Destination Bedford offers big, bold and unforgettable experiences. You’ll see stunning beauty in the Blue Ridge Mountains and hear stories of bravery that will take your breath away at the National D-Day Memorial.
Virginia’s Only World War II Heritage City
Bedford’s compelling WWII story attracts much attention. Local men served in all branches of the military and most major battles; while their families at home grew the crops and produced the goods needed to fight. On D-Day, Bedford played its most notable role when 20 men from 116th Regiment, 29th Division gave their lives on Omaha Beach, the highest-known per capita loss of any community in the U.S.
Among the hundreds of thousands massed off of the shores of Normandy on the morning of 6 June 1944, were dozens of soldiers, sailors, and airmen from the town and county of Bedford. Many of these young men belonged to Company A of the 116th Infantry Regiment; others to different army units. Some Bedford men also served in the Navy on D-Day, or in the skies above. For almost all of them, this would be their baptism of fire. Twenty local sons would fall that day, and others in subsequent fighting.
In recognition of Bedford’s disproportionate losses on D-Day, Congress warranted the establishment of the Nation’s D-Day Memorial here in this emblematic American hometown. Funded solely by a private foundation and donor support, the Memorial is open every day except certain holidays and Mondays in the winter.
Visit dday.org for tickets, or for more information.
Of the Bedford Boys killed on D-Day, eleven are buried in Normandy. The rest were returned for burial in the US following the war. At rest in Bedford’s Greenwood Cemetery and Oakwood Cemetery are:
Leslie Abbott
Wallace R. Carter
John D. Clifton
Frank P. Draper, Jr.
Taylor N. Fellers
John F. Reynolds
Ray O. Stevens
John L. Wilkes
(All Company A, 116th Regiment. Gordon H. White lies elsewhere in the county)
Other Bedford Boys who gave their lives serving in the Normandy Campaign include:
Clyde H. Anderson, KIA 2 August 1944 (US Army)
Houston G. Anthony, KIA 11 July 1944 (US Army)
Thomas E. Cofer, KIA 2 August 1944 (US Army)
Joseph S. Danner, KIA August 30, 1944 (US Army Air Force)
John W. Dean, KIA 17 June 1944 (US Army)
Charles W. Fizer, KIA 11 July 1944 (US Army)
Oscar L. Holland, KIA 9 June 1944 (US Navy)
Benjamin R. Hubbard, KIA 6 June 1944 (Co. F, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division)
Oscar C. Lindsay, KIA 7 June 1944 (US Navy)
William G. Mariels, KIA 5 August 1944 (US Army)
Brud E. Martin, KIA 12 June 1944 (US Army)
Joseph E. Parker, Jr., KIA 27 August 1944 (US Army)
George C. Wickham, KIA 11 June 1944 (US Army)
(also Andrew J. Coleman, Co. A, who died July 16, 1944 in a hospital in the US)
More than 100 other men from Bedford gave their lives in other theatres of World War II.
D-Day Plaque Locations in Downtown Bedford Virginia:
