The Bedford Boys & D-Day: WWII History & National D-Day Memorial Guide

<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:01:42</time>
Welcome to Talk with History.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:01:43</time>
I am your host Scott, and my wife and historian Jen and I are taking a couple weeks off as we gear up for some fantastic new content coming in the fall.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:01:52</time>
I thought I would revisit some of our most popular podcast episodes during our break, and the first one that comes to mind is our episode about the National D Day Memorial and the story of the Bedford boys during World War II.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:02:05</time>
I re listened to this episode and it was even better the second time.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:02:09</time>
The first time listening to it, you just end up in awe of this amazing memorial in rural Virginia.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:02:15</time>
And the second time, you can feel the emotion and the drama of what Bedford, Virginia sacrificed when it sent its young men to the beaches of Normandy.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:02:26</time>
The day I left for Bernie Army Today we journey back to the momentous chapter of history that is World War II.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:02:43</time>
The year is 1944 and the world is ensnared in the throes of War.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:02:49</time>
The U.S. military Industrial Complex is operating at never before seen levels.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:02:54</time>
And the size of our army and Navy is at historic highs.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:02:59</time>
The Normandy beaches are about to witness one of the most significant military operations in history.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:03:05</time>
And from the small town of Bedford, Virginia, a group of young soldiers is thrust into the epicenter of a colossal event that the world will finally learn the name of D Day.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:03:17</time>
Join us as we delve into the inspiring story of how the bravery and sacrifice of the Bedford boys ignited a community's determination to memorialize not just their sacrifice, but that of all who stormed the beaches on that fateful day.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:03:32</time>
So just.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:03:33</time>
Jen, this is.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:03:35</time>
We, we went to Bedford, Virginia, Virginia.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:03:39</time>
And for.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:03:40</time>
Just kind of give people some context, you know, if you kind of know where the Norfolk, D.C. area is from Norfolk, if you kind of go about four hours due west.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:03:51</time>
Yes, that is where Bedford, Virginia is.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:03:54</time>
There's not much there.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:03:55</time>
No, it's a rural community.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:03:57</time>
It's a very rural community.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:03:58</time>
Like three hours due west is Appomattox.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:01</time>
Keep going for another hour.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:03</time>
Eventually you'll hit Bedford.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:04</time>
Yes, very rural community.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:06</time>
And the reason that we went there was actually the two star admiral that I work for brought it up because he's from Bedford, Virginia.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:14</time>
He's, hey, I'm going out there to do this like memorial thing at a, at a D Day at the National D Day Memorial.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:23</time>
And that kind of stuck in my brain because I was like, oh, that's great.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:25</time>
That's kind of in our radius.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:04:27</time>
Sure.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:27</time>
That we can make it out to.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:28</time>
So I can't remember coming home and telling you.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:30</time>
He's like, hey, we need to check this out.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:32</time>
So we had gone and done some kind of Western Virginia, Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:40</time>
History, history.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:42</time>
And on the way back, we swung through Bedford, Virginia.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:45</time>
So what is significant about Bedford, Virginia?
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:49</time>
And why is the National D Day Memorial there?
