The Bedford Boys

The Bedford Boys PDF Author: Alex Kershaw
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0306817780
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
June 6, 1944: Nineteen boys from Bedford, Virginia -- population just 3,000 in 1944 -- died in the first bloody minutes of D-Day. They were part of Company A of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division, and the first wave of American soldiers to hit the beaches in Normandy. Later in the campaign, three more boys from this small Virginia town died of gunshot wounds. Twenty-two sons of Bedford lost--it is a story one cannot easily forget and one that the families of Bedford will never forget. The Bedford Boys is the true and intimate story of these men and the friends and families they left behind. Based on extensive interviews with survivors and relatives, as well as diaries and letters, Kershaw's book focuses on several remarkable individuals and families to tell one of the most poignant stories of World War II--the story of one small American town that went to war and died on Omaha Beach.

The Bedford Boys

The Bedford Boys PDF Author: Alex Kershaw
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0306817780
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
June 6, 1944: Nineteen boys from Bedford, Virginia -- population just 3,000 in 1944 -- died in the first bloody minutes of D-Day. They were part of Company A of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division, and the first wave of American soldiers to hit the beaches in Normandy. Later in the campaign, three more boys from this small Virginia town died of gunshot wounds. Twenty-two sons of Bedford lost--it is a story one cannot easily forget and one that the families of Bedford will never forget. The Bedford Boys is the true and intimate story of these men and the friends and families they left behind. Based on extensive interviews with survivors and relatives, as well as diaries and letters, Kershaw's book focuses on several remarkable individuals and families to tell one of the most poignant stories of World War II--the story of one small American town that went to war and died on Omaha Beach.

The Bedford Boys

The Bedford Boys PDF Author: Alex Kershaw
Publisher: Da Capo Press, Incorporated
ISBN: 9780306811678
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
The poignant story of twenty-one boys who died on the beaches of Normandy and the small town they called home

The Bedford Boys

The Bedford Boys PDF Author: Alex Kershaw
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0306817780
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
June 6, 1944: Nineteen boys from Bedford, Virginia -- population just 3,000 in 1944 -- died in the first bloody minutes of D-Day. They were part of Company A of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division, and the first wave of American soldiers to hit the beaches in Normandy. Later in the campaign, three more boys from this small Virginia town died of gunshot wounds. Twenty-two sons of Bedford lost--it is a story one cannot easily forget and one that the families of Bedford will never forget. The Bedford Boys is the true and intimate story of these men and the friends and families they left behind. Based on extensive interviews with survivors and relatives, as well as diaries and letters, Kershaw's book focuses on several remarkable individuals and families to tell one of the most poignant stories of World War II--the story of one small American town that went to war and died on Omaha Beach.

The First Wave

The First Wave PDF Author: Alex Kershaw
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0451490061
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Alex Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of Against All Odds, returns with an utterly immersive, adrenaline-driven account of D-Day combat. “Meet the assaulters: pathfinders plunging from the black, coxswains plowing the whitecaps, bareknuckle Rangers scaling sheer rock . . . Fast-paced and up close, this is history’s greatest story reinvigorated as only Alex Kershaw can.”—Adam Makos, New York Times bestselling author of Spearhead and A Higher Call Beginning in the predawn darkness of June 6, 1944, The First Wave follows the remarkable men who carried out D-Day’s most perilous missions. The charismatic, unforgettable cast includes the first American paratrooper to touch down on Normandy soil; the glider pilot who braved antiaircraft fire to crash-land mere yards from the vital Pegasus Bridge; the brothers who led their troops onto Juno Beach under withering fire; as well as a French commando, returning to his native land, who fought to destroy German strongholds on Sword Beach and beyond. Readers will experience the sheer grit of the Rangers who scaled Pointe du Hoc and the astonishing courage of the airborne soldiers who captured the Merville Gun Battery in the face of devastating enemy counterattacks. The first to fight when the stakes were highest and the odds longest, these men would determine the fate of the invasion of Hitler’s fortress Europe—and the very history of the twentieth century. The result is an epic of close combat and extraordinary heroism. It is the capstone Alex Kershaw’s remarkable career, built on his close friendships with D-Day survivors and his intimate understanding of the Normandy battlefield. For the seventy-fifth anniversary, here is a fresh take on World War II's longest day. Praise for The First Wave: “Masterful... readers will feel the sting of the cold surf, smell the acrid cordite that hung in the air, and duck the zing of machine-gun bullets whizzing overhead. The First Wave is an absolute triumph.”—James M. Scott, bestselling author of Target Tokyo “These pages ooze with the unforgettable human drama of history's most consequential invasion.”—John C. McManus, author of The Dead and Those About to Die

The Longest Winter

The Longest Winter PDF Author: Alex Kershaw
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141901764
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
A cold winter morning in the Ardennes Forest, 1944, and Hitler launches his last and most audacious attack on the unprepared Allies. Standing between the German forces and the desperately regrouping Allies were just eighteen young Americans, hidden in fox holes. In a fierce day-long battle, this small band of soldiers repulsed the German attack three times, inflicting severe casualties and defending a strategically vital hill despite being vastly outnumbered. They surrendered only when they ran out of ammunition. But then the real battle for survival began ... Alex Kershaw's brilliant account draws on the words of the decorated men who fought this heroic action, bringing vividly to life their struggle on the battlefield and later off it - as POWs.

