke
The Bedford Boys
148
watch them, scarcely out of
his heart to
their teens, crying for their
mothers, calling for their brothers.
"Medic! Medic!"
But where the
were the medics? Had they
hell
been slaughtered
all
too?
Baumgarten got up and ran the
wounded
lets
a
and sniper
of them. So
from
few
He
east along the sea wall.
feet closer to the wall, out of the path of
fire. 33
tried to pull
MG-42
bul-
But he could only help a few. There were so many
many young Americans with arms
outstretched, only feet
survival.
Baumgarten stood at
The
finally
base.
its
It
reached the D-l
was knocked
invasion looked like
it
Vierville draw.
A
Sherman tank
out.
had
summed up the situation: "Assault casualties. Enemy fire preventing
failed. 34
AV
Corps operational report
units in state of dissolution. Heaviest
leap across beachline.
Disembarked
crowded together within narrowest space. Engineers unable
units
to
clear passages through minefields or to demolish foreshore obstacles.
Armor and
vehicles immobilized on the narrow beach." 35
units in dissolution,
Company A had
leaderless ... a forlorn
ing of
vital
It
the assault
was now
"inert,
rescue party bent upon survival and the sav-
lives." 36
Baumgarten spotted
News,
little
suffered most.
Of
Virginia.
a
good buddy, Private Robert Garbed of Newport
Garbed was dead, facedown. He too had reached the
D-l draw. Along the way, he'd paid the ultimate
others from
Company A.
price, as
had 102
15
Every
A.M., BYhad7:30 won the
day.
Drive the
Man Was
a
Hero
THE GERMANS
above Dog Green thought they
They were about
do what Rommel had ordered:
enemy back
into the sea.
to
The few Americans
still
alive
were
simply target practice. There was no sign of reinforcements.
The commander
of the Wilderstansnest (defensive
emplacement) 76
telephoned the 352nd Division Headquarters. "At the water's edge tide near St.
Laurent and Vierville the enemy
the coastal obstacles,'' he reported. "A great
ten tanks
—stand burning
have given up their
at the
activity.
beach.
artillery
the
was well-placed and has
enemy A
great
in search of cover
many vehicles
The
low
behind
—among these
obstacle demolition squads
Debarkation from the landing boats has
ceased, the boats keep farther seawards. 7
is
at
The
fire
of our strong points and
inflicted considerable casualties
many wounded and dead
lie
on the beach."
among
1
Meanwhile, an increasingly concerned Brigadier General Norman Cota and Colonel Charles
hundred yards
Canham approached Dog White
to the east of the
beach, seven
D-l draw Their boat carried the 29th
Division's headquarters staff, including Lieutenant Jack Shea, Cota's aide. set at ter
Two hundred an angle
yards from the shore, they neared a series of timbers
in the water.
Engineers from the 146th Special Underwa-
Demolition Battalion were supposed to have cleared these deadly ob-
structions but they
had landed over
a mile to the east. 2
the timbers had Teller mines attached to
The
boat's
them with
About
a third of
rusted, barbed wire.
coxswain cut the throttle as they prepared to land.
A three-
knot crosscurrent and the surf swept them against a timber several
149
The Bedford Boys
150
times, forcing the Teller
mine
To
their relief, the
his motor,
maneuvered the
free of the obstacle.
mine did not explode. "The coxswain gunned
boat free, and dropped the ramp," recalled Shea. "Moderate small arms fire
was directed
Canham, and
Cota,
their staff crossed
deep water. Suddenly, they came
As they waded across
feet wide.
ramp was lowered." 3
at the craft as the
it,
was
a
Battalion.
The
was
fire
It
six
rounds from an
88mm
DD
gun
the D-l draw. Cota and
had been itself, all
this left
in front of the
tank of
D-l draw, were on
C Company.
It
had been
from the concrete pillbox
firing
Canham
men exposed
along the bluffs.
few yards past the water
line.
hit
at the
fire.
with
base of
realized the landing of crucial tanks
There was no covering
a disaster.
and
a
743rd Tank
minutes before H-Hour and many had already
been immobilized. Two of them, C-5, another
C Company,
tank of
and seventeen others stood
tanks had landed
One was
hit in the
DD
a
thirty
chest by machine gun
face down, dead, in the water. 4 available cover
deep and
In-
and
first
through three-foot-
Major John Sours, the 116th
S-4 intelligence officer,
The
fire
to a runnel, five feet
fantry's fell
under
to
from the beach
artillery fire
emplacements and machine gunners
5
The Germans were now
watching
firing flat-trajectory rounds,
where they splashed down and then adjusting
their
fire.
for
In a couple of
minutes, they were able to zero in on landing craft as they ground against the shore. direct
fire.
By the time ramps had lowered, most
craft
were under
Cota and Canham ran forward and reached the Dog Beach
sea wall, five feet high.
The
sea wall had small timber fences every
fifty
ted twenty or thirty feet into the sea. All along
it,
yards or so which jut-
men formed
bedrag-
gled and paralyzed jumbles of several different companies. Engineers
cowered next personnel.
to
They
medics, all
men from
the
2nd and 5th Rangers, and navy
shared the same plight. In Lieutenant Sheas words,
they were firmly "pinned down!" 6
Cota and
Canham crouched behind
werfer and mortar
fire
increased.
the sea wall as
Most rounds landed
German Nebel-
in the
sand beyond
Every
Man Was
some exploded among the groups
the sea wall but
a Hero
5
1
of Americans, causing
and heart-stopping panic. The Nebelwerfer rounds
horrific injuries
broke into very large hunks of shrapnel, commonly the size of a shovel blade,
back.
which
sliced
men
two
in
The Nebelwerfers were
which sprayed
far
if
hit in the
than the mortars, however,
less fatal
more fragments over
stomach or small of the
and caused most of
a wider area,
Omaha after the MG-42 machine gun. The longer men stayed behind the sea wall, the greater chance they stood of being blown to pieces. Shortly after H-Hour, squads from Company C had made their way up the bluffs of Dog White by way of a path marked clearly on their officers' invasion maps. Somehow, the men still the deaths on
pinned down behind the sea wall would also have
Beach
if
they were going to
But time was running
to find a
way
live.
Medics were already overwhelmed by the
out.
extent of the slaughter, working furiously with limited supplies just
bandages and morphine spikes and a few capsules of
where men
lay
Dog
off
—often Every-
sulfa.
with severe head and stomach wounds. The limbless
died quickly from blood loss unless comrades applied tourniquets,
which many
did, using strips of rope, belts,
and even torn pieces of uni-
form. Intestines and internal organs had to be pushed back into struck
dumb
by
terror.
men
There were so many wounded, so many severe
wounds were
cases of trauma, noted Shea, that 'gaping head and belly
bandaged with the same rapid efficiency that was dealt
to the
more
minor wounds.' 7 Lieutenant Ray Nance had
lost all
sense of time as he lay bleeding on
the shingle below the sea wall near the Vierville D-l draw. At point, if
he spotted what looked
the battle had been
driving the
1 1
"This thing
like a
German panzer
tank.
It
seemed
as
The Germans had counterattacked and were
lost:
6th Infantry back into the water. is
a failure,"
Nance
thought. "They're
mopping us
But then the sun caught the side of the tank. Nance saw the est white star" placed
stared at the
some
star.
on
Looking
all
at
American it
vehicles.
made him
It
was
feel better.
9
a
up." 8 "pretti-
Sherman.
He
The Bedford Boys
152
Then,
all
of a sudden, a navy
ing over him.
Nance was soaked and covered
medic looked immaculate, dry examine him.
started to
medic wearing green
as a bone.
He had been
in
from the way he handled himself under "This
is
He
was
lean-
and grease. The
in oil
and
knelt at Nance's side
combat
before. That
was
clear
fire.
worse than Salerno," he told Nance.
The medic gave Nance
a shot of morphine,
opened up
boot and dressed his heel wound. At some point, shot in the
had
overalls
hand and again
"million-dollar"
in his foot.
wounds
serious
He was one
enough
to
his hobnailed
Nance had
also
been
of the very lucky.
He
put him out of the war
but not life-threatening.
"Good
luck," said the navy medic.
Wounded men around Nance hadn't seen him: Nance was delirious the man was a figment of his imagination. But Nance knew he was real. He just knew it. Heaven-sent, the medic had saved him and moved on. Only God knew where. 10 Nance looked around, the morphine starting to kick in. He saw two dead men lying face up. He recognized both. One was an officer from D Company. Suddenly, he was aware of another man beside him: Cecil Then he was
gone.
—
Breeden.
Breeden checked Nance's dressings and said he had seen the bodies of Captain Fellers, John Schenk, and John Wilkes. All of
ably been killed by machine-gun
beach.
11
As
far as
Company A and
fire
them had prob-
within minutes of arriving on the
Breeden knew, Nance was the only
living officer
command of what was left of it. Meanwhile, Cota and Canham were moving from one group
another, urging
therefore in
them
to
his
left wrist.
of
men
to
arm themselves with whatever weapons they could
scavenge and then get up and off the beach. Suddenly,
through the
from
He
Canham was
shot
continued along the beach, toting a Colt .45
good hand, blood gushing from
his
in
wound.
"Medic!"
Canhams wrist Canham be evacuated.
Cecil Breeden arrived, wrapped a bandage around
and then quickly moved on. Cota suggested
Every
Canham weak
Man Was
a Hero
1
refused and set off along the sea wall, looking for a
anywhere
point,
up
to get
closely behind, reloading
Behind the sea wall
to the bluffs.
Canham's Colt
at the'
53
gully, a
His bodyguard followed
few minutes.
.45 every
base of the D-l draw, Hal Baumgarten
looked east and saw a figure, back straight, walking along the beach, "an angel of mercy,'
and patch up
bending down here and there
12
others.
.
.
.
When
Cecil Breeden finally got to Baumgarten,
he handed him twelve sulfa tablets and told him
He was
some
to drink
water.
badly dehydrated. Shells and mortar rounds began to land
around them. Breeden leaned
and put
comfort the dying
to
seemingly oblivious to the heavy
bandage on Baumgarten's
a pressure
Baumgarten
over,
tried to pull
all
fire,
face.
Breeden down, out of the
but he
line of fire,
slapped his hand away. "You're hurt now," said Breeden.
"When
I
get
it,
you can take care of
me." 13 In Baumgarten's eyes,
of all
D-Day" the
way
Breeden was "probably the
single greatest hero
Breeden would survive the war, accompanying Company
14
A
Germany, and would not receive a scratch. Despite long
to
and concerted
efforts
by
many
survivors, notably
Baumgarten, Breeden
died without receiving a military honor in recognition of his heroism on
Omaha Beach
—
heroism that sustained hope among those
a
who were
a
breath from dying.
According
to a
Army Medical
subsequent report by the United States
men
Department, because of the "actions and example of
like the
medic
many
of the
Breeden, [Company A] survivors found the
will to
rescue
wounded from
off the
beach
position
the advancing tide and
where the remnants of the company
Breeden
all
"Every
of
them might
man was
a hero,
cheek about over
his ear.
now and then
at
the base of the draw]. As
rallied.
[I]
I
it
not for
15
never saw a coward," Breeden later said
"When
I
found Baumgarten, he had
patched him up and went on
the boys trying to take that I
to a sheltered
Were
well have died on the beach."
with typical self-effacement.
glanced
move
remember,
it
took
six or
damned
more
to
my
his
way.
I
pillbox [at
do
it.
As
far
The Bedford Boys
154
as I
I
know, none of them
was
just too
Breeden
men were
busy
to
lived.
couldn't
know what was
Baumgarten
left
I
at
Bill" Presley,
you who any of them were.
going on around me." 16
about 8:15 A.M. All along Dog Green,
and determination on
starting to organize, terror
They included "Big
tell
their faces.
Master Sergeant of B Company. 17 Bree-
den saw Presley walking along the beach, seemingly oblivious lets
and shrapnel hissing
"What
all
to the bul-
around.
are you doing?" asked Breeden.
for a damn rifle that will work," said Presley, pointing up to Some of his men had moved past the sea wall. "Get down or you'll get hit," Presley ordered. "What the hell are you talking about?" replied Breeden. "You're a damn sight bigger target than me."
"Looking
the bluffs.
Presley grinned and walked on. Before long, he
M-l
waved
carbine,
By 8:30
at
came
Breeden, and then joined his men. 18
A.M., approximately five thousand troops
the 6,500 yards of ized something
back, toting an
Omaha
had gone
Beach. Out
terribly
had been landed on
at sea, naval
commanders
real-
wrong. According to the Overlord plan,
the 1st and 29th Divisions should be inland by now. But
when
observers
peered through binoculars and telescopes, they saw wave after wave of soldiers
jammed
some jetsam
together on the beach. Along the surf line lay a grue-
of dead
men, body
essential to forcing exits
parts,
and vast quantities of equipment
from the beach:
TNT
packages, boxes of am-
munition, wire-cutters, and countless Bangalore torpedoes.
communications equipment was especially dios
among
the
1
grave.
fire
was
loss of
Three out of four
16th Infantry battalions were useless.
Realizing that covering
The
essential, given that
ra-
19
most of the am-
phibious tanks were out of action or sunk, U.S. Navy and British Royal
Navy commanders brought a
their boats as close to the shore as possible,
couple actually scraping the sea bed, and trained their five-inch guns
on the
bluffs.
But where were they
to fire?
fighting for their lives along the sea wall salvos.
Only
a couple of the
had radios
men
to direct the ships'
Nonetheless, the warships opened up. At one point, desperate
The Bedford boys Allen Huddle st on.
leave Ivybridge
bound
for
Omaha
Beach, spring 1944.
Jack Powers, just before being selected to join the England, 1943. Eloise Rogers.
elite
29th Division Hangers,
"God was looking
after
me." Allen
Huddleston outside Company As recreation room, Ivybridge, 1943.. Allen Huddleston.
"What have Yorker
John
Company A
gotten
I
as a
into?"
New
who
joined
replacement
in early
Barnes,
1944. John Barnes.
"A
first-class fighting force."
orous training
in
Bedford boys from
England. Front row, right to
Company A
left:
Earl
after twelve
Newcomb
months of rig-
beside Roy Stevens.
Back row: right to left, John Wilkes, Andrew Coleman, Jack Powers, unidentified Cordon Henry White. Elva Newcomb.
dier.
Bob Slaughter
of
Com-
pany D, one of a mirac-
who landed D-Day on Omaha
ulous few
on
Beach
and
was
still
fighting at the war's end.
Photograph taken in Germany, March 1945.
Bob
Slaughter.
sol-
Boat
Team Number
to land
on
Omaha
Five,
one of seven Company
before D-Day. Standing in the back row, unidentified soldier, Lieutenant
from
left:
A
boat teams that were scheduled
Beach. Photograph taken near the D-l "sausage" a few days left to right:
Clyde Powers, Harold Wilkes,
Edward Gearing, Roy Stevens. Bottom
row, fifth
John Barnes. John Barnes.
Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower, pointand General Bernard L. Montgomery, far right, chief architect of Overlord, watching invasion practices in March 1944. National Archives.
The ing,
top brass. Allied
"The greatest armada the world has ever seen." Landing craft similar to ones used by Bedford boys are shown in foreground, LSTs (Landing Ship Tanks) behind them, in
an English port just prior to the invasion. National Archives.
[IMS Empire
Javelin at anchor before
D-Day The
Javelin
would transfer the 1st where the Bedford
Battalion of 116th Infantry to within twelve miles of France,
boys would then take the LCAs, visible hanging from davits along her sides, to the shores of France. Bob Sales.
"The Limey. Sub-lieutenant
Jimmy Green, officer in flotilla
took
British naval
command
of the
of landing craft that
Company A
Beach. Jimmy Kevan Elsby.
to
Omaha
Green and
Russell L. Pickett, flame-
thrower
Number
in
Five,
Boat
Team
from Soddy
Daisy, Tennessee. Russell Pickett.
Wounded GIs from
One
the
first
of an estimated 2,500
waxes on
American
Omaha
Beach. National Archives.
casualties on
Omaha
Beach. National Archive
iAjZMMAZMM fl*r
mum *km mum m
mmm
•&>>''<,
n-mf.
lit***** 7*/
MAvtvofmi* AT
"Dear
Mom
and Dad."
A
"V-gram" from wounded Clyde Powers to his parents
Bedford explaining where his brother Jack was buried
in
France. Eloise Rogers.
in
Right:
The enemy. German soldier killed by Boh Sales in Normandy on June 30, 1944 the
—
day Roy Stevens was almost killed by a
German "bouncing
Below
The
Bob
Sales.
:
ruins of the French city of St. L6.
prime objective after
Betty" mine.
D-Day was
ol surviving
The
Bedford boys
finally liberated in late July,
1944, after huge losses by both
and Americans. National Archives.
Germans
WAR DEPARTMENT IN
»« rw\n 201 Powers, Jack G. AG PC-H ETO 137 -^
emp
THE ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE
REPLY REFXH TO: -r
i
/-.
WASHINGTON
25, D. C.
1 August 19hh
Mrs. Alice P. Powers 102C Madison Street Bedford, Virginia
Dear Mrs. Powers: It is with profound regret that I confirm the recent telegram informing you of the death of your son, Private First Class Jack G. Powers, 20,363,657, Infantry, who was previously reported missing in action on 6 June l$kk in France.
An official message has now been received which states that he was killed in action on the date he was previously reported missing in action. If additional information is received it will be transmitted to you promptly. I realize the "burden of anxiety that has been yours since he was first reported missing in action and deeply regret the sorrow this later report brings you. May the knowledge that he made the supreme sacrifice for his home and country be a source of sustaining comfort.
My sympathy is with you in this time of great sorrow. Sincerely yours,
J. A.
QUO
Major General, The Adjutant General, 1 Inclosure
Bulletin of Information.
"With Profound Regret. Letter from the
War Department
to
Mrs. Alice Powers con-
firming that her son Jack Powers was killed on D-Day. Eloise Rogers.
"I
cant remember whose name
came
first."
Twenty-one-year-
old Elizabeth Teass, in
Bedford's
who worked
Western
telegram office the town's tragic
Union
when news of loss came over
the wires. Elizabeth Teass.
pew mtxM hmg
"1
me
the w
Letter
from
hey gave
go on."
ill
to
first
grade pupil Booker Goggin to
teacher
his
Schenk, sent
^
l<
y f%g' o^/3 a
a
pW
few
learned
Ivylyn
1944,
in July
days
Booker
after
that
teacher's
his
husband John was dead. The letter reads: "Dear Mrs. Schenk,
I
am
son") to
hear about your husband.
wish
I
you.
Come
hope
F&fi< fips
Kfl-fi,
could
you
teacher next
come to
see
will fall.
I
to see
me.
I
be
my
With
love,
Booker." Ivylyn Hardy.
'
2
« I
j
««c,,,,,. v >••<#,.,,
\
-
"Some found happiness." Roy Stevens with
new home
in
his wife
Helen
in front of their
Bedford just after their marriage on Groundhog Day, 1946. Roy
and Helen Stevens, and Virginia
Historical Association
"The daughter he never got to touch." Earl Parker's daughter, twelve-year-old Danny, in her scout uniform at the unveiling of Bedford's memorial stone in 1954. Man Daniel
He ilia and
\
irginia Historical Association.
Hal Baumgarten, left, and medic Cecil Breeden at the Colleville American Cemetery above Omaha Beach, 1988. Breeden saved many lives and treated Baumgarten and several Bedford boys on D-l)av. Hal Baumearten.
Fifty years later.
friends
died on
Roy Stevens,
Omaha
center, returns to
Beach.
where
his twin brother
Photograph taken on June
6,
and so many
1994.
Virginia
Historical Association.
Bob Slaughter with President George W. Bush D-Day Memorial in Bedford, June 6, 2001. Bob
at the
dedication of the National
Slaughter.
fO&a* «il£ Itllll'^i
*
They died
that others might be free.
eleven Bedford boys resting France. John Snowdon,
in
peace
The at
grave of John B. Sehenk, one of
the Colleville American Cemetery in
Every
men had
to
a Hero
1
55
use flag signals to stop a heavy barrage of their sector. But
most men, such
for
Man Was
Bob
as
was
Slaughter, the shelling
much-needed
a
boost to morale.
Since coming ashore, Slaughter had crouched wall. Suddenly,
recognized
he saw several
Canham,
his
arm
down behind
moving towards him. Slaughter
officers
good hand. 20
in a sling, a Colt .45 in his
"They're murdering us here!"
the sea
Canham
shouted. "Let's
move inland
and get murdered!"
"Who
the hell
that son of a bitch?" asked
is
one GI. 21
Every Stonewaller would know before the day was out, for
seemed
roam everywhere. "We'd have shot him
to
Company
A's Russell Pickett.
soldier." 22
in training," recalled
"But once the fighting started, he was a
Few
veterans disagree that
standing regimental
commander on D-Day.
true
Canham
Canham was
the most out-
Norman Cota was just as brave and inspirational. He also gave men hope when there was none. Some found the will to fight on simply by looking at him as he strode about defiantly, back straight, chewing his unlit cigar, mumbling ditties to himself when he Brigadier General
wasn't cursing the Germans.
Hal Baumgarten would never forget seeing Cota's rangy figure approach him that morning. set, officers
had been
It
first to
was
as
all
Robert
yelling for
him
Mitchum with
to get
he was immortal; from the out-
be picked off by snipers. "He was coming
from the west with a major, had a
were
if
pistol in
down.
He
one hand, and the fellows
looked very similar to the actor
his slanted eyebrows.
He was
very, very brave." 23
Dog Beach, others watched as Cota still moved from one another, now urging the Rangers to lead the way off the
All along
group
to
beach. Inspired by Cota, officers began to organize their
men
for
an
advance.
Cota had spotted five rifle
He mound. He
yards beyond
on the
a section of the sea wall with a
provide covering
it.
fire.
low
mound
of earth
ordered a Ranger to place a Browning automatic
then crawled after the
man and
ordered him to
Next, Cota organized the blowing of an opening in
156
The Bedford Boys
a thick
barbed wire fence that ran along the
promenade road beyond the sea
Smoke from
a grass fire
now
move while
the opportunity to
far side of a ten-foot-wide
wall.
partly
the
obscured the beach. Cota seized
German
gunners' view was obscured.
"Rangers, lead the way!"
The
first
man
to
run through the opening was cut
"Medic," he yelled. "Medic, I'm
A few
minutes
Many
of the
later,
hit.
down by an MG-42.
Help me." 24
he sobbed "Mama" over and over and then died.
men around Cota were
again paralyzed by
Cota
fear.
once more led by example, dashing through the opening. Troops lowed him across the promenade, through the gap field of
marsh
Vierville bluffs.
"A
single
and
into a
and several squads wormed
grass. Cota, his aide Shea,
way along shallow trenches and
their
in the wire
fol-
finally
reached the base of the
25
file
of troops,
composed
of
men
rifle
of the
1
16th 1st Bn,
and headquarters, Rangers, and some members of the 82nd Chemical Mortar Battalion (armed with carbines) then ascended the onally and to the right,"
Shea
later wrote.
bluffs, diag-
"They reached the crest
at a
point about 100 yards to the west of a small, concrete foundation (evi-
dently a
summer house) which
the bluff.
A few
lay twenty-five yards
below the crest of
anti-personnel mines were detonated during the ascent,
but they were not in great number." 26 It
was now about 9 A.M. Canham had
mand
post at the base of the bluffs.
with the
1st Division
He
set
up the
tried but failed to
on the eastern half of
Omaha
make contact
Beach. Suddenly,
several rounds of very accurate two-inch mortar fire landed
The mortars
wounded
killed
two
men
his radio operator,
three feet
com-
29th's first
on the
post.
from Cota and seriously
throwing him thirty feet up the
bluff.
Cota's aide, Lieutenant Shea, was blown seventy-five feet below but
only slightly hurt.
Cota carried on climbing, urging this
men
on. Again, the advance stalled,
time just below the crest of the bluffs. Someone yelled out that they
should take a look below.
A
lone American rifleman walked along the
Man Was
Every
promenade
him marched
road. "Before
been stripped of
An MG-42
interest."
snarled.
dived towards
German
weapons and who held
their
heads. Inasmuch as they were the
caused particular
five
first
Germans
the
who had
prisoners
their
157
a Hero
hands above
men had
their
seen, they
27
Two prisoners were cut down. The American Two other prisoners fell to their knees, as if
the sea wall.
German machine gunner to spare them. "The first kneeling German full in the chest," recalled
begging the
next burst
caught the
Shea, "and
as
he crumpled the remaining two took
to the cover of the sea wall
with
their captor." 28
Cota firing
Men was
reached the top of the
finally
from
bluffs.
Another machine gun was
hedgerow three hundred yards inland across
a
huddled out of
No
in charge.
sight
one
below the crest of the
the field instructing
The machine gun
them
hedgerow sur Mer. 1
to fire at the
as cover, until
field,
Mer and
was supposed
to
lane,
The remnants
and Rangers who had
meet
his brother
Ray
tial,
of the 1st Battalion
du Hoc
before the
at the far
also fought their
way
men
off the
entered
to
knocking out gun
Omaha
move
to
At the
Canham.
would advance further west
end of
Beach.
to as-
positions on cliff
It
was
also essen-
open the D-l draw so
that
inland and establish a beachhead. Cota
a patrol with three officers
wards the D-l draw.
move
Vierville
in the center of the town.
Germans counterattacked,
vehicles and troops could
formed
.
then headed for the crossroads where Roy Stevens
Rangers assigned that morning
tops at Point
.
Cota saw other survivors from the
crossroads, about noon, Cota reunited with Colonel
sist
to
.
using the
he reached a narrow lane 600 yards from
beach. There was minimal opposition as Cota and these Vierville sur
charge across
as they advanced.
along the perimeter of the
As he advanced along the
16th's 1st Battalion
hedgerows
in a
29 it."
men
his
them
Shea reported,
stopped as soon as the troops started
fire
across the fields towards
Cota then led
Cota asked who
bluffs.
replied. "In the face of the fire,"
"[Cota] passed through the men, personally led
a level field.
and two enlisted men and
set off to-
The Bedford Boys
158
The
tide
was turning
in favor of the
Americans
at last.
By now, other
groups had also broken through the beach defenses and were fighting
way up the
their
bluffs
Dog Green and
along
all
other sectors of
Omaha. Hal Baumgarten joined eleven other men, most
Now
wounded.
they were scrambling along a trench midway up the
dead Germans. One had
Vierville bluffs, stepping over off.
them
of
Baumgarten wondered
if it
was the man he'd
his
head blown
on
earlier that
fired
morning.
A machine
gun
fired
from a beach house nearby. Despite strong." 30
Baumgarten was feeling "remarkably through him.
He
spotted a German, took aim, and
second time he'd done so that the machine gun
men.
Company A and and have
B.
A small
Baumgarten would
By
5 P.M., his
killed at least ten
Adrenaline coursed fired. It
was only the
redhead tossed a grenade and
Baumgarten's group was
fell silent.
All afternoon,
day.
wounds,
his
fight
now down
to eight
on with the remnants of
group would be down
to
seven
men
more Germans.
More and more men were
getting off
Captain Robert Walker of the
1
Dog Beach and moving
inland.
swum
16th Infantry's headquarters had
ashore around 7:30 A.M. By 12:30 P.M., he was "about halfway to the top''
of the bluffs.
"I
heard the sound of someone groaning nearby and calling for
awhile,
I
help.
was about
It
investigate groin.
rested for awhile in a small gully," he recalled. "After
fifteen or
and saw
He had
it
was
twenty feet away. Cautiously a
German
soldier, gravely
went over
wounded
to
in his
He had a banpowder. He was
already been treated by a medical aid man.
dage loosely fixed over the wound, sprinkled with sulfa gasping, 'Wasser, wasser' "I
I
—German
assumed he had been given
for water.
a sulfa pill
which causes great
thirst. In
me and didn't know where to get any. He then said there was a spring. He called it 'ein born, about made my way over to the area didn't believe him but fifty feet away. German
I
told the
man
I
had no water with
'
I
I
he indicated. Incredibly, there actually was a spring, with apparently clear water in brought
it
it.
I
filled
to him. After drinking thirstily,
my
a sort of
water hole
helmet with water and
he thanked
me
profusely.
I
left
Man Was
Every
him some water
John Barnes, Roy Stevens, and other
at sea,
from their landing
shock had given way
Some had even
Omaha was
but could not. The battle for
The Empire Javelin was unnervingly
crammed with
wallet from his drenched
the notes on a
returned to the
bunk
the beach.
They were
fit
Only
quiet.
a
few hours ago,
its
took out his invasion currency, laid out later,
he
re-arm and take the next landing craft back to
told this
for further use
sential repairs. Besides, the to stay
raging.
and then went on deck. Some time
was not
possible.
The
LCAs
surviving
on D-Day. Most were badly damaged and
covered in gore and vomit. The
"We were
for sleep
down. The money was gone.
to lie to
still
Their
tags.
anxious men. John Barnes salvaged his
He
kit.
to dry,
men wanted
Several
were not
bunk
dog
lost their
deadening exhaustion. They ached
to a
sur-
boarded the Empire Javelin. Most were
craft
near naked beneath blankets.
decks had been
59
31
Twelve miles out vivors
1
canteen cup. Later on his groans became weaker
in his
and he soon died."
a Hero
had
flotilla
men were
on board, go back
to
to return to
England
for es-
too exhausted to fight effectively.
England, get re-armed and make
our way back to the company," recalled John Barnes. "Gearing had picked up a spare
rifle
and said he would hitch
craft.
He
NCO
leader, in charge.
ordered us to stay together and
a ride
left
on
a passing U.S.
Sergeant Stevens, our
There was no doubt that Stevens would get us
back since he was concerned about
his brother, Ray." 32
Bedford boys Roy Stevens, Charles
Fizer,
Harold Wilkes, and Clyde
Powers could hear a constant barrage, especially intense between midday and
1
P.M.
when
several
rected by shore observers,
American and
pounded the
British destroyers,
pillbox
now
di-
and trenches around the
D-l draw
The
explosions knocked several
men
in Cota's patrol off their feet.
"The concussion from the bursts of these guns seemed
pavement of the
street in Vierville actually rise
to
beneath our
make
feet," re-
called Lieutenant Shea. "I
hope
to hell they cut out that firing," said
the
one of Cota's men.
The Bedford Boys
160
The
batteries of the Texas battleship fired four salvos of four rounds
each. Fellow destroyer
McCook
then radioed shore that Germans were
fleeing the pillbox at the base of the
As Cota and rage stopped.
his patrol entered the
Smoke
and shrouded
draw and other strong draw from
points.
Vierville, the naval bar-
cleared, revealing a road frosted with concrete dust
in bitter-tasting cordite
fumes. The road led
down
Dog
to
Beach. "That
firing
made them duck back
probably
Cota. "But keep a sharp eye on those
cliffs to
They moved down the draw. "There were
into their holes,"
your
warned
right."
few scattered rounds of
a
small arms fired at the patrol, but a dozen rounds of carbine and pistol sufficed to bring five
fire
Germans down from
the caverns in the east
weapons
as
proceeded
to
wall of the draw," recalled Shea. "They were stripped of their
they reached the road, and herded before the patrol as the
mouth
of the draw." 33
The Germans
led the
draw and then Cota and
way through his patrol
Near the base of the draw, and were
it
a minefield at the entrance of the
Omaha
walked out onto at
Beach.
an aid station on Dog Beach, there
Rangers and dozens of badly wounded and dog-tired
a cluster of
Company A and B
survivors.
Among
the
wounded were Bedford boys
Dickie Overstreet, Anthony Thurman, Lieutenant Ray Nance, and the 1
16 Yankee baseball player, Staff Sergeant
Tony Marsico.
Anthony Thurman had been
shoulder; his nerves were also shot to pieces.
hit in the
He would
arm and the
never fully
re-
cover from the psychological trauma caused by D-Day. 34 Sergeant Marsico
had been
hit in
the leg and shot through the
he crossed the sands. I
didn't
know
it
"I
to
be
like that," recalled
didn't
make
it."
There was one Vierville
Marsico,
England along with
to a hospital in
rades from Bedford. "I'm no hero.
who
a rifle bullet as
thought [the invasion] would be pretty hot but
was going
soon be evacuated
arm by
I
know
that.
who would
his surviving
The heroes
com-
are the ones
35
last
—an antitank
obstacle blocking the road from the beach to
wall at the
mouth
of the draw.
An
engineer placed
Man Was
Every
a
TNT
charge beside
it
Hero
and the wall was blown around 1:30
Rangers moved up the draw and started
man
a
to
mop up
last
161
P.M.
Then
pockets of Ger-
resistance along the bluffs.