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:04:53</time>
And it's not just a D Day Memorial, it's the National D Day Memorial.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:04:58</time>
So let's caveat that, that you and I did not expect what we found.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:05:02</time>
Not at all.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:03</time>
We thought your admiral had mentioned it to you.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:06</time>
So we thought, oh, we'll hit that up.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:07</time>
That'll be a good little history thing to talk about.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:10</time>
Maybe we'll do a reel for Instagram.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:13</time>
We thought it might be just a little plaque or monument in the middle of town, the town square or something like that.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:19</time>
And we were blown away by what we found.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:22</time>
And we made an entire video for Veterans day.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:25</time>
It's on YouTube right now, if you would like to see it.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:28</time>
Bedford, Virginia today.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:31</time>
6,500 people.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:33</time>
1944, 3,200.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:37</time>
It's a small rural community, but the men that stormed the beaches of Normandy that day, There were over 150,000 Allied troops on a 50 mile stretch of beach.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:05:56</time>
44 of them were from Bedford, Virginia and 20 would die.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:06:03</time>
So per capita, it was the largest loss of life in any United States of America city.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:06:11</time>
And that is why the national monument for D Day is in this small rural town.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:06:17</time>
And it is an impressive fluid motion monument.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:06:25</time>
And it takes up the space of probably the size of the World War II memorial on the Mall, if not bigger.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:35</time>
It's probably bigger.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:36</time>
I mean, eventually I kind of.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:38</time>
Once we, you drive up to it and you don't expect it to be so big.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:42</time>
We drove up to it, we're like, oh my gosh, this is bigger than we thought.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:44</time>
Then we got there, we're like, we started walking around.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:06:46</time>
Holy cow.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:06:48</time>
It's sunken down so you can't really see it until you walk upon it.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:06:53</time>
And then you look down and it's a recreation of what that must have looked like that day from the Higgins boats.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:02</time>
And those are the boats that have the drop down drawbridge that come off of the assault ships to getting onto the beach.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:11</time>
They have statues of men getting onto the beach, to falling on the beach and maybe, you know, getting injured or even killed on the beach.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:20</time>
And then to overcoming an obstacle, climbing up it together.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:26</time>
And it's just one fluid motion.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:28</time>
And they have the hedgehogs kind of in this water feature.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:31</time>
And those hedgehogs are like those middle, those metal kind of like they look spike balls yeah.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:38</time>
Like a spike ball that they lined along the beaches to get.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:40</time>
Keep them from ships.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:42</time>
Coming up.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:07:42</time>
Picture Saving Private Ryan.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:44</time>
Yes.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:07:44</time>
Right.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:07:44</time>
And everybody's seen that.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:45</time>
So they have recreations of those as you drive up.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:47</time>
There's actually a hedgehog.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:49</time>
And I told you, hey, let's stop and film that.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:07:51</time>
That's neat to have it, not knowing that there was going to be two recreated in this water feature to kind of show you what that must have looked like.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:08:00</time>
And again, it.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:08:01</time>
It's not 50 miles of beach, so it's not like going to Normandy, but.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:08:06</time>
But it's a recreation of a sculpture honoring what those men did.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:08:11</time>
And there's another feature in the water that kind of shoots off sprays of water.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:16</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:17</time>
Throughout the kind of water area.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:18</time>
It looks like bullets.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:08:20</time>
Looks like bullets hitting the water.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:22</time>
It's.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:22</time>
It's really neat how they kind of recreate the feel.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:08:25</time>
Yes.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:08:26</time>
Of that scene.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:08:27</time>
Yes.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:08:27</time>
And so you get.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:08:28</time>
Like I said, it's like a fluid monument.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:08:31</time>
It's.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:08:32</time>
It's really powerful and impressive.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:08:34</time>
The sculptures of the men are very detailed.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:08:38</time>
So you see their faces, and there's some of the men who are, like, outstretched, holding on, reaching for somebody else, kind of yelling, showing you that, like, these men were basically pushed to their limits that day.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:08:53</time>
And some of them gave all that day out of 150,000, over 10,000 will die that day.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:00</time>
And so they show kind of the five beaches that kind of have it spread around in a circle of the five beaches.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:08</time>
And they're labeled Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:12</time>
And then around those five beaches, kind of in a circle that encompasses the monument or all these flags to the Allied nations because of those 10,000 men that died that day.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:21</time>
They came from all different nations, allied nations.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:25</time>
And there's about 4,000, 4,400Americans who died that day.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:30</time>
10,000 total Allied troops.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:33</time>
So we talk about the flags of all those nations.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:36</time>
There was like, 50, even more.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:39</time>
Yeah, there was a lot.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:40</time>
So many.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:40</time>
You forget all these countries that came together with.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:09:44</time>
I mean, you think of the United States, you think of Britain, you think of Russia eventually, but it really was all these other allied nations that sent troops and helped support.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:55</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:09:56</time>
And it had been, I think, January earlier that same year in 1944, when the UN had basically said, hey, we are the Allied nations.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:05</time>
And they had kind of made this proclamation and signed some sort of official document.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:08</time>
You know, again, not a historian.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:10</time>
So it.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:11</time>
When they sit, we say the now Allied nations.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:13</time>
I believe there was 26 nations.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:16</time>
Now, I don't know if there was 26 at D Day, but there were 26 allied nations at that point in time.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:21</time>
That's amazing.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:22</time>
Well, like I said, it looked like a lot of flags.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:29</time>
The area is 50 acres, believe it.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:31</time>
Or not, of the monument.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:32</time>
Of the monument.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:33</time>
It's.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:33</time>
It.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:34</time>
The.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:35</time>
The cool part is, is it really does kind of.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:39</time>
It gradually gets just feeling bigger and bigger and bigger.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:43</time>
Right.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:43</time>
If you kind of walk from the beginning.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:46</time>
Right.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:10:46</time>
There's a flagpole with the.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:47</time>
So the flagpole with a statue.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:49</time>
And that's.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:50</time>
The statue is of the wing lady of Victory.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:54</time>
If you go to the Louvre, she has the wings, Nike.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:57</time>
And she has her face blown off.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:10:59</time>
And she's wearing a helmet, and her face is blown off.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:11:03</time>
It's from France, and it's a gift from the French.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:11:06</time>
And the significance of that statue, that kind of starts the whole thing.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:11:09</time>
First of all, they're storming the beaches of France.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:11:11</time>
But that statue was from World War I in one of those towns there in.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:11:18</time>
Along the beaches.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:19</time>
Oh, really?
