“A powerful reminder of the human cost of war.”

“A poignant story that humanises the D-Day sacrifice.”

“This accessible and moving group biography portrays the men of Company
A, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, who were part of the
first wave at Omaha Beach in WWII. Initially, 103 of them left the
small town of Bedford, Va.—now the site of the national D-Day
memorial—when the local National Guard was called up in 1940; thirty-four were
still with the company on D-Day. Of these, nineteen died in a matter of
minutes and three more perished in the Normandy campaign…the book’s central focus is on the town where a
good many survivors remain whose memories have not faded and whose
emotional wounds have not healed.”

“Kershaw’s book is more than just another war
story; here is an in-depth account of this blue-collar town and its
3,000 people…Kershaw describes in painful detail how the next of kin were
notified of the soldiers’ deaths via Western Union telegrams and how
the news devastated their lives. Drawing on interviews with survivors
and relatives, newspaper clippings, letters, and diaries, Kershaw has
chronicled one community’s great sacrifice.”