At enormous
cost, the
116th Infantry and Rangers had secured the
D-l draw. The challenge would now be
to
keep
Wanting
it.
to
check on
progress at the other end of the 29th Division's section of assigned
beach, Cota walked off along the promenade road leading to the next lage to the east, Les Moulins.
Later that afternoon, after securing Vierville, the'
beach
for
medical
"Thousands of bodies were lying far as
men began
to return to
Twenty-seven-year-old Private Warner
aid.
Company managed
"Buster" Hamlett of F
vil-
36
there.
hobble down
to
to the sands.
You could walk on the bodies,
as
you could see along the beach, without touching the ground. Parts
of bodies
—heads,
and arms
legs,
ing up and down, tagging the
American comrades, about."
—
wounded. As
I
Medics were walk-
stepped gently between
my
wave was
all
what being
realized
I
floated in the sea.
in the first
37
Lieutenant Ray Nance lay
an aid station on the beach.
at
had carried him that morning on
A
sergeant
hundred yards
his shoulder several
along the sea wall. "Late that afternoon," recalled Nance, "Second Lieutenant Gearing landed by himself.
up on what I
never
was
felt
getting
I
knew.
I
said: 'Hey,
I
so sorry for a person into.' 38
had not been
.
.
hardt,
P.M.,
when he
killed or
wounded. Of the
By
nightfall,
I
got
him
He
didn't
know what he
Company A who
five officers in
Nance's berth on
Nance and Gearing were
of the 29th Division.
came
left.
me and
—company commander.'
officer
Ray Nance spotted another
commander
it
over to
from
Gearing was the only
confident as ever as he waist.
He came
think you're
the Empire Javelin that morning, only
At 7
.
familiar figure
He
still
alive.
— General Ger-
looked as immaculate and
ashore, his shiny twin revolvers at his
Gerhardt would have
set
up
a
command
post in a
quarry near the Vierville draw.
For Hal Baumgarten, the battle was not yet over. Towards evening, he
had penetrated
all
the
way
to the top of the bluffs
and was headed
to-
1
The Bedford Boys
162
wards
a village to the
west of Vierville called Maissey
Baumgarten crawled along
le
Grand. As
a road he tripped a "castrator mine."
A bullet
shot through his foot.
"When
I
turned [my] shoe over, blood poured out
and dressed
sulfa denly,
my
Baumgarten. "Using
pitcher," recalled
my
which had
foot,
Baumgarten came under heavy
and crammed hedgerow.
back into
his foot
He
aid
first
kit,
He
stayed there with seven other GIs until darkness
had gotten more accurate
As Baumgarten and man.
"I
— Baumgarten suspected
his
"Help me, Jesus!" The others moaned "hallucinatory
I
my
left lip
dream
in pain.
39
Sud-
and
fell
shelling
been observed.
they'd
group moved forward, an
was shot through
German
MG-42 opened
up,
and
my
lost part of
men
upper jaw, teeth and gums." Nearby, one of the
right
it."
into the cover of a
then took off across the road to find fresh cover. The
hitting every
powdered with
I
tore off the dressing
and jumped
his boot
water from a
through
a clean hole
shellfire.
like
Baumgarten
shouted:
drifted into a
state":
pictured a box of goodies from
my mother
that
I
was opening back
in
Camp D-l. The homemade cookies, cake, and salami were shared with my Company A buddies. They were cooking the green mold covered salami (result of the long shipping time from the States), stuck on their
bayonets over an open
fire.
40
Back on Dog Beach, Thomas Valance Master Sergeant John Wilkes's boat P.M.
He had been
—one of the few
—watched darkness
placed on a stretcher in
a clearing
survivors from fall
around
1
surrounded by
barbed wire. Sometime after dark, litter-bearers moved him onto a
LST
loaded with
wounded and emergency medical equipment. He was
headed back
to
England. After three months in various hospitals, he
would return
to
Normandy and then
going back to America in "I've
eran's
December
fight
1945.
wondered over the years about one
Day 1987, "and
that
is
on through Germany before
why we,
in
thing," Valance wrote
A Company
on Vet-
of the 1st Battal-
Every
Man Was
a Hero
163
116th Infantry, 29th Division, were chosen to be the American
ion,
equivalent of stormtroopers.
Was
it
we had such
because
potential?
We
had no combat [experience], and the other troops that were around and with us in the invasion, such as the 1st Division, were highly trained.
was
it
we were
simply because
day drew
Finally, the longest
mated 2,500
considered expendable?" to a close.
Omaha, and
casualties on
less
There had been an
—
loss of 10
for the entire Allied invasion forces
percent given that just over 100,000
mandy, and
far less
esti-
than a tenth of that num-
ber on Utah, the other American beach. Total casualties
wounded
Or
41
—dead and
approached 10,000,
men were now
in
a
Nor-
than the 25 percent that Allied generals had pre-
dicted for infantrymen. 42
and hedgerows that had cost so many
All along the bluffs 1
16th Infantry dug in for the night.
Many
two days.
"We
we were both
about three inches deep.
was useless
and get some back
to
back
the
slept in well over
barely had the strength to scoop out shallow foxholes.
started to dig a foxhole," recalled
rock hard and
it
Most men had not
lives,
And
so,
my
private, "but the
ground was
exhausted by the time the hole was
standing there in the dark, aware that
Finally,
to continue, rest.'
totally
one
sergeant said,
D-Day came
in the shallow trench
to
Tuck it.
an end with both of us
throughout the
down
Let's just get
sitting
night." 43
Sometime near midnight, Hal Baumgarten awoke on the road above Omaha's
bluffs
and saw German
fighter planes above. All the
group lay dead from their wounds. Baumgarten
There was over.
little
To fend
pain
—
off the
just a cold
felt as if
men
in his
he was dying.
clamminess, and pins and needles
agony from four wounds received
in
all
twenty hours,
he had continually injected himself with morphine. To prevent dehydration,
he drank from his dead buddies' canteens.
Company D's Bob Slaughter saw the same waffe. "An enemy ME- 109 fighter plane flew from
right to left
Channel opened
belated attack by the Luftover the entire Allied
fleet,
above the barrage balloons. Every ship in the English fire
on that single airplane, illuminating the sky with
millions of tracer bullets.
The
heroic Luftwaffe pilot defied
all
of
The Bedford Boys
164
them
— not even taking evasive
through that curtain of
Company down
bunch
of
K rations
gun and
I
thought
it
it
with an old
me, back
to
woman
Around
at
3 A.M.
was very
for a blanket
back with another
was Bob Slaughter poking
my gun
"It
cold," recalled
could be so cold in France in June. So
was the old French woman
pointed
her and she ran
two medics
guy.
me awake
I
and
I
traded
slept with
woke up suddenly
trying to steal the blanket back.
off."
I
45
Hal Baumgarten into an ambulance.
lifted
men
"gave above and beyond, and [would] never be cited for their brav-
ery." 46
The ambulance took Baumgarten down
was placed on
a stretcher besides other
Incredibly, the battle
around him. "While
I
was
still
cross.
Then he
wounded
shot
not over for Baumgarten and the
was laying on the beach on
me
next to me.
But the destroyer
in the right
The
Dog Beach where he
to
wounded.
A.M. on June 7th, a sniper shot one of the aid
got
my
but he wasn't mov-
His uniform was dripping with the blood of his fellow Stonewallers,
who
got
Sales and several exhausted Virginians settled
dreamed
right beside
ing. It
wondered how he ever
I
snatch desperately needed sleep.
to
Sales. "I never
a
Bob
B's
action.
fire." 44
a stretcher,
men
right
through his red
knee and started picking
next shot would have gone through
McCook
offshore blasted
men
around 10
off
all
my
the
head.
away the sniper before he
to kill me." 47
Baumgarten's longest day was
finally over.
vived unscathed, the nightmare of
For the few
Normandy had
who had
only just begun.
sur-
14
Day
Bedford's Longest
JUNE radio.
Bedford, VIRGINIA.
6,
At 2 A.M., a stern voice interrupted a broadcast: "German radio
says the invasion has begun."
minutes
1
Company A had
after
It
was 8 A.M. on
She
instinctively
Newcomb woke up
time," she recalled. "His mail
"I
had been held up
because they were saying we might have
so rough.
I
in her log
couldn't sleep after that."
Bill,
and
had been worried about Earl
turned on the radio and heard about the invasion. ried
Beach, ninety
checked on her three children: Nancy,
Garland. They were sleeping soundly.
some
Omaha
landed.
Just after the 2 A.M. newscast, Elva cabin.
Viola Parker dozed next to her
for
Then
I
to pull out
some was
for
reason.
really
because
it
I
wor-
was
2
At 3:32 A.M., Viola Parker's radio announced that the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force firming
German
in
London was con-
reports of an invasion. Viola finally stirred at 4 A.M.,
turned up the volume on her radio, and heard: "Under the
command
General Eisenhower, Allied naval forces, supported by strong
began landing Allied armies
this
of
air forces,
morning on the northern coast of
France." 3
As the sun
rose, the bells of Bedford's central Presbyterian
Church
began peeling. Bells rang Florida.
The
all
across the United States that morning, from Alaska to
great crusade
In Philadelphia,
had
finally
begun.
mayor Bernard Samuel tapped the famous Liberty
Bell for the first time since 1835.
165
The Bedford Boys
166
New York,
In
Wall Street and then the money
war
efforts.
men and
The Dow Jones would
for the year. In
many
factories
news
were
all
to a
baseball games.
make space
their
"Mama
brought
Schenk
she sat there with recalled Ivylyn.
had not
told
me
"I
me what
me most knew
that
sat
she thought
we
of the day as
I
listened to
Across town, other wives and parents also rose the days
summer
would enjoy
John would be involved
first shift in
Newspapers
sky.
with her mother close to an
all
and
eating,
the reports,"
He
in the invasion.
anything directly but in a round-about way
Newcomb, worked
high
necks to watch
bulletins flicker across message-boards high in the clear
old radio.
new
for blanket coverage of the
Times Square, somber crowds craned
In her parlor in Bedford, Ivylyn
on
workers were told to go home.
stores,
as
cleared advertising and features to
of markets
war-profiteers returned to their
142 points that day
rise
and
Broadway shows were canceled,
invasion. In
marked the opening
a two-minute silence
early;
I
knew."
many,
4
Elva
like
several of Bedford's factories
producing war supplies. Bettie Wilkes switched on the radio while eat-
had
ing breakfast. At 7 A.M., she
where she made material used
be
to
for
at the
parachutes
used by the 101st Airborne on D-Day. thought John might be involved but
hoping recent
but
to get
will as
I
I
soon as
I
said:
'I
can.'"
5
Hemingway
plant,
— the same parachutes
caught the early news.
"I
hoped he was
through the war, begin our
John had
letter,
Belding
not.
We
were
lives together. ... In his
I
just
most
probably won't be able to write for a while,
Twenty-year-old Bertie Fellers prayed that morning for her brother,
Captain
Fellers,
and
for her
husband, Clarence Higginbotham,
who was
serving with the Engineer Corps in England. 'The previous evening,"
she recalled, "my mother and vice at
my
sister
and
I
had attended
Oakland Methodist Church near our home.
a prayer ser-
We knew
something
6
was going on even though we had not yet had news." Bertie had sent her brother a birthday card.
At 7:30 A.M., over at the
local
former
CCC
a
He
should have been thirty on June
just 10.
hundred conscientious objectors boarded trucks
camp
at Kelso.
farms before returning to the
They would spend
camp
at
5:30 P.M.
all
day working on
Bedford's Longest
As other Bedford residents went
Day
167
work, they picked up the Bedford
to
Bulletin from their mailboxes or in stores.
That week's paper contained an
ment
war bonds: "America
for
part as they are doing theirs
tions Zero Hour!"
men
7
It
was
—
.
employees
is it!
This
is
Don't
let
them down! Do your
Hour
America's Zero
—
Civiliza-
also reported that a plaque honoring service-
arms had been erected
in
this
.
.
eerily prescient full-page advertise-
left for service. It
at
Hampton Looms with names added
already held the
names
of Frank Draper
as Jr.
and Clifton Lee. Election season was well under
way
in
Bedford on June
W.
Sergeant Allen Huddleston's former boss, Dr.
was running hard
store,
who had been hoped
Lyle
to turn
A turnout
The
L. Lyle of Lyle's drug-
mayor against incumbent
J.
W.
Gillaspie,
The
"THE
town of the
State,
perhaps
vote would be on June 13, exactly a
week
after
Bedford into
of over 90 percent
Bulletin also
had begun
to
tourist
D-
was expected.
mentioned that parents throughout Bedford County
were worried about an outbreak of ties
1944.
challenged only three times during a fourteen-year-term.
of the South." 8
Day.
for
6,
them
urge
to
Medical authori-
infantile paralysis.
keep
their children
away from crowded
places until the epidemic was over. Nevertheless, local Girl Scouts were still
going from house to house canvassing for a forthcoming bond
rally
organized by the towns undertaker, Harry Carder. It
was
a beautiful
morning,
warm
but not too humid.
Up on
the
Peaks of Otter, ramblers noticed that the dogwood blossom had passed.
Rhododendron and
laurel
were
still
hood and May apple had taken the place of pers.
Cherry trees promised
Bedford's
Mud
Alley, trains
passed Frank Draper
worked
in
Frank
Sr.'s
Jr.'s
a
bumper
crop.
in
bloom, and monks'
trillium
Down
crammed with war
in
ladies' slip-
in the valley, in
supplies and troops
home. His mother and
garden, harvesting the season's
which they had planted
and
sister,
Verona,
first
vegetables,
March. Canning had started
in earnest.
Tobacco farmers throughout the county were
also starting to harvest,
hoping they would receive even higher prices
at the
Bedford Tobacco
The Bedford Boys
168
Market than they had the previous
had risen
year. Prices
significantly
since before the war.
Local stores advertised Father's Day
June
gifts for
18.
"Shop
early for
Fathers in the service!" they declared. Brightly striped broadcloth paja-
mas, sizes A,B,C,D, were a bargain Liberty cinema
— adults were charged
cal extravaganza
$2.98.
at
just
It
was
also bargain day at
twenty cents
musi-
to see the
Trocadew starring Rosemary Lane.
Around mid-day, Bedford
down and wrote
native Eleanor Yowell sat
to
her husband, a pilot based in England:
The
big
news came
been hard
for
me
this
to get
my
morning, and
anything done.
heart has
know
I
it
been so
is
full all
day
it's
a big show, probably
the biggest that has ever been staged in the world for that matter, but still is
so
that a
damn unnecessary
few people
business.
They
do.
boil
when you
think
and power control started the whole
who have
are not the ones
who
makes your blood
it
whom mone\
nocent masses of people at
that
it
We
pay ior
to
it
either;
arc having a prayer
2:30 this afternoon, and Dr. Gre\
churches everywhere are having sen
is
coming over
ices all
sen
it is
the in-
ice over here
to lead
All the
it.
day long. Lets hope that
these prayers will be heard for the good of everyone. 9
One man from Company A was
actually in Bedford
on June
In Octo-
6.
ber 1943, Sergeant Pride Wingfield had been accepted for training into the
Army Air
Force and was now on furlough from a
tened to the radio with his mother
in their
camp
in Missouri.
1933 home on
block from Bedford High School, which had graduated
week
its
He
lis-
Oak
Street, a
1944
class the
before.
Wingfield had recently started dating a pretty nineteen-year-old, Re-
becca Lockard, who worked
in a
beauty shop, Modernique, above
Green's drugstore. They would marry on October 22, 1945.
"I
was
al-
ways running down there, getting change or sandwiches," recalled Rebecca.
"It
was
a focus for
women
in the
community, especially us
Day
Bedford's Longest
women who had been we
knew what
all finally
behind.
left
When
169
word got back about D-Day, for." 10
the boys had gone over to England
At the back of the drugstore, twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth Teass
worked
at the
5 P.M. All
Western Union counter. Her hours were from 9:30 A.M.
morning she watched
townspeople came
as
talked over lunch, a Coke, or fresh coffee. There
conversation
in
where he was nursing weeks before he
his ankle
realized
"Somebody was looking
after
town centers across the
In
streets. Silence that
and
one topic of
how
me."
tives involved, reflecting
a radio in a rehabilitation cen-
back
to full strength. It
lucky he had been to avoid D-Day:
rest of Britain there
in his or
was no dancing
to blanket
own
her
much
is
in the
of the island:
thoughts, thinking of rela-
on the long years since Dunkirk. That
noon, King George VI addressed his subjects via the the challenge
would be
11
morning seemed
Everybody was caught up
for the
sat
England, Bedford boy Sergeant Allen
Huddleston heard about the invasion on
several
just
and
— D-Day.
Three thousand miles away
ter
was
in
to
BBC:
after-
"This time
not to fight to survive but to fight to win the final victory
good cause.
At
...
this historic
moment
surely not one of us
is
too busy, too young, or too old to play a part in a nation-wide, perchance a world-wide, vigil of prayer as the great crusade sets forth." 12 All along Britain's south coast, doctors
receive the
first
wounded from
and young nurses prepared
to
the invasion beaches. John Reynolds's
"sweetheart," the American nurse Kathleen Bradshaw, worked in a hospital in
Plymouth.
for several
Now
she
rian
Verrier,
worked
at the
Queen
Portsmouth. Early that afternoon, she went
South Parade Pier
pital.
Two
to see her
weeks.
Another nurse, Mary pital in
knew why John had been unable
days
and landing
to help transport badly
earlier,
craft.
Now
Alexandra's Hos-
down
to the Victo-
maimed men
to the hos-
Portsmouth harbor had been packed with boats gray boats slowly pulled into harbor,
with wounded. Verrier would later write:
crammed
The Bedford Boys
170
It
was
a privilege to serve those lads.
to hurry
They
up when they were
laid
on
to
or asked people
their stretchers waiting to
and
lay there with patience, a joke
burned said
They never moaned
One chap who was
a smile.
me, "I'm quite good looking
come
you know, nurse."
really,
in.
badly I
said,
"Your eyes are not bad now, they're quite saucy." So he said, "You wouldn't
us a
like to give
around and
I
kiss,
would you, nurse?"
down and
bent
kissed
We
him on
weren't allowed, but
burned
his horribly
I
looked
lips
with
the awful smell coming off his burns. 13
Back at a
in
America, another nurse
128-bed hospital
in
—
Richmond,
Eloise Rogers
Virginia.
—tended
She had
to the sick
started
work
at 7
A.M. in the busy civilian hospital, helping with the delivery of babies, taking temperatures, replacing dressings. She heard about the invasion
over the radio and immediately thought of her brothers, Clyde and Jack
Powers, as well as Wilkes, with
whom
many
of the other Bedford boys such as Harold
she had played as a young
girl. "I
were probably involved with the invasion. But that
meant
on with
my
adventure/'
later life.
when As
I
saw
far as
I
a newsreel.
That
I
day,
knew, the boys were
then realized they
only understood what I
was twenty, getting
still
away on some big
14
That adventure gave millions hope. In their cramped hideaway
in
Amsterdam, Anne Frank and her Jewish family heard of the invasion on their radio.
that
I
Anne wrote
in
her diary: "The best part of the invasion
have the feeling that friends are approaching.
We
is
have been op-
pressed by those terrible Germans for so long, they have had their knives so at our throats, that the thought of friends and delivery
fills
us
with confidence!" 15
That afternoon
in Bedford, journalists at the
Bedford Bulletin pre-
pared the following report:
News
of the invasion brought a feeling of uneasiness to hundreds of Bed-
ford county
the
army
homes
in
for
many
England. Old
of
them have
Company A
sons,
husbands and brothers
in
has been in training there for
Day
Bedford's Longest
nearly two years and probably was
men
hundreds of other Bedford county fight,
the
first
landing forces, and
will ultimately
be thrown into the
and among them some casualties can be expected. 16
Mrs. George
would send
Church
to the Virginia state authorities:
and chimes, but no whistles, have announced the beginning
bells
woman who voice,
"I
fore day.
A
feeling of
awe and extreme quiet
has a brother with the
don't
know how
A doctor,
laugh."
Parker also prepared a report that day which she
P.
of the invasion.
body
among
171
The
Army
to describe
sitting in a
home
in
my
England
feeling.
I
prevailing.
is
said,
One
with trembling
can't cry
and
I
can't
announcement be-
of illness, heard the
seemed stunned. There were no comments by any-
family
—
just a quiet tenseness.
Churches have been open
.
.
with sad-
.
faced worshippers going in and out constantly. Tears only occasionally. 17
At around 2
P.M.,
many townspeople made
their
way through
silent
streets to a stately brick building with a high steeple, the Presbyterian
Church. They
filed quietly
through double doors and took their places
dark wooden pews. Bright afternoon light streamed through glass
windows. Dr.
J.
them and asked them
voice, stood before
gram
[also]
cation to
H. Grey, a small, bony-faced
consisted of music ...
God
for
all
to pray.
man
tall,
at
clear
with a soothing
"The [services] pro-
marking the one theme of suppli-
guidance and divine aid in the struggle
in
which the
United Nations are engaged." 18
So many attended
—well over three hundred people —
that dozens
stood outside and listened to the service through the open doors. 19 Mrs.
Parker reported: "A crowded house, extreme quiet, and rapt attention
marked the simple, deeply the
spiritual service.
So many young people
in
congregation/' 20
As soon
as they
had returned from church
families tuned to the
now
news broadcasts on
later that afternoon,
many
The United
Press
their radios.
reported that the invaders had "met surprisingly
little
opposition
The Bedford Boys
172
from the enemy land forces and practically none from the German
on the beach losses were quite heavy from concen-
force, but at points
machine gun
trated
fire.
A
beachhead was quickly established, troops
began pushing inland and within foothold."
few hours had gained
a
That week's Bedford Bulletin, read by many that evening included a letter from a Mrs. H.
echoed the prayers of so many families that night
what had happened
to its sons
Who
the longest.
lads are
—
all
things:
in
sat in the
about
give
fifty
Bedford County
M. Lane.
It
from Europe:
arrive
Beauty that dies the soonest,
see the beauty and sacrifice our brave
fail to
memory and
in Bedford,
after long
Bedford wondered
making? Because they cannot keep themselves
keep them forever
At dusk
can
as
and when news would
Dear Father and Great Maker of
ber
a strong
21
shifts in the local factories,
lives
air
them
women
for a day, we'll
immortality. 22
—three times the usual numBy midnight,
library rolling bandages.
they added another 9,000 bandages to the 68,300 they had prepared in
May day drew
Finally, Bedford's longest
to a close. Families listened to
President Franklin Roosevelt as he united
all
Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, mighty endeavor
They
.
.
.
These men
fight not for the lust of
fight to liberate
to the
.
.
.
are lately
America
this
in prayer:
day have
a
drawn from the ways of peace.
They yearn but will
for the
end of
battle, for their return
never return. Embrace these, Father,
and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
Three thousand miles away, its
upon
conquest. They fight to end conquest. They
haven of home. Some
night, nineteen of
set
as the lights
sons already lay dead.
went out
23 .
.
in
.
Bedford that
15
Bocage
EARLY ON JUNE placed under his
Roy Stevens and the twenty-eight men
7,
command
cluded Bedford boys Charles
and
New Yorker John
Barnes.
landed in Plymouth, England. They
Harold Wilkes, and Clyde Powers,
Fizer, It
was
had been or what had happened.
as
if
they were "on a secret mission
"We were
to a foreign land" recalled Barnes.
We
went
told not to say
to a
where we
Reppledepple, that
traveled by civilian train to Southampton.
invasion was itary to the
all
over the English papers,
English people
Though
we never spoke
June
1 1
,
news
.
.
.
of the
of anything mil-
we encountered. At Southampton, we em-
barked on our second voyage across the channel."
On
the
a
is,
replacement depot. There we were re-armed and sent on our way.
We
in-
Roy Stevens and
on Omaha, landing without so
his boat
much
1
team returned
to
Dog Green
as getting their feet wet. In just
four days, the beach had been transformed into a bustling port, through
which tens of thousands of reinforcements and countless armored vehicles
were now pouring. Most of the corpses had been removed from the
beach, although here and there the tide had brought in
had been sucked out
to sea
on D-Day. The sun shone
new
bodies that
fiercely.
Barrage
balloons dotted the sky "like big white doves" as protection against air attack.
and
The channel was dark blue and
his
men
left
visit a
As Stevens
the beach, they passed the ruins of a pillbox.
ican flag had been draped across
Before joining
glistened in the sun.
its
Company A, Roy
An Amer-
encasement. 2
Stevens and Clyde Powers decided to
makeshift graveyard near the village of Colleville sur Mer. Not
173
far
— The Bedford Boys
174
from the graveyard, they came across
A few prisoners Hour.
"Why
work
detail of
German
had passable English. Stevens struck up
seemed the Germans had
It
a
fled the
prisoners.
a conversation.
American attack soon
H-
after
hadn't they stayed in their foxholes," asked Stevens, "and
fought to the bitter end?"
"We
we
when we saw
got scared
up and
just got
left."
The graveyard was dangled a dog
tag.
all
the boats," one of
them
replied. "So
3
From each
lined with several rows of crosses.
Bodies lay in neat rows ready for burial.
cross
German
pris-
oners brought yet more in two-wheel carts from piles on the beach. "All they had to bury you in was a bed-sack. They didn't have no coffins or
nothing
like that. Just a
bedsack
tied
up
at the end." 4
men with second names beginning some mud from a dog tag. It belonged to his
Stevens walked to a section for
He
with an "S."
scraped
twin brother Ray In shock, he walked on through the graveyard, looking at
more dog
tags
Clyde's brother.
bered Stevens. It
on more crosses.
"We
One
know what
didn't
could not be true. There could not be so
of Jack Powers
each other," remem-
to say to 5
crying but couldn't."
"I felt like
name
bore the
many dead from
Bedford:
By the time Stevens and Powers had walked along each avenue had found
crosses, they
but
all
How many others
on D-Day
six
had been blown
of
who had landed
of the Bedford boys
washed out
to pieces or
to
sea and would never be recovered didn't bear thinking about. Corpses
discovered on
Wilkes Rosazza .
.
.
.
.
.
Captain Fellers
.
Bedford Hoback
Grant Yopp thirty-four
.
John Reynolds
.
.
Dog Green beach included
.
.
.
.
.
hours of June
Jack Powers
6,
.
.
.
John Clifton
.
.
.
.
Clifton Lee
.
Gordon Henry White
.
Wallace Carter
.
Bedford boys
.
those of Master Sergeant John
.
.
.
.
Elmere Wright
who had
left
.
.
.
.
.
.
Tony
John Schenk
Nicholas Gillaspie .
.
.
Ray Stevens.
the Empire Javelin
Of
.
.
.
the
in the early
nineteen were dead.
Stevens and Powers
left
the graveyard, overwhelmed and dumbstruck
by the tragedy.
"How come boat sink?
it
ain't
me
Why should
I
in the
be
ground?" thought Stevens.
living
when
the rest of
"Why
them paid the
did
my
price?" 6
175
Bocage
why in God's name hand on D-Day before dawn? Above
hadn't he shaken his twin brother's
all,
Soon, the shock and guilt had turned to blind rage. "Clyde,
own
his
let's
go," Stevens told Powers,
brother's grave. "Let's get the
still
reeling at the discovery of
men who
did this." 7
Later that afternoon, Stevens and Powers rejoined their boat team
and headed inland
many
nightfall, they
were waiting nervously
down. Stevens spoke
in tents as rain pelted
deaths of so
By
in trucks.
The
of his buddies.
little,
[his]
chest"
as the shelling
my
buddies."
The men
"I
around
fear
grew louder. Others struggled
their fear. For Stevens, there
about was getting even:
artillery fire in the
band of
distance. John Barnes began to get a "tight iron 8
the
following morning, Stevens and
group boarded trucks again. Soon, they heard
his
numbed by
to control
were no qualms. All he could think
was gonna
a
kill
German
for every
one of
9
got closer
and closer
combat.
to
Division headquarters, then to regiment and
Barnes. "At battalion
Newcomb and
we met some
of our
Sergeant Jack Mitchell
"First
we came
finally, battalion,"
company
who we
to
recalled
'Mom' back
called
29th
cooks. Sergeant
bridge because he always took care of us like a mother."
"What happened
to the
in Ivy-
10
Captain Fellers?" someone asked.
"Killed," they replied.
Just three officers from landings.
Only one was
ford boy Leslie Abbott
still
Company As fighting
had been
original nine
had survived the
— Second Lieutenant Gearing. Bed-
killed in fierce
hedgerow
fighting
June 9 as the German 352nd Division launched counterattacks.
Company A was
being brought up to
Gearing were new.
on
Now
the officers except
full strength. All
1
"What about [my
brother] Ray?" said Stevens.
"Don't know," replied
Newcomb. "We
Haven't been able to keep up,
Even though he had seen
it's
haven't had
a mess."
much
information.
12
his brother's grave, Stevens refused to be-
lieve
he was dead. There had been some mistake.
tion,
perhaps wounded.
He would
turn up
some
He was day,
missing in ac-
he was certain of
The Bedford Boys
176
it.
It
would be many days before he could accept the
reality of his
brother's death.
Newcomb
on June 7 on Omaha,
up the beach and supplies.
Company As mess
explained that he and
in a
rolling out of a landing craft
ten-wheeled truck pulling a
Newcomb had
mess and take water
through the surf and
trailer
new
holding a
stove
then been ordered to set up a temporary
in a jeep to
Company As
Jack Mitchell,
had landed
staff
what was
left
of
Company A.
supply sergeant, also of Bedford, had
joined
Newcomb and
tually,
they had found a few dozen
driven along a narrow road above the bluffs. Even-
men dug
hedgerow.
in besides a
When Newcomb had prepared that evening's meal, only eight men from Company A had arrived at the mess tent. None were from Bedford. 13 In
an estimated twenty men, approximately 10 percent of
all,
company led by
strength,
had survived the landings and fought past the beach,
Second Lieutenant Gearing. "[Then] on the fourth day
landing," Barnes recalled, "[Gearing] firefight
and landed on top of
prised, but
he was able
slightly injured
after the
had jumped into a trench during a
a soldier's bayonet.
Both
men were
to shoot the Jerry with his pistol
by the point of the bayonet."
That evening, Stevens and line.
full
his boat
sur-
and was only
14
team were
finally led
Foxholes dotted a thick hedgerow. They were to pair
up
off.
to the
A
lieu-
tenant told them to dig in for the night. They dug three to four feet deep, and then
managed
after first light,
enemy
things in
target area of
a
man
88mm
to run.
an
few snatches of sleep before dawn. Not long
shells started to explode nearby.
down, or you won't have
Few
a
it
very long,"
Normandy were artillery barrage.
"Get your ass
someone shouted. 15
as terrifying as finding oneself in the
Every sinew and synapse screamed for
But fleeing almost invariably meant death: Shrapnel from
shells often
shredded any
living object within fifty yards. Finally,
the barrage ended. Shaken, muscles taut with
crawled forward to form a
new
line.
fear,
Stevens and his
They passed spent
mans, and dead GIs. Cows had been blown
shells,
to pieces. In
men
dead Ger-
nearby
fields,
they stood in rigor mortis, grotesque carcasses amid the endless
177
Bocage
"bocage"
—the French word
for the
maze
of hedgerows that dominated
the landscape.
For hundreds of years, the
bocage. In some areas,
Normans had
cultivated the impregnable
earth base was over three feet high, the
its
hawthorn hedgerow above so thick with thorny branches that to
be used
Germans
to get through. For the
had
by contrast, the
in retreat,
By placing
bocage was an ideal natural defense.
TNT
MG-42s
at strategic
gates and corners of fields, they were able to slow even the boldest
American day
assaults.
American infantry companies sometimes fought
to secure a single
hedgerow.
Later that afternoon, the Elle River,
16th Infantry received orders to secure the
1
one of the 29th Division's key objectives on
the strategically vital town of tersected.
secure the
The
1
river,
all
St.
its
push towards
L6, where several important roads in-
15th Infantry had been battered that morning trying to losing seven officers
and
fifty-nine
men. Twice
as
many
were wounded. That
Company A jumped
night,
countering heavy small arms
At dawn, Stevens and 13,
Company A and
town of Couvains. 29th Division
his
fire,
off
and fought across the
and then
men advanced
set
up bivouac
again.
Elle, en-
for the night.
By 10:45 A.M. on June
the rest of the 1st Battalion had captured the small
A fierce counterattack was
expected. According to the
official history, "29 Let's Go!": "Patrolling
was
insisted
upon. 29th Division Field Order No. 6 of June 13 instructed each front line
company
to
send one patrol two miles
to the front every twenty-four
hours, and each battalion to capture one prisoner in the
same
period." 16
Stevens volunteered to lead a patrol. But in his foxhole later he had
second thoughts: have.
