Bedford, Virginia Remembers D-Day-- Part 2: 19 of 34 Bedford Boys Killed in Opening Minutes

Of the 34 soldiers from Bedford in Company A, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, 19 were killed.  Sadly, that included both of Lucille Hoback Boggess' brothers.  The carnage that befell Company A happened in a matter of minutes:  German machine gunners. opened fire on them as the soldiers clambered ashore.

For the little community to suffer so enormously was an anomaly created by the times.  Many of Bedford's young men had joined a Virginia National Guard unit before the war, as the Great Depression lingered.  The unit became a part of the U.S. Army in early 1941.  Through grim luck, the small unit the Bedford boys were part of landed in the teeth of the most destructive German fire.

--GreGen