BEDFORD, Va. — Liz Beverly often heard stories about how her grandfather would stand on the town’s courthouse steps every day hoping to run into a veteran of World War II to ask him if he could explain how her uncle Taylor Fellers died.

Capt. Fellers was killed June 6, 1944, four days shy of his 30th birthday.

Beverly said her family has never found out exactly how he died. What they learned from World War II veteran Jimmy Green is Fellers was on the landing craft that Green was operating on D-Day. Green told them that he remembers Fellers being the first person to step foot on Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy, France.

“We assumed he was shot immediately,” she said.

When the United States entered World War II, the population of Bedford was about 3,200 — a small farming community in Virginia with the Blue Ridge Mountains to the north. It is sandwiched between Lynchburg to the east and Roanoke to the west.

The town was home to a National Guard unit — Company A of the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Division.

The Virginia National Guard had been deputized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt into the regular Army on Feb. 3, 1941 — 10 months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which pulled the U.S. into World War II.

Basic training followed for the company before sailing out of New York harbor in September 1942 for 20 months of training for the Europe campaign.

Thirty-eight men from the community were members of Company A. The unit took part in the landing at Omaha Beach on June 6 at about 6:30 a.m., and 19 of them died that day. Another soldier from Bedford in Company F — Pfc. Benjamin Hubbard — also died on D-Day. A 20th member of Company A died later during the Normandy campaign.

The 20 soldiers from the town and county of Bedford suffered the nation’s highest known per capita D-Day loss, according to the National D-Day Memorial. Known as the “Bedford Boys,” the community still feels the loss 80 years later.

Sheila Fizer Maxfield Sweet doesn’t remember much about her brother Charles Fizer before he left to fight in World War II. She said the only thing she can recall from photos is her brother holding her in her father’s car when she was only about 2½ years old.

Sweet was one of seven children in her family, and her brother was the second oldest. In those years, Bedford was still struggling through the Great Depression. It was a large family in a poor community, so her brother was compelled to join the National Guard in about 1940, Sweet said. From the stories that she was told, men who joined the Guard received $1.

“I think those boys did it to get a little money because times were hard, and I think maybe they wanted something to do. They probably hadn’t picked up a gun or rifle until they joined the Guard,” Sweet said. “When they were called into the Army, they probably didn’t know what they would be facing.”

Pfc. Fizer, 22, was killed in action on July 11, 1944, near Saint-Lô, France.

Through the years, Bedford residents have changed on how they talk about the soldiers and D-Day.

For the families, it was easier not to talk about it. David Stevens’ twin uncles, Ray and Roy Stevens, were technical sergeants who served in Company A. Ray died at 24 in the war, but Roy made it home and lived to be 87. Roy would talk about his war experiences through the years but initially his main thought was, “Why did I make it home?” David Stevens recounted.

Sweet said her mother didn’t talk about her brother dying. Sweet learned more information later based on tidbits her mother told Sweet’s son.

John Boggess lost his uncles Staff Sgt. Raymond and Pvt. Bedford Hoback on D-Day. He said one of the biggest things that parents wanted to know was whether their sons had suffered. From the medical records, Boggess’ family now knows Bedford was shot in the face. Based on another soldier’s account, what they believe happened to Raymond was a mortar fell at his feet and killed him instantly.

“Had my grandparents known that then, it would have brought them some comfort that it was immediate,” Boggess said.

Since 2001, Bedford has been the home to the National D-Day Memorial to honor more than 2,500 Americans and 1,900 Allied forces who were killed on the beaches of Normandy during the invasion of Nazi-occupied France. There are statues honoring Allied commanders and statues depicting what American forces did that day.

“The Homage” statue has an area to itself in Bedford. It was unveiled for the 70th anniversary in 2014 honoring the 20 Bedford Boys who died on D-Day. The statue also honors other soldiers from Bedford who were wounded, killed in action later and those who served in the Normandy campaign.

A section of the memorial depicts various actions of service members storming the beach or scaling a cliff. At the memorial, “Death on Shore,” shows a fallen soldier on the beach with a Bible beside him. This is intended to depict the story of Raymond Hoback.