I
was
"I
knew
I
had volunteered
sitting in that foxhole
and
image of Jesus Christ came up on that
I
dirt,
for
asked
something
God
and he
I
should not
to help
me. The
says: 'Go, you'll
come
back/"
Clyde Powers shared Stevens's foxhole.
"Do you want
to
"If you're telling
come?" Stevens asked.
me
I
got to go,
I'll
go,
but I'm not volunteering."
The Bedford Boys
178
"If
you
own
your
to go of
gonna volunteer, then
ain't
want you
don't," replied Stevens. "I
free will." 17
Stevens blacked up with several other volunteers and then crawled
enemy
towards the
make trol.
enemy
sure the
As the "getaway man,"
lines.
behind:
A
nearly killed him.
"I
movement and then saw
named Kessup had
private
was up
Stevens to
to
did not creep up from behind and surprise the pa-
Stevens suddenly heard a
a figure.
it
I
the silhouette of
and lagged
fallen out of position
would have
remembered
if I'd
to bring a
knife with me."
The
hedgerow
patrol crossed a
mans opened
him shot
close to
Then he saw one his side.
into
enemy
A
territory.
Stevens dived for cover and returned
fire.
German with
a
his pistol. Stevens
of his patrol go down, badly
The man's
eyeball
best to dress the wound.
was dangling on
group of Ger-
fire.
sergeant
threw a grenade.
wounded. He crawled
to
his cheek. Stevens did his
The squad regrouped. They had
lost a
had been challenged by German lookouts and had replied
man, only
A
in
man. He bad Ger-
be instantly shot.
to
Stevens returned to his foxhole where he sat and prayed.
"I
back," he recalled, "just like Jesus had said. There and then deal with God.
'If
you
let
me
get back home,'
had come
made
I
a
asked him, Til be your
I
servant.'" 18
While Roy chased Nazis
at night,
Clyde Powers huddled
in their fox-
hole and mourned. Later that summer, he wrote to his parents about his
dead brother:
"[Jack]
buried on top of a
is
Channel, alongside of the pretty place, glad,
Mom,
and that
is
that he
is
boys he served with.
not missing, for at least you
a lot better. I
He was
killed instantly
instantly. Will tell
It is
and there was no
saw him
you more about
it
a very
there. Just
know where he
talked to the boy in the medics that
he said that he died over."
overlooking the English
and the French people have planted flowers
ing on his part.
is
rest of the
hill,
is
now,
suffer-
get hit
when
be
and
the war
19
Despite his close
call,
Roy
Stevens's hunger for vengeance
great as the day he found Ray's grave.
He
was
just as
joined other dangerous mis-
Bocage
sions
and even volunteered
run messages to
to
wanted every chance he could get
He
artillery observers.
German.
to kill a
79
1
Eventually,
word
about Stevens's apparent death wish got back to the 116th Infantry headquarters. Stevens was called in front of Colonel "Its it
gonna take us
to
all
win
Canham
this war,"
Canham. you take
told him, "so
easy." 20
Stevens saluted and returned to his squad. In England, Stevens had
Canham
disliked
for his overly harsh discipline.
respect for him. Everyone in the
on D-Day. "He walked
We
rough, tough dude. got shot.
We knew
happened."
like
it
all
16th
1
knew what
he talked
knew
Now he
had
profound
a
the colonel had done
Stevens said. "He was a
it,"
he'd refused to go to hospital
he was always going
to
when he
be with his troops, whatever
21
Stevens cursed as well as any sergeant but was surprised by the con-
and blasphemy that issued from Canham's
stant stream of profanity
Stevens in fact worried that
headed
to hell:
if
he cursed the Lord
"The things he would
them up on the
line
—you
didn't
say. ...
like
Canham,
lips.
he'd be
wouldn't even want to say
I
know what minute you gonna be
gone." 22
One
day,
placements.
combat
Stevens returned from the line to pick up a group of
Canham
men
before Stevens took
them
into
for the first time.
"As sure as there
is
these sonsabitches,"
you
addressed the
re-
will die.
Other
Some
officers
a
damned heaven
Canham
said.
of you will die
were even more
in the sky,
"Some
we
are going to
of you will be heroes.
kill
Some
of
quickly." 23 to the point, telling
good as dead so why not spend their
last
moments
men
they were as
fighting with honor,
getting the job done?
"D-Day was the longest
Company
B's Private
one day
had
I
a
how many men vived a week,
if
Bob
day, there's
hundred and eighty
right beside
he was
no doubt about
me
lucky." 24
it
was
just
tell
you
The average infantryman
sur-
to go.
got killed.
who
that," recalled
couldn't begin to
Sales, "but for those I
survived,
— The Bedford Boys
180
As he waited letter
from
write back. still
"jump
to
his parents still
I
didn't
want
hoped he might show
alive.
He
attack,
come
to
Roy Stevens received
to believe that grave
up."
25
Roy
finally
did not mention Ray, unable to
gradually
many
on another
off"
wondering about him and Ray.
accept
Omaha
By the
third
week
I
He was
— Ray had been cut down savagely with fire a
so
shot, in the
Beach.
was meeting
of June, the 29th Division
ever-stiffer re-
The Germans were throwing everything they could
sistance:
to
brother's.
them what he had only
other Bedford boys, probably before he got to
shallows of
my
wrote his parents.
tell
want
didn't
"I
was
a
into a des-
perate attempt to contain the Allies to a narrow beachhead. At
all
costs,
they must be stopped from taking strategically crucial cities such as
Caen and
Every day, It
L6.
St.
looked as
if
—dead
mandy
seemed,
it
Company A
another squad as
lost
it
advanced.
there were only two ways out of the nightmare of Nor-
on
or
a stretcher. "That
said Stevens. "Hurt or killed.
was
all
you could look forward
You looked forward
to
to,"
26 it."
"Your best hope was for a million-dollar wound, nice clean sheets and a pretty nurse,"
want
remembered Company
to lie out there
stretcher,
and bleed
Bob
D's
for a long time. I'd see guys
and they'd been shot through the
ing. Til see
Slaughter. "You didn't
leg
legs,
a
and they would be smil-
ya buddy!' they shouted. You didn't want
stomach but the
on
it
in the groin or
arms, shoulders, hands. That would have been
wonderful. Fingers didn't count." 27 Like Slaughter, Roy Stevens quickly every weapon.
most of
The Wehrmacht's MG-42
his friends
just
142
men
found
ear.
Company A
two machine guns, while a carried fifteen
itself
full
MG-42s. Not
pinned down by MG-42s
the imbalance in firepower.
to recognize every
sound of
machine gun, which had
and brother, sounded
being torn close to one's
had
came
like a giant
piece of fabric
at full strength
German
— 193 men
infantry
surprisingly,
killed
company
Company A
until artillery support
of
often
made up
for
Bocagc
88mm
The German
guns, which had killed Bedford Hoback, fired
head height down lanes
shells at
181
at nearly three
times the speed of
sound. At close range, flesh and blood targets never heard the shells
coming. At a mile,
men had
you heard an 88, you "If
it
it
sounded
like
second
split
ground, " recalled
hit the
caught you standing up,
knew what of
perhaps a
"As soon as
to react.
Company B s Bob
would put some shrapnel
it
men
because you saw so many
Sales.
You
in you.
die because
28 it."
Then
there
was the German Panzerfaust, again superior
ican equivalent, the bazooka.
all
sudden "whoooosh" echoed
many American tank
fevered sleep of
sound of
Its
to the
Amerin the
crews. But perhaps the worst
was the wail of "Moaning Minnies," the bombs
fired
almost
simultaneously by Nebelwerfers. The Germans nicknamed them "Stukas on Wheels" because the sirens with which the shells were equipped,
like Stukas,
were so
many GIs
terrifying that they sent
"You never got used to combat," recalled Sales. "Every
you got up wondering didn't sleep too
if
you were going
damn much
to live
damn
morning, day.
You
patrols,
and
through the
—the Germans would send out
insane.
they wouldn't shoot you because that would alarm everybody. They'd cut
your throat. That's
why most
of the time
we
slept
two
to a hole.
Neither
of you were ever really sound asleep. Next morning, you got up, and
if it
had rained, you'd be soaked, and then you ate your cold mess breakfast, again wondering
Men became
if
you were going
terribly
numb
to live that day." 29
to the
death around them. Bodies lay for
days within yards of foxholes, swelling in the sun, beside the carcasses of livestock. "After a couple of days, the smell called
Bob Slaughter
ple balloon,
of
Company
and the smell would
became
unbelievable," re-
D. "Bodies would blow up into a purstay with you, always with you. ...
I
was out there forty-two days without changing socks, without changing underwear.
It
was
hell every day.
You get up
at 3 A.M.,
go after the next
hedgerow, fight for that hedgerow, then get knocked back a hedgerow, lose half your
couldn't
fire
a
company, and then get rifle. It
just got
men
worse." 30
straight
from the
states
who
The Bedford Boys
182
Roy Stevens
When
dead.
also ate hastily prepared
he looked
K
he mostly
at the corpses,
Stevens looked about,''
at the
Stevens thought. "Maybe he's the lucky one." 31
weapons and
now
all
—the Yanks needed
Germans' MG-42s. The
power they could
get against the
straps be buckled
was universally ignored.
Dead Germans used
women,"
nology!
.
.
But
bag back
I'd
got back one time
in the
—
could
been
to tell officers
made them prime his
Just two
hit.
of the time.
frontlines,
came
after
jackets slick with
They were
all
tech-
to strip off in-
Canham
Roy Stevens. "The only way you
at the
back of
and sweat. "We found
oil, dirt,
sailcloth kind of material.
Day,
I
fighting over
"Even Colonel
his helmet." 33
and Gray patches faded and often
The It
to the
with
field jacket
Slaughter's jacket
was
all
torn, their assault
of the
had a kind of
reflected a lot of light." 34
men had made mud and grass.
jacket inside out, the
Bob
German
D-Day, a 35th Division lieutenant, fresh
their field jackets reversed.
it
take
across a group of 29ers. Their uniforms were barely rec-
ognizable, the Blue
then stained
I'd
from noncommissioned ranks.
targets for snipers.
rank was by looking
weeks
them had
always keep their watches. Man,
I'd
like the rest of us," recalled
tell
of
kitchen!" 32
was now impossible
looked
hedgerow.
"The prisoners we took
Even the greenest "ninety-day wonders" quickly learned signia that
fire-
rule that chin
all
of watches, and several pistols. That
full
Word
.
Sales.
They were naked most
a look, give the picture back.
had a damn bag
Bob
recalled
say: 'Look, wife, wife.'
dead Germans
the
all
lay everywhere, along every road, in every
to love to take pictures off the
pictures of naked
would
that mattered. Nonessential
were quickly dumped. Whenever possible, machine
kit
guns were salvaged from the battlefield
It
One
envy.
man's face. "He doesn't have anything to worry
Surviving the next firefight was
my
and
felt pity
Stevens crawled through a hedgerow, he came across a dead GI.
day, as
"I
from the
rations only yards
themselves
men
wearing
shiny, almost
By turning the
less obvious;
some had
also unrecognizable. Since landing
on D-
but a couple of his buddies from Roanoke had been killed or
183
Bocage
wounded. Slaughter thought
number would
his
command
afternoon, he was ordered to take
exposed
to
enemy
He
fire.
also
come up
soon.
One
of a defensive section badly
crawled forward and
finally got to
an obser-
vation trench on the frontline.
"Don't stick your head up/' a sergeant warned. "There's a sniper. He's killed several riflemen."
"Goddamn,"
"we got
said Slaughter,
Germans sneak up on
to
keep a look out
us."
"OK, you go ahead and do
it."
Slaughter had to prove he was not afraid. "So
wham! God
My
almighty!
helmet flew
off.
I
felt like a
My
I'm on
all
fours
down
I
stuck
baseball bat had hit
eyes were
twenty seconds and he drilled me. stars.
in case those
swollen.
all
My ears
in that foxhole,
were
I'd
my head up and me in the head.
not been up there
ringing.
I
and the blood
saw
is
a million
just pouring
out."
Slaughter looked at the sergeant.
me
"Get
The
a medic!"
sergeant's eyes bulged.
He
"Never mind," said Slaughter.
The on the
The to
bullet
longer a
late
get
"I'll
had grazed Slaughter's
line, his
break
stared in disbelief, frozen to the spot.
scalp.
man
Three days
later,
he was back
spent in combat, the more likely he was to die but also
down with mental and
team: "Back in England, this
on
One morning in Company A man from his boat
physical exhaustion. a
little feller
real nice guy. I'd get
The boy no
myself." 35
head so tender he couldn't wear a helmet.
June, Roy Stevens came across
he was a
him
at
him
always had a smile on his face for smiling all the time."
longer smiled. His nerves had been shot to pieces.
go back to the kitchen?" he asked Stevens.
"I
"Can
I
don't feel good."
"You go back and rest a day or two," Stevens nodded. "Just go back." 36
The man went back
to the
canvas tent where
Company
A's
Newcomb, was now working day and night to men. Newcomb knew how uplifting hot chow and
mess
sergeant, Earl
prepare
meals for the
a
cup of
The Bedford Boys
184
coffee could be to shattered spirits. "So
boys as
to the
we
could," he recalled. "If
hot meals up to them.
The boy who no side,
dug
But
I'll
They seldom had
longer smiled ate his
a foxhole, got into
couldn't take
we
it
always tried to set up as close
it
was
to eat
at all possible,
hard
first real
meal
and then shot himself
never forget his face, the way he smiled
maybe nineteen Three weeks
in days,
—
at
all
went out-
"He
to death.
no more," recalled Stevens. "Don't remember
it
we'd get
tack." 37
name.
his
the time.
He was
most." 38
D-Day, Yanks were shooting themselves
in extraor-
dinary numbers. As he dug in one evening, Stevens tallied up
how many
after
Company A had received SIWs (self-inflicted wounds) that day: at least five. The next morning, Stevens again found himself before Colonel Canham, this time being questioned about several men's wounds. "If you tell me it was intentional," Canham said, "I'll make an
men
in
example of them." Stevens told
Canham
he would have had those have done
it
wounds had not been
the
men
self-inflicted. "I
shot," Stevens later maintained. "He'd
himself." 39
Stevens believed that those
who
put a pistol or
rifle to
then pulled the trigger were not cowards. They were
had taken more than
saw
it,
their
to
their limbs
be pitied
and
—they
minds and bodies could stand. As Stevens
they had reached a breaking point which he too would arrive
sooner or
later:
"A person's body
they just couldn't take
By June L6,
knew
30, 1944,
it
any
can't but take so
boys,
more." 40
Company A had
fought to within a few miles of
which had been devastated by weeks of Allied
That morning, Major Thomas Dallas, the 116th
commander, ordered
much. Those
at
Stevens's squad of twelve
artillery
St.
and bombing.
Infantry's 1st Battalion
men
to clear a
machine
gun nest blocking Company As advance. The squad included Harold Wilkes and Clyde Powers,
who had been
Stevens's squad set off across a field of
the squad's
BAR
in Stevens's boat tall grass.
man, a Private William Green,
older than the rest of the
team on D-Day.
Behind Stevens walked
who was
men. Green had not used the
vital
several years
submachine
185
Bocage
gun the
effectively;
BAR
Many
on
a couple of occasions, Stevens
from him
had been forced
to provide covering fire in the nick of time.
squads came to depend so
much on
the BAR's firepower that
they often carried at least two of these light machine guns.
M-l
portable as
fire for as
long as the
ammunition, from a 20-round
all its
trigger
was squeezed. Like
bullets
all
ammunition created smoke and squads became reluctant
smoke gave away
to
open
man,
booby
trap.
clip,
MG-42. The BAR expended
within a few seconds after the
used by infantry squads, the BAR's
flashes, unlike the fire in
MG-42. Many
case the telltale puffs of blue
his assigned place in the
squad but then
The
squad's lookout
of Stevens as they crossed the field.
Brockman from
a Private
as
their position.
That morning, Green took
moved ahead
They were
but had the power of a machine gun. Unfortu-
rifles
they could not
nately,
to take
Charlottesville, Virginia, suddenly
saw
a
41
"Wire!" he shouted.
But
it
was too
Green stepped on
late.
a
"Bouncing Betty' mine and
died instantly. "That old boy Green took the load meant for me," 42 recalled Stevens.
them, and
killing
the
The
jaw." 43
mine's ball bearings peppered several others, also
Stevens in "the shoulder, and through the neck and
hit
Stevens collapsed. Blood gushed from his windpipe. Rifleman
Harold Wilkes rushed
minutes
later,
to his side
and applied
ain't
A
few
Stevens was dimly aware of voices around him. His foxhole
buddy Clyde Powers was kneeling "You
a pressure bandage.
at his side,
undoing
his wrist watch.
gonna need that watch," said Powers, who then relieved
Stevens of the watch and his
pistol, figuring
he wouldn't see action
again.
"Clyde later had the watch engraved on the back," recalled Stevens almost
keep
By shell
it.
sixty years later.
Now
I
wish
I'd
July 4, Powers
"He
taken
would
shock caused when an
was wounded
later that
finally offered to give
it
back but
I
let
him
44 it."
also
be out of action, the victim of severe
88mm
month,
landed just yards from him. Wilkes
hit in the
shoulder and arm.
The Bedford Boys
186
From seeing wounds
own, Stevens knew he would die
similar to his
quickly unless he got to an aid station. Incredibly, just 3.5 percent of
men who
reached a battalion aid station died of their wounds, and
most three-quarters of men treated would return medics arrived and Stevens was taken
wounds were shaped
tents
To
an aid station, where his
to
dressed, and then to the nearest field hospital like a "T"
was
and
in that place,
I
—
a series of
ten miles from the front.
his horror, Stevens
likely to live. "I
still
was placed
in a sick
men deemed unof my neck. lay down
bay with
bleeding pretty badly out
I
looked over, and there was a soldier lying there
was German. He wasn't moving. Then
nurse came by and
a
—he
I
grabbed her by the smock she was wearing. She was a nice-looking I'd
been away
me
you turn
Stevens
let
live.
He just needed some
loose," the nurse replied,
"I'll
just girl.
by then."
a long time: All of the nurses looked great
Stevens told her he would "If
al-
to duty. Eventually,
help.
see what
I
can do." 45
her go and waited. Finally, she returned. Stevens was op-
erated on by a captain from Oklahoma, and then told he would be flown to a hospital in
England
to recuperate.
The day Stevens was wounded, dent Ernie Pyle wrote from stuff
Normandy
is
as the
in
my
life.
Germans. One day
I'll
hedge
to a friend: "This
a type of warfare we've never run into before,
dead Germans than ever
many
the famous American war correspon-
Americans,
too,
and
I've
to
but not nearly so
think I'm getting hardened to dead
people, dead young people in vast numbers, and then next day
not and never could be."
ize I'm
On
hedge
seen more
I'll
real-
46
He was one
of
27,000 American casualties evacuated from Normandy since June
6.
July 6, 1944, Stevens
During
and
a
his time in
combat,
1
was flown
to
England.
1,000 of his countrymen had been killed
thousand more were missing
in action.
But what they had
achieved was nothing short of miraculous. Over 71,000 vehicles had
been brought ashore and then inland through draws such Vierville
as the
D-l draw. Almost half a million GIs had crossed the channel.
Throughout Normandy, the Germans were putting up
a spirited
and
187
Bocage
were running perilously low of men, ammunition,
lethal resistance but
materiel. 47
and other
The
Europe had been
Allies enjoyed total air supremacy. Fortress
breached. "The weapons which alone could have enabled us to banish the danger
—the Navy and Luftwaffe—were almost non-existent,"
called Generalleutnant Joseph Reichert, one of the senior cers ordered by Hitler to repulse the 29th Division. "It
German
was
re-
offi-
like pitting
two people against one another, one with bows and arrows and the other with firearms." 48
When
Stevens landed in England, he was able to walk unaided off a
plane carrying other wounded. 'There was another boy with
been
also
—
thing
to take off,
joking that
my throat. had
in
if
both saw
I
did get a drink
But then some
mind, they got
A few days
it
I'll
MPs
grabbed
through believe
to
it
It
was
right.
go there alone
is
know your
an awful
worries. This
start to
end.
We
If
started
told
is
my
in
them what we
slipped into a
let-
.
I
I
said farewell to
had prayed
for our future.
a sinners prayer wasn't .
.
Oh
brother,
so unfriendly.
It
from
When we
I
can't
life.
To
kill
answered.
think of you
Dear Lord, he took you from
This world
rest of
us.
so soon.
walk that long narrow road.
and suffer the
we
49
was the 6th day of June.
would be
this sleepless night. it
some-
or
wasn't hurting that bad so
poem which he
That wonderful place called home, but
would have
mess
in Bedford:
never forget that morning.
I
a
his friend to their assigned hospital in a
Stevens wrote a
later,
brother. Didn't think
Now
—
who'd
would probably come out of the hole
to laughing too."
mother back
ter to his
I
beer joint
hoping maybe we'd get some whiskey.
The MPs took Stevens and jeep.
this
end of the runway. Well,
at the
decided
We
hit pretty bad.
me
me and
now
is
I
all
can't
a sin.
To
be done without him. Dear Mother,
Now,
fight.
To
fellas,
lose
take
my
my
I
only twin brother
warning. Believe
you ever have a twin brother, don't go
it
to the battle
16
The Longest Wait
AFTER LEARNING ABOUT THE jl\.
boys' relatives
The war
effort
meant more than
Wilkes and other
two nights.
1
and wives returned
women
rolled
invasion, to
many
of the Bedford
work with renewed
ever: In the
week
D-Day, Bettie
after
an astonishing 23,950 bandages
But however many bandages they
rolled, the
recalled John Schenk's wife, Ivylyn.
lost
We
"My mother and
I
was
so long,''
visited other
took a flower or some treats and tried to comfort those
sons in other parts of the world."
Viola Parker
still fell
in just
wives couldn't
stop thinking about their husbands. 'The wait to find out
ilies.
energy.
fam-
who had
2
asleep listening to the radio in her childhood
bedroom. "We knew the casualties were high, but we always hoped wasn't ours. As time went on
it
we had no letters. We were lucky not to we would've seen what happened/' 3
have had televisions then because
By
early
summer
1944, at least two dozen
had the saddest of decorations
in their
"Gold Star Mother," signifying the
homes
windows:
loss of a son.
more, every mother in Bedford knew
that.
ers fretted most.
over and over. for
when
They wrung
their
They cleaned house
they returned.
Bedford already
a gold star
and the words
There were bound
But they hoped
would be wrong. Throughout Bedford, parents began and pray when they heard or saw the mail
in
to
to cross
God
to
be
they
themselves
carrier enter their street.
Moth-
hands when they weren't washing them obsessively, preparing their sons'
They quizzed
others for every snippet of
rooms
news
as
they worked long shifts in production lines at nearby factories. They reread their sons'
last letters.
Every
new day and 189
every evening, they prayed.
The Bedford Boys
190
In
news
radios played
were no longer so interested
ilies
Ma
some homes,
bulletins
in the latest
around the clock. Fam-
episode of the radio soap,
Amos and Andy.
Perkins, or another hit show,
Fathers turned the dial
decent news station and paced back and
to every
waiting for loved ones to return from the
last
back. Broadcaster Walter Winchell had angered
memories
forth,
of
war suddenly flooding
many
in
Bedford
when
he'd insinuated in 1941 that the Stonewallers were shirkers as they prac-
maneuvers
ticed
in
North Carolina. But now everyone hung on
Winchells every word. Ernie Pyle, America's most celebrated war correspondent, had written a chilling
account of D-Day
cated column.
"human
litter"
in his
most recent Scripps Howard syndi-
He had mentioned "many casualties" and described the he had found on Omaha Beach: "It extended in a thin lit-
tle line, just like a
high-water mark, for miles along the beach. This was
the strewn personal gear, gear that
who
those
would never be needed again by
fought and died to give us our entrance into Europe
There were the
latest letters
neatly razored out
—one
.
.
.
from home, with the address on each one
of the security precautions enforced before the
boys embarked. There were toothbrushes and razors, and snapshots of
back home staring up
families
at
you from the sand." 4
Other newspaper reports repeated the
had entailed "considerable
official line that
sacrifice." In a
June
the invasion
issue, the
immensely
popular Life magazine contained photographer Robert Capa's astonishing images of the ing,
showing
men
first
cut
minutes on Omaha. They were
down
Tensions rose with the
D-Day,
letters
in the surf
summer
from soldiers
in
and struggling
far
from reassur-
to get ashore.
temperatures. Then, a fortnight after
Europe
finally arrived in
Bedford. Jack
Harris, a military policeman from Bedford, told his parents that since arriving in
Normandy he had met many men
were
of admiration for
full
made
On
a
name
June
29th Division
what Company A had done. "That
for itself in the invasion." 5
17, Earl Parker's
that thirty-year-old Earl
in the
was
outfit sure
But he said no more.
mother received listed as
who
a telegram informing her
missing in action. The town doc-
The Longest Wait
tor,
191
Pete Rucker, dropped by to check on his mother and then volun-
teered to
tell
She was stunned but refused
Viola, Earls wife.
to think
the worst. For Danny's sake, she could not accept that Earl was dead.
She would not
went on looking
take. "I
her
July
relief,
after
my
baby,''
she recalled. "You do what you
6
have to do."
On
word, however long that might
until she received official
1
,
Viola Parker spotted the
to her door.
a telegram confirming Earl's death.
he wasn't carrying
did hand her a distressing bundle
been returned
mailman coming
to sender. Viola
—her recent
letters to Earl.
To
But he
They had
asked why. The mailman said he didn't
know. Again, she refused to believe the worst.
On
July 4, Bedford tried to put on a cheerful face for
Day. Lucille Hoback,
weeks
who had
visited
earlier,
Independence
celebrated her fifteenth birthday a few
nearby Bedford County Lake where other
teenagers and families gathered for holiday picnics, swimming, and boating,
and where Clyde Powers had learned
town watched
a rather
muted firework
to
swim. That night, the
display at the Bedford
High
School's athletic field.
Like her friends living on farms throughout Bedford County, Lucille
worked every day from sunup
sundown, caring
to
for chickens, picking
berries, milking cows, tending to vegetables that her parents sold every
weekend
market
at
in
Lynchburg. "Every evening,
"When Walter Winchell
the radio," she recalled. could.
We
were just hoping
heard from
Raymond and
whole town was nervous."
Melba Basham, niece had not written
to
my parents
to
spoke, no one else
hear something, anything.
My
Bedford.
letter
wondered why her uncle
who had grown
and postcards from England.
from him and they were just
"They would come
came D-Day and
— the
her for several weeks. Gillaspie was a prolific corre-
to receiving witty letters
recalled.
hadn't
parents were anxious
of Nicholas Gillaspie,
"Neighbors would receive a
Melba
We
7
spondent, writing to over a dozen friends and neighbors
accustomed
listened to
right over
the letters stopped.
"I
and
tell us."
tickled,"
But then
can remember several of the
The Bedford Boys
192
neighbors coming by and they would say they were really worried about Nicholas. Everyone was." 8
Meanwhile, one of the Bedford boys was lying
who had been
converted hotel in West Virginia with other GIs
home from Europe. Andrew Coleman was so he was barely conscious. His body was
that
had
his kidneys
failed. Sibyle
drew's nephews, was deeply
many
ward
in a hospital
in a
brought
ill
with Brights disease
filling
with poisons because
Kieth Coleman, the wife of one of An-
moved when she saw Coleman and
the
other young Americans lying in cots, some close to death, at the
elegant Greenbrier Hotel in Sulphur Springs.
went
"I
to see
Andrew
my husband," she recalled. "Andrew was just lying there, not able talk. He had a lot of swelling. It was very upsetting to see him and all
with to
wounded men. They were
the other
On July 6, 1944, the Bedford Company A had landed in the mended
for
its role:
so young.
to
hope
that
all
of
ingway after
Jr. s
younger
textile mill that
D-Day and had
weeks,
my mother
she would
The
sit
first
that they
and
when an
is
fate of the
men,
as
seemed
it
safely through the
10
Verona, worked
at
the Belding
a radio report a
Hem-
few days
cried at reports of "significant" casualties. "For
She was so worried about Frank
couldn't eat or sleep.
just look far out in distance." 11
1
Company A
in the
Bedford Bulletin mentioned
16th Infantry Regiment had been "awarded a presi-
dential citation ... for the
operations. This
but as yet
of casualties. There has
list
summer. She had heard
hard news of
and the
sister,
towns own
fatalities,
them could have come
landing ordeal and subsequent fighting."
Frank Draper
L)
a shock."
wave on D-Day and been com-
first
"There have been no reports of
been considerable uneasiness about the
much
was
Bulletin revealed that the
the government has given out no complete
too
It
work of the
1
16th on
D-Day and subsequent
the highest award a unit can receive and
is
given only
entire organization has acquitted itself with exceptional valor in
important operations." The newspaper added that
Company A had been
"continuously in the line throughout the French invasion and
is
at pre-
The Longest Wait
193
sent engaged in the St. L6 battle, according to a dispatch from the front." 12
Another news item caused widespread concern: "Mr. and Mrs. Charles Fizer have received a letter from their son,
been made a sergeant
He had
Company A,
in
2,500 soldiers on board and of the fortunate ones
course.
was not
It
ing craft, and
A month
all
all
The
rescued."
a transport that
13
The
sank with Fizer on board but
D-Day, Bettie Wilkes wondered why John's
men
that the
There was
a ship
sunk by
a U-boat?
Or were
could not write until the battle of
a reason for
letters
of our
regulations so strict
Normandy was
no word. God only knew what
it
over?
was. But soon
know he was
all
"Everybody went on about their business," recalled Bettie. "We
all
enough John would contact her right.
a land-
men had Company As mail
some
died but this was secondhand information." Perhaps
on
was incorrect of
but the radio operator, Padley, had been saved.
after
lost
being one
five, 'Billy'
report
weren't getting to her. "There were rumors that
had been
which
transport on
was sunk. There were
to France,
were saved except
who were
has recently
saying he was in France and O.K.
quite an experience [on] Invasion Day.
he was, while traveling from England
who
in
some way
to let her
just stayed busy, busy." 14
Whenever boys, the
first
Bettie
met another
wife, relative, or girlfriend of
one of the
question she heard was not the customary "how are you?"
but "have you heard?" closely followed by "did you get any mail?" 15
On
Monday, July
10, Bettie finished
her shift
at
Belding
and headed down Main Street towards Green's drugstore. preparing a package for John over the weekend rettes
and things
to pick
up
like that.
I
at the drugstore.
She was about
had I
it all
fixed
—
Hemingway "I
toilet articles, ciga-
—except one
article
had the package with me, ready
to enter the drugstore
when
had been
I
wanted
to post."
she heard a familiar voice.
"Bettie!"
She looked around. She saw
a
woman
she knew. To this day, she won't
give her
name. Bettie stood on the corner of the
woman
to cross the road.
street
and waited
for the
The Bedford Boys
194
The woman asked
Bettie
if
she had received any news.
Bettie shook her head.
"No. Have you?" "Yes.
got a letter today."
I
What
"Well, good.
"John was
killed."
did
it
say?"
16
and shock. She managed somehow
Bettie stared in disbelief
her
way back
ments, the
few days were had
friends
and that sisted
a blur
just about
it
I
It
me
convinced
was probably
word before
a mistake I
that the letter could not be true,
notified by the
got official
also
decided
on July 10 that Taylor
That afternoon, they
government I
man,
sat in the
news was
letters or
go back to work and wait for
Fellers's family
shade of a tree
suddenly saw a car pull up
Ellen, got out of the car. to us," recalled Bertie,
the news."
heard of his death.
home
in front of their
in the
dusty driveway.
it
"The whole family had decided
The
in
sister,
local mail-
"because they knew
we were
had been returned
had begun
so anxious to hear
to
a card for his thirtieth birthday
to sender.
suspect the worst.
it
to Ellen
and asked her
friend in England, Mrs.
on June
She knew her mother and father
McCauley handed
postmarked from England. She couldn't bear
handed
to bring a letter
18
had sent her brother
Bertie
letter
of-
Mr. McCauley, his wife, and dark-haired teenage daughter,
a
10 but
in-
gave up hope. They kept
even though no to
They
first.
the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Taylor's youngest Bertie,
next
17
word."
was
The
but within a week, she recalled, "Family and
yet received from John. So ficial
make
Ramsey Apart-
sister at
building in Bedford since the war started.
would have been
I
me
telling
new
wait until
I
rooms she shared with her
to the
first
to
to read
it.
The
letter
mother
Taylor's to
open
was from
Lunscomb. "Taylor had been
to
a
so she
it
Taylor's
her
home
(shortly before D-Day)," recalled Bertie. "Several of the other Bedford
boys went by her place too. She had kept in touch with
sending her news."