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:11:20</time>
And that is how it got blown apart during World War II.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:24</time>
Oh, I didn't know that.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:11:25</time>
So that city casted it again with all of the trauma damage and sent it to Bedford, Virginia.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:34</time>
That's really neat.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:35</time>
And I don't think they really point that out as much as maybe they could have.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:11:38</time>
I know.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:39</time>
Even at the statue, because one of the things I like that you pointed out was it kind of flipped.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:44</time>
Felt like it was a representation of victory.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:46</time>
But the sacrifice through victory.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:11:48</time>
Yes, because her face is blown away.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:50</time>
Because her face is blown away.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:52</time>
But she's still standing there with a sword.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:11:53</time>
And this strong pose of this person looks victorious, but at the same time, there is such sacrifice.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:12:01</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:12:02</time>
Tremendous loss.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:12:02</time>
So that's the first thing you see that you see.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:12:07</time>
If you're kind of walking from the front over towards the Overlord Arch.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:12:11</time>
And then.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:12:12</time>
And then as you walk past this arch, this stone arch that says Overlord on top of it, then you come, then you.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:12:18</time>
Then you see kind of what is.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:12:20</time>
I'll call it, like below a little cliff.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:12:22</time>
Right.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:12:22</time>
Because the men, the statues that they made climbing an obstacle.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:12:29</time>
It looks like they're climbing a waterfall.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:12:30</time>
It's about, what, 20ft?
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:12:32</time>
Yes, yes.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:12:33</time>
About 20ft tall.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:12:34</time>
So you walk through.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:12:35</time>
You could walk through this arch, and then all of a sudden, you see the rest of the memorial down below you, which is the beach scene with the circle of flags.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:12:44</time>
And then even beyond that, there's more that we'll talk about in a little bit.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:12:47</time>
Yes.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:12:48</time>
So you have to remember when These men stormed the beaches of Normandy.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:12:52</time>
They had to get to the nests where the Nazis were to disengage their machine guns.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:12:59</time>
So they have to climb these obstacles to even get there.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:02</time>
So basically it's not just hitting the beach, getting across the beach where there is no, there's nothing to hide behind on the beach.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:10</time>
So you're basically barren, vulnerable along this beach until you get to where these Nazi nests were.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:13:16</time>
Yeah, the machine gun nests.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:17</time>
And basically you can get close to them and then you have to climb them to, to get, you know, to overtake them.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:24</time>
Before you get to that area, though, there is a sculpture of a man grabbing a man and pulling him along.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:13:31</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:13:32</time>
Picking him up like this.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:13:33</time>
This man has fallen and his friend is picking him up and.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:36</time>
Yes, and it doesn't look like that man has died.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:39</time>
It looks like he's been injured and the other man is grabbing him and pulling him along.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:43</time>
And I, I, it's again, it's another one of those active fluid, very detailed.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:48</time>
And I could see the wedding ring on his hand.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:51</time>
And it's interesting about the wedding ring on his hand is.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:53</time>
It's almost rubbed, rubbed down.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:56</time>
So it looks gold, but it's not quite as Bronze.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:58</time>
Yes, bronze.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:13:59</time>
The patina is different on it.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:01</time>
And so I don't know if that's emphasized, but it struck me as something that you would notice to remind us that these men are average, normal men of America.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:13</time>
They are husbands and fathers and sons and brothers who did this.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:18</time>
They weren't a typical career soldier.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:23</time>
They were men who were drafted, who joined up, who learned how to do this.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:26</time>
And they're the ones who were storming the beaches of Normandy.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:32</time>
And then they're brothers in arms.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:34</time>
So they're all on, they're all in this together and they're helping each other and, and help grabbing each other.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:39</time>