The Liberator

The Liberator PDF Author: Alex Kershaw
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307888002
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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Book Description
The untold story of the bloodiest and most dramatic march to victory of the Second World War—now a Netflix original series starring Jose Miguel Vasquez, Bryan Hibbard, and Bradley James “Exceptional . . . worthy addition to vibrant classics of small-unit history like Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers.”—Wall Street Journal Written with Alex Kershaw's trademark narrative drive and vivid immediacy, The Liberator traces the remarkable battlefield journey of maverick U.S. Army officer Felix Sparks through the Allied liberation of Europe—from the first landing in Italy to the final death throes of the Third Reich. Over five hundred bloody days, Sparks and his infantry unit battled from the beaches of Sicily through the mountains of Italy and France, ultimately enduring bitter and desperate winter combat against the die-hard SS on the Fatherland's borders. Having miraculously survived the long, bloody march across Europe, Sparks was selected to lead a final charge to Bavaria, where he and his men experienced some of the most intense street fighting suffered by Americans in World War II. And when he finally arrived at the gates of Dachau, Sparks confronted scenes that robbed the mind of reason—and put his humanity to the ultimate test.

Flip

Flip PDF Author: Martyn Bedford
Publisher: Penguin Group
ISBN: 0385670095
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
What does it mean to have a soul whose will to live knows no limits? This gripping psychological thriller establishes Martyn Bedford as a hot new literary talent for young adults. Friday, December 14th. Fourteen-year-old Alex rushes home that night to beat his curfew. The next morning, he wakes up in an unfamiliar house, in a different part of the country, and it's the middle of June. Six months seem to have disappeared overnight. The family at the breakfast table? Total strangers. And when Alex looks in the mirror, another boy — called Philip, or Flip — stares back. The race against the clock is on, and unless Alex finds out what's happened and how to get back to his own life, he'll be forever trapped in someone else's body and life.

The Bedford Boys

The Bedford Boys PDF Author: Alex Kershaw
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780743477918
Category : Bedford (Va.)
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
'The tide had crept up behind Nance, drowning Company A men who no longer had the strength to crawl. 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 blood-stained pebbles below Vierville sur Mer, drifting in and out of consciousness, he still felt responsible for them, every last one. "I was their officer. It was my duty . . . They were the finest soldiers I ever saw. I loved those men."' The memorable opening scene of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, which portrayed the appalling scenario on Omaha Beach, where allied bombs had failed to knock out German gun emplacements or do any damage whatsoever to beach defences was loosely based on Bedford's story. The first wave of seasick young GIs were being tipped out into the tide to be picked off by waiting machine gun fire and shelling, acting more as target practice than a tangible threat. Bodies and dissected limbs of the fallen lined the watermark like flotsam. Incredible bravery and luck did in some instances prevail, and with the help of a more successful bombing campaign later in the day, Omaha was finally taken. Company A was in that first wave of landings - known, jokingly as 'the suicide wave' by soldiers before the attack. Many of Bedford's young recruits to the US Army found themselves training and fighting together in Company A of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division - a company which was all but obliterated by the end of the Longest Day. From small town lives - wives, fiancees and childhoods - to training in the UK and those fateful D-Day landings and on to the aftermath, Alex Kershaw creates a vivid and haunting portrait of one town's loss.

The Bedford Boys

The Bedford Boys PDF Author: Alex Kershaw
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Operation Neptune
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description


Summary of Alex Kershaw's The Bedford Boys

Summary of Alex Kershaw's The Bedford Boys PDF Author: Everest Media,
Publisher: Everest Media LLC
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 43

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Book Description
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The Bedfords were a family of seven boys who all joined the local National Guard unit together in 1938. They were all very young, and the brothers enjoyed the attention their uniforms brought them. #2 The Stevens brothers, Roy and Ray, were extremely competitive. They learned to box as children and by the mid-thirties were regularly fighting each other to earn a few cents. They bought a farm in 1938, and they knew they would have to wait until the economy rebounded before they could make a living working it. #3 The Stevens brothers joined the Bedford boys for their annual exercises in August 1939, sharing a tent with a hundred other young men from Bedford. They camped beside a hundred other young men from Bedford in Company A, which belonged to the 1st Battalion of the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Division. #4 In September 1939, World War II had begun when Germany invaded Poland. In May 1940, the British had barely evaded capture at Dunkirk, and stood alone. Only 23 miles of the English Channel kept the Nazis from gaining complete hegemony over Europe.