19
my
mother,
The Longest Wait
According
195
Mrs. Lunscomb, Taylor had died on D-Day. Ellen
to
stopped reading. Bertie ran to her mother as she started
letter three or four
more
The news spread
fast.
was
to cry: "It
long time before anybody could say anything. Later that night,
I
a
read the
times."
Families from neighboring farms dropped by to
console and pay their respects. "Bertie, can you read the letter?" asked Taylor's mother. Bertie read
it
over and over again. 20
Later that week, the Bedford Bulletin reported:
Mrs. Lunscomb stated that Lieutenant
Lynchburg, had visited
in
her
home
Bill
at the
Williams, of
same time
as did
returned to a hospital in England.
He
first
ever, that
he had not seen Captain
comrade who did see him. Since no a
chance that he was not
Fellers killed, but official
killed
word home, although Mr. and Mrs. death. Officials have
sent
Captain
called her by telephone
He
then wrote telling her Captain Fellers was killed in action.
still
B,
and that he was wounded sometime during the invasion and was
Fellers
is
Company
home by
the
warned
men
that
told of
it
howby a
word has been received, there
but wounded too badly to send
Fellers
it is
was
said,
and
have been convinced of his
very risky to accept as final reports
in battle since they can,
during
all
the excitement
and confusion, make many mistakes. 21
On
Saturday, July 15, the Bedford Bulletin contained the following
lines:
I
mourn for you
No
eyes
can see
But many a
in silence
me weep
silent tear
While others are Never did
I
that the gift that I sent
so little to
will always break
Just to
shed
asleep.
know
Would mean It
is
know your
my
you on your birthday June tenth; heart
burial day
and
will cause
many
would have been your
a tear thirtieth year. 22
196
The Bedford Boys
The poem was from Naomi Newman, Nearly
six
Taylor Fellers
weeks had now passed since the
loved ones were frantic with worry.
"We
all
"It
was
like
wife.
invasion. Families
knew something
happened, " recalled Helen Stevens, then worker.
s
terrible
and had
a twenty-year-old factory
waiting for an earthquake." 23
17
His Deep Regret
SUNDAY, JULY
16, 1944. Just about 9 A.M., Lucille Hoback was
about to walk with her family to Center Point Methodist church, agonally across the road from her house.
many
in Bedford: a small,
held a congregation of
The church was
di-
typical of
white wooden building with one room that
fifty
people.
Though
just fifteen, Lucille
some-
times taught a Sunday school class there. Her father, John Samuel
Hoback, was the church
treasurer.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the Hobacks' front door. iff
Jim Marshall, a good friend of Lucille's father.
in his car.
He was
told Lucille
holding a telegram.
and her
sister to sit
down
A few
1
It
was Sher-
He had just
pulled up
minutes
later,
Mr. Hoback
kitchen table. "Mother was
at the
sobbing. Father said Bedford had been killed in the war, on D-Day." 2
Perhaps half an hour
there was another knock on the door.
later,
Outside were several members of the congregation, wondering why the
Hobacks were not
at
church. The service was abandoned and
in-
stead the churchgoers gathered to pray at the Hobacks' home. Later that morning, others brought food over. Lucille's parents drove to the
Somehow, they would have
to
home
It
was
also that
morning that
of his fiancee, Elaine Coffey.
break the news that she would not
marry their son. Elaine was getting ready to go to church
on her just in
when
she heard the knock
door. "Bedford's parents didn't say anything," she recalled.
handed me the telegram.
my home.
I
couldn't
cry. It
I
read
it,
was too much.
97
"They
turned around, and went back I
went
to
my room and
lay
— The Bedford Boys
198
on the bed. day.
I
child
want
anywhere
didn't go
When first
didn't
I
nobody
to see
for a
for a long time.
week. Then
I
went back
Mrs. Macie Hoback got home, she had
was dead. Her husband went
to the
to
lay there all
I
to work." 3
be put to bed. Her
barn to
cry.
That night, news reached town of the death of another Bedford boy in
Company
A, thirty-four-year-old
away peacefully
at the
Andrew Coleman. He had passed
Ashford General Hospital
White Sulphur
in
Springs in West Virginia, finally succumbing to the kidney disease that
had kept him from joining
The
Omaha
on
his friends
Beach.
next morning, July 17, 1944, just after 8 A.M., twenty-one-year-
old Elizabeth Teass
was dropped
ner of North Bridge and
Main
off near Green's drugstore
She entered the
streets.
store,
on the
cor-
passed the
soda fountain and a couple of teenage soda jerks working there, then the prescriptions counter and finally walked through booths to her small Western Union office at the rear of the store, a polished
booth behind the cosmetics counter. Teass had worked
1942
after graduating
at
wooden
Green's since
Bedford High School.
At several booths customers chatted and sipped freshly brewed coffee.
"Many Bedford men gathered
"Businessmen came
by.
And
there every morning," recalled Teass.
was
it
as
if
we were
a big family
all
lawyers, doctors, the town's undertaker, Harry Carder." lars
4
Several regu-
browsed the morning papers and discussed the news. Coca-Cola
had produced
its
billionth gallon of
children had died in a
fire in
a circus. In France, the
L6
outskirts of St.
Connecticut started by inept
know
on D-Day were
after a
month
that hardly any still
a
hundred
fire-eaters at
29th Division was fighting desperately of deadly stalemate.
Those reading reports about the could not
Coca-Cola syrup. Over
fighting.
battle of
men who had
On
July
1 1,
in the
5
Normandy
that
morning
Company A Bedford boy who saw
landed with
the last
action on D-Day, Charles Fizer, had apparently been strafed and killed
by the Luftwaffe as he and several others out on the front and had
worn out they
come back
didn't dig in.
They
lay sleeping:
to rest.
just lay
"They had been
They were
so tired and
on top of the ground." 6
His Deep Regret
Of
who had
those
trained with the Bedford boys in England, only
medic Cecil Breeden, Sergeant John
Roach remained
in
few hours before
Laird, Gil
Murdock, and George
combat with Company A. The previous morning, 7
July 16, John Barnes a
99
1
had been wounded
a reinforced
head by
in the
shell
Company A had "jumped
fragments
off" for the
final slog into St. L6.
was now 8:30 A.M.
It
machine
teletype
sounded
in Bedford. Elizabeth
fice for central Virginia in
away
Words emerged on
a strip of
desires
me
to express his
deep
We
of-
Bedford from
printer.
have casualties."
first line
of copy: "The Secretary of
regret." 8 Teass
had seen these words
July 1944, telegrams announcing the death of a local boy ar-
on average once a week. She waited
rived
to
paper chattering out of the
Teass s heart sank as she read the
By
main Western Union
in the
Roanoke. All telegrams came
"Good morning. Go Ahead. Roanoke.
before.
a button that
She then typed: "Good morning. Go ahead. Bedford."
this office.
War
and then pressed
for receiving telegrams
a bell twenty-five miles
Teass switched on the
pecting the machine to
fall silent.
But
it
for the
message
to end, ex-
did not. Line after line of copy
clicked out of the printer. Within a few minutes, as Teass watched in a "trance-like state," 9
Company more
it
A.
"I
it
was
just sat
was going
clear that
had happened
terrible
to
and watched them and wondered how many
to be." 10
The telegrams kept coming. Teass
fed the ticker tape into a small bar-
water where the adhesive on the back of the tape was moistened.
rel of
Using
Union
new
something
a large thimble,
stationery,
line.
she then ran the tape onto pieces of Western
snapping the tape every couple of inches
The job required intense concentration and
to
form a
neatness, and
Elizabeth took great pride in her work.
was
afraid the
news
would be leaked before the addressees on the telegrams were
noti-
"Naturally,
fied.
I
telling
didn't
I
want somebody phoning up
them before
just terrible."
in shock," recalled Teass. "I
11
was so
a relative, a
they'd gotten the telegram. That
mother
say,
and
would have been
The Bedford Boys
200
For a long time, the teletype machine clattered, spitting out telegram
When
after telegram.
it
finally
stopped, Teass thought the messages of
condolence were over but a few minutes
remember who came
don't
first
or when," she recalled. "But
member
there were a lot of Johns
Dean.
," 12 .
another stuttered out.
later
do
I
"I
re-
—
John Schenk, John Wilkes, John
.
man
Green's caretaker, a "very kind" 13
in his forties called
Thomas, usually delivered telegrams around town. But most sages that morning were for relatives
who
lived in
Frank
of the mes-
surrounding areas on
farms. Teass looked around the drugstore. She asked for help, explaining
needed someone
that she
to deliver telegrams as
soon as possible. Near
the soda fountain sat the town's undertaker, Harry Carder, "a real small
man
with a quick step, very polite, always in a navy or black suit and
white
shirt." 14
He
quickly
left
with a telegram.
Teass spotted Sheriff Jim Marshall and the local doctor, Pete Rucker, a bespectacled
man
in his sixties with thinning hair,
ent at the births of several of the Bedford boys.
on East Main Street opposite the post sick,
"Pete Rucker
to
He had
pres-
an office nearby
"Back then, when you got
office.
you called the doctor and he came
who had been
your house," recalled Teass.
—he born me and my brother on my Daddy's farm. Lord
have mercy, those were the good days." 15 Teass gave Marshall and Rucker a telegram each. That
more. Most were addressed to farms miles from town. She list
of people in
aled taxi
fee
Roy
town
still
Israel at his office. Israel, a
company and drove and
driving cars, picked
to chat
when
a Cadillac.
left
several
made
a quick
up the telephone, and
di-
former cowboy from Texas, ran a
He
often
came by Green's
for a cof-
business was slow.
Israel took a telegram, got a signed receipt
from
a relative of the de-
ceased, and returned an hour later to pick up another. "Elizabeth, don't
look for anyone else to take them," he said. "From of
them
my
taxi
in the county. Just call
and take
it
me when
out." 16 Israel
would
now
on,
I'll
another comes in and stay with family
take I'll
all
use
members
if
they were alone until relatives or neighbors could be found to comfort
His Deep Regret
201
them. "I'm sure he was nice and compassionate to the families he de-
them
livered
remembered.
He was
to.
dependable man," Teass
a wonderful, kind,
17
Teass didn't want the whole town to panic because of rumors. But be-
had returned
fore Israel
had spread
like
Viola Parker Earl
to
pick up another telegram, news of the tragedy
wildfire from
may have
was missing
street to street
received the
the whole house."
"I
thought, 'Well,
It
you don't
I'd
to factory.
18
confirmed that
cry,
you don't do
better dust.' ...
I
dusted
19
Viola then took her daughter to
telegram.
in action. "You're so hit that
anything," she later said.
began
first
and factory
Danny
in
her arms,
the house and
left
walk towards the Peaks of Otter where she and Earl had
courted.
make
"Well, Danny," she finally said, "we're going to to
make
it
.
.
.
we're going
it."
But she wasn't sure, and the longer she walked, the more she began to
wonder: "What
Back
at
in the
world
am
I
going to do?" 20
Green's drugstore, Teass was
tape and laying
them on Western Union
someone
to take
quiet,
boys, It
was
A
do and it
was
and find
took a break some-
fallen over Bedford: "It
was one of the
you didn't know them, then you knew members of their
family.
a very sad time. Fine
young men had gotten
Newcomb was
Hampton Looms. The whole
working the
factory
a terrible anticipation filling the corridors
of the boys' daddies called.
crying, but
town. Everybody's heart was broken. With a
Across town, Elva mill,
had
a job to
confidential
to the families." 21 Teass
terrible pall
had
lot
still little
if
remember
many messages and keep them
them out
time that morning.
snapping pieces of ticker
stationery. "I
a responsibility," she recalled. "I don't
shocking to get so
still
and
sisters
"There was a large door
open." 23
killed." 22
first shift at
seemed
to
the textile
be on tenterhooks,
and machine rooms. "Several
and wives worked with me," Elva
at the entrance,
and that day they
Elva had only to glance up from her work to see
ing and going. That morning, she could barely look
re-
left
it
who was com-
away from the
door.
The Bedford Boys
202
At the Belding Hemingway worst. At roughly 9:30 A.M. a
Wilkes
sat opposite
her
factory,
workers were also dreading the
manager approached
sister,
room where
Bettie
Mildred.
Mildred saw the manager and motioned him "I've
a
to stay outside.
got to go to the bathroom," said Mildred.
"Okay," said Bettie.
Mildred
left.
walked out fice,
One
after another, Bettie's co-workers also got
until Bettie
Frank Draper
was
Jr.'s
alone in the department. In the front of-
left
sister
up and
Verona saw someone whispering about
telegrams. Finally, Bettie went to see what was going on. In the hallway,
she saw her sister rushing back to the department.
"We've gotta go home," Mildred blurted. 24 Bettie burst into tears.
and Mildred
It
was
official.
factory manager, Mr.
apartment. Nothing was said.
to their
was good," Bettie
The
recalled, "they
The
At the Rubatex
would have
love of her
factory, a
life
said
Home,
drove Bettie
knew
"I
something
if
the
news
right away." 25
was dead.
few hundred yards from Green's drugstore,
twenty-year-old Helen Cundiff worked in the shipping department on the second floor, not far from Frank Draper
minute [Mary] got
a telegram, she
mother, Mary. "The
Jr.'s
was out of the
place.
and never came back. Frank's father never got over
Back
at
it
She went home
either." 26
her apartment, Bettie Wilkes heard crying. The sisters of two
other Bedford boys shared rooms across the corridor.
They had
also re-
ceived telegrams: John Dean, one of seven brothers in service, had fought with
Company F and been
Overstreet had been
Bettie
ceiving their
few days
wounded on D-Day. "So
town and the surrounding farms
would
killed a
as the
particular
summons
was
all
D-Day; Dickie
around our small
dreaded messages kept coming,"
later write, "all [twenty-two] of
own
it
after
them, with each family
to grief
and
re-
loss." 27
At some point, Bettie collapsed, suddenly overwhelmed by the
grief
she had suppressed since hearing the rumor of Johns death. Mildred called Dr. Rucker,
been present
who rushed
at Bettie
over and prepared a sedative. Rucker had
and Mildred's
births.
203
His Deep Regret
'This "I
is
hope you put
just
replied.
make
going to
things better," said Rucker.
me
to sleep
and
never wake up/' Bettie
I
28
Back
at
Hampton Looms,
Elva
Newcomb
prayed that she would not
be called away from her loom. Suddenly, the foreman entered.
walked over
He
to the sister of twenty-six-year-old Private Clifton Lee.
would be years before anyone
would dare mention
in Lee's family
It
his
death, so devastated were his parents. It
was
morning that a friend of Verona Lipford called her
also that
away from her desk
at
Hemingway and took her home
Belding
to the
Drapers' four-room house beside the railroad tracks. "By the time
I
got
home," recalled Verona, "one of the neighbors had brought the message to
my mother
that
my brother
Frank was dead.
There was no conversation, just mother [Mary Draper] was
in bed.
He was
first
born.
and carrying on.
a lot of crying
She had
her
just given up."
.
.
.
My
29
At Green's drugstore, Elizabeth Teass suddenly saw Harold Stevens, an older brother of Roy and Ray Stevens. He'd heard about the telegrams from customers at Smith's market, where he worked on the
meat counter, and had rushed butcher's jacket, and his
now
handsome, tanned
"Elizabeth,
if
wearing his white
still
stood a few feet from Teass, concern creasing
face.
message comes
a
He was
over.
for
my
mother, can you
call
me?" he
asked. 30
Teass nodded.
Of
course she would.
Later that morning, a telegram arrived: Roy Stevens was listed as
missing in action as of June
6.
When
parents, they were just as startled a letter
from Roy
in
partment or some
seemed killed
that every
England postmarked
officer
had so many others
Harold showed the message
and confused
in
made
after
a mistake?
June
boy from Bedford
in the
6.
Had both
Company A? From what
Had
the
War De-
their sons died, as
people were saying,
—how
else could so
it
Stonewall brigade had been
on D-Day. Perhaps their troopship had been torpedoed
channel
to his
as he was, having read
many have been
lost?
in the
The Bedford Boys
204
Harold comforted until further
news
firming either son
do was pray and wait
his parents. All they could
another
arrived:
from Roy, or
letter
a telegram con-
death.
s
Meanwhile, Ivylyn Schenk was driving across town with her mother.
They were going
spend a few days with John's
to
family.
"Moma and
I
drove up into the yard at the Schenks' place," recalled Ivylyn. "Mother
Schenk came out of the house were not Ivylyn
She
right.
told us
to greet us.
he had gone.
knew
I
away
right
that things
." 31 .
.
and her mother stayed with the Schenks
as planned. Instead of
enjoying a short vacation, they grieved and prayed with John's two older sisters,
two half
Schenks mother band stayed
sisters,
and
visited the
Later that afternoon, John
a brother.
Drapers
to offer
her condolences. Her hus-
home.
at
Newcomb. "He thought
"Mr. Schenk was angry," remembered Elva
son should not have been
his
hind the lines to
boys
who
like
later
she was sorry he
came
He blamed
Schenk
to
be be-
people, wouldn't talk
later sent
me
a letter saying
that way." 32
felt
who
Earl.
back. Mrs.
Ivylyn discovered that
John's cousins,
John was supposed
killed, said
[my husband]
also
Johns parents had been belonged
in contact with
one of
116th Infantry regiment. The
to the
cousin had been able to prepare John for his burial in Normandy.
cousin did not
know how John had
died.
But
John Clifton, Schenk was probably one of the struggled to get ashore weighed
As
as a radio operator like
first to
be cut down as he
the metal target on his back.
families throughout the county rushed to comfort each other,
seemed
to Ivylyn that
how much hope and was
down by
a big
no one would ever be able
joy
had been destroyed so
window wide open and then suddenly
to
fast: "It it
were busy making peach
They thought them
telegram.
it
ice
cream
it
adequately express
was
was
all
At the Hoback farm that afternoon, Lucille and her
call
The
as
if
there
shut down." 33 sister
Rachel
as a treat for their mother, Macie.
might cheer her up. Suddenly, they heard their father
to the kitchen.
He had
Raymond was missing
just received another
in action.
Western Union
205
His Deep Regret
"My
my
seen
At
five o'clock that
ing Bedford
As dusk
left
or missing in action
wooden home
Bedford. His family had placed Sibyle Kieth
lost their
"They were wailing,
and then,
ture, It
own
very
Coleman
an open casket
in
in their parlor.
each
crying, grabbing for
tears
in the heart of
as bereaved parents arrived to
pay their
other.
They
you can imagine, they see a dead boy lying there.
well,
I've
.
.
.
ever seen. Coleman's mother was in a
She was
across the hall from where they had the casket.
much
shock and
in
sons and were coming into the room, emptied of furni-
was one of the worst things
room
on D-Day
of Andrew
him
Coleman was present
final respects.
had never
work. That day nine telegrams had arrived declar-
on Bedford, several families walked
to the white, two-story
"I
afternoon, Elizabeth Teass switched off the tele-
men dead
settled
Lucille.
day" 34
father cry, but he did that
type machine and
had
remembered
parents were never the same,"
in bed,
still
crippled with terrible arthritis."
At some point during the evening, Dr. Grey from the Presbyterian
Church
in
Bedford came over
service on D-Day,
to pray
and he had
with the families. "He had led the
Coleman. "He
a soft voice," recalled
looked every inch a minister. Everyone admired him." 35 Later that week,
Yopp was missing
Anna Mae Stewart
in action.
She was
still
ington, D.C., with Yopp's wife, Elsie.
where we both worked. happened.
.
.
.
Later,
I
I
had
was
paramedics couldn't get
to
him and
sharing an apartment in
"I
went down
Grant had got
Wash-
to the post office tell
her what had
to the
shore but the
her outside and
to call
told that
learned that her brother Grant
a lot of the boys before they bled to
death." 36
On
Wednesday, July
tears to
We the fice
many
19, the Bedford Bulletins editorial
brought fresh
eyes:
can only point out that these Bedford
same cause
for
which men
—the preservation
mankind has been
in all ages
men have
of the ideals of liberty
struggling since the
dawn
have given their
made
the
lives in
supreme
sacri-
and justice toward which
of time.
37 .
.
,
The Bedford Boys
206
On
July 25, 1944, Bedford's Eleanor Yowell wrote to her husband,
"Pinky," an
American
Apparently, the fodder," as they
pilot
based
England:
in
were
The war
it.
Many Bedford
really
was "cannon
in the lead assaults to hit those heavily fortified
mandy beaches. The town has been write you about
Company A,
16th Infantry Division,
1
is
in a state of shock. ...
home
really hitting
Nor-
just hated to
I
now. 38
boys had brothers in service. David Draper was a
heavy equipment operator with the Navy Seabees on an island in the Asia-Pacific theatre.
was dead. "He had
were
a job to brutal.
That's
what
said
I
it
aside and told
could take two days
do beating the Japanese.
But we got took to
to
be just
like
off. .
.
em
.
him
Frank
that his brother
said: 'No,
I
his lieu-
don't
I
They weren't
want
like us.
to.'
They
in the end. Just like animals.
win." 39
In early August, the
Hobacks received
tained Raymond's Bible, inscribed
Xmas, 1938," and
when
cleaning his eating utensils
commander took him
tenant
I
He was
a package
"Raymond
S.
from Europe.
con-
It
Hoback, from mother,
a letter:
19 July 1944. Somewhere in France.
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Hoback I really
to
don't
to start this letter to
do something in words of writing.
D-DAY plus picked by
know how
now
so. I
up from
came upon
this
.
attempt
Bible and as most any person would do,
the sands to keep
it
is
I
from being destroyed .... You have is
well. I sincerely
hope
your son dropped the book without any
Most everybody who landed on
letter
folks, hut will
While walking along the beach
received a letter from your son saying he
imagine what has happened
notice.
The
it
1, I
.
you
that beach
D-Day
was from Corporal H. W. Crayton of West
lost
something. 40
Virginia.
was the only personal belonging of Raymond the Hobacks ever
The
Bible
received.
207
His Deep Regret
"There was almost nothing from Bedford," recalled Lucille Hoback. "A fold,
with nothing in
The
it,
and perhaps a fountain pen but that was
Bible had no water stains. Perhaps
Raymond had
it."
bill-
41
gotten onto the
beach before he died. "My mother always treasured the Bible so much," Lucille said. "She said that, next to her son, she
have his
A few days
later,
M
AM
MO
E
Do
RI
not say
They only
to
the following words appeared in the Bedford Bulletin:
my sons
sleepest
They loved each
And
would have wanted
Bible." 42
are dead; .
.
.
other, stayed together
with their comrades crossed together
To that great beyond;
So weep
not, mothers,
Your sons are happy and free.
MRS.
J.
S.
HOBACK.
.
.
.
43
But the Hobacks did weep. Things were never the same. That summer, Lucille was barred from going to Bedford County Lake or doing
anything that might have been fun. Her mother spent hours alone and rarely left the house.
Every evening
were always trying
make everybody
to
laughing and no chatting. hurt her, hurt me.
I
I
felt like a
wake.
feel better.
was very close
to
"My
sister
There was
my mother,
[to
and
I
be] no
so anything that
felt helpless." 44
Later that summer, Lucille asked
if
she could go to an
amusement
park in Roanoke. Her parents said no. She thought she understood why:
"They were the only ones who All across less
lost
two sons on D-Day" 45
Bedford County, joy died that summer. "Life seems so use-
without you darling," wrote Bettie Wilkes in a memorial notice pub-
lished with dozens of others from bereaved relatives
Bedford Bulletin. "There
where there
is
is
only one hope
no night but eternal
rest
left
and widows
in the
now, to meet you up there
and peace." 46
The Bedford Boys
208
Families grieved behind closed doors, sharing their pain with relatives
and God. "People
didn't feel like going out
and doing things
while," recalled Marie Powers, a junior at Bedford
for a
good
High School who
loved nothing more than jitterbugging in her saddle shoes to Glenn Miller tunes at dinner club dances. "Most tinued.
It
was
just
such a sad time.
It
another, and people supported each
By the time Powers returned partment had confirmed that
been
killed
on
Omaha Beach
to
was
all
the activities were discon-
terrible.
But people loved one
other." 47
High School
in all
nineteen
that
fall,
men from
the
War De-
Bedford had
on D-Day. Three more Bedford boys had
died later in the invasion. In cities close to Bedford, where blood lines also toll.
went back Eight of
several generations, the slaughter
Bob
Sales's
died on D-Day. Seven of
never go ica or
home
to
Roanoke. But no community
indeed in any Allied nation had
lost as
In a matter of minutes, a couple of
broken the town's heart.
had
also taken a
heavy
Company B from Lynchburg had Bob Slaughters buddies in Company D would buddies in
in the state or in
many
Amer-
sons as Bedford.
German machine gunners had
18
Coming Home
THE YOUNGEST, AT LEAST
FOR
with a fresh
start.
In early
Bedford's sad
,
summer ended
September 1944, Bedford County's
chil-
dren went back to school. Ivylyn Schenk returned to Moneta grade school where she five pupils,
welcomed
new
a
That summer, one of her
class.
thirty-
seven-year-old Booker Goggin, had written her a deeply mov-
ing letter of consolation in his small first-grade handwriting. 'Those boys
and
girls
still
my
gave
me
children.
great heart to carry on," recalled Ivylyn. I
still
claim them
their grandchildren. They're
The Bedford poems from
as mine,
mine."
and
their children
and
1
Bulletin continued to feature memorial letters and
relatives.
To mark Frank Draper
Jr.'s
mother and family sent
his
still all
all
'They were
twenty-sixth birthday on September 16,
memorial
a
letter to the Bulletin
which they
addressed to "Frank." His mother wrote:
I
can't
even see your grave except
in a
dream.
Now my mind
thousands of miles across the mighty deep. To a lonely foreign land
This life.
tired,
where the body of
homesick
He was
in
mound
in a
dear soldier boy might be lain away.
boy who attended church
in
Bedford
all
his
not buried in a nice casket, flowers and funeral procession.
His dear body was
draped
soldier
my
little
wanders
laid to rest in a
an American
There
flag.
you have gone, dear Frank.
.
.
.
blood-soaked uniform.
will
The
Maybe
was
not be any more cruel wars where
old rugged cross has a two-fold
209
it
mean-
The Bedford Boys
210
ing for me, for
my own
dear boy shed his precious blood
cross at Calvary. For our religious freedom, they say.
A
England and hoped
in
How sad
was
I
to
Jesus on the
dear price to pay. 2
who had met John
Kathleen Bradshaw, the young Virginian nurse Reynolds
like
marry him, sent a poem:
that lonely day
When
I
J can't
forget your smiling face,
heard that you'd heen called away
.
.
.
Full of love, friendship and grace;
God To
called you
rest
on that other
Him forever
with
shore,
more. 3
Elaine Coffey, the "dear sweetheart" of Bedford Hoback, wrote of
how
"in the stillness of
get you?
Oh
we meet
thee until
A
no! For
midnight
ing. It
memory's golden chain
again.'
will
.
.
always bind
.
Will
my
I
for-
heart to
4
to see
was
all
some
of the families. There wasn't any weeping and wail-
so quiet.
There wasn't any
stunned. For those not involved
took
it.
Back
it
was hard
There weren't any mothers
been over there
in France,
Battalion of the
Everybody was just
hysteria. to
comprehend, but the fam-
saying,
'My son shouldn't have
in the first place to fight this dirty old war."' 5
Company A had been decimated
had fought through
tial
tears in silence flow.
Mrs. Keith Harvey, co-publisher of the Bedford Bulletin, "went
around
ilies
my
1
St.
time and again as
L6, and then taken Vire to the south.
16th Infantry had been awarded
its
for actions
Army
1st
second Presiden-
Unit Citation for the capture of Hill 203 near Vire. The
been
The
it
first
had
on D-Day. The battalion had then joined Patton's Third
during the Allied breakout of Normandy, before being sent west to
take the Brittany port of Brest, a vital objective because of
its
many U-
boat pens.
On
September
Company A
16,
Sergeant Allen Huddleston of Bedford rejoined
in the outskirts of Brest,
having fully recovered from his
Coming Home
broken ankle.
"When
wasn't a single boy
I
I
back
got
company," he recalled, "there
recognized from Bedford. There was
Mitchell in headquarters but
moved up
to the
didn't see them."
I
21
6
Newcomb and
That afternoon,
he
as
Huddleston heard that Company Fs Joseph
to the frontline,
Parker, Earl Parker's brother,
had been
killed just
hours earlier in fierce
fighting.
Colonel Canham,
now
assistant division
German
fantry Division, accepted the
When
of the 8th In-
surrender at Brest two days
he entered the headquarters of
ham was
commander
later.
German General Ramcke, Can-
asked for his credentials. Without hesitation he turned and
pointed to the GIs accompanying him: "These are
Over 40,000 Germans were taken
prisoner.
my
credentials." 7
"They marched past
us,
Company B's Bob Sales, by now a many they marched past us all morn-
thousands and thousands," recalled platoon sergeant. "There were so ing until one in the afternoon." 8
After the
headed
fall
of Brest, the 116th Infantry boarded trucks and trains
was
east. It
a remarkable journey through a
grateful France.
At night,
ments but with
little
men
tried to sleep in the
pass
air,
free their legs
in the doorway, left
and watch the silhouettes of French hamlets and towns
by.
"The days were
who would sitting
Joseph Ewing, a
better," recalled
later write
an
official history of
and crowding the open doors, waved
ing bicycles along the streets.
through their backyards,
down
their aprons or in baskets. all this
was
fleeting attention,
.
.
.
.
.
.
rifle
platoon leader
the 29th Division. "The men, to
lowered gates and grade crossings, and whistled
It
cramped compart-
few hours they would
luck. Every
from the tangle of their buddies' limbs, and stand ajar for fresh
newly liberated and
French at the
civilians at the
French
girls rid-
French housewives came running
to the tracks, carrying apples
The Blue and Gray
waved back happily
and pears
with
soldiers, flushed
until their
arms were
in
tired.
a strange, but possibly shallow happiness that they felt as they
watched the smiling people of these ... for the train
cities
from which the war had
fled
was pursuing the war, and they knew the pursuit would
"
The Bedford Boys
212
end
German
at the
border, for the
war had stopped
turned around and was waiting for them."
Sergeant Allen Huddleston was on board one of the
through
where we stopped
Paris,
men were
not to
move from
They
much
recalled. 10
They would not be
Nevertheless,
windows and doors and go
gle out of train
heard so
it.
and had
"We went
trains.
few hours," he
their trains.
see "gay Pareeee" as they called
city of lights.
for a
there,
9
The
getting to
some managed
to wrig-
AWOL for a few hours
in the
just couldn't bear to roll past the fantasy city they'd
about.
Before dawn, the trains groaned to
life
and when they stopped
again,
Huddleston discovered they were near Aachen on the German-Dutch border.
It
was September
"We went
29.
into
Aachen on
a truck
time that night and went on the line the next day. Suddenly, the started
and we
turned
me
first
day
in
all
jumped over
a bank.
An 88mm
hit
me
around, and killed a guy a few feet from me.
some
artillery
in the shoulder,
It
was
5 P.M.,
my
combat.
"They took
me
place along the
to the aid station that night,
line,
took out the shrapnel.
operated on
me some
stayed in Paris for two or
I
three days while they waited for the weather to clear and then they
me back to England. wound up at the same place where had been with my broken ankle. had the same doctor and the same physical exercise sergeant for my rehab, a nice guy a New Yorker. H shipped
I
I
I
—
Huddleston was the
Bedford boy
last
frontlines. In the rest of the
in
Company A
to fight in the
116th Infantry, there were very few other
men still alive who had trained in England for D-Day. Company D's Bob Slaughter had been wounded by mortar shrapnel in his back and awarded
his
second purple heart; he would eventually rejoin
Germany. "Everybody
alive
today from the 116th has got two or three
purple hearts," he said sixty years
much action." Company B's Bob
later. "If
you don't have one, you
didn't
12
see
vember 1944 Rhine.
his unit in
as the
Sales was, miraculously,
29th fought
On November
to defeat
still
going strong by No-
German
17, the 116th Infantry's
forces west of the
B and C companies
Coming Home
jumped
under orders
off
They had advanced
213
Rhineland town of Setterich.
to take the
few hundred yards of the town by
to within a
nightfall.
At 4 A.M. on November
mander and ordered
to take
dawn. "In those days,
mouth
it
didn't like something,
that field
lit
company com-
his
side of a field
you had
up with
by
keep your
to
you
flares like
and then opened up on us with tracer
fire
from
When dawn came, crawled back and then took a tank We got the German gun. tapped the tank and hollered,
machine gun.
along a road.
was called by
up position on the other
Germans
shut. Well, the
could play football on a
you
if
18, Sales
I
I
'Okay! Let s get out of here!'
The tank turned and then they
hit us
with
an antitank rocket. "There were balls of nothing.
my
was
I
ished me.
one I'd
is
out of
my eyes.
where
cut,
my head
stayed in hospital a year and a half, lost an eye.
I
in
combat
how many men
I
my gun,
couldn't find
hit the side of the tank.
not the best in the world but a hell of a
been
I
both eyes with shrapnel, blood was pouring out of
hit in
head from a
fire rolling
six
saw
months.
die."
13
And
lot
in that time,
Sales's actions
That
fin-
The other
better than nothing.
you wouldn't believe
on November 18 earned him
a Silver Star.
Bedford's last casualty from arrived in
America
New York,
Company A,
in April 1945. "I
and then
I
got to
went
Sergeant Allen Huddleston,
to the hospital, spent a night in
come home."
A
few weeks
later,
on
he celebrated V-E Day, marking victory in Europe. That morning, A.M., Central
wood
European Time, General Alfred
7,
at 2:41
Jodl, seated at a plain
table in a grimy school building in Reims,
German
May
had signed the
official
surrender. 14
Company A had spent the
last
fought
all
the
months of the war
way
as a
to the Elbe.
company
runner,
ing the fate of the last surviving rifleman from D-Day,
who had died strong when it
in
John Barnes had
somehow
Sam
avoid-
Rothenberg,
October 1944. The 29th Division had been 14,000
arrived in
England
suffered over 20,000 casualties.
15
in
October 1942. By war's end,
it
had
"
"
The Bedford Boys
214
On
V-E Day, Company
preparing to
move
to
was
Bremen
and the
rest of
Company A
fame
[of the
town] was
to
A
to
in a small
What was
its
gin factory.
The name this
mix that we
that delicious
been that awful lemon mix from our Just a
mony
few weeks
in the
later,
duties. Barnes
of the
K
Company A
town of Spaden
in the
town was em-
fabulous nectar of which
neck of each bot-
added? Could
lightly
rations?
first
American-occupied zone of Ger-
a full dress parade," Barnes recalled. "As the
the landing, but
Of
I
I
tried to think
could not."
the Bedford boys
have
held a profoundly moving cere-
anniversary of D-Day. "The entire
and taps was played,
it
16
many. Barnes stood on a parade ground as the reconstituted observed the
valley,
celebrated long and hard. "The main claim
tasted the last sweet drops, our tongues licking the
tle.
Ruhr
in the
new occupation
begin
blazoned on the earthen bottle that held
we
town
Company A
company
American
flag
back twelve months
fell
out for
was raised
to the
day of
17
who had
left
America, Earl
Newcomb and
company's supply sergeant, Jack Mitchell, were
still
the
serving with
Company A. Neither had fought in the front lines. George Roach and Gil Murdock, who swam for their lives on D-Day, were still in the company but not as infantrymen. Roach was now Company As clerk. Murdock worked in the regimental headquarters. According to Barnes: "It [was] safe to say that no rifleman now remained that had served on the front and had been in England in Ivybridge in the spring of '44.
The vices.
18
anniversary passed quietly in Bedford. There were no special ser-
America was
County's sons were that
many would be
That summer,
as
still still
at
war with Japan and hundreds of Bedford
fighting in the Pacific.
It
was widely expected
involved in another huge invasion, this time in Japan.
America girded
itself to deliver to
perial Japan,
wounded Bedford boys began
who had
sons went out and hugged the survivors
lost
recalled Elva
Newcomb. "They were
still
death blow to Im-
to return
family."
19
home. "Mothers
who came
back,"
Coming Home
Lieutenant Ray Nance had
Europe
left
in
October 1944 by walking
along the very same wharf in Greenock in Scotland, where
had landed that grim October day
New York on
lantic to
other
wounded
Queen
the
in 1942,
Elizabeth,
Nance continued
GIs.
He
to
be able
to
crammed with thousands
Army
nurse
Before the war,
in
it
mended
sufficiently for
named Alpha Watson was working. Nance and Alpha had gone to the same
England Nance had proposed
November
26, 1944.
cember
and then returned to
1
5
Going home was
Nance of
to her. 20
Nance was mustered out live in
high school in the
They were married on of active duty on
De-
Bedford.
as heart-wrenching as D-Day.
often could not sleep at night and
Omaha
leave.
nearby Petersburg where a statuesque, auburn-
and dated. They had corresponded throughout the war, and while hospital in
of
his rehabilitation in a hospital in
walk unaided and the hospital gave him medical
spent most of
haired
Company A
and then crossed the At-
Staunton, Virginia. By late 1944, his heel had
him
215
when he
did the nightmare
Was
returned with traumatizing intensity.
there something
command? Bedford seemed to be full of mothers who had lost sons. Nance stood for hours on street corners, recounting what he had seen on D-Day to more he could have done
widows, and
to save the
Bedford boys under his
to Taylor Fellerss father. "I
says daughter Bertie
can
still
Woodford, "standing on the
see
my
father now,"
street corner, just hop-
ing to see one of the survivors, talking and talking to Nance, trying to find out exactly
what happened." 21
Explaining over and over to the bereaved what had happened was soul-destroying. "You
"Why
is
wondered what they were
he here and not
my
son or brother
who
thinking," will
Nance
never be here?" 22
Fresh-faced Roy Stevens was discharged on July 30, 1945,
Meade, Maryland. From planned
went
to catch a
into a bar.
young." 23
bus
there, he hurried to
to Bedford.
"They wouldn't
me
at Fort
Washington where he
While waiting sell
said.
a beer!
for his connection,
They
said
I
he
was too
The Bedford Boys
216
The bus dropped Stevens
off
on Main
drugstore. Barracks bag slung over his shoulder, Stevens a
from Green's
Street, not far
marched down
sun-bleached road to the farm which he and Ray had bought before
now
the war, and where his parents were
farmhouse. "A guy lived there
at a
took a good long swig.
On
the way, he stopped
— Charlie Zimmerman—who had
a bootlegger before the war." 24
been
living.
Roy bought some moonshine and
He needed something
him face
to help
his par-
ents alone. Stevens's parents were waiting. His
mother ran from the
front door
and hugged him. "Well, at least one of you got back," she said.
"We
just
He and Ray were
big fella but boy he cried that day.
worked on the farm together before the whole
lot."
"My Daddy was
grabbed one another," recalled Stevens.
very close. They'd
war. Ray's death
shook him
impossible to settle back into his old
it
life.
He
hard to calm his nerves but the whiskey also fueled his rage deaths of his friends.
"But you
back." 26 hole.
a
25
Stevens found
said.
a
"I
tried to forget,
As soon
can't.
as that
Stevens cursed so often
Then one day
his
the
wash the memories away," he
whiskey dries out
was
it
drank at
as
if
he was
it all
still
comes
right
living in a fox-
mother scolded him and he dropped the
foul lan-
guage. But he didn't stop the bad living until he met twenty-year-old
Helen Cundiff nies.
ried
He
at the
Bedford County fairground. She was pitching pen-
kept tossing coins until she agreed to a date. They were mar-
on Groundhog's Day, February
joined a local church and
vowed
2,
1946. About the same time, Roy
to dedicate
himself to "God's works."
Foxhole buddy Clyde Powers returned a few days after Stevens. his
way from Washington
where
his
year-old,
younger
was
to Bedford,
now
sister, Eloise,
a cadet nurse at the
when Clyde walked
along
its
he stopped
in
Richmond,
On
Virginia,
a beautiful, dark-haired twenty-
Grace Hospital.
It
was mid-morning
spotless corridors in his crisp uniform.
"There's a good looking paratrooper asking for you," said one of Eloise's
fellow nurses. Eloise was
amazed
to see Clyde.
She had thought he was
Coming Home
still
England. In the thirty-one months he had been overseas, he had
in
lean and rugged. But he was
become as she
217
still
as nonchalant, as unflappable,
remembered.
Thirty-year-old Clyde grabbed his
man
not the kind of
and hugged
little sister
to cry. For the rest of his life
back the
tions bottled up. Eloise couldn't hold
alone," Clyde said calmly.
He had
left
her.
He was
he would keep
his
tears. "I can't
go
emo-
home
Bedford with his brother.
He
couldn't face returning without a sibling by his side. Eloise asked the
nursing director
Of
brother.
she could have the day off to go
if
home with
her
course she could.
Eloise changed out of her nurse's uniform and called her mother, Alice, to to
her that they were on their way. They caught the 2 P.M. bus
tell
Bedford. Later that afternoon, they arrived home. Clyde's mother
hugged her son: "I'm so glad you're home." She cried but did not ask about Jack that "It
day.
was very hard
enormous
for
survivor's guilt.
Clyde would not
How
anybody
else in his family about
in France. It
was too much
to bear. "People say the
died on the beach were heroes," recalled Eloise.
heroes are the ones
felt
could you not?" 27
talk with Eloise or
what had happened
men who
Clyde coming home," recalled Eloise. "He
who came back and had
to live
with
think the
"I
for the rest of
it
their lives." 28
Elva
around
Newcomb had her. Finally,
landed on American later,
waited for three years to feel her husband's arms
soil:
"I'm over here from over there."
Earl called her around
burg the next
day.
They drove
anniversary:
"I
had
told
anniversary.'
and
P.M.,
1 1
didn't
29
A
meet him
on June
make
in
Lynch-
13, 1945, in Earls
you make
wedding
back
for
our
for the first, or the second,
but
left: 'Just it
just
few days
later celebrated their third
him when he
He
told her to
into Bedford
1935 Ford coupe and fourteen days
wedding
who had
she received a telegram from Earl,
it
the third was just as good." "Earl
had
was
different
a time getting
when he came
him back
to like
back," added Elva with a smile.
he was. He'd been
telling
"I
boys what
The Bedford Boys
218
to
do
for fifty-five
months and
had
I
him
to teach
all
over that
I
knew
better." 30
Earl felt compelled to visit boys.
He had known
ited their
some
of the grieving families of Bedford
the Schenks well before the war but
home, John's mother, Rosa,
told Earl that her
George, would not talk to him. "Mr. Schenk
come home,"
recalled Earl, "he didn't
when he
want
felt that if his
to
speak
to
vis-
husband, son hadn't
anyone who
did." 31
Like the rest of the 29th Division, Earl was not yet demobilized. still
raged in the Pacific.
to return to a
camp
Earl had seen
He had
sixty days' leave
but then he would have
North Carolina and then ship out
in
enough
of
war so he
tried to
War
to the Far East.
extend his leave, sending a
telegram that claimed he had responsibilities he couldn't evade at home.
The army promptly
come
On
back."
replied: "Regret
you have not reason. Desire you
August
10, 1945, the
B-29 bomber Enola Gay, named
after
commander's mother, dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. September
joy. It
its
On
the Japanese formal surrender was signed. Earl didn't
2,
have to ship out after
mous
to
32
was
as
if
all.
V-J
Day was celebrated
the small town had
won
Bedford with enor-
in
the World Series. "The
wailing of the blackout siren was followed by the spontaneous blowing of car horns
and the ringing of
streets," reported the
bells as
people drove through the
Bedford Bulletin. At Rubatex,
and Belding Hemingway, the
shift whistles
blew
Hampton Looms,
late into the night.
The Bedford Fireman's Band bashed out "The Star-Spangled Banner" on the courthouse steps, and hundreds of revelers sang "God Bless America,"
many with
tears in their eyes,
cheered and sang into the early hours.
home
a "lone victory
singing lustily:
Now
all
When
most revelers had gone
serenador was heard wandering about the streets
"Happy Days Are Here Again." He repeated the song
over and over, pausing ringing cheer:
and then whooped and
The war
now and is
over!'"
the town's sons could
again like a town crier to yell with a 33
come home.
Coming Home
219
Sixteen million Americans had been in uniform during the war. Four
hundred thousand would never come home. Half a million more had been
wounded. But
for
many on
home
the
front,
had mostly been
it
Personal incomes had doubled at least since Pearl Harbor.
had
no country
virtually disappeared. Indeed,
such prosperity and such a high standard of
in the
living as
a
good war.
Unemployment
now
world
enjoyed
America.
By 1947, most veterans across America were enjoying the good times sons finally
too. In Bedford, several lost
in a casket
when he
died storming
sixth anniversary of Pearl Harbor,
man's Band again gathered
My God
"Nearer
to
Abbott and
The
1
home. The
Dog Green
beach.
On
the
1947, the Bedford Fire-
7,
courthouse and
time played
this
16 other Bedford
who had
to
come
to
pay their respects in the war. 34
County boys who had died
next Bedford boy to arrive back on the slow night train, the Poc-
walked
Jr.
His
to the station along the
Mud
Verona and the
sister
in
when
they took his casket off the train," she recalled.
Alley, right beside the railroad. "It
it
fam-
in a box."
was around 9:30
P.M.
was draped
"It
My brother left
with a flag and there was an honor guard.
and he came back from
rest of his
Norfolk and Western tracks from their
home
tion
first to arrive,
Thee." Abbott's casket was placed on the courthouse
ahontas, was Frank Draper ily
December
at the
steps before two thousand people to
it
draped with the Stars and Stripes, was Sergeant Dickie Ab-
twenty-two
bott, just
made
from that
sta-
35
Mrs. Mary Draper had her son's casket brought back to the house.
"She wanted him
The
home
local undertaker,
terrible July
neral
Harry Carder,
who had
day in 1944, was forced
window because later,
with her before he was buried," recalled Verona.
squeeze the casket through a
the Drapers' front door was too narrow. 36
Verona and her family gathered
Home.
to
in a private
my Mom wanted
knew
I
was him
as
he had the prettiest looked
like if
room
"Mr. Carder sprayed something in the
opened the casket because it
delivered telegrams that
soon as little
saw.
I
old head.
you blew on
it
could
tell
He was
the skin
would
to
at the air
be sure
just
few days
Carder Fu-
and then they it
was Frank.
by the form of
still
A
his
in his uniform. float away." 37
I
head
His face
The Bedford Boys
220
The U.S. Government had
given relatives the option of leaving their
loved ones in war graves in Europe or reburying
them
in
America. In
all,
seven Bedford boys were exhumed and shipped to America. Most of the
who came home
boys
in coffins
now
Greenwood
rest in Bedford's
Cemetery.
On
evening
a late fall
2000, Roy Stevens walked from grave
in
man. As the years passed, he
grave, smiling as he recalled each
Bedford struggled
to
come
to
terms with
Bible sufficed.
Most
The pain faded
There was no
its loss.
fable of grief ending in redemptive healing.
Therapy did not
to
said,
uplifting
exist.
The
times but never went away
at
of the survivors remained tormented by
what they had
experi-
enced. Dickie Overstreet could not erase images from his mind of young
GIs being mangled on Dog Green by the tracks of tanks. "When got back,'' recalled Stevens,
blow the shades bed
was jumpy
"I
at night in the
for a while.
first
I
The wind would
summer sometimes and
I'd
come out
of
in a hurry.' 38
and the bad dreams started
In 1948, Stevens quit drinking
to fade.
much
For other Bedford veterans, they did not: 'They were hurt, not so
and you'd get
physically but in the brain. They'd start talking
Friends like Clyde Powers got a lot of
them
in the
.
.
.
they got torn up inside.
to crying.
—
The drinking
it
end." 39
Tony Marsico fared better than most. The
1
16 Yankees catcher re-
turned to his job with the Piedmont Label company, where he would
work
until his retirement,
aged sixty-two.
loving relationship with his wife, Hazel, ington, D.C., in 1942,
apple of
his eye." 40
Day wounds field.
and eventually
whom
in a
to play golf
solace in a deeply
he had married
baby
By 1948, he had recovered
girl,
Laura,
in
Wash-
who was
sufficiently
from
"the
his
D-
with his 116 Yankees teammate, Pride Wing-
Before the war, they had both belonged to the same Piedmont
Label side as had Frank Draper
teammates had been
Jr.
same
colors
and Elmere Wright. Although
killed, their love of baseball
what may, they were determined the
He found
and play
ball.
to
had survived.
their
Come
once again stand on a diamond
in
Coming Home
"They did play again
Rebecca Wingfield.
very good. a
wound
One
game. Wingfield
ball
little
lift
We would
around here. They were
fielded as reliably as ever at
still
lost a little
second base. 41
something inside him when he couldn't play
forty-nine
who was born
he was
in 1986,
and her mother forty-one.
in [a] Veterans'
him and touched him on
Home
The wound
his leg.
he died, he loved golf and above
until
all
"Just be-
and an orderly
still
in
tried
really hurt. Right
baseball.
have his Purple Heart and a signed baseball from the 1943 [Euro-
pean Theater] World valuable possession. sionally bring
and Wright It
hills
any more," recalled Marsico's daughter, Laura,
fore he died
"I
hamlets in the
sister.
won the league." Marsico could still catch but on Omaha to his upper right arm severely limited his
1958 when her father was
to
League/' insisted
in the Skyline
year, they
sustained
"My Daddy
Bedford
for
went and watched them with my
"I
the beautiful
visit all
—
221
was such
reliving
it.
out.
it
Series," she continued. "It
a horrible experience,
As America boomed
his left
hand
in
ing on a "I
power
went
and talking about
in the late-forties
production line
an accident.
hand
A year
—burnt
off
Clyde
got out a
D-Day
Not long
would have meant
fifties,
so too did the fac-
to civilian
use in 1945.
Rubatex. In 1953, he
lost
foxhole
buddy Clyde Pow-
when Powers was
electrocuted work-
in hospital," said Stevens.
know how he was
that
would invade
Nance
ways
to
going to light to
do
it
with
to
couldn't get rid of horrific
his sleep
after returning to Bedford,
to find appropriate
"He was worried
that." 44
Like other survivors, Lieutenant Ray
tized.
him on D-Day
book of matches, showed him how
one hand. Boy, he liked
scenes from
it
to
line. 43
to see
I
at
later, his
death because he smoked and he didn't a cigarette.
and
which were quickly converted
a job at the
ers lost his right
most
hard." 42
That was too
Roy Stevens got
his
He kept it in a cedar chest and would only occaHe would talk about playing baseball with Draper
war but not about what happened
in the
tories in Bedford,
was probably
and leave him trauma-
he decided the town needed
commemorate and honor
its
dead before the
The Bedford Boys
222
bereaved could move on with their
was
to begin that process
lives.
to start a
As Nance saw
new
National Guard company in
Bedford so that the town's tradition of service would Bring back
dream of
No
Company A? Throughout
a volunteer corps in
one would support
it.
live again.
Virginia, people said Nance's
Bedford once again would never happen.
But Nance was determined
wrong. With the help of other Bedford veterans, he got letters,
and giving interviews
The plan struck
known someone who had just a year or in
When Nance how many students.
to as
many
reporters
chord with teenagers
a
not
to prove
turned up:
first
spread
"It
They flocked
They were proud
in.
A
By 1948, re-formed Company
Guard
among young
of
it."
their part.
high school
units
meeting
this generation's
would
at
4S
had 124 men, nearly double
war strength. There was no chance of decessor's fate. National
do
to
service by
he was amazed
for volunteers,
like wildfire
listen.
Everyone had
in Bedford.
come home. Many had escaped
meeting
them
work, writing
to
who would
some cases months, and they were keen
held his
way
the best
it,
in future
be spread
its
pre-
its
pre-
among
different divisions to prevent a similar catastrophe.
Putting the war behind
some were
them was
as
hard for Bedford's widows. But
fortunate enough to find love again. At a Christmas celebra-
tion in 1945, Ivylyn
Schenk met
a local farmer,
Ralph H. Hardy, who
had almost joined Company A before the war. Taylor recruit Hardy, but
he had "been unable
Fellers
to commit" 46
had
tried to
because he had
to
look after his sick mother and feed and educate nine of his siblings after his father's death.
"After a wonderful Christmas meal," recalled Ivylyn, "Ralph stairs to
meet my mother.
derived from pool. later,
It
"I
a place for myself." still
to Ivylyn.
know 47
had
was not long
Hardy proposed
stop loving John.
We
that,"
a
good game of carom
until
we
started dating."
She warned him
he replied promptly. "But
In July 1946, Ivylyn and
many
I
a
board game
A few months
that she
would never
want
to
make
Hardy were married. She
cherishes her memories of John and has kept
dence,
—
came up-
all
their correspon-
photographs, and several of his personal belongings which
Coming Home
223
she received a few months after he died. She chose to leave his body in the American graveyard above
Omaha Beach
with his friends.
After the war, Bettie Wilkes and Viola Parker attended a night class
Company
together in Lynchburg, home. of ticians. In early
to Bedford.
the Japanese in the Pacific. of mine," recalled Bettie. ing
beau-
to qualify as
knew
"I
"We
Hooper was returning from of
him because
got to talking.
his
fighting
aunt was a friend
He was just
com-
glad to be
home. The next week, he called me. After the war, no one had any and he
cars,
he was going
said
one, could he take
me
beautician.
ford boys
to try to find one. If
By then,
Bettie
proceed with the invasion on
for his decision to
If it
Jr.'s
"mad
father
out." 49
at the world."
self.
"Why
why
the invasion
was much more outspoken, that he
Grant Yopp's
wanted
sister,
didn't they get those
other Bed-
still
to
telling
co-work-
"blow Franklin D.
Anna Mae
went ahead
in
Germans?" Today, she
Stewart, was
dream about my
brother.
I
still
Why
he did
"I I
her-
questions
still
such atrocious weather:
say to this don't
know
dream about him coming
50
Viola Parker, betrothed at nineteen, a just twenty-one, also remarried in 1948.
with
many
"Where were those bombers?" she asked
day that [Eisenhower] made a bad decision.
home."
meant Omaha Beach
that day
had been, perhaps John would have found cover
Hampton Looms one day
Roosevelt's brains
I
as a
would have come home.
Frank Draper
...
he found
had found work
perhaps he would have survived, perhaps so
in a crater,
also
in 1948.
The bad weather and cloud cover
6.
was not bombed.
ers at
Roanoke
people brought up the war, Bettie would sometimes
Eisenhower
criticize
June
When
to
to dinner?" 48
out
They were married
she
hoping
1946, Bettie met Master Sergeant Lewis Hooper on a
from Washington
train
B,
McHenry Nance,
felt
she put
mother
at twenty, a
She had met and
at
fallen in love
a local banker, fifteen years her senior. Perhaps
more comfortable with an older man given it,
widow
that
D-Day
had, as
"taken away [her] youth." 51 As with other widows, Viola
struggled to find out
how
her
first
husband had
actually died,
if
in fact
The Bedford Boys
224
he had. At
had
to
first,
none of the Bedford boys would
tell
her much. All she
go on was the missing-in-action telegram. Eventually, she visited
Ray Nance.
"I
called. "I told
believe
it."
told
him
I
Ray
that he'd better
didn't believe Earl
tell
me
something," Viola
was dead, and he
re-
said I'd better
52
Apparently, Earl had been hit by a mortar shell. His body had then
been washed out
into the English
Channel, never
died instantly without pain. That was a comfort. the love of her daughter: Earl had gifts. "I
was so lucky
spiration to go out all
day."
53
to
have
my
left
to
A
be found.
far greater
He had one was
her with the greatest of parting
little girl,"
said Viola. "She
and do something instead of
sitting
was an
in-
around crying
19
Memorial
After a stint at farming, jl\. His
route each morning took
homes. One belonged twins. to
Many
him
past several of the Bedford boys'
Martha Jane Stevens, mother of the Stevens
to
news about
for
Ray,
hoping he had brought a
telegram to finally end her questions. ''Mrs. Stevens ing.
me what happened
She'd ask
Nance would their box.
over there,
German
Normandy.
A
letter or
came out each morn-
where was her Ray?"
often see Earl Parkers parents
They had aged considerably
son. Joseph, in
brutal
a mail carrier.
mornings, she would be there waiting at the front gate, ready
Nance
ask
Ray Nance became
when he
1
delivered mail to
since D-Day, having lost another
third son, Billy, survived almost a year in a
camp and had
prisoner of war
arrived
home on
July
1 1
1945, unaware of his brothers' deaths. 2 Mr. Parker had to break the news. 3
Not content with bringing back Company A, Nance decided such parents should have to their sons.
a focus for their grief, a
Nance mentioned
permanent monument
the idea to a local newspaper publisher,
Kenneth Crouch of the Bedford Democrat. Crouch began and town
officials.
4
Members
named
after the
to
lobby state
towns Parker-Hoback post of the
of the
29th Division also pushed hard
that
to get a
two pairs of brothers
monument built. The post was who died in Normandy. Clyde
Powers coordinated fundraising. Pride Wingfield was responsible getting a
memorial stone
to Bedford.
for
Allen Huddleston prepared a suit-
able inscription. 5
Ten years
after
4,000 people
D-Day, Bedford got a
— the
largest
monument
crowd ever
225
to
to its lost sons.
assemble
in
Over
Bedford
The Bedford Boys
226
squeezed into roped-off streets facing the west lawn of the Bedford
The Bedford
courthouse.
Bulletin reported that 'older residents of Bed-
ford said they could recall no gathering in Bedford that
more deeply moved by what they heard and
On
June
veiled the
6,
Mer
Among
It
seemed
who had
Maryland,
D-Day "Company A was later write. "It
command
glimmer
to
kept his
different
men
post of Major Gen-
in the sunshine.
it is
Edward Gearing
of
together in the water on
from other organizations," he would
was made up of 'home town'
Under these circumstances
more
folks
—
fathers, cousins etc.
difficult to see these
men
die
and
same community and resume the same way
as difficult to return to the life.'
first
the onlookers was thirty-year-old Captain
Silver Spring,
of
from the very cave near
granite, carved
that served as the
Charles H. Gerhardt.
eral
larger or
1954, before a tearful crowd, Taylor Fellers's mother un-
memorial of polished
Vierville sur
saw."
was
6
7
Bedford survivors from
Company A
— Ray Nance,
Earl
Newcomb,
Tony Marsico, Anthony Thurman, Roy Stevens, Clyde Powers, Allen Huddleston, and Dickie Overstreet ilies
—were
also present.
Among the
fam-
were Lucille Hoback and her parents and Earl Parker's mother,
Mrs. Joe E. Parker. Earl Parker's daughter, eleven-year-old Danny, stood beside her
mother, Viola, and her
happened boys
me
at
in
new husband.
France because
I
"I
had unveiled another monument
Bedford High School," recalled Danny.
standing near
my
grandmother that day
Girl Scout uniform." 8
The only other
nephew, Peter Royce. Danny's uncle
—had
He was two when
left for
ner."
I
his father
my
was wearing
was Earl
Parker's
—Joseph
Parker,
the French and American na-
finally
Admiral Andre Jubelin, naval attache
upon which
1954].
to the
have a picture of
Europe.
anthems, "La Marsellaise" and
Washington, then spoke rock,
[in
"I still
fatherless child
The Bedford Fireman's Band played tional
was already aware of what had
"The Star-Spangled Ban-
at the
French Embassy
in
in appreciation of Bedford's sacrifice. "This
are inscribed
all
the
names
of these
young heroes,
will
227
Memorial
stand out for generations to
come
from France
a token of gratitude
as a
memorial of
to the
people of Bedford."
Then General Charles Gerhardt walked courthouse steps.
It
was
his birthday.
their sacrifice,
to a
and
as
9
rostrum set up on the
That morning, he had driven down
from Baltimore, through the heart of Virginia, and had thought about the generations of
men from Americas
what they believed was
for
right.
first
colony
who had
fought and died
"Remember," Gerhardt
told the be-
reaved mothers of Bedford, "your sons were with friends and that means a great deal ...
asked to
come
no to
commander can be made than
finer tribute to a
such
ceremony
a
as this."
The Bedford boys had been engaged
in a great crusade,
Christendom
lives of
D-Day had been
itself.
an ultimately
Western
glorious battle to preserve the very foundations of
of
civilization,
the "Day of Pentecost" in the
Bedford's sons.
"The rushing mighty wind, the tongues of fire, the coming of the said Gerhardt, "that great
those of us
who were
and mighty wind
was
there, too, the spirit of the spirit
men
was an
of those boys
.
.
.
remember
there certainly
The is
be
to
10
Spirit,"
those tongues of flame that phase of
of the 29th as typified by
it.
.
.
Spirit
A Company.
who went
inspiration for those
The
.
in later.
It
the spirit that counts, ten to one, over material in such a contest." 11
Gerhardt went on
who had
to explain
why
a
bunch
of farm boys from Bedford,
joined the National Guard to put food on the table, had been
selected for the most crucial assault of World
Why
was the
1
War
II:
16th picked for that particular job? Because they showed
the characteristics necessary to assure success on that particular day.
Who were
these boys?
The record
of the 29th Division goes
back
to 1620,
through the regimental history of Virginia troops, and their record has
been unequalled. Those boys were the descendants of the men who fought with Jackson and Lee and Stuart. 12
Gerhardt also spoke about the taking of the Vierville sur draw: "The best exit of
Omaha Beach
[that had] a
Mer D-l
gun position which
The Bedford Boys
228
had
to
be taken only by individuals. The quarry from which
came was about 200
yards from that gun.
was our
It
this stone
command
first
post
on the night of D-Day." Gerhardt ended with a prayer that "A Company, as
now
it
ago faced and conquered.'
A Company
what
stands, will not be asked to face
of ten years
13
Three days before the dedication, Clyde Powers had placed an urn beneath the memorial.
It
SHAEF
contained a
D wight
drawing of the patch autographed by President Dr. Editha
shoulder patch with a
von Rundstedt, daughter-in-law of the
Gerd von Rundstedt, German commander-in-chief 1944 invasion, had sent her That week, many
commemorative
a special
spiked. Space
was needed
nam.
On
wave
assault on
Many
locals
father's field
had expected
marshal
open
to
at
magazine and read
ill
to
Company As
make
it.
On July
initial
10,
to cover the first
Omaha Beach
do
so.
.
.
.
Roll On."
Cota's fellow officer Colonel
again
if
I
Cota,
"My
health
had
to,
is I
who had to
coming along
might possibly
but certainly would not
15
Canham was
also unable to attend. Since
D-Day, he had been promoted to major general and he was
Korean War.
most decorated
officers fighting in the
send a message
to the Parke r-Hoback Post in
1
others
objective on D-Day. But
he added, "am myself once again, and think
to cross to
Norman
all
he wrote Kenneth Crouch
express his regret at not being able to attend. fine,''
in Viet-
Beach.
to achieve
"Dutch" was too
choose
Life
honor Robert Capa, who had died
the ceremony: Brigadier General
done so much
be able
France during the
Bedford veterans had hoped that one officer above
would be
just
in
sticks. 14
D-Day, Capa had been the only photographer
Omaha
Marshal
late Field
But sadly the piece was
story about Bedford. to
D. Eisenhower.
Canham
of the
did, however,
time for the dedication: "The
men
16th Infantry was composed of the finest group of
countered and a unit that had no peers as
now one
fighters.
I
that
I
have en-
deeply regret that
I
cannot be present to pay homage to our departed comrades." 16
The crowds of silence
dispersed, the uniforms were mothballed, and the walls
went up
again.
The
survivors from
D-Day never spoke about
229
Memorial
and very
their experiences publicly,
rarely with
each
other.
It
was too
Some mothers would return each Memorial Day to the courthouse and quietly weep but there were no more public commemora-
painful.
was
tions. It
as
if
the unveiling of the stone had closed the curtain on a
drama. D-Day,
tragic
it
seemed, was
finally over, assigned to history,
buried like the urn beneath the memorial. In private, of course, Bedford continued to grieve
As it
and widows got
relatives
was part of a heroic
for Hitler,
left
grew
sacrifice that
and America s
overcome
tried to
older,
many
tried to rationalize their loss
had marked the beginning of the end But mostly those
finest hour.
grief that
seemed
for
some
behind
left
to get greater as their
still
time
shorter.
Viola Parker told
Danny
as
much
father she
had never even touched:
what
tried to tell her, the
I
about Earl as she
as she could
grew up, hoping she would always be able
That's
and commemorate.
to cherish
had
"[Earl]
an image of the
a great sense of
humor.
funny things, anything pleasant
stead of dwelling on the sadness. You don't get over
it.
You learn
in-
to live
with the memories and thank goodness there are some good ones." 17 Today, of her
Danny remembers her mother life.
.
.
.
She
those boys did.
money."
he didn't
set out to
None of make extra
be a hero.
They had joined the National Guard
to
18
Time did not assuage
when
she had drunk a
found
Earl's letters too
when
me
also told
describing Earl as "the great love
As the years passed, often
Viola's heartbreak.
little
too
much, the
upsetting to read.
old ghosts
would
She
return.
They took her back
to that
day
her most precious dreams had been destroyed. So she put a match
to the old
V-grams and sepia-toned envelopes. "One night,
his letters in the fireplace," she explained.
stop reading those letters, In 1975, Frank
I'd
Draper
go plum crazy"
Sr.
some
Daddy was
real sick for
sick,
brother said
burned if
I
all
didn't
19
shot himself to death.
