The Bedford Boys: One American Town's Ultimate D-day Sacrifice (24 page)

“The Limey.” Sub-lieutenant Jimmy Green, British naval officer in command of the flotilla of landing craft that took Company A to Omaha Beach.
Jimmy Green and
Kevan Elsby.

Russell L. Pickett, flamethrower in Boat Team Number Five, from Soddy Daisy, Tennessee.
Russell
Pickett.

Wounded GIs from the first waves on Omaha Beach.
National Archives.

“Dear Mom and Dad.” A “V-gram” from wounded Clyde Powers to his parents in Bedford explaining where his brother Jack was buried in France.
Eloise Rogers.

The enemy. German soldier killed by Bob Sales in Normandy on June 30, 1944—the day Roy Stevens was almost killed by a German “bouncing Betty” mine.
Bob Sales.

Below: The ruins of the French city of St. Lô. The prime objective of surviving Bedford boys after D-Day was finally liberated in late July, 1944, after huge losses by both Germans and Americans.
National Archives.

“With Profound Regret.” Letter from the War Department to Mrs. Alice Powers confirming that her son Jack Powers was killed on D-Day.
Eloise Rogers.

“I can’t remember whose name came first.” Twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth Teass, who worked in Bedford’s Western Union telegram office when news of the town’s tragic loss came over the wires.
Elizabeth Teass.

“They gave me the will to go on.” Letter from first grade pupil Booker Goggin to his teacher Ivylyn Schenk, sent in July 1944, a few days after Booker learned that his teacher’s husband John was dead. The letter reads: “Dear Mrs. Schenk, I am sorry to hear about your husband. I wish I could come to see you. Come to see me. I hope you will be my teacher next fall. With love, Booker.”
Ivylyn Hardy.

“Some found happiness.” Roy Stevens with his wife Helen in front of their new home in Bedford just after their marriage on Groundhog Day, 1946.
Roy
and Helen Stevens, and Virginia Historical Association
.