Raymond Hoback was 24 years old when he was killed, and his brother Bedford was 30. Boggess said Bedford always got into tussles, including in the Army. He originally joined in the 1930s and reenlisted when Raymond joined the National Guard.

“[Bedford’s] rank changed a few times over his time with the Army. He was not a rule follower,” Boggess said. “[Raymond] was quiet and studious as far as I could tell.”

Bedford Hoback is buried in Normandy, but Raymond’s body was never recovered. Several weeks after the brothers were killed, the parents received a package in the mail that contained Raymond’s Bible found on Omaha beach. Raymond’s sister, Lucille Hoback Boggess, donated the Bible to the memorial last November.

Boggess said his mother was originally going to give Raymond’s Bible to the D-Day Memorial after she died. She had done so many interviews through the years where she would pull it out, it was like “she had this muscle memory.”

“My sister and I convinced her to do it while she was still alive. She was happy she did that and able to participate,” Boggess said.

A lot of awareness about the town’s sacrifice for the war has come from the memorial and Alex Kershaw’s book “The Bedford Boys,” which was published in 2001. But family members say the Bedford Boys Tribute Center is a place that has allowed for more to be learned and shared.

Five years ago, Ken and Linda Parker opened the tribute center in an old drugstore to specifically honor the soldiers of Company A. The store is where the first telegrams came on July 17, 1944, informing the town of casualties from D-Day.

The Parkers were living in Oklahoma City when they made a trip to Bedford. Both grew up in America post-World War II. Ken grew up in Camden, N.J. He recalls when he was 8 years old, his youth football coach was a paratrooper on D-Day. Linda said her father served in the Navy from 1942-1945 and was at the Battle of Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal.

The couple was planning to visit Normandy for the 75th anniversary of the invasion. In 2018, they read Kershaw’s book and learned about Bedford. They didn’t know anyone in town but sent letters to churches to reach out to surviving family members in Bedford to ask whether they wanted any artifacts to be placed at the D-Day site in France.

For three months, the Parkers’ phone was ringing off the hook from nieces and nephews of the Bedford Boys.

“That drove us to physically come here. The town was so emotionally affected,” Ken Parker said. “The only way everybody just went from day to day going forward, they suppressed the emotions. They stuck it in the back of their mind because it was too painful to even bring it up.”

They traveled to Bedford on what was supposed to be an extended research trip for a book of profiles that they plan to write about the Bedford Boys. They stayed several weeks, and when the building that had once housed the drugstore went on the market, they rented it out. The Parkers are in the process of buying it.

The Parkers moved to Bedford in January 2019, and the tribute center opened just in time for the 75th anniversary of D-Day. The center recently released a short documentary, “We Have Casualties,” which can be seen on the American Battle Monuments Foundation website. The book is still in the works, they said.

“We feel our station in life is actually being educators to tell the story of the Bedford Boys for all future generations,” Ken Parker said.

On display in the center are various items that the National D-Day Memorial and families have donated since it opened. A letter that Fizer wrote to his mother dated July 10, 1944, and one from his mother dated July 11, 1944, are there.

Staff Sgt. Elmere Wright’s contract to play baseball for the 1939-1940 season with the St. Louis Browns, now the Baltimore Orioles, is there. A photo of Wright in his playing days seated with future Hall of Famers Dizzy Dean and Rogers Hornsby is in front of his contract.

Fellers’ first grade report card with straight A’s is there, which his niece said kids enjoy seeing.

When you visit Bedford today, with a population of slightly more than 6,500, it is difficult to miss the acknowledgment to the Bedford Boys. Driving down East Main Street, flags lining the downtown thoroughfare show the faces of the soldiers who were killed in action on D-Day with the colors of the American flag and black flags with the Arch from the D-Day Memorial that reads, “Bedford Remembers.”

Marc Bergin, the superintendent of Bedford County Public Schools, has been on the job for three years, and he leaves at the end of this school year. When he was first learning about the town, he noticed the tribute center. He scheduled an appointment to go in and meet with the Parkers. After that, he required all 6th-grade classes to visit the tribute center and national memorial.