Frank's death like
Momma
"My
I
"It
wasn't over sister.
"My
twenty years with emphysema.
My
say," insists
Verona Lipford, Frank's
cared for him day and night
—he wouldn't
let
anybody
else
do
The Bedford Boys
230
it.
Finally,
he told the doctor he couldn't take
it
no more.
He was
And he did. Three weeks later, my husband Company A survivors decided to return to Normandy
to take his life.
In 1988,
their respects before they
became
once stormed. They also wanted
Guard Memorial Bettie Wilkes
Normandy
at the
pay
too infirm to walk the sands they
had
base of the Vierville draw.
in 1947,
tormented her
to
to witness the unveiling of a National
Hooper was one
for the first time.
from Normandy still
widows who were
of several
she had wondered about his
to think that
Normandy At
to
board her plane
One
face,
asked
of the
last
he had died alone and
and
moments.
It
in great pain.
their families for the
Dulles airport in Washington, as Bettie was about
to France,
badge with the 29th Division gage.
to visit
Since John's body had been brought back
Bettie joined a party of 29th Division veterans trip to
going
died." 20
men,
a
man
two gentlemen noticed she was wearing a
was laden down with
insignia. Bettie
of
medium
lug-
height and build with a friendly
he could take some of her bags.
if
Where was
she from?
Bedford.
The
old
man
said he
had known many
men from
Bedford during the
war.
"Did you happen
to
know Master Sergeant
Wilkes?'' asked Bettie.
"Did we know Sergeant Wilkes!" replied Cecil Breeden.
"Were you
in his
"I
sure was.
He
A
few days
later,
company?"
drilled the hell out of us, but
Beach. Breeden was 'Til
he also made us men."
Bettie stepped off a tour bus parked near
Omaha
waiting for her.
take you down,
if
you want
where
to go, to
I
found John."
Breeden walked with Bettie across the promenade road above the beach. There was no longer a sea wall. in the
channel a gale was blowing, just
The like
skies
were overcast and out
on D-Day Pebbles crunched
under foot and then they were on the sand, a few yards from the water.
"When thing
I
I
got to your husband," said Breeden, "there wasn't a
could do.
have to worry.
He had
gotten
it
He never knew what
right hit
damn
between the eyes. You don't
him.
He
never suffered." 21
Memorial
and stared
Bettie stood
at the
beach, the bluffs, and the other veter-
ans and their families milling around. At fighting.
He'd almost made
it
231
last
she knew. John had died
across the beach. There had been no pain.
Before Cecil Breeden died of heart failure in 1993, he wrote to Bettie explaining that he had told her that day about John because he
hoped
she would be able to sleep better at night. She did. It
was not
until
1994 that Bedford's
lost
sons
came
to
massive public
attention, during the national celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of
Normandy landings. 22 In Bedford, television cameras invaded homes and reporters from around the world kept phones ringing late the
Ray Nance gave
into the night.
in his pale blue eyes, but
became his
too
Beach
fifty
camera
when
he'd
lights shining
and repressed trauma
guilt
talking to the press
as vivid as
and stayed
at
home,
come home from Omaha
years before.
Roy Stevens was one official fiftieth
his lost twin
when
then the survivor's
much. He stopped
memories suddenly
several interviews,
of
many who
anniversary commemoration.
—good dreams,
set in a
few
they'd boxed each other for a
Omaha Beach
returned to
He
still
for the
had dreams about
sunny Bedford before the war nickels. 23 Finally
he got to the
crossroads in Vierville sur Mer, the promised rendezvous with Ray.
Stevens stuck his good hand in the finally
shake
air as if
to
it.
Other veterans around the world began
Here was
Ray was actually there
a generation that
possessed the dignity
suddenly discovered
to
to share their experiences.
had fought and won
keep quiet about their
its "greatest''
heroes
a 'good"
war and then
sacrifice.
America had
—hundreds
of thousands of
them. In 1994, by contrast, Viola Parker past. "People
still
had had enough of digging up the
expect to see [me] crying with a long
face,''
she said
before she died in 1996. "We've cried long enough. Let's do something that lets us love, respect
time." 24 Viola's second
she had
Many
and honor them without being morbid
husband had passed away
become more somber,
friends felt she
all
the
in 1968.
Since then,
less witty, increasingly
withdrawn.
had never recovered from
Earl's death,
and the
The Bedford Boys
232
second great love of her
loss of the
most
resilient of the
What
life
Bedford widows
was
to
of the Bedford boys' parents?
much
just too
endure
How
one
in
even the
for
lifetime.
did they feel about the
"good" war? Sadly, by 1994 there was only one parent of a Bedford boy still alive:
relative,
Gordon Henry White
ninety-four-year-old
Sr.
According
George Sumpter, D-Day had meant only tragedy
White always
war took
said the
his son
and
to
to a
him: "Mr.
his wife."
Mr. White's wife, Rose, had suffered a terrible stroke on February 20, 1948, the day after her son returned to Bedford in a casket. His burial
had
be postponed when she
to
fell
into a
coma but
finally
went ahead,
her family slipping away unnoticed from Rose s bedside to pay their respects to
Gordon Henry White
Jr.
He was
final
interred in the family's cor-
ner of the graveyard at Forest Baptist Church. In 1958, Rose was buried beside him, leaving her husband to care for their
broke [the]
To the day he died grief,
six children. "It just
completely," said Sumpter. 25
home
1995, Mr. White couldn't
in
let
go of the past, his
He had once
nor belongings that had been so precious to his son.
refused to put
down
sons beloved shire horse, Major, even though the
his
horse was old and infirm. Incredibly, the horse had lived until 1959. 26
Raymond and Bedford Hoback's mother, Macie, Macie had
tend her church
a
deep loathing
when
a
for
German
us to take the pictures of
my
many
Germans, once even refusing
to at-
in the 1970s.
missionary visited. "She never allowed
brothers off the top of her TV," recalls
daughter Lucille Hoback Boggess. "She would never she got more and more feeble,
come
my
back. She'd
boys?
The
Where
fiftieth
my
seemed
let
go of them. As
that she felt they
and
were going
in the
boys?'"
D-Day was not
first
the end of the saga of Bed-
national memorial to
town. For several years,
had been pushing
to
'Where are
over:
Given the nation's new fascination with D-Day,
that perhaps the
might be built ter
are
it
in the night asking over
anniversary of
ford's lost sons.
hoped
wake up
most of the For
bereaved parents, of old age and a broken heart years,
died, like
for
such
a
it
was
commemorate D-Day
Company
D's
Bob Slaugh-
memorial. "After the war,
I
went
to
Memorial
work, finished school, and then
who had
didn't like to talk to people
what you were
survivors
would
retired,
I
They
talking about.
"Some people would
time
married, had children," he said.
I
have any time to think about the war or any other thing. At
didn't
we
I
me
say to
talk,
but
not seen combat.
They
"I
first, I
know
didn't
didn't understand.
all
you think about
is
war.' At reunions,
wasn't done otherwise. Then, around the
it
found out that many people had forgotten D-Day around
[Roanoke]. People, especially younger generations, didn't 6,
233
1944, was the largest
air,
ground and sea
battle ever
know
June
that
fought." 27
Slaughter had formed a committee in 1988 to explore ways to erect a
memorial, envisioning a modest statue somewhere in Roanoke, but the project
was too ambitious, he was
told, for the
dream languished until 1994. "Then, with eth anniversary, people saw that
Town
officials in
all
town
to afford. Slaughter's
the publicity about the
D-Day was worth remembering." 28
Bedford were told about Slaughter's plan and pro-
vided eleven acres of land. Slaughter's committee bought more. Virginia's
When
Republican Senator John W. Warner heard of Slaughter's plan,
he introduced legislation
in
Congress and Bedford was
Plans and designs were debated. Finally, national
officially
made
D-Day memorial.
the site for a national
first
fifti-
World War
II
it
was agreed that America's
memorial would comprise three core features
denoting the key stages of Overlord: the years of preparation, the actual invasion, and, finally, victory in
Normandy There would be an
English
formal garden, an education center, over eighty acres of landscaping,
many
life-size
bronzes of soldiers.
A
landing craft would
ing pool leading to a wall representing the bluffs
and
sit
cliffs
in a reflect-
along
Omaha
Beach.
A local historian make
the
and businessman, Richard Burrow, was brought
monument
a reality.
rector of the National
many
millions
needed
Hired
in
January 1996 as the executive
D-Day Foundation, Burrow to build
in to di-
set out to raise the
such an ambitious memorial. In October
1997, he was delighted to hear that one of America's most famous World
War
II
veterans, Peanuts cartoonist Charles
M.
Schulz, wanted to pledge
The Bedford Boys
234
$1 million. Schulz was then asked to head a fund-raising campaign.
and
his wife
had long known about Bedford's
campaign
give the
a
jump
start.
Soon other
He
and were eager
sacrifice
to
high-profile figures such as
Steven Spielberg, director of Saving Private Ryan, also donated
signifi-
cant sums. Spielberg's Oscar-winning film had included powerful scenes of the
Omaha
minutes on
first
Beach.
Burrow's next challenge was staying on schedule for a planned opening of the memorial on June 6, 2001. In press interviews, Lucille
Hoback Boggess
said she
solace for veterans from
Washington
to
just before the
June
hoped the memorial would all
"We
over the world.
be the wrong place
act as a place of
actually considered
memorial," 29 Burrow added
for this
memorial was opened by President George W. Bush on
2001.
6,
Company A
veterans too infirm to join 15,000 people at the actual
memorial saw President Bush honor them and the Bedford boys on na-
"Here were the images these soldiers carried with
tional television:
them, and they thought of left
behind.
And
here was the
not yearn to be heroes. again, again,
when life
they were afraid. This
They yearned
for those long
their sweethearts or wives.
bringing
who
a
They did
summer
to see
nights
Mom and
Dad
.
.
across an eighty-eight-
major tourist attraction
revenue to the area.
"It
in
seems
Bedford County,
like a lot of
[men]
survived the war almost have a guilty feeling that they survived and
these "It'll
become
much needed
to.
." 30
The National D-Day Memorial now sprawls acre site and has
the place they
they dreamed of returning
and harvest time, and paydays. They wanted and hold
is
men
give
died," said Lucille
them
a place to go
Hoback on
and have some quiet moments with
thoughts and memories of those
On September
11,
the memorial's completion.
who
died."
2001, just three months after President Bush
opened the memorial, over three thousand Americans died day, victims of the worst terrorist attacks in history.
shaken Lucille Hoback people stood in silence.
their
31
Boggess visited the
in a single
That morning,
D-Day memorial. Dozens
a
of
Memorial
hadn't had that kind of pain in
"I
the
D-Day
why,
that's the
same
in
New
losses as
York.
chest since
New York
invasion," she later told the
watch the suffering
to
my
And
the
my
brothers in
Times. "So devastating
numbers
New York
D-Day"
lost
I
235
— 5,000 dead
would need
a
memor-
she added, because the city would stay in pain just as Bedford had.
ial,
"This said
little
town was
Roy Stevens. "Not
a vale of tears with all those telegrams
people in
a day
I
don't
remember
New York and Washington have
Bedford had become a place for the nation touchstone for generational
in,"
[Ray], just like those poor
remember
to
coming
mourn,
to
dead now" 32
their
its
memorial a
But some veterans wondered whether
loss.
the latest generation would be prepared to endure what they had. "I'm
not sure
enemy
if
people are up to
doesn't
come
lines.
of
right now," said
in a uniform.
and water supplies and the
A couple
it
months
later,
air
we
The
Bob
Slaughter. "The
front lines are going to
breathe."
Bedford again
be
cities
33
hit the
New York
Times head-
This time, the story was not so poignant. The FBI had been called
in to investigate allegations of fraud at the National
The prime suspect was Richard Burrow, built in time for President Bush's
the
man who had
much-publicized
Bush had thanked Burrow personally
for his
D-Day Foundation. the memorial
visit in
June 2001.
hard work.
Burrow was eventually charged with four counts of
fraud.
It
was
claimed that instead of waiting to amass enough money to build the $25 million memorial, foundation officials
donations would
come
had borrowed
in before creditors
demanded
it
in the
their
hope that
money
back.
Burrow's indictment accused him of falsely telling a Lynchburg bank he
had collected pledges
in excess of
$2 million
in
an effort
to gain a $1.2
million loan in June 2001. In October 2002, the National
D-Day Foun-
dation filed for bankruptcy, hoping to be able to renegotiate payments to creditors.
Before Burrow was indicted, the foundation's board signed, including a deeply saddened
Bob Slaughter and
Boggess. Slaughter began writing his memoirs and was his efforts to
ensure that his comrades on
members
Lucille still
re-
Hoback
tireless in
D-Day would continue
to
be
The Bedford Boys
236
remembered. So was Company
many
For
ter.
he held
years,
B's
Bob
Sales, a close friend of Slaugh-
Company B
reunions
at his
Lynchburg. In his enchanting garden, Sales also erected stone listing the
names
man would
thought a
As with
kill
many whose
so
home
in
memorial
of his lost buddies. "I'm glad of one thing," he
never killed a prisoner and
said. "I
a
him." lives
Hoback Boggess continued
I
never sent one back
when
I
34
were changed forever by D-Day, Lucille
to dedicate herself to
church and commu-
woman elected to office in Bedford County, Lucille became a member of the county's Board of Supervisors. Whenever possible, she spoke to local school children about Company A and D-Day. nity.
The
first
"Think what told
it
would be
like to take
them. "That's what
it
was
nineteen kids out of a class," Lucille
like."
Company A for over twenty years. Until 2002, candles were lit for veterans who had died the previous year. Sadly in 2002 there was no reunion for Company Hoback Boggess
also helped organize annual reunions for
A. Too few were alive and well
Of
the 5,000
men who
like to
be on
Company A Florida,
still
each
Omaha
to
watch yet more candles
landed on D-Day with the
than two hundred were their generation die
enough
breathing.
year.
It is
Soon no one
1
flicker.
16th Regiment, less
estimated that 500,000 of
be
will
what
left to tell
it
was
Beach.
veterans Hal Baumgarten, an ebullient doctor living in
and John Barnes,
a retired school teacher in upstate
New York,
kept going strong. Both wrote books about their experiences. garten attended the premiere of Saving Private Ryan in
New
1998. His book includes photographs of him with the actor
Baum-
Orleans in
Tom Hanks
and director Steven Spielberg. Seventy-eight-year-old Verona Lipford could
Frank Draper
Jr.,
when he packed in.
picture her brother,
with a smile on his face that February day in 1941
his foot locker
and
left for
old grandson in the marines," she said.
never gone
still
But the recruiter got him.
peat itself with what
s
I
war. "I
"I
wish
just
have a nineteen-yearto
goodness he had
hope history does not
re-
going on now. They're nothing but kids over
237
Memorial
know what
there, don't
makes
knew
they're getting into.
rich people richer but a lot of poor
that
all right.
war's really about."
You lose
My
dad always said war
young boys have
you never get over
a son,
it.
to die.
That's
He
what
35
Eighty-six-year-old Elaine Coffey
was buried and wished
his parents
wondered how Bedford Hoback
still
had brought
body back home.
his
If
they had, she would have been able to put fresh flowers on his grave, as other widows had for so
many
wistfully "So
tell
I
couldn't
years.
wasn't married to him," she said
"I
to do." 36
them what
The Hobacks had
de-
cided to leave the brothers together in France, thinking that was what they would have wanted. Raymond's body was never found. Today, he listed
on
Hoback
a wall of
rests
remembrance,
station
hundred yards from where Bedford
beneath an immaculate white cross.
Elaine used to treasure to shreds
a
is
one day
in a
fit
of Bedford's letters but then she tore
all
of anger.
wagon, which she drove
Now all
she has
a picture of his old
is
he died. "War
after
them
is
a terrible thing,"
she said, tears in her eyes as she clutched the small photograph. "You
wonder why they have Roy Stevens came
dom
is
it."
to look
not free," he said
and so many love with the
37
He
friends.
woman
back on D-Day with immense
when asked
to reflect
on the
loss of his brother
recently battled cancer and was
he met
in
1946
at
pride. "Free-
Bedford County
still
madly
Fair.
in
He and
Helen now have three great-grandchildren. Eighty-five-year-old Earl
woman
he
fell in
Newcomb
was, in 2003,
love with before D-Day.
ory of Earl Parker's saying he wouldn't
And he
still
mind dying
married to the
still
cried at the
if first
mem-
he could just
see his daughter, Danny.
Today,
Danny dog
a set of his
prizes her father's letter to her before
tags,
and
his Purple Heart. "His
Christmas 1943,
body was never found,"
she said, "but just a couple of years ago one of the Bedford boys' relatives
me
sent
But
I
his
dog
tags.
I
don't
do know they have
a colorized
know how
they were found.
my mothers name
on
photograph of a good-looking young
them." 38
man
It's
a mystery.
Danny
also has
smiling happily and
The Bedford Boys
238
sporting a red and green plaid Earl wearing a "I
went
to
kilt in
did.
Those boys
A
black and white photograph shows
Scotland in 1943, the year
Omaha Beach
any of them got off
tie.
alive. It
in 1997," said
was
—they were
just
all
Danny.
of the Missing
born.
was amazed
"I
that
because of sheer numbers that they
Danny
just unbelievable."
the graveyard above the beach where her father
Garden
Danny was
listed
is
went
also
on
to
a wall in a
commemorating 1,557 men whose bodies were
never found. Sixty years after
Company A on D-Day was
cer from
Omaha
he crawled across
still
Beach, the
plagued by survivor's
the occasional episode of post-traumatic stress disorder.
by when Ray Nance
and the
lives
Nance was
last living offi-
didn't think about the
men
Not
and
day went
he once commanded
they might have led had they been as lucky as he was.
also the last survivor
from Bedford who landed on D-Day
At eighty-eight years of age, Nance was tempted
to
go back to
Beach
but, having recently survived a quintuple heart bypass,
didn't
want
much
for his heart to bear. This
to die there.
Bedford that the
Returning is
spirits of its lost
a
to those cold
shame because
at Colleville sur
Omaha
he said he
sands might be too it is
not so
much
in
sons are most palpable, but rather a
few hundred yards from the beach where they died, cemetery
a
guilt
in the
American
Mer.
Eleven of Bedford's sons
still
lie
there in graves overlooking the
beach, beside 9,386 other American dead from the battle for Normandy. In a chapel at the heart of the rows of dead, each with a cross pointing
west
—towards home—the following words
'Think not only upon their passing.
are inscribed for
Remember
all
to see:
the glory of their
spirit."
THE BEDFORD BOYS AND D-DAY
Twenty-two Bedford Boys were
killed in the
Normandy campaign:
Leslie Abbott
Wallace Carter
John Clifton John Dean Frank Draper
Jr.
Taylor Fellers
Charles Fizer
Nicholas Gillaspie
Bedford Hoback
Raymond Hoback Clifton Lee Earl Parker
Joseph Parker Jack Powers
Weldon Rosazza John Reynolds John Schenk
Ray Stevens
Gordon White John Wilkes
Elmere Wright Grant Yopp
Six Bedford Boys landed
on D-Day and survived:
Robert Goode
239
THE BEDFORD BOYS AND D-DAY
240
James Lancaster Robert (Tony) Marsico Elisha (Ray)
Glenwood
Nance
(Dickie) Overstreet
Anthony Thurman
Five Bedford Boys missed landing on
D-Day when
their landing craft sank, but landed days later:
Robert Edwards Charles Fizer
Clyde Powers
Roy Stevens Harold Wilkes
Four Bedford Boys served
in support capacity
and did not land on D-Day: Earl
Newcomb
Jack Mitchell
George Crouch Cedric Broughman
The
entire 116th Infantry
killed or
missing in action.
for "extraordinary initial
assault
Regiment suffered 797
The
1
casualties, including
375
16th received a Distinguished Unit Citation
heroism and outstanding performance of duty
on the northern coast of Normandy France."
in action in the
BIBLIOGRAPHY
New York:
Ambrose, Stephen. Citizen
Soldiers.
Ambrose, Stephen. D-Day.
New York: Touchstone, 1994. New York: St Martin's Press,
Astor, Gerald. "June 6
Touchstone, 1997.
1944"
1994.
Balkoski, Joseph. Beyond the Beachhead. Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books,
1989. Barnes, John. Fragments of My Life, self-published, 2000.
Baumgarten, Harold. Eyewitness on Bradley,
A
Omar.
General's Life.
Butler, Daniel A. Warrior
Omaha
Beach, self-published, 2000.
New York: Simon
and Schuster, 1993.
Queens. Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books, 2002.
New York: The Modern Coming." New York: Bantam,
Capa, Robert. Slightly Out of Focus.
Library, 1999.
Carell, Paul. "Invasion, They're
1960.
New York: Dorling Kindersley, 1995. Eisenhower, A Soldier's Life. New York: Henry
Chronicle of America. D'Este, Carlo.
Holt, 2002.
Drez, Ronald. Voices of D-Day. Louisiana State University Press, 1994.
Eisenhower, Dwight. Crusade in Europe.
Ewing, Joseph. 29
Let's
Frank, Anne. The Diary of a Young Girl. Hall, Tony, editor.
Harrison,
New York:
Doubleday, 1948.
Go. Washington: Infantry Journal Press, 1948.
D-Day.
New York:
New York:
Doubleday, 1967.
Salamander Books, 2001.
Gordon A. Cross-Channel Attack. Washington: Office
of the Chief of
Military History, 1951. Ingersoll, Ralph. Isby,
Top Secret.
David C. Fighting
in
New York:
Harcourt Brace, 1946.
Normandy. London: Greenhill Books, 2001.
Kennett, Lee. GI: The American Soldier in World
War
2.
New York:
Scribner's,
1987.
Keegan, John. Six Armies of Normandy.
New York:
Viking, 1982.
Kershaw, Alex. Blood and Champagne. London: Macmillan, 2002.
New York: Lipincott, 1947. Omaha Beach —A Flawed Victory. University of North
King, Ernest. "Fleet Admiral.
Lewis, Adrian R.
"
Press, 2001.
241
Carolina
242
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lewis, Nigel. Exercise Tiger.
New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1990. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981.
Masters, Anthony. Nancy Astor.
Matchett,
J.
H. "Let's Teach Battlefield Training." Infantry Journal, January
1946.
New York:
Miller, Russell.
Nothing Less Than
Morison,
The Invasion of France and Germany.
S. E.
Victory.
William Morrow, 1993.
New York:
Castle Books,
1957. Pyle, Ernie. Brave
Men.
New York:
Grosset
&
Dunlap, 1944.
Reynolds, David. Rich Relations. London: Phoenix Press, 2000.
New York: Touchstone, 1994. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1987. New York: The Free Press, 1997.
Ryan, Cornelius. The Longest Day. Sulzberger, C. L. World
War
II.
Tobin, James. Ernie Pyle's War.
War Department. Omaha Beachhead.
Historical Department,
War Department,
1984.
Wilson, George. If You Survive.
New York:
Ivy Books, 1987.
Wilson, Theodore A. Eisenhower At War. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1994.
NOTES
Chapter
1
News & Advance, June
1.
Lynchburg
2.
Roy Stevens, interview with
3. Bill
4.
(Va.)
2001.
Geroux, "The Suicide Wave," Richmond Times-Dispatch, June
This proved correct.
similar
3,
author.
—around
Of
eighteen landing
a third of his
were
lost.
The
2001.
casualties
were
men.
5.
Roy Stevens, interview with
6.
Richmond Times- Dispatch,
7.
"Virginians at
Normandy,"
craft, six
3,
author.
ibid.
WDBJ7
public television station, Virginia.
8. Ibid.
9.
Joseph Balkoski, Bej'ond the Beachhead (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole
Books, 1989), 10. Bill
p. 7.
Geroux, "The Suicide Wave," Richmond Times- Dispatch, June
1 1
Ray Nance, interview with author.
12.
John Barnes, Fragments of My Life (self-published, 2000),
13.
Cornelius Ryan, The Longest Day
(New York: Touchstone,
3,
2001.
p. 61.
1994), p. 178.
Chapter 2 1
Roy Stevens, interview with
author.
2. Ibid. 3. Ibid.
4. Ibid. 5. Ibid.
& Advance,
6.
Lynchburg
7.
Roy Stevens, interview with
8.
Brookings also found that over 70 million people, 60 percent of American families,
got by 9. In
and
on
less
(Va.) Nexus
3,
2001.
than $2,000 a year, an amount "sufficient to supply only basic necessities."
1937, the U.S. Government purchased 657.4 acres of land, including Sharp Top
Flat Top, for
10.
June
author.
$60,000
in order to protect
Chronicle of America
(New York:
them from
logging and other development.
Dorling Kindersley, 1995),
243
p.
686.
.
.
NOTES
244
1
1.
12.
War
C. L. Sulzberger, World
Lynchburg News
fr
II
(New York: Houghton
Advance, June
Mifflin, 1987), p.57
2001.
3,
13. Ibid. 14.
Roy Stevens, interview with
15. Elaine Coffey, interview
author.
with author.
16.
Roy Stevens, interview with
17.
Bedford Bulletin, February
18.
Lynchburg News and Advance, June
19.
Roy Stevens, interview with
author.
4,
1941. 3,
2001.
author.
& Advance,
20.
Lynchburg Neu>s
21.
Roy Stevens, interview with
22.
Lee Kennett, GI: The American Soldier
June
3,
2001.
author. in
World War
II
(New
York: Scribner's,
1987), p. 17. 23.
Roy Stevens, interview with
author.
24. Ibid.
25. Eloise Rogers, interview with author. 26. Eloise Rogers, letter to author, 27.
Lynchburg News
& Advance,
November
June
3,
24, 2002.
2001.
28. Ibid.
29. Eloise Rogers, interview with author. 30. Bedford Bulletin, February 20, 1941. 31. Joseph Ewing, 29, Let's 32. Lucille
Go
Hoback Boggess,
(Washington: Infantry Journal Press, 1948),
U.S. Army:
An Appreciation," New York
33.
"Morale
34.
Roy Stevens, interview with
35. Lucille 36.
in the
Hoback Boggess,
interview with author.
Roy Stevens, interview with
author.
Harbor speech, National Archives
Rav Nance, interview with author.
Chapter
3
1.
Bob
2.
Bertie Woodford, interview with author.
3.
Lynchburg News
Sales, interview with author.
& Advance,
June
3,
2001.
4. Ibid. 5.
1.
Times, September 29, 1941.
author.
37. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Pearl
38.
p.
interview with author.
Dorothy Wilkes Goode, interview with author.
6. Ibid. 7.
Roy Stevens, interview with
8.
Bettie Wilkes Hooper, interview with author.
9.
Bettie Wilkes
author.
Hooper speech, May 2000.
10.
Bedford Bulletin,
December
11, 1941.
1 1
Lynchburg News
& Advance,
June
3,
200 1
Web
site.
NOTES
with author.
12. Billy Parker, interview 13.
New
Bob Slaughter memoirs, The Eisenhower Center
for
American Studies, University of
Orleans.
14. Elva 15.
245
Newcomb,
interview with author.
"Remembering D-Day" Baltimore Sun, June
16. Ivylyn
6,
1998.
Hardy, interview with author.
17. Ibid. 18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Verona Lipford, interview with author.
2
Bettie Wilkes Hooper, interview with author.
1
22. Elaine Coffey, interview with author. 23. Bettie Wilkes Hooper, interview with author.
Newcomb,
24. Earl 25.
interview with author.
Roy Stevens, interview with
26. Joseph Balkoski,
Books, 1989),
author.
Beyond the Beachhead (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole
p. 34.
27.
Bob Slaughter memoirs, Eisenhower Center.
28.
Bob
Slaughter, interview with author.
29. Bettie Wilkes Hooper, interview with author. 30. Ibid. 3
Like other wives, Viola vowed to write to her husband every day. She did, and to the
1
day she died,
in 1994,
she remembered his dog-tag
32. Bedford Democrat,
33.
Anna Mae
June
6,
35. p.
heart
—20363625.
Stewart, interview with author.
Queens (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole
34. Daniel Allen Butler, Warrior
Books, 2002),
number by
1994.
p. 46.
Lee Kennett,
GL The American
Soldier in World
War II
(Scribner's,
New York,
1987),
115.
Chapter 4 1.
The Queen Mary was designed
2.
Daniel Allen Butler, Warrior Queens (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole
Books, 2002), 3.
p. 129.
to carry 2,1 19 passengers with a
Infantrymen had to carry their M-l
Roy Stevens, interview with
rifles
crew of 1,035.
wherever they went.
author.
4. Ibid. 5.
Butler, Warrior
6.
That
Queens,
July's issue of the
p. 132.
popular Yank magazine had cautioned: "Don't brag. Don't
we came over and won men; we lost only 60,000."
an Englishman million
7. Butler, 8.
Warrior Queens,
Lynchburg News
the last war for them.
p. 131.
& Advance,
June
3,
2001.
We
didn't.
England
tell
lost a
.
NOTES
246
9.
Men
$125
a
often lost their pay within hours of
Newcomb,
10. Earl 1
it
being issued. In 1942, lieutenants
made
month, sergeants around $70, and privates just $30. interview with author.
Clipping from Elva Newcomb's scrapbook. The incident would later receive promi-
1
nent space
in the
Bedford Bulletin.
Roy Stevens, interview with
12.
author.
13. Ibid.
Lee Kennett, GI: The American Soldier
14.
in
World War
II
(New
York, Scribner's,
1987), p. 116.
Docks further south were
15.
16. Butler,
Warrior Queens,
in range of the Luftwaffe.
p. 99.
17. Ibid., p. 107. 18. Ibid., p. 110.
19. Ibid., p. 113.
20. Ibid., p. 114.
21. Earl
Bob
22.
Newcomb,
interview with author, January 2002.
Slaughter, interview with author.
23. Allen Huddleston, interview with author. 24. Butler, Warrior Queens, p.
1
14.
25. Ibid., p. 118.
Bob
26.
Sales, interview with author.
27. Butler, Warrior Queens, p. 116.
28. Ibid. Also see: Captain Harry Grattidge, Captain of the
Queens (London: Old-
bourne Press, 1956).
Roy Stevens, interview with
29.
author.
30. Ibid.
Chapter
5
1.
Joseph Ewing, 29
2.
Bob
Let's
Go
(Washington: Infantry Journal Press, 1948),
p.
15
Slaughter, interview with author.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid. 5. Ibid.
6.
Bob Slaughter memoirs, The Eisenhower Center
New
of
for
American Studies, University
Orleans.
7. Ibid. 8.
Lee Kennett, GI: The American Soldier
in
World War
II
(New York:
II
Committee, Reports and Cor-
Scribners, 1987),
p. 73.
9.
Lynchburg News
& Advance,
10. Ivylyn Hardy, interview 1
1.
Mrs. George
P.
June
3,
2001.
with author.
Parker, Bedford
County World War
respondence Concerning Bedford County in World
War
II,
1943-1945,
May
1,
1943.
NOTES
12.
Bedford Bulletin, February
13.
John Barnes, Fragments of My
1943.
4,
Woodford scrapbook.
14. Bertie
247
Life (self-published, 2000), p. 50.
Fellers
was proud of
purchased a special plaid called the "Royal Stewart"
his family's Scottish roots
in Scotland;
and had
Sergeant John Laird's par-
ents had located the plaid. 15. Taylor Fellers to his parents, private
16.
Not
who would be pup
Norman
Cota,
the most senior 29th Division officer to join the Bedford boys in combat,
was so taken by small
correspondence, March 27, 1943.
every 29th Division soldier hated the moors. Brigadier General
their bleak
beauty that he often spent his free weekends camping in a
tent.
17.
Allen Huddleston, interview with author.
18.
Roy Stevens, interview with
author.
19. Ibid.
20. Joseph Balkoski,
Books, 1989), 2
Beyond the Beachhead (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole
p. 55.
Roy Stevens, interview with
1
22. Earl
Newcomb,
23. In the nearest
author.
interview with author.
town
to
Tidworth Barracks
—
Ivyb ridge
2003 and remembered many of the Bedford boys with 29
24. Ewing,
—
the landlady was
still
alive in
great fondness.
Let's Go!, p. 17.
25. Ellen Quarles, interview with author. 26. Beulah Witt, interview with author. 27.
One hundred
twenty thousand U.S. servicemen were in the United Kingdom as of
January 31, 1943. [Morison, The Invasion of France and Germany,
p. 51.]
28. Parker report, July 15, 1943. 29.
Ray Nance, interview with
30.
Roy Stevens, interview with
author. author.
31. Ibid. 32. Letter
from Bedford Hoback
& Advance,
33.
Lynchburg News
34.
Roy Stevens, interview with
to
Mabel Phelps. Quoted by
June
3,
Lucille
Hoback Boggess.
2001.
author.
