"I was alone in France"

Vierville-sur-Mer on Omaha Beach has been built up considerably since the end of World War II. It is now a center for tourist exploration of the sites of the D-Day landings. (Don Dale photo, 2004)

Just east of Utah Beach was Omaha Beach. The Allied troops who landed there on D-Day faced a far more brutal German defense, and none of America's town, villages or cities paid a price so high as Bedford, Virginia.

The Bedford Boys, as they were later known, were part of the Army's 29th Infantry Division. There were 30 Bedford Boys in an assault force that numbered some 34,000 men.

The Bedford Boys were with the first infantrymen who approached Omaha Beach in the early hours of June 6, 1944. With German forces raining shells from the heights above, the beach quickly became a bloody abattoir.

German fire hit one landing craft as it approached the beach, sinking it with four of the Bedford Boys on board. They were quickly fished out of the water and rejoined the assault. Nineteen of the 30 died approaching the beach or immediately after they hit the sand, among them their company commander. In all, 22 of the 30 died on D-Day. Bedford lost more men per capita on that day than any other town in America. It was that fact that led Congress to support the creation of what is now the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford.

Years after the end of the war, one of the Bedford Boys described what happened when he landed on French soil. Elisha Ray Nance, the son of a tobacco farmer, told a Roanoke TV station: "I waded out of the water up on the beach. I could not see anybody in front of me. I looked behind, and there's nobody following me. I was alone in France."

Nance was the last survivor of the Bedford Boys. He died in 2009 at the age of 94.