And that again, that's one of the very first monuments, before we get to that, Overlord Arch and Overlord, just so everyone understands, is the operational code name for this operation.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:50</time>
So it was Operation Overlord.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:52</time>
When you hear D Day, it's basically, that's the day, the day of the operation.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:14:57</time>
No one knows when D Day is going to happen unless you're like, h, Europe.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:15:01</time>
And so people will just call it D Day.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:15:04</time>
And now we know it is June 6, 1944.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:15:07</time>
But before that, no one knew the date.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:09</time>
Right.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:15:10</time>
And then Operation Neptune is part of D Day.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:15:14</time>
Neptune is the whole water assault.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:18</time>
Right.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:15:18</time>
It's the ship assaults.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:15:19</time>
It's how the ships were, the movement of the ships to get the men and the crafts to the beaches, and then Overlord is the entire land operation.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:15:28</time>
So together they are the D Day.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:31</time>
You know, and it was fun, too.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:33</time>
For the video, I had found some.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:35</time>
It's.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:35</time>
You can find it on YouTube.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:36</time>
There's a bunch of channels that.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:37</time>
That have it.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:38</time>
Some colorized footage of.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:40</time>
Of a bunch of D Day footage, landing footage.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:43</time>
And that was neat to kind of work that in there.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:46</time>
And.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:46</time>
And this.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:47</time>
This move.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:47</time>
This video is a little bit more of a moving video with the music and everything like that.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:15:53</time>
And so it was neat to be able to show that and then for us to be able to kind of show the viewer, you know, this National D Day Memorial, that was absolutely incredible.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:02</time>
I mean, we had talked.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:03</time>
We had said if you took this and plopped, you know, took it out of Bedford and put it in Washington, D.C. with the mall, with all the other monuments, it would be on class, you know, world class, just like the rest of those over there.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:16</time>
And it wouldn't.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:16</time>
It would be fit right in.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:18</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:19</time>
It's.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:19</time>
It's so impressive.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:20</time>
And so let's talk a little bit about the Bedford boys.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:23</time>
Yes.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:23</time>
And who they are, and then we'll talk more about the monument.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:26</time>
And I want to kind of stress it's a national monument, but it's not getting any state or federal funding.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:31</time>
And I want to talk about that.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:32</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:32</time>
And the.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:33</time>
The reason that the Bedford boys kind of became known was because of this loss that you mentioned earlier.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:40</time>
And it was the highest per capita in the country at the time.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:16:43</time>
And they had become kind of this national symbol even then during World War II.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:48</time>
So 34 Virginia National Guard soldiers from Company A, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, were based in the town of Bedford before the war.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:16:59</time>
And then Company A was decimated within hours at the landing.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:02</time>
19 men were killed during that first day of invasion.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:07</time>
Four more would die during the rest of the Normandy campaign.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:10</time>
And because of that, Bedford suffered the highest per capita.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:15</time>
Per capita of.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:17</time>
Of loss.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:18</time>
Now, I also want to stress that this inspired Saving Private Ryan.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:17:26</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:27</time>
And people will ask me, well, I thought Saving Private Ryan was based on another story of another gentleman's family.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:32</time>
And that is true.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:35</time>
There was a man in New York who.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:39</time>
His four brothers were killed, or they thought they were killed, and they sent for him to get him back to his mother.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:17:46</time>
What inspires Saving Private ryan is on July 17, 1944, the telegraph machine in Bedford, Virginia, started going off with, our nation is sorry to inform you, and it wouldn't stop.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:04</time>
And the young Girl sitting at the telegraph machine was writing 20 of these telegraphs on July 17th.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:13</time>
So you think this happened June 16th?