“I asked them if they see school groups regularly in the tribute center. And I asked the same thing at the memorial and they both said yes,” Bergin said. “But when I started asking more questions, it seemed to be more happenstance than purposeful. I wanted to make sure that every kid that graduates from Bedford County goes to the memorial and tribute center at least once in their 13 years while they are with us.”

The superintendent goes on one of the trips with the 6th graders because he can’t get enough of history, and he enjoys seeing the students making the connection.

“It’s personal. There’s a lot of staff and families and kids right here who are blood relatives of those people,” Bergin said. “Sometimes when kids are learning history it happened in the past … they might not make the connection because it’s an academic exercise. The Bedford Boys were citizens right here where these kids live — same farms, same view of the mountains, same schools.”

The town of Bedford acknowledges its history in various ways. Beverly said she doesn’t turn down interviews because her mother was always telling people about Fellers’ story. She does that to honor her.

“I think it has made it easier for our generation but I’m just sorry our parents and grandparents didn’t have the opportunity to talk more about it. I think it would have been healthy for them to have been able to talk,” Beverly said. “They talked amongst themselves but I don’t think they talked publicly about how it impacted them.”

Other family members had similar messages about what they hope people learn from the Bedford Boys — freedom isn’t free, they left their homes to keep us all safe and their sacrifice wasn’t for nothing.

“There were so many people who barely made it off a [landing craft]. They may have drowned the minute they got off,” Boggess said. “And you think, ‘This poor guy who didn’t even make it off the boat hardly or those who were mowed down the second they stepped on the beach, what was this all about?’ Collectively, it was the beginning of breaking down that Atlantic wall. Every life that was lost was a part of that.”

***

‘Bedford Boys’

Thirty-eight men from the small town of Bedford, Va., including multiple sets of brothers, participated in the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Of those, 20 were killed in action.

Killed in action:

Capt. Taylor N. Fellers

Master Sgt. John L. Wilkes

Tech Sgt. Frank P. Draper Jr.

Tech Sgt. Ray O. Stevens

Staff Sgt. Leslie C. “Dickie” Abbott Jr.

Staff Sgt. Raymond S. Hoback

Staff Sgt. Earl Lloyd Parker

Staff Sgt. John B. Schenk

Staff Sgt. Elmere P. Wright

Sgt. Gordon “Henry” White Jr.

Sgt. Grant C. Yopp

Pfc. Wallace R. Carter

Pfc. John D. “JD” Clifton

Pfc. Nickolas N. Gillaspie

Pfc. Charles W. Fizer

Pfc. Weldon A. Rosazza

Pfc. Jack G. Powers

Pfc. John F. “Jack” Reynolds

Pvt. Bedford T. Hoback

Pvt. Clifton G. Lee

Survivors:

1st Lt. Elisha “Ray” Nance

Tech Sgt. Henry “Clyde” Powers

Tech Sgt. Roy O. Stevens

Staff Sgt. Robert D. Edwards Jr.

Staff Sgt. Robert L. Goode

Staff Sgt. Allen M. Huddleston

Staff Sgt. Robert El. “Tony” Marisco

Staff Sgt. Jack W. Mitchell

Staff Sgt. Earl R. Newcomb

Staff Sgt. Anthony M. Thurman

Sgt. Harold E. Wilkes

Pvt. Carl Danner 

Pfc. James L. Lancaster

Pfc. Glenwood E. “Dickie” Overstreet

Pfc. James W. Watson

Technician Fourth Grade Cedric C. Broughman

Technician Fourth Grade George E. Crouch

Technician Fourth Grade James H. Crouch

previous coverage

• D-Day at 80: Enthusiastic welcome for US veterans as they arrive in France for D-Day remembrance
• WWII veterans heading for 80th D-Day anniversary get rousing sendoff at Dallas-Fort Worth
• D-Day at 80: WWII veterans prepare for what might be their final pilgrimage to Normandy
• Lost WWII soldier’s Bible, found after D-Day, given to Va. memorial
• 'Bedford was hit hard,' but military legacy remains strong in town torn apart by D-Day
• Bedford remembers: Virginia town still mourns 20 men lost during invasion

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