35. Ibid. 36. Bertie
Woodford, interview with author.
37. Stevens
would name
38. Bedford Bulletin, 39.
his first
May
daughter after her and stay in touch for over
sixty years.
20, 1943.
Roy Stevens, interview with
author.
40. Ibid. 41.
Bob
Sales, interview with author.
Chapter 6 1.
Joseph Balkoski, Beyond the Beachhead (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole
Books, 1989),
p. 44.
.
NOTES
248
45.
2. Ibid., p. 3.
Roy Stevens, interview with
4.
David Draper, interview with author.
author.
5.
Information provided by Laura Burnette.
6.
Verona Lipford, interview with author.
7. Stars
and
Stripes,
October
1944.
1,
8.
Quoted from Elva Newcomb's scrapbook,
9.
Roy Stevens, interview with
private collection.
author.
Anna Mae
10.
Grant Yopp,
1 1
Allen Huddleston, interview with author.
12.
David Reynolds, Rich Relations (London: Phoenix Press, 2000),
13.
Ray Nance, interview with
14.
See Ewing, 29,
ter portraits of
15. Bertie
letter to
Let's Go!,
Stewart. Private correspondence,
Anna Mae
Stewart.
p. 113.
author.
and Balkoski, Beyond
the Beachhead, for excellent charac-
Cota and Gerhardt.
Woodford scrapbook. Letter from
J.
H. Wyse
to
Captain
Fellers,
December
3,
1943. 16. "Stories of
June
1,
Heroes: Virginians At Normandy,"
WDBJ7
television station. Broadcast
1994.
17.
John Barnes, Fragments of My Li/e(self-published, 2000),
18.
Hal Baumgarten, interview with author.
19. Barnes,
Fragments of My
p. 48.
Life, p. 49.
20. Ibid., p. 49.
21. Ibid., p. 49. 22. Hal Baumgarten, interview with author. 23. Ibid. 24. Earl
Newcomb,
interview with author.
25. Taylor Fellers, letter to his parents,
March
17, 1943.
26. Private correspondence, Bertie Woodford. Also see biographical sketch, provided by
Woodford 27.
for
28. Felix
Branham,
hower Center 29.
unpublished book by Ray Nance.
John Barnes, interview with author.
for
oral history,
Roy Stevens, interview with
30. Felix
The
Peter S. Kalikow World
American Studies, University of
Branham,
oral history,
New
War
II
Archive,
The
Eisen-
Orleans.
author.
The
Peter S. Kalikow World
War
II
Archive.
31. Ibid. 32. Gerald AstorJune 6,
1944 (New York: St Martin's
33.
Roy Stevens, interview with
34.
Rebecca Wingfield, interview with author.
35.
Roy Stevens, interview with
36. Bedford
Hoback 37.
Hoback
to
author.
author.
Mabel Phelps, January 1944.
Boggess.
Ray Nance, interview with author.
38. Ibid.
Press, 1994), p. 89.
Letter quoted courtesy of Lucille
NOTES
249
39. Reynolds, Rich Relations, p. 324.
40. Balkoski,
Chapter
Beyond the Beachhead,
p.
1
7
1.
John Barnes, Fragments of My Life (self-published, 2000),
2.
Hal Baumgarten,
The
oral history,
The Eisenhower Center
for
p. 51.
Peter S. Kalikow World
American Studies, University of
War
New
3.
Bob
4.
Barnes, Fragments, p. 53.
5.
Stephen Ambrose, D-Day (New York: Touchstone, 1994),
6.
Harold Baumgarten, Eyewitness on
II
History Archive,
Orleans.
Slaughter, interview with author.
7.
George Roach,
8.
Roy Stevens, interview with
9.
Sibyle Kieth
10. Earl
oral history,
The
p. 45.
(self-published, 2000), p. 10.
Peter S. Kalikow World
War
II
History Archive.
author.
Coleman, interview with author.
Newcomb,
interview with author.
Coleman, interview with author.
1 1
Sibyle Kieth
12.
Roy Stevens, interview with
13.
Richmond Times- Dispatch, June
14. Ivylyn Hardy, interview 15. Liberty
Omaha Beach
author. 2,
2002.
with author.
Magazine, April 1944.
16.
Raymond Hoback,
17.
Ray Nance, interview with author.
letter to his parents, April 13, 1944.
18.
Ernest King, Fleet Admiral
(New York:
19.
Arthur Victor, personal
Quoted
log.
Lippincott, 1947), p. 621.
in Nigel Lewis, Exercise Tiger
(New York:
tice Hall, 1990), p. 65.
20. Lewis, Exercise Tiger, p. 108. 21. Ibid., p. 109. 22. Ibid., p. 111. 23. Ibid., p. 121. 24. Ibid. 25.
Eisenhower
to Marshall, April 29, 1944,
Eisenhower
Library.
26. David Reynolds, Rich Relations (London: Phoenix Press, 2000), p. 365. 27. Ibid.
28.
Roy Stevens, interview with
29. Ralph Ingersoll, Toy Secret
author.
(New York: Harcourt
Brace, 1946), p. 105.
30. Ibid.
Chapter 8 1.
John Barnes, Fragments of My Life (self-published, 2000),
2.
Ray Nance, interview with author.
p. 57.
Pren-
.
NOTES
250
Museum newspaper
3.
Quoted, Bedford
4.
June 23, 1944, V-mail, Mrs.
& Advance,
June
3,
B.
World War
piece, undated,
Abbott
to Dickie Abbott.
II
File.
Quoted, Lynchburg News
2001.
Hoback Boggess,
interview with author.
5.
Lucille
6.
"Remembering D-Day," Baltimore Sun, June
6,
1998. Also private correspondence,
Ivylyn Hardy. 7.
Ivylyn Hardy, interview with author.
8. Ibid.
9.
Bertie Woodford, interview with author.
10. Bill
P.
County World War
Parker, Bedford
respondence Concerning Bedford County in World
Lloyd Ayers and Jesse H. Jones,
12.
May
Geroux, "Sacrifice," Richmond Times- Dispatch,
Mrs. George
1 1
War
II
II,
28, 2000.
Committee, Reports and Cor-
1943-1945, April
letter to editor of the
1
Bedford Bulletin,
5,
1944.
March
15,
1944. 13.
Rebecca Wingfield, interview with author.
14.
Geroux, "Sacrifice."
15. Parker report, 16. Bertie
January 15, 1944.
Woodford scrapbook,
17. Elouise Rogers, interview 18. Bettie
private collection.
with author.
Wilkes Hooper speech, Bedford County
Museum World War
II File.
19. Parker report, April 15, 1944.
20. Ibid., February-
1,
1944.
21. Geroux, "Sacrifice." 22. Parker report, 23.
November
1,
1943.
Richmond Times-Dispatch, May
28, 2000.
24. Hal Baumgarten, interview with author. 25. Barnes, Fragments of
My
Life, p. 58.
26. Allen Huddleston, interview with author. 27. Robert Capa, Slightly 28.
Hal Baumgarten,
Out of Focus (New York: Modern Library, 1999), p. 134. The Peter S. Kalikow World War II History Archive.
oral history,
29. Barnes, Fragments, pp. 57—58.
Ronald Drez, Voices of D-Day (New Orleans: Louisiana State University Press, 1994), pp. 40-41. 30.
31. Cornelius Ryan,
The Longest Day (New York: Touchstone, 1994), pp. 27-28.
32. Barnes, Fragments, p. 55. 33. Drez, Voices of
D-Day, pp. 40-41.
34. Leroy Jennings, oral history,
The
Peter S. Kalikow World
35. William Dillon, oral history,
The
Peter S. Kalikow World
36. Joseph Balkoski,
Books, 1989), 37.
Roy Stevens, interview with
39. Ibid.
II
History Archive.
II
History Archive.
Beyond the Beachhead (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole
p. 124.
38. Drez, Voices of
War War
author.
D-Day, pp. 40-41.
NOTES
251
40. Ibid. 41.
Omar
Bradley,
A
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993), p. 238. A Soldier's Life (New York: Henry Holt, 2002), p. 527.
General's Life
42. Carlo D'Este, Eisenhower,
43. David Reynolds, Rich Relations (London: Phoenix Press, 2000), p. 360.
44. Ibid.
45. Brooke diary entry for June 5, 1944, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives,
London.
King's College,
46. Bradley,
A
47. Balkoski,
General's Life, p. 242.
Beyond the Beachhead,
p. 62.
48. Hal Baumgarten, interview with author. 49.
Thomas
Valance, oral history,
50. Balkoski,
The
Beyond the Beachhead,
Peter S. Kalikow World
p. 64.
See archives,
War
II
History Archive.
HQ Company,
1
16th Infantry
Regiment. 51. Ibid. 52. Bertie
June 53.
1,
Woodford, quoted, "Stories of Heroes,"
WDBJ7
television station broadcast
1994.
Anna Mae
54. Earl
Stewart, interview with author.
Newcomb,
interview with author.
55. Ibid. 56.
Roy Stevens, interview with
author.
57. Ibid. 58. Balkoski,
Beyond the Beachhead,
59. Carlo D'Este, Eisenhower,
60. Barnes, Fragments of
My
A
p. 60.
Soldier's Life
(New York: Henry
Holt, 2002), p. 510.
Life, p. 60.
Chapter 9 1
Jimmy Green,
interview with author.
2. Ibid. 3. Ibid.
4. Ibid. 5.
Dwight Eisenhower, Crusade
6. Ibid., p. 7.
Robert Walker, oral
Eisenhower Center
for
Europe (New York: Doubleday, 1948),
history,
The
Peter S. Kalikow World
American Studies, University of
8.
Roanoke Times, June
9.
Group Captain James
10.
in
p.
249.
250.
4,
War
New
II
History Archive,
The
Orleans.
1994.
War Museum, Sound Archives, 002910/02. (New York: Henry Holt, 2002), p. 525. Europe (New York: Doubleday, 1948), p. 249.
Stagg, Imperial
Carlo D'Este, Eisenhower,
A
Soldier's Life
11.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade
12.
Joseph Balkoski, Beyond the Beachhead (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole
Books, 1989),
in
p. 6.
13.
Baumgarten, Eyewitness on
14.
"Nobody
Omaha Beach
(self-published, 2000), p. 34.
Slept That Night," Roanoke Times, June 4, 1994.
.
NOTES
252
15.
Roy Stevens, interview with
16.
Theodore Wilson, Eisenhower
17.
John Barnes,
18.
Hal Baumgarten, interview with author.
19. Betty
oral history,
author.
The
at
War (New York: Random House,
Peter S. Kalikow World
War
II
1986), p. 253.
History Archive.
Wilkes Hooper, interview with author.
No
20.
Eisenhower Papers,
21.
Roy Stevens, interview with
1735, Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Abilene, Kansas. author.
22. Ibid. 23. Ibid. 24. Ibid.
25.
John Barnes, interview with author.
26.
Roy Stevens, interview with
27.
John Barnes, interview with author.
28.
Jimmy Green,
author.
interview with author.
29. Ibid. 30. Ibid. 31. Balkoski,
Beyond the Beachhead,
p. 9.
32.
John Barnes, interview with author.
33.
Roy Stevens, interview with
author.
Chapter 10 Jimmy Green,
1
interview with author.
2. Ibid. 3. Ibid.
29th Division D-Day action report, headquarters report, composed by Jack Shea,
4.
November 5.
1,
1944,
p29d— 9.
Ray Nance, interview with author, and "The Suicide Wave," Richmond Times-
Disptach, June
3,
2001.
6.
John Barnes, Fragments of My Life (self-published, 2000),
7.
Jimmy Green,
8.
Roy Stevens, interview with
9.
John Barnes, interview with author.
10. 1
1.
p. 63.
interview with author.
Jimmy Green,
author.
interview with author.
Monitor Radio report commemorating D-Day, June 1984.
12.
Roy Stevens, interview with
13.
Jimmy Green,
author.
interview with author.
14.
Verona Lipford, interview with author.
15.
Jimmy Green,
interview with author.
16. Ibid.
17. Barnes,
Fragments of My
Life, p. 65.
NOTES
18.
Omaha
19.
Jimmy Green,
Beachhead, Historical Department,
War Department,
1984,
253
p. 29.
interview with author.
20. Ibid.
Chapter 1.
1
George Roach,
Peter S. Kalikow World
War
American Studies, University of
New
The
oral history,
The Eisenhower Center
for
Oral History Archive,
Orleans.
1989.
2.
Bedford Bulletin, June
3.
Monitor Radio report commemorating D-Day, June 1984.
4.
Beulah Witt, interview with author.
5.
George Roach,
6,
II
oral history,
The
Peter S. Kalikow World
War
II
History Archive.
6. Ibid. 7.
Omaha
8.
Thomas
9.
Ray Nance, quoted
War Department, 1984, p. 29. War II Oral History Archive. of D-Day (Louisiana State University Press,
Beachhead, Historical Department, Valance, oral history, in
The
Peter S. Kalikow World
Donald Drez,
Voices
1994), p. 213. 10. Ibid. 1
1.
12.
Monitor Radio report commemorating D-Day, June 1984.
Ray Nance, interview with
author.
13. Ibid. 14. Ibid. 15. Ibid. 16. Ibid.
Chapter 12 1.
Account
of Breeden's first actions, see S.L.A Marshall's "First
Beach," Atlantic Monthly,
November
Wave on Omaha
1960.
2. Ibid. 3.
Russell Pickett, interview with author.
4. Ibid. 5.
Bob
Sales, interview with author
6. Ibid. 7. Ibid.
8.
Joseph Balkoski, Beyond the Beachhead (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole
Books, 1989), 9.
Bob
p. 152.
Sales, interview with author.
10. Ibid. 11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
NOTES
254
13. Ibid. 14.
One
of the few photographs of
1
16th Infantry
wounded on Omaha shows
Sales a few
from a bandaged Smith.
feet
15.
Bob
Sales, interview with author.
16. Ibid.
17.
Hal Baumgarten,
18.
The
oral history,
The Eisenhower Center
for
Peter S. Kalikow World
American Studies, University of
Omaha
Harold Baumgarten, Eyewitness on
War
New
II
History Archive,
Orleans.
Beach, (self-published, 2000),
p. 21.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Baumgarten, oral history,
The
Peter S. Kalikow
22.
Baumgarten, interview with author.
23.
John Barnes, interview with the author.
24.
John Barnes, Fragments of
My Life
World War
II
Histoiy Archive.
(self-published, 2000), p. 66.
25. Ibid.
26.
Roy Stevens, interview with
27.
Jimmy Green,
author.
interview with author.
28. Ibid. 29. Russell Pickett, interview with author. 30.
Verona Lipford, interview with author.
31.
John Barnes, Fragments of My
32.
Bob
Slaughter, interview with author.
33.
The
Battle of
wounded were 34.
Omaha Beach
Life, p. 66.
is
thought to be the only time in history
when American
not evacuated to the rear but instead dragged forward into the front
line.
Along the four miles of Omaha, there were three thousand other dead or seriously
wounded men. 35. Paul Carell, Invasion, They're
Coming (New York: Bantam,
1960), p. 86.
36. Ibid., p. 85.
Chapter 13 1.
Joseph Balkoski, Be}>ond the Beachhead (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole
Books, 1989), 2.
p. 134.
Lieutenant Shea, after-action report,
D-Day
29d,
p. 12.
3. Ibid.
4.
His body was
later
recovered from the shallows where
it
had
lain floating.
Shea
re-
port, p. 12. 5.
"21 of the 743rd's 51
medium
tanks were finally knocked-out on the beach. Only 30
successfully passed through the exits.
them through 6. Ibid. 7. Ibid., p.
They
left at
the Vierville exit." Shea report, p. 13.
17.
about 1930 hours on D-Day,
all
of
NOTES
8.
Monitor Radio report commemorating D-Day, June 1984.
9.
Untitled memoir, Bedford County
10. 1
1.
Ray Nance, interview with
Museum, World War
Richmond Times-Dispatch, June
13.
Bob
Eisenhower Center Miller,
for
The
June
6,
1994.
2001.
3,
Harold Baumgarten, Eyewitness- on Slaughter, oral history,
II File.
author. See also the Bedford Bulletin,
12.
255
Omaha Beach
(self-published, 2000), p. 31.
Peter S. Kalikow World
American Studies, University of
War
New
II
History Archive,
Orleans.
Quoted
The
in Russell
(New York: William Morrow, 1993), pp. 328-329. Omaha Beach, p. 32. United States Army Medical Department & School Infor-
Nothing Less Than Victory
14.
Baumgarten, Eyewitness on
15.
Quoted, Web-site
report,
mation Sendee. 16.
Bob
Slaughter, oral history,
17. Presley
would
later
The
Peter S. Kalikow
World War
II
History Archive.
be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, as would
Canham
and Cota. 18.
Bob
19.
Omaha Beachhead
Slaughter, oral history,
The
Peter S. Kalikow
World War
II
History Archive.
War Department,
(Washington: Historical Department,
1984), p.
56.
20.
Ronald Drez, Voices of D-Day (Louisiana State University Press, 1994), pp. 219-220.
21. Cornelius Ryan,
The Longest Day (New York: Touchstone, 1994),
p.
265.
22. Russell Pickett, interview with author.
23. Hal Baumgarten, interview with author.
Mitchum would
The Longest Day, based on Cornelius Ryan's eponymous 24.
Shea
report, p. 17.
later play
Cota
in the film,
classic.
Account of Cota's actions on D-Day taken mainly from Shea's
ex-
cellent report.
25. Ibid., pp. 18-19. 26. Ibid., p. 19. 27. Ibid., p. 20.
28. Ibid. 29. Ibid. 30.
Baumgarten, Eyewitness on
31. Robert Walker, oral history, 32. Barnes, Fragments of
Omaha The
My Life,
Beach,
p. 38.
Peter S. Kalikow World
War
II
History Archive.
pp. 65-67.
33.
Shea
34.
Roy Stevens, interview with
35.
Monitor Radio report commemorating D-Day, June 1984.
report, p. 23.
author.
36.
Omaha
37.
Warner Hamlett,
38.
Ray Nance, interview with author.
39.
Baumgarten, Eyewitness on
Beachhead,
p. 95.
oral history,
The
Peter S. Kalikow World
Omaha
Beach,
War
II
History Archive.
p. 40.
40. Ibid., pp. 42-43.
41.
Thomas
Valance, oral history,
42. Gerald Astor,
June
6,
The
Peter S. Kalikow World
1994 (New York:
St.
War
II
History Archive.
Martin's Press, 1994), p. 297.
NOTES
256
43. Harry Parley, oral history,
44.
Bob
realized
The
Slaughter, oral history,
it
didn't
make any
Peter S. Kalikow World
The
War II War
Peter S. Kalikow World
History Archive. II
History Archive.
difference whether one was a superior soldier, was
gious, or better character. People
were being
killed
more
"I
reli-
randomly and they could not help
themselves." 45.
Bob
Sales, interview with author.
46. Baumgarten, Eyewitness on
Omaha
Beach,
p. 43.
47. Hal Baumgarten, interview with author.
Chapter 14 1.
Stephen Ambrose, D-Day (New York: Touchstone, 1994),
2.
Elva
3.
Richmond Times-Dispatch, May
Newcomb,
4. Ivylyn
28, 2000.
5.
Bettie Wilkes Hooper, interview with author.
Bertie Woodford, interview with author.
7.
Bedford Bulletin, June
8.
Advertisement, Bedford Bulletin, June
8,
1944.
9.
Eleanor Yowell,
6,
1944.
1
1.
12.
1944.
1,
letter to "Pinky,"
June
Rebecca Wingfield, interview with author. Allen Huddleston, interview with author.
The Times (London), June
13. Typescript,
Anne
7,
1944.
D-Day Museum, New
14. Eloise Rogers, interview 15.
Orleans.
with author.
Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
16.
Bedford Bulletin, June
17.
Mrs. George
P.
7,
(New
Parker, Bedford
County World War
Bedford Bulletin, June
19.
Richmond Times- Dispatch, May
20. Parker report,
June
New York
Chapter 1.
1
June
Times, June
II
II,
Committee, Reports and Cor-
1943-1945, June
1944.
28, 2000.
1,
7,
28, 2000.
1944. 1944.
5
John Barnes, Fragments of My Life (self-published, 2000),
2. Ibid., p.
6,
1944.
Richmond Times- Dispatch, May
22. Bedford Bulletin, 23.
7,
War
1944.
18.
8,
York: Doubleday, 1967), p. 268.
1944.
respondence Concerning Bedford County in World
21.
489.
Hardy, interview with author.
6.
10.
p.
interview with author.
p. 67.
68.
3.
Ronald Drez, Voices of D-Day (Louisiana State University Press, 1994),
4.
Roy Stevens, interview with
author.
p.
221.
NOTES
257
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid. 7. Ibid.
8.
Barnes, Fragments of My Life, p. 68.
9.
Roy Stevens, interview with
10. Barnes, 1
1.
Fragments of My
Ibid., p. 70.
author.
Life, p. 68.
Gearing would
fight
on with Company A
until
October when he would
be evacuated after his legs were crushed by a wall blown away by the Germans during fierce street fighting.
He was
later
awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
12. Ibid. 13. Earl
Newcomb,
14. Barnes,
interview with author.
Fragments of My
Life, p. 68.
15. Ibid., p. 78.
16.
Joseph Ewing, 29
17.
Roy Stevens, interview with
Let's
Go! (Washington: Infantry Journal Press, 1948),
p. 83.
author.
18. Ibid.
19.
Clyde Powers
Rogers. 20.
to
Mrs. H. B. Powers, August 17, 1944. Private collection, Eloise
Quoted with permission.
Roy Stevens, interview with
author.
21. Ibid. 22. Ibid. 23. Ibid. 24.
Bob
25.
Roy Stevens, interview with
Sales, interview with author.
author.
26. Ibid. 27.
Bob
Slaughter, interview with author.
28.
Bob
Sales, interview with author.
29. Ibid. 30.
Bob
31.
Roy Stevens, interview with
32.
Bob
33.
Roy Stevens, interview with
Slaughter, interview with author.
34. Balkoski,
Bob
36.
Roy Stevens, interview with
38.
author.
Beyond the Beachhead,
35.
37. Earl
author.
Sales, interview with author.
p.
200.
Slaughter, interview with author.
Newcomb,
author.
interview with author.
Roy Stevens, interview with
author.
39. Ibid.
40. Ibid.
41.
Brockman survived the war only
cuted while working on a power 42.
to die in
line.
Roy Stevens, interview with
author.
an industrial accident
—he was
electro-
.
NOTES
258
43. Ibid. 44. Ibid.
45. Ibid. 46.
James Tobin, Ernie
47. See
and
Ambrose,
Pyle's
War (New York: The Free
Citizen Soldiers, pp.
relative strengths of
Germans and
52-53
Press, 1997), p. 185.
for further statistics
on extent of
48. David C. Isby, editor, Fighting in Normandy,
The German Army from D-Day
Villers-Bocage (London: Greenhill Books, 2001), p. 236.
49.
Roy Stevens, interview with
50.
Poem composed by Roy
author.
Stevens, July 1944.
Chapter 16 1.
Richmond Times- Dispatch, May
2.
Ivylyn Hardy, interview with author.
3.
Bedford Democrat, June
4.
Ernie Pyle, Brave
5.
Bedford Bulletin, July 27, 1944.
6.
Bedford Bulletin, June
7.
Lucille
8.
Lynchburg News
9.
Sibyle Kieth
6,
28, 2000.
1994.
Men (New York: 6,
Hoback Boggess,
Grosset
June
3,
2001.
Coleman, interview with author. 1944.
Bedford Bulletin, July
1
Verona Lipford, interview with author.
12.
Elva
Dunlap, 1944),
1994.
10. 1
&
interview with author.
& Advance,
Newcomb,
6,
scrapbook.
13. Ibid. 14. Betty
Wilkes Hooper, interview with author.
15. Ibid. 16. Ibid. 17. Ibid.
18. Bertie
Woodford, interview with author.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid. 21. Bedford Bulletin, July 8, 1944.
22. Ibid., July 15,2002. 23.
Richmond Times-Dispatch, May
28, 2000.
Chapter 17 1.
Washington Times, Weekend Section, June 5-1
2.
Lucille
3.
Elaine Coffey, interview with author.
Hoback Boggess,
losses
Allies.
interview with author.
1,
2000.
p.
251.
to
NOTES
4.
Elizabeth Teass, interview with author.
5.
By now some were saying
that the 29th Division
259
commander, General Gerhardt, had
"a division in the field, a division in the hospital,
and
a division in the cemetery.
Beyond the Beachhead, pp. 253-254.
Balkoski,
Newcomb,
interview with author.
6.
Earl
7.
John Barnes, Fragments of My Life (self-published, 2000), pp. 80-83.
8.
Elizabeth Teass, interview with author.
9.
"Uncommon
Valor,"
Lynchburg News
& Advance,
June
3,
2001.
10. Ibid. 1
1.
Elizabeth Teass, interview with author.
12. Ibid. 13. Ibid. 14.
Rebecca Wingfield, interview with author.
15. Elizabeth Teass, interview
with author.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid. 18.
Pxichmond Times-Dispatch,
May
19.
Bedford Democrat, June
1994.
20.
Richmond Times-Dispatch, May
21. Bedford Democrat,
June
6,
6,
28, 2000.
28, 2000.
1994.
22. Elizabeth Teass, interview with author. 23. Elva
Newcomb,
interview with author.
24. Bettie Wilkes Hooper, interview with author. 25.
Richmond Times-Dispatch, May
26.
Helen Stevens, interview with author. U
27. inal
D-Day Widow
speech given on
28.
28, 2000.
Recalls Husband's Sacrifice," Bedford Bulletin, June 6, 2000. Orig-
May
8,
2000.
Richmond Times- Dispatch, May
28, 2000.
29. Verona Lipford, interview with author. 30. Elizabeth Teass, interview with author.
3
1
Ivylyn Hardy, interview with author.
32. Elva 33.
Newcomb,
"Memorial
34. Lucille
to
a
Town's Sacrifice," Baltimore Sun, June
Hoback Boggess,
35. Sibyle Kieth 36.
interview with author.
Honor
Anna Mae
interview with author.
Coleman, interview with author.
Stewart, interview with author.
37. Bedford Bulletin, July 19, 1944. 38. Eleanor Yowell, letter to "Pinky," July 25, 1944.
39.
David Draper, interview with author.
40. Letter, private correspondence, Lucille 41. Lucille 42.
Hoback Boggess,
Lynchburg Neu?s
Hoback
interview with author.
& Advance,
June
3,
2001.
Boggess.
6,
1998.
.
NOTES
260
Newcomb,
43. Elva 44.
private scrapbook.
& Advance,
Lynchburg News
45. Washington Times, June 5-1
Memoriam," Bedford
46. "In
June 1,
3,
2001.
2000.
Bulletin, undated, contained in
World War
II File,
Bed-
County Museum.
ford 47.
Lynchburg News
& Advance,
June
3,
2001.
Chapter 18 1
2.
Ivylyn Hardy, interview with author.
Letter from Mr. and Mrs. Frank Draper, and children Verona, David, and Gamiel;
from Elva Newcomb's scrapbook. 3.
Newcomb's scrapbook. Poem by Kathleen Bradshaw, Quinby,
Elva
4. Ibid.,
poem by
Virginia.
Elaine Coffey.
5.
Richmond Times-Dispatch, May
6.
Allen Huddleston, interview with author.
7.
Quoted,
Canham
28, 2000.
biographical information, Staunton
Armory Records
of
1
16th In-
fantry. 8.
Bob
9.
Joseph Ewing, 29
Sales, interview with author. Let's
Go! (Washington: Infantry Journal Press, 1948),
p. 149.
Huddleston, interview with author.
10. Allen 11. Ibid.
12.
Bob
Slaughter, interview with author.
13.
Bob
Sales, interview with author.
14.
Huddleston ran
his
own photography
business until retiring in the eighties.
The
wife he had married in 1942 before going overseas with the Bedford boys died in 1988.
He has three sons and in 2003 lived in Bedford's Elks home with several other relatives of Company A men and played Rook almost as often as he did in the army. His shoulder wound, he
said,
had recently given him
"a lot of trouble."
15.
Information on casualties provided by Bob Slaughter.
16.
John Barnes, Fragments of My
Life (self-published, 2000), p. 131.
17. Ibid. 18. Ibid.
Newcomb,
interview with author.
19.
Elva
20.
Richmond Times-Dispatch, June
21. Bertie
2,
2002.
Woodford, interview with author.
22.
Ray Nance, interview with author.
23.
Roy Stevens, interview with
author.
24. Ibid. 25. Ibid. 26. Ibid. 27. Eloise Rogers, interview with author.
NOTES
28.
Richmond Times-Dispatch, June
29. Elva 30. Elva
31.
Newcomb, Newcomb,
interview with author.
Newcomb,
2002.
2,
private scrapbook.
33. Bedford Bulletin,
August
34. Bedford Bulletin,
December
35.
2002.
2,
private scrapbook.
Richmond Times-Dispatch, June
32. Elva
26
16, 1945. 8,
1947.
Verona Lipford, interview with author.
36. Ibid.
37. Ibid. 38.
Roy Stevens, interview with
author.
39. Ibid.
40.
Rebecca Wingfield, interview with author.
41. Ibid. 42. Laura Burnette, interview with author. 43. Bedford Democrat, April 29, 1954. 44.
Roy Stevens, interview with
author.
45. Bedford Bulletin, June 7, 2000.
46. Ivylyn Hardy, interview with author. 47. Ibid. 48. Bettie Wilkes Hooper, interview with author. 49.
Richmond Times-Dispatch, June
50.
Anna Mae
5
2,
2002.
Stewart, interview with author.
I.Bedford Bulletin, June
52. Virginia Pilot,
June
2,
1994.
6,
1968.
53. Ibid.
Chapter 19 1.
John Lang, "A town's
The
gift:
valor of
2. Billy
Parker memoir, Bedford County
3. Billy
Parker, interview with author.
Museum World War
4.
Bedford
5.
Bedford Bulletin,
6. Ibid., 7.
June
7,
March
II File.
letter to
Bedford Bulletin, June
11. Ibid. 12. Ibid.
June
5,
2000.
II File.
Untitled clipping.
1954.
Edward Gearing,
10. Ibid.
sons," Washington Times,
25, 1954.
Kenneth Crouch, September 20, 1954, Bedford County
Museum, World War II File. 8. Mary Daniel Heilig, interview with 9.
its
Museum, World War
7,
1954.
author.
.
NOTES
262
13. Ibid.
14.
Bedford Bulletin- Democrat, June 23, 1982, "Liberty Bicentennial Edition."
15.
Norman D.
Cota, Maj. Gen.,
US Army,
Ret., letter to
Kenneth
E.
Crouch, July
10,
1954. 16.
Major General D. W. Canham,
17.
Bedford Democrat, June
18.
Mary Daniel
19.
Potomac News, June
6,
letter to
Parker-Hoback
Post, April 30, 1954.
1994.
Heilig, interview with author. 5,
1994.
20. Verona Lipford, interview with author.
2
Bettie Wilkes Hooper, interview with author.
1
22. In the
meantime, most D-Day veterans had died.
23. Baltimore Sun,
June
24. Bedford Democrat,
Lynchburg News
25.
6,
June
1998. 6,
1994.
& Advance,
June
2001.
3,
26. Ibid.
Bob
27.
Slaughter, interview with author.
28. Ibid. 29.
"D-Day Memorial
to Salve
Towns
30. Various broadcasts as well as the 31. "Talk of
War Where One From
Terrible Loss," Washington Post, January 8, 1998.
New York
Past
Still
2001. 32. Ibid. 33. Ibid. 34.
Bob
35.
Verona Lipford, interview with author.
Sales, interview with author.
36. Elaine Coffey, interview with author.
37. Ibid. 38.
Mary Daniel
Times, June
Haunts,"
Heilig, interview with author.
7,
2001.
New York
Times, September 15,
INDEX
Abbott, Dickie, 26-27, 94, 129, 219
Battle of Britain, 13
Abbott, Leslie, 175
Battle of Manassas, reenactment of,
Abbott,
W.
B.,
26-27
ACTs. See Assault
11, 12
Battle of Trafalgar, 122
Africa, 61
Baumgarten, Hal, 236
Afrika Korps, 61
Armed
Allied
Forces Inter-Army
championship baseball, 69-70
in
containment camp, 93, 99, 100, 108
in
England, 74-75, 76
HMS
Amphibia, 100
on
Amphibious
and
troops, 100
Andover, 53-54 at
1
Assault training centers (ACTs), 81
for,
Slapton Sands, 83, 84
Bazookas, 181
Lady Nancy, 65, 78
Bedford, Virginia,
Atlantic Wall, 69 Ayers, Lloyd,
Beach, battle
158, 161-162, 163, 164
of the Shenandoah,
Astor,
Empire Javelin, 114, 116
Omaha
143-144, 147-148, 153-154, 155,
Anderson, Alfred, 130
Army
42-43
Battle of the Atlantic,
training centers
1,
after the war, 219,
97
and
casualties,
8
222-223
news
of,
189-196,
197-208 Baltimore News-Post,
Bandages,
1
D-Day
10
rolling, 99, 172,
Barnes, John, 199, 213-214, 236
rationing
D-Day, 173, 175, 176
containment camp, 93, 100-101
in
England, 74-75, 77, 82
HMS Empire Javelin,
and
Omaha Omaha
to,
and
123,
to,
Omaha
and reburial for,
survivors,
220-221
Basham, Melba, 44, 191
97
for,
225-229, 232-236 Beach, return at
to,
230-231
home, 219-220
and return home, 215-218, 220-221
145,
146, 159 Baseball, 69-72,
31, 61-62, 73, 96,
in,
227-228 memorial
116, 118, 120
Beach, approach
Beach, battle
and poems,
and invasion, reason chosen
126
and
letters
Bedford boys, 7
in
on
165-169, 171-172
210-211
Bangalore torpedoes, 83
after
in,
and memorial
189
See also
226
Company A
Bedford Bulletin,
263
1
1
1
INDEX
264
Bedford farmers,
9,
and D-Day memorial, 228
96
Bedford Fireman's Band,
17, 219,
226
in England,
77-78
Bedford High School, 17
and invasion plan, 103, 105
Bedford pool
and
16
hall,
Bee, Bernard,
Omaha
Beach, battle
Belding Hemingway,
9,
218
Capa, Robert, 100, 228
Belgium, 13
Cape Henry, 27
Black soldiers, 80
Carder,
Blitzkrieg attacks, 13
Carder Funeral Home, 219
"Blue and Gray, The" 15
Blue Ridge Mountains,
167, 198, 200,
219
Carter, Wallace, 16, 45, 59, 78, 130
Casualties, 139-148, 149-164, 174, 186,
Boggess, Lucille Hoback, 19, 232,
219
news
234-235, 236
Boutwood, John, 47, 49, 51
of, in
Bedford, 189-196,
197-208
Bornstein, Edith, 63
and Western Union telegrams, 191,
Bowman, Ned, 56
Omar
Ham;
Carney, Eugene, 90 1
Bocage, 177, 181
Bradley,
for,
149-151, 152-153, 155, 156
1
197-208
N., 107, 108
CCC.
See Civilian Conservation Corps
Bradshaw, Kathleen, 210
Chamberlain, Neville, 12
Braunton, 81
Chicago Cubs, 70
Breeden, Cecil, 116, 123, 134, 139,
Churchill, Winston, 12, 66, 68-69, 86,
152-154, 199, 230-231
Bremen, 214 Brest,
107 Civilian Conservation
Corps (CCC),
29,97
210
British Expeditionary Force, 107
British Royal Navy,
88
Civil War, 11,
87
Clifton, John, 13, in
Brookings Institution, 9
and
Broughman, Cedric, 110
and
B-29 bomber Enola Gay, 218
204
England, 63, 79
Brooke, Sir Alan, 107
Omaha Omaha
Beach, approach
to,
123
Beach, landing on, 134,
135
Minnie Lee, 63
Burma, 30
Clifton,
Burnette, Laura, 220-221
Coffey, Elaine, 14, 33, 34, 197-198, 210,
237
Burrow, Richard, 233-234, 235
Bush, George
W,
234, 235
Butcher, Harry, 91
Coleman, Andrew,
Coleman
Camp A. P. Hill, 21 Camp Blanding, 30, 31, 32-34 Camp Kilmer, 35-38 Canham, after
in
Charles, 35, 38, 75, 123
D-Day, 179, 182, 184
containment camp, 108-109, 110
84, 192, 198,
Coleman, Sibyle Kieth, family,
84, 192,
205
Colleville sur Mer, 173,
Company A, after
at
238
10
D-Day, 173-187
after the war, at
205
205
Camp Camp
222
Blanding, 30, 31, 32-34 Kilmer,
35-38
INDEX at
COSSAC,
Cape Henry, 27
and
139-148, 149-164,
casualties,
174
and combat experience, 87-88 in
in
and
first
at Fort
on
Cota, Norman, 123, 228 in
containment camp, 109
in
England, 72-73
party,
Cottrell, Marguerite,
1 1
Crayton, H. W., 206
Crouch, George, 110 Crouch, Kenneth, 225, 228
1
and Ivybridge, 58-66
Cundiff, Helen,
and medical examinations, 16
Curtis, Joseph O.,
of,
Omaha
Dartmoor, 58
Beach, approach
D-Day, 28, 129
to,
121-128 and
Omaha
in Bedford,
Beach, battle
and Great
for,
Omaha
Beach, casualties,
See also
139-148, 149-164, 174
and
Omaha
Omaha
Death Beach, return
to,
230-231
88-92
at
62
Dittmar, Robert, 144
Dog Green
226
Tidworth Barracks, 53-58
beach, 101, 131, 133
Donaldson, Harold, 143
See also Bedford boys
Company Company Company
98
DiMaggio, Joe, 72
Slapton Sands, 82-90
survivors,
notices,
DeWitt, William O., 72
and replacements, 74-77, 79 at
Dorsey,
Tommy, 37
B, 10
Doulish, 93, 109
C, 10
Draper, David, 70, 206
D, 10
Congress, and selective service
Draper, Frank, bill,
Jr.,
33, 192, 202, 203,
206, 209, 219, 222, 236
14
Conscientious objectors, 96-97, 166-167
and baseball, 70-71
Containment camp, Company A
in
93-110
Omaha
Denmark, 12
Detroit, race riots in, Tiger,
invasion;
D'Este, Carlo, 107
role in,
101-107 and Operation
Normandy
Dean, John, 202
Beach, landing on,
and Operation Overlord,
169
Beach; Operation Overlord
129-137 and
165-169, 171-172
Britain,
memorial, 225-229, 232-236
139-148, 149-164
and
80
Thomas, 184
Dallas,
North Carolina, 20
and
202,216
15-19
and moorland, 58-59 in
64
Craters, for shelter, 127
21, 23
HMS Empire Javelin, 1-5, 1-120 HMS Queen Mary, 38, 41-52
mobilization
for,
160-161
wave, 121-128
of,
Beach, battle
149-151, 152-153, 155-157,
17-18
Meade, 19-20,
induction
Omaha
and
England, 53-66, 67-80, 81-92
and farewell
on
17-18
of,
68, 69
and invasion plan, 105-106
containment camp, 93-1 10
departure
265
in,
on
containment camp, 99, 108
HMS
Empire Javelin,
1
1
INDEX
266
Omaha Omaha and Omaha and
Beach, approach
and
Beach, battle
125
to,
146
for,
Beach, landing on, 134,
136 203, 222-223
Sr.,
Maw,
Dutch
143, 152
Tiger,
91-92
Slapton Sands, 85, 88
194-195, 215, 226
1st Division, 28, 30, 33, 61, 80, 88, 91,
100 wave, 121-128
First
30
Indies,
Fizer, Charles, 101, 124, 159, 173, 193,
60
Inn, 26,
for,
Beach, landing on, 129
and Operation
202-203, 206, 219
Dunkirk, 13, 107
Dutch East
Beach, battle
Fergusson, Lieutenant, 140
202, 203, 209-210, 219
family, 167,
Omaha Omaha
Fellers family, 166,
Draper, Gamiel, 13, 70
Draper
and
at
Draper, Frank,
Draper,
and
198 Fizer family, 193
Eisenhower, Dwight, 115, 121, 165, 223,
228
Fort
and Higgins boats, 82-83 of,
1
12,
113-114, 117
19-20, 21, 23
War Loan
Fourth
Tiger,
France,
90
Drive, 98
2, 11, 12, 13,
61
liberation of, 211
Frank, Anne, 170
Elle River, 177
Company A
"England's
16,
Foutz, Elsie, 37
and invasion plan, 107
and Operation
Meade,
4th Division, 89, 90, 91
and invasion, postponement
England,
Forth of Clyde, 47, 51
in,
53-66, 67-80
Own," 61
Garbed, Robert, 148
English Channel, 3
Garden of the Missing, 238
Enola Gay, 218
Gearing, Edward
Ewing, Joseph, 21
after
"Exercise Beaver," 88
in
Expert Infantryman's Badge, 55
on
HMS Empire Javelin,
and Factories,
and wartime production,
Fellers, Peter
23-24, 25, 175, 222
in
containment camp,
in
England, 72, 78, 81
containment camp, 94, 95, 109
and
in
England, 56, 57-58, 58-59, 64, 69,
at
73, 75, 76-77, 79,80,
81-82
Empire Javelin, 3-4, 111,
115, 119
and invasion plan, 105 and
Omaha
122, 125,
145,
Beach, approach
127-128
to,
121,
1
10
and invasion plan, 103
in
HMS
for,
Gerhardt, Charles, 67-68, 69, 226, 227
Anson, 24
Fellers, Taylor, 10,
on
Beach, battle
18
George VI, 169 166
24
Fellers, Janie,
Omaha
1
159, 161
30-31, 62 Fellers, Bertie,
D-Day, 175, 176
containment camp, 100-101
Omaha
Beach, battle
for,
Slapton Sands, 87
German artillery, 181 German E-boats, 89 German Panzerfaust, 181 German POWs, 27 German prisoners, 174, 182, 211 German 352nd Division, 129
161
INDEX
German 716th Division, German U-boats, 43
102, 105, 129
of,
See also Nazi
Hickam
42-43
J.
Field airbase, 20
213
Higginbotham, Clarence, 166
Germany
Higgins, Andrew, 90
Gerow, Leonard, 54-55, 67, 87, 107 Gillaspie,
Daniel, 226, 229. See also
Danny
H-Hour, 101, 102
HMS Queen Mary,
surrender
Mary
Parker,
Germany, 60-61
and
Heilig,
W., 167
Higgins boats, 82-83
210
Hill 203,
Gillaspie, Nicholas, 44, 49, 130, 191
Hitler, Adolf, 12, 28, 30, 38, 107,
Gillette, Douglas, 71
and Atlantic Wall, 69
Goggin, Booker, 209
HMS Queen Mary, HMS Curacoa, and HMS
Gold
stars,
and
98
Goode, Dorothy Wilkes, 25
collision with,
Gray Ghost, 42. See also
HMS
Queen
Mary Great Britain, 11, 12, 28,46, 169
on
3,
7, 8,
Omaha
28, 31,
60
Omaha and Omaha
1-5, 82, 87, 93,
19—120
Beach, approach
Beach, battle
Hoback, Bedford, 13-14, 197, 210,
to,
for,
145-146
Beach, landing on, 129
Green, William, 184-185
in
containment camp,
in
England, 63, 76, 79
on
HMS
and
19, 28, 29, 34,
237 1
Omaha
Beach, battle
Hoback, John Samuel, 197
Greenock, 46, 50, 51
Hoback,
H., 171,
for,
144-145
Lucille, 21, 64, 191, 197, 204,
207, 226
Green's drugstore, 24, 198 J.
10
Queen Mary, 41
Greenbrier Hotel, 192
Grey,
46
47-51 1
121-128 and
Queen Mary,
HMS Obedient, 90 HMS Queen Elizabeth, 38, 215 HMS Queen Mary, 38, 41-52, 44-45, and HMS Curacoa, collision with,
1 1
HMS Empire Javelin,
and
42
110, 111-120, 140, 159
Grattidge, Harry, 50
Great Depression,
229
47-51
HMS Empire Javelin,
Goode, Robert, 100
Green, Jimmy,
267
205
Hoback, Mabel, 63, 79
Guadalcanal, 33
Hoback, Macie, 197-198, 232
Gubernot, Joe, 71
Hoback, Rachel, 204
Guderian, Heinz, 13
Hoback, Raymond, 13-14, 29, 204, 206-207, 237
Hamlett, Warner "Buster," 161
Hampton Looms,
28, 30, 62, 167,
218
in
containment camp, 94
in
England, 63—64
Hanks, Tom, 236
and
Hardy, Ralph H., 222
at
Harris, Jack, 190
Harrisonburg, Virginia, 10 Harvey, Mrs. Keith, 210
Hawthorn hedgerow. See Bocage
Omaha
Beach, landing on, 137
Slapton Sands, 86
Hoback and
family, 21,
casualties,
237
news
of,
204-205, 206-207
Hoboken,
New Jersey,
38
191, 197-198,
1
1
INDEX
268
Holland, 13
LCVP71,
Holmes, Lieutenant, 49
Lee, Clifton, 129, 203
Hooper, Bettie Wilkes
and
Omaha
Lee
Beach, return
to,
230-231
See also Wilkes, Bettie
123
203
family,
Leftwich-Fellers,
Annie Elizabeth, 24
Leigh-Mallory, Trafford, 113
and from home, 95-96
Hooper, Lewis, 223
Letters, to
Home, Mr., 202 Hound of the Bashennlles, 58
Letters and poems, memorial,
Huddleston, Allen, 169, 210-211, 212,
in
on
L.,
Liberty, Virginia, 8
Liberty magazine, 85
containment camp, 100
Liberty Theater, 9 Life magazine, 20, 38, 62, 100,
Queen Mary, 49
Lipford, Verona, 33-34, 71, 125, 219,
222-223, 236-237
Huddleston, Geraldine, 49
Huebner, Clarence
190
Lions Club, 98
England, 58, 72
HMS
210-21
62
213,226 and D-Day memorial, 225 in
Lewis, John
R.,
103
and
casualties,
news
of,
192, 202, 203
and D-Day, 167 Gordon, 41, 42, 49-50, 50-51
lllingworth,
Infantile paralysis, 167 Israel, Roy, Italy,
LST
507, 89
LST515, 90
200-201
LST
61, 86
Ivybridge,
Lockard, Rebecca, 97, 168
58-66
531, 89
LSTs. See Landing ship tanks
Lunscomb, Mrs., 64, 194-195 Jackson,
Thomas
J.,
Luxembourg, 13
1
W.
167
Jacksonville, Florida, 31
Lyle,
Japan, 30, 98, 214
Lynchburg, Virginia, 10
surrender Jodl, Alfred,
218
of,
Maissey
213
le
Grand, 162
Malaya, 30
Jones, Jesse, 97
Jordan, Ivylyn, 31-32 Jubelin, Andre,
L.,
Marshall, George
226-227
C, 90
Marshall, Jim, 197, 200
Marsico, Hazel, 220
Kessup, Private, 178
Marsico, John, 71
Korean War, 228
Marsico, Tony, 70-71, 160, 220-221, 226 Martin, Allin, 48
194-195
Laird, John, 145, 199
McCauley,
Land Army, 63
McCauley, Mr., 194
Landing
craft assault
(LCA), 83
Ellen,
McCloy, John
J.,
107
Landing ship tanks (LSTs), 89, 90
McKinney,
Lane, Mrs. H. ML, 172
McNair,
LCA LCA
Medics, 151-154, 161, 164
910, 121 911, sinking
of,
123-124, 126, 128
Nellie, 108
Lesley, 55
Memorial, D-Day, 225-229, 232-236
INDEX Memorial
and poems, 210-21
letters
and Poland, attack on,
gun, 151, 180
Military prison, 97
See also
28-29
Miller, Elva,
Nelson, Horatio, 122
New
Ministerial Association, 9
Mitchell, Jack, 175, 176, 21
1,
Brunswick, 35
Newbury
214
airfield,
Newcomb,
"Moaning Minnies," 181
M-l Garand
1
Germany
Nebelwerfers, 150-151, 181
28-29
Miller family,
National Socialism, 12
Nazi Germany, 13, 28
Mental exhaustion, 183
MG-42 machine
1 1
28-29, 33, 35, 37,
Earl, 10,
237
96, 211, 214, 226,
rifles, 5
D-Day 175-176, 183-184
Monte Cassino, 86
after
Montgomery, Bernard, 61, 92, 112,
in
containment camp,
in
England, 60, 76
113-114
HMS Queen Mar)',
1
10
Moorland, 58-59
on
Mortar
and return home, 217-218
fire,
151
Mud Alley Wildcat
baseball team,
Mullins, Thomas,
16
Murdock,
Gil,
1
Newcomb,
1
and
75-76, 130, 131-133,
in
10, 14, 224, 226, 231,
238
containment camp, 94, 95
and D-Day memorial, 225 in
on on
England, 56, 63, 69, 73, 80
HMS Empire Javelin, HMS Queen Mary, 5
and invasion and and
Omaha Omaha
2-5, 116, 117
Omaha
Beach, battle
to,
123
for,
Beach, landing on, 134-137 Tiger, 9
and return home, 215, 221—222 at
Slapton Sands, 87
Napoleonic Wars, 122 National
D-Day Foundation, 235
National
D-Day Memorial. See Memorial,
D-Day after the war,
family,
28-29, 165
222
National Guard Memorial, 230
25
New York City, 36 New York Times, 20, 235 New York Yankees, 72 terrorist attack,
234-235
invasion, 69
and Bedford boys, reason chosen
for,
227-228 postponement See also
of,
Omaha
112, 113-114, 117
Beach; Operation
Overlord
North Africa, 30, 33, 68 North Carolina, 20 Nurses, 169-170
Office of Price Administration, 96 Office of Production
National Guard, 7-8, 55
217-218
201-202, 203
Newman, Naomi, 24, 195-196 Newman, William Henry, 1
Normandy
Beach, approach
and Operation
of,
and D-Day, 165, 166
911
plan, 105
151-152, 160, 161
and
news
New Deal, 29 New London Academy,
Nance, McHenry, 223
44, 45, 48
Elva, 30, 204, 214,
casualties,
Newcomb
199, 214
Nance, Ray,
269
Office of
Omaha after
War
Management,
Information, 96
Beach,
1,
28, 101, 118
D-Dav, 173-187
1
1
1
INDEX
270
approach battle
121-128
to,
for,
237-238. See
139-148, 149-164
and Bedford boys, return casualties,
to,
230-231
dress rehearsal,
to,
230-231
88-92
224, 225, 226, 229, 231, 237-238 in
containment camp, 94
in
England, 66, 72, 73
on
HMS
Empire Javelin, 112, 114
landing on, 129-137
Parker, Joseph, 211, 225,
and medics, 151-154, 161, 164
Parker, Mrs. George,
See also
Normandy
invasion; Operation
Overlord
Battalion, 149
171
229, 231
223-224
after the war,
1
16th Infantry Regiment, 10
1
16 Yankees, 69-71. See also Baseball
and
casualties,
news
of,
189, 191,
of,
190-191, 201
201
and D-Day, 165
Operation Barbarossa, 30
Parker family, 225, 226
Operation Bolero, 58
news
Operation Fortitude, 86
and
Operation Fox, 87
and D-Day, 165
casualties,
Operation Neptune, 101
Parker-Hoback post, 225
Operation Overlord, 28, 68-69, 77, 86,
Paschendaele, 87 Pas de Calais, 69, 86, 87
88,91,93, 154 and Company A,
role in,
101-107
Patton,
101-107
invasion plan,
Normandy
George
Omaha
Peaks of Otter, 11, 56-57
Pearl Harbor,
Operation Torch, 30
Perkin, Julian,
Oran, Algeria, 61
Philippines, 30
Oslo, Norway, 12
Omaha Omaha
bombing
of,
1
20-21, 30
90
Physical exhaustion, 183
Glenwood
"Dickie," 202,
226
England, 60, 79
and
210
"Peaks of Otter Rifles, The,"
Operation Tiger, 88-92
and
86,
S.,
Peake, Mickey Muriel, 65
invasion;
Beach
Overstreet,
226
61-62, 96, 97, 98,
Parker, Viola, 33, 36-37, 66, 94, 99, 226,
146th Special Underwater Demolition
See also
Mary
Parker, Earl, 10, 27, 28, 99, 201, 211,
139-148, 149-164, 174,
and Company A, return
also Heilig,
Daniel
186
in
1
Beach, battle
Piccadilly Circus,
65-66
Pickett, Russell, 119, for,
160
139-140, 146,
155
Piedmont Label Company, 27
Beach, landing on,
130-131
Pledge of neutrality,
and return home, 220
Plot cultivation,
1
96
Plymouth, England, 173
Overstreet, Wilton, 60
Pocahontas, 219 Point du Hoc, 157
Padley, James, 125, 126, 193 Parker, Billy, 27, Parker,
Danny
225
(later
Poland
Mary Daniel
Heilig),
66, 73, 99, 165, 191, 226, 229,
and Nazi Germany, attack on, surrender
of,
12
1
INDEX
Roach, George, 75-76, 199, 214
Powers, Clyde, 18, 191, 226 after
D-Day, 173-175, 177-178, 184,
and
containment camp, 101
at
and D-Day memorial, 225, 228 in England,
on
HMS
and
64-65
Beach, landing on, 130,
Empire Javelin, 117, 118
Omaha
Omaha
Slapton Sands, 83-84
Roanoke, Virginia, 10 Roberts, Pam,
Beach, approach
to,
64-65
Robinson, Noel, 47-48 Rogers, Eloise, 170
Rommel, Erwin,
124-125 and
Omaha
132-133
185 in
Beach, battle
for,
146,
and return home, 216-217, 220,
and
New
Deal, 29
and Office of Production
221 Powers, Eloise, 18, 216-217
Management,
Powers, Jack, 18, 174, 178, 217
containment camp, 100
and pledge of
in
England, 57, 76, 79
and
HMS Empire Javelin,
1
17
1
6-2 1
Presidential citation, 192, Presley, "Big Bill," Proffit,
1
1
96
and radio address, 172 and United Mine Workers, 62
210
54
"Chubby," 71
Purple hearts, 212 Pyle, Ernie, 186,
neutrality,
plot cultivation,
and "Roosevelt's Tree Army," 29
Powers, Marie, 208 family, 2
15
and Operation Overlord, 68-69
in
Powers
61, 103-104, 149
Roosevelt, Franklin, 39, 223
and declaration of war, 22
159
on
190
"Roosevelt's Tree Army," 29
Rosazza, Calisto, 60 Rosazza, Weldon, 10, 60, 63
Rothenberg, Sam, 213 Royce, Peter, 226 Rubatex, 30, 218
Quarles, Ellen, 60
Rucker, Peter, 200, 202-203
Queen
Ruff,
Alexandra's Hospital, 169
Sam, 25
Ruffing, Red, 72
Race
riots,
62
Russell, John, 8
Ramcke, General, 21
Russia, and attack on Poland, 12
Rangers, 57, 103
Russians, 86
Rathbone,
Basil,
58
Rationing, 31, 61-62, 73, 96, 97
Sales, Bob, 106, 208, 211,
212-213
Red Army, 30
after
Reichert, Joseph, 187
and D-Day memorial, 236
Reynolds, John, 210
in
in
England, 64, 78-79
and
Omaha
Beach, landing on, 134,
136 Reynolds, Willie, 64 Rizzuto, Phil, 72
271
on
D-Day, 179, 181, 182
England, 66
HMS
Queen
Mar)',
50
and invasion plan, 106 and
Omaha
Beach, battle
140-143, 164 Salisbury 53
for,
INDEX
272
Samuel, Bernard, 165
Slapton Sands, 82-90
"Sausages," 93. See also Containment
Slaughter, Bob, 36, 71, 208,
camp
after
Saving Private Ryan, 234, 236 Saxtein, Morris,
1
in
235-236
Schenk, George, 218 in
222-223
on
casualties,
news
of,
189,
204
HMS
Queen Mary,
Omaha
and
Beach, battle
222-223 containment camp, 95
Somme, 87
in
England, 55, 56, 81-82
Sours, John, 150
on
HMS Empire Javelin, HMS Queen Mary, 43
Omaha and Omaha and
Spaden, 214
Beach, approach Beach, battle
Soviet Union, 30
16
1
for,
to,
123
152
Slapton Sands, 85
Special Engineer Task Force, 103 Spielberg, Steven, 234,
236
St.
L6, 177, 184
Schenk, Rosa, 218
St.
Louis Browns, 72
Schenk
St.
Louis Cardinals, 70, 72
at
and
family,
218
news
casualties,
of,
204
and D-Day, 166
Schulz, Charles M., Scott, Morris, 16,
Stagg, James, Stalin, Joseph,
Schofield Barracks, 21
Scott,
Stars
233-234
1
bill,
178, 180, 203, 216, 231
14
in
wounds (SIWs), 184
on
England, 81
HMS Empire Javelin, HMS
on
and
Shea, Jack, 149-150, 151, 156, 157,
112, 114,
Queen Mary,
Omaha
42, 46
Beach, battle
for,
1
59
Stevens, Roy, 7-10, 14, 16, 17, 21, 25,
159-160
37, 157,
Short Guide to Britain, A, 44
after
203,204, 226, 237
D-Day, 173-175, 176-180, 182,
183-187
Shoulder patches, 15 Shrader, Viola, 10, 27
in
containment camp, 101, 108, 110
and D-Day memorial, 235
61, 68
Singapore, 30 Self-inflicted
2,
117-118
213
Shapiro, Sam, 46
SIWs. See
203-204
Stevens, Ray, 7-10, 37, 157, 174-176,
15
SHAEF, 113
Sicily,
Stripes, 60, 62, 71
Stevens, Harold,
Second wave, 123
Setterich,
13
30
Stevens, Martha Jane, 225
"Screaming Eagles,"
Selective service
and
1
Stevens, Helen, 196, 237
27
Murphy, 107
Self-inflicted
for,
Smith, Mack, 143
in
on
44, 48
146-147, 155, 163-164
31-32, 96, 204,
10,
England, 53, 54, 55
and invasion plan, 106-107
and D-Day, 166 Schenk, John,
containment camp, 101
and D-Day memorial, 232-233,
14
Schenk, Ivylyn, 55, 56, 85, 95, 96, 209,
and
212
D-Day, 180, 181, 182-183
in
wounds
England, 58, 59, 63, 65-66, 70,
77-78, 78, 81, 82
INDEX
on
HMS Empire Javelin,
United Mine Workers, 62
1-2, 3,
112-113, 114, 117-118, 119, 120
on
HMS Queen Mar)',
and
Omaha
153 U.S.
plan, 106
U.S.
Beach, approach
to,
123,
Omaha
Omaha
for,
145,
Beach, return
to,
231
Tiger, 9
and return home, 215-216, 220, 221 Slapton Sands, 84, 85
Stevens family, 10, 180, 203-204, 216 Stewart,
Anna Mae,
19-20
of,
20
U.S. Navy, and Pearl Harbor, bombing
of,
USS Arkansas, 102 USS Charles Carroll, 123 USS McCook, 160, 164 USS Texas, 102, 123, 160 Utah Beach, 88, 163
37, 72
223
after the war,
and
at,
Special Services Division, 44
20-21
and Operation
at
bases, discipline
bombing Beach, battle
146, 159
and
Army Army
U.S. battleships, at Pearl Harbor,
124, 126
and
Army Medical Department,
United States
42, 45-46,
49, 51
and invasion
273
news
Valance,
Thomas
in
containment camp, 108
Strong, Kenneth, 114
in
England, 75-76
"Stukas on Wheels," 181
and
"Suicide Wave,"
and
casualties,
1
of,
205
1
Beach, battle
for,
162-163
Beach, landing on, 130,
133-134
Sulphur Springs, 192 Sumpter, Octavia White, 13
Omaha Omaha
V
Corps, 67
V-E Day, 214 Teass, Elizabeth, 169, 198-201, 203,
205 1 1
62
Textile industry,
Workers Union, 30
Thaxton,
Mary, 169-170
Veterans, 219, 231
Tedder, Arthur,
Textile
Verrier,
Emma,
9
89
Victor, Arthur,
Mer,
Vierville sur
V-J Day,
Thomas, Frank, 200
Volunteers,
3206th Quartermaster Service
Von Manstein,
Company, 89
103, 106, 157, 161
Vixen Tor, 67
Thaxton, Jane, 9
Thurman, Anthony, 160, 226
1,
Virginia Military Institute, 55
218
women
Von Rundstedt,
as,
98
Erich, 12
Editha, 228
Von Rundstedt, Gerd, 228
Tidworth Barracks, 53-58 Tidworth House, 62-63
Walker, Robert, 112
Transportation Corps, 38
Wall Street, and D-Day, 165
Tunisia, 61
Wall Street crash, 9
"Twenty Committee, The" 86
War Bonds,
"29, Let's Go!",
Ware, Robert, 141
"29
Let's Go!",
67 177
29th Division, 10
98, 167
Warner, John
W,
235
Wartime production, 30-31, 62
11
INDEX
274
Washington, George, 12
Williams,
Watson, Alpha, 215
Winchell, Walter, 20, 190, 191
Wellington, General, 63 casualties,
197-208
and D-Day memorial, 225 in
Weymouth, England, 93 White, Gordon Henry,
195
Wingfield, Pride, 28, 168
Western Union telegrams, and 191,
Bill,
Jr.,
England, 65
and return home, 220-221 13,
129-130,
232
Wingfield, Rebecca, 221
Wingfield family, 168
White, Gordon Henry,
Sr.,
232
Witt, Beulah, 60, 131
Henry
White, Rose, 232
Witt,
Wilkes, Bettie (later Bettie Wilkes
Women,
Hooper), 24, 25-26, 33, 34, 36-37, 98, 99,
207
after the war,
Woodford,
and
G., 134
as volunteers,
news
casualties,
and D-Day, 166 See also Hooper, Bettie Wilkes
Wright, Dick, 142
casualties,
news
of,
189, 193-194,
202-203
Wright, Elmere,
Wilkes, Harold, 18 after in
on
D-Day
and
Empire javelin,
Omaha
194-195
in
Beach, approach
containment camp, 99
and
18
1
1
and baseball, 70, 71, 72
173, 184, 185
containment camp, 101
HMS
of,
Woolacombe, 81
223
Work programs, 97 World War I, 10, 12 World War II, 11-12
and
98
23-24, 64, 109, 215
Bertie,
to,
124,
Omaha
Beach, battle
Wright, William,
for,
145
1
125
and
Omaha
Beach, battle
for,
1
59
Wilkes, John, 10, 24-26, 34, 35, 36, 166,
Yopp, Elsie, 205
Yopp, Grant, 10, 37,205, 223
223, 230-231
in
containment camp, 95, 109
in
containment camp, 109
in
England, 72
in
England, 56, 65, 75, 77, 79
on
on
HMS
Empire
Omaha and Omaha and
at
Javelin, 114,
Beach, battle
for,
116 152, 162
Beach, landing on, 130
HMS Queen Mary,
45
Yopp, Herbert, 45 Yowell, Eleanor, 168,
Yowell, Pinky,
206
206
Slapton Sands, 83
Wilkes, Leo D., 24-25
Wilkes
family,
24-26
Zappacosta, Ettore, 106, 140-143
Zimmerman,
Charlie,
216
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
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DATE DUE
, BiiQhtcm Branch Library 40 Acactemy HSfl Road MA 02135-331*
i
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'.
8
I
'mi'.,
/I
Alex Kershaw writer.
He
is
and screen-
a journalist
is
the author of the widely acclaimed
biography Jack London and of the forthcoming
Blood and Champagne: The Life and Times of
He
Robert Capa.
lives in
Vermont.
Front jacket:
Robert
Capa photograph
of the
D-Dax
landing at
Omaha
Beach.
Bach, jacket:
A few
Bedford hoys enjoy their
last
day with their wives and girlfriends
before going off to war. Left to right: Edith Bornstein
and John
Clifton:
Vivian and Sherman Watson: George and Beunice Crouch, John and Bettie Wilkes, Earl
and
Viola Parker, kneeling. Elaine CofJe^
Hoback. Four of the men
Hoback
— were
killed
in this
photograph
—
and Bedford
Clifton. Wilkes. Parker
and
on D-I)cn
Da Capo Press A Member
of the
Perseus Books Group
www.dacapopress.com Jacket photograph
©
Robert
Capa/Magnum Photos
Back jacket photograph courtesy Bedford County
of Bettie Wilkes
Museum
Author photograph
©
Jerry Bauer
Hooper and the
From The Bedford
Boys:
Elizabeth Teass switched on the teletype machine for receiving telegrams....
Soon words emerged on
a strip of paper chattering out
of the printer. Teass's heart sank as she read the
The Secretary of War desires me to express
first line
his
of copy:
deep regret.
Teass had seen these words before.... She waited for the message to end, expecting the machine to line of
fall silent.
copy clicked out of the
terrible
had happened
to
Company A.
and wondered how many more
it
it
"I
it
did not. Line after
Within a few minutes, as
printer.
Teass watched in a "trance-like state,"
But
was clear that something
just sat
was going
and watched them
to be."