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:15</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:15</time>
A month and a half later.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:16</time>
Month and a half later.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:18</time>
This is when.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:19</time>
And that is what.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:20</time>
If you remember the beginning of Save a Private Ryan, when the lady is typing out all the telegrams and she's seeing they're all coming to the same family, and then she brings it to her officer in charge and the officer in charge calls.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:33</time>
That is what inspires that moment in Saving Private Ryan is what happened in Bedford, Virginia, when the telegraph operator got all 20 of these telegraphs.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:45</time>
It was like a little deli, like she was working.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:48</time>
She worked the telegraph machine that's also at the little drugstore.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:51</time>
And all of a sudden they start coming through.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:53</time>
And again, a town of 3200.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:55</time>
Everybody knows everybody.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:18:57</time>
Sure.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:18:57</time>
So she's getting these telegrams, knowing she probably went to school with all these boys.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:03</time>
So that's the part that Steven Spielberg, when he heard about this, inspired that part of the movie.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:11</time>
And then he gave money to the memorial because at the time, they were fundraising to build the whole auditorium in the name of his family member who served in World War II.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:21</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:22</time>
And that was, again, I think, another thing that they kind of, maybe in a different part of the memorial would have been neat for them to point out.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:32</time>
I don't know.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:33</time>
I mean, at a memorial like that, it's always.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:35</time>
It's an interesting balance for what you show and what you emphasize.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:40</time>
Yes.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:40</time>
And how much do you know going into it?
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:19:43</time>
Yeah, right.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:44</time>
And how much are you learning there?
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:46</time>
Of the Bedford boys?
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:47</time>
Three sets were brothers.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:49</time>
There were twins, Roy and Ray Stevens.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:51</time>
Ray was killed during the landing.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:53</time>
Roy survived, Clyde and Jack Powers.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:55</time>
Jack was killed.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:19:56</time>
Clyde was wounded but survived, and Bedford and Raymond Hoback, who both were killed.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:20:04</time>
So you're also getting.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:20:05</time>
That's another thing that Spielberg, with the brothers connection, where families were hearing about both of their boys also emphasized the story for Saving Private Ryan.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:20:15</time>
Nine of the Bedford boys are buried in Bedford.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:20:18</time>
Eleven of them are still in Normandy.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:20:20</time>
So then that American cemetery, that's in Normandy.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:20:24</time>
Eleven of them are there in France.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:20:27</time>
And the memorial gets 60,000 visitors a year, and only half are from Virginia.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:20:35</time>
Yeah, I believe it.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:20:37</time>
I believe it.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:20:37</time>
And again, it was one of these memorials that wasn't that I had never really heard of it, because who really like the average Joe, Even the average history nerd probably isn't going to be familiar with Bedford, Virginia, and where the National D Day Memorial is.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:20:54</time>
Everybody's thinking Washington, D.C. and the World War II memorial.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:20:57</time>
There's.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:20:58</time>
But I just got lucky that the two star admiral that I currently work for is from Bedford, Virginia.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:06</time>
I know.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:21:06</time>
And he brought it up during an all hands call.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:21:09</time>
He's saying, oh yeah, I'm going to be out next week because, you know, I'm traveling out to my hometown where, you know, they want me to say something for it was Memorial Day, you know, from my hometown where they have the National D Day Memorial.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:21:22</time>
And in my head I just kind of pulled out my phone and I kind of typed it in and that's why I wanted to come and tell you about it because it's one of those things kind of like when we were talking about Pueblo, Colorado and all the Medal of Honor recipients from there.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:21:33</time>
What's in the water in Bedford, Virginia.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:21:35</time>
I know, it's crazy.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:36</time>
It's crazy.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:38</time>
So even though it has the term National D Day Memorial on it, it's not funded by the federal government and the federal government has never funded it, although they got permission from Clinton at the time, who was president, to put national on it.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:21:54</time>
And then in our video you can see the, the quote from George Bush, who will dedicate it 2001 when he's president, because that's when it opens.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:03</time>
But it fundraising took approximately seven years.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:06</time>
It's $25 million to complete.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:10</time>
And one of the biggest donators was Charles Schultz.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:14</time>
Really?
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:15</time>
Yep.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:16</time>
Of the peanuts.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:17</time>
Oh my gosh, yes.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:18</time>
He donated over a million dollars.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:22:20</time>
And then with his donating, he volunteered to head up a fundraising campaign as well.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:27</time>
Was one of those ones that you and I were caught so completely flat footed when we showed up and we were lucky.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:33</time>
And you guys are going to hear about the other history stuff.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:36</time>
We were doing that that week.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:38</time>
You know, we, we were without the kids.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:40</time>
So we were running around like crazy doing cramming as much history, filming and seeing and you know, all this stuff.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:46</time>
And then we, we drove over the hills of Virginia kind of down into this little rural town.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:53</time>
We're like, oh, you know, what's this?
