THE BOYS OF BEDFORD
A Film Project
"Whatever happens, I want their story told." Lieutenant Elisha Ray Nance
Bedford Boy & D-Day Survivor
SYNOPSIS
The looming prospect of WW2 overtook a group of 34 young men in small-town America as they struggled to maintain a grip on their idyllic world while being thrust into a world at war.
23 of them would never return.
Company A - 116th Infantry Regiment - 29th Infantry Division
The quaint town of Bedford, Virginia sent 34 of her sons to join the mass of young men needed to fight the Axis powers. They rose to the challenge with the same grit and optimism they brought to the difficulties of life in Bedford, which for all its small-town charm, had suffered greatly during the Great Depression.
It is an odyssey about the rise and fall of the American boy. In this coming of age story, they had to balance their dreams as young men with their duties as a soldier. Some saw it as an adventure, while others yearned simply for survival.
The boys left behind parents, sweethearts, wives, children, and everything else they had ever known. The whole town felt their absence deeply, and lived and died with each newscast.
In time, they were chosen to help spearhead the invasion of Normandy. Of the 34 Bedford boys sent to Europe, 23 were buried there. Bedford suffered America’s highest per capita D-Day loss of life.
MISSION
