Bedford Boys: How 19 Boys From One Village Died in the First Wave of D-Day

At 6:30 a.m. on June 6, 1944, 180 men of A Company landed on Omaha Beach, Normandy. They were greeted by the Germans with a furious barrage of machine gun fire and relentless grenades. Within minutes, the sand was soaked with blood. Among the fallen soldiers were 19 boys from Bedford, a small town of 3,000 in Virginia. To this day, this is the largest single-day loss to an American city in U.S. military history.

This is the story of the young men who lost their lives and the few comrades who miraculously survived the slaughter. It is also the story of Bedford, the rural community of their families and friends, of their hopes and dreams.

The Bedford Boys follows the lives of the boys who joined the National Guard to earn a few dollars, were unexpectedly drafted, underwent intensive training in England and met their end on the beaches of France. Their past is reconstructed using letters, diaries and interviews - including the military blunders that sealed their fate.

What remains is the incredible courage they displayed on D-Day to liberate Omaha Beach, and ultimately the rest of Europe. The fate of the Bedford boys is one of the most overwhelming - and unknown - stories of the Second World War.