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:54</time>
And there's some fair going on.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:22:56</time>
It looks like it's, it's tiny in the middle of the town that we didn't get a chance to go visit.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:00</time>
It's some pumpkin festival, something like that.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:03</time>
Yes, it's Halloween, Halloween time, time frame.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:06</time>
And we get, we pull up there like, oh, this is bigger than I thought.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:08</time>
We start walking around and we were just absolutely flabbergasted.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:12</time>
And then even again, we haven't even gotten to the other part of the memorial.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:15</time>
Yet.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:23:16</time>
No talked about it yet.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:23:17</time>
If you see our.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:23:17</time>
My face in the video, we are completely, completely blown away because like I said, we were not expecting what it is.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:23:27</time>
So on the backside behind the arch of the flags and the sunken down area, there is a wall that, of course, has the message that Eisenhower sends out the night before.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:23:41</time>
If you ever read Operation Overlord, Dwight Eisenhower the night before says, you know, the eyes of the world are upon you.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:23:49</time>
And he closes with, you know, may God bless you in your endeavor tomorrow.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:23:54</time>
And then there's a statue of Eisenhower, and it looks almost like the replica of the statue of him from his burial place in Abilene, Kansas, which we stopped at.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:05</time>
And so he's standing there under a little portico, and on the ceiling of the portico is a tile representation of Operation Neptune.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:15</time>
It's really beautiful.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:17</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:17</time>
And we actually did a decent job of actually showing that in the video.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:21</time>
So if you're curious, because I was.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:23</time>
I kind of wandered down there as you were filming up above, and I came back and found you.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:27</time>
I was like, hey, you need to come see this.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:29</time>
And so in the video, we actually dedicate a decent amount of time to showing that because it's.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:35</time>
It's all tile.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:36</time>
So they.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:37</time>
They built the whole D Day landing scene.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:39</time>
And it's basically from the coast of England to the coast of France.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:43</time>
Right.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:43</time>
So you're seeing kind of the ship passages, and they show the lanes on the kind of the arch ceiling of this.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:50</time>
But they built it all out of tile, and they did a great job.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:24:53</time>
It's beautiful.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:53</time>
It was really neat.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:54</time>
And so it's.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:24:55</time>
It's neat that that's above Ike, you know, as he's standing there, and the statue is looking in the opposite direct.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:03</time>
He's kind of at one end of the memorial.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:05</time>
So he's looking towards the beaches.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:07</time>
The beaches.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:07</time>
And he's looking towards the actual Operation Overlord Arch.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:11</time>
Yes, again, because he was what, the Supreme Allied Commander.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:14</time>
Yes.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:14</time>
Of the Pacific force.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:15</time>
Of the Pacific force.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:16</time>
So he was in charge of.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:17</time>
Of those operations.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:18</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:18</time>
Operation Overload was his.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:25:19</time>
Yeah.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:20</time>
And I stress as well that he liked to be called General Eisenhower.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:25</time>
Even after his presidency, he preferred to be called General Eisenhower instead of President Eisenhower.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:31</time>
It was just an amazing experience.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:33</time>
I recommend anybody who.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:35</time>
Who is interested in seeing something like this or paying tribute and honoring those veterans on D Day, the ones that were there.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:45</time>
And it's a tribute to those who did not return.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:47</time>
And it's basically honors those.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:49</time>
Everyone who participated in the invasion.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:52</time>
And, you know, rarely has history been so greatly impacted by a single 24 hour period.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:25:58</time>
And this does a very good job of honoring all of the men that did that, but mostly the loss that the small rural town of Virginia felt.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:26:09</time>
And I think it's a great representation of America and what America gave that day, because it was the normal, average, everyday man and everyday family that won that war.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:22</time>
And that was.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:22</time>
You know, there's another kind of.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:24</time>
Off to the side, there's another dedicated memorial to the Bedford boys.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:27</time>
It's a soldier kind of looking at that rifle stuck on the ground with a helmet on top, which is neat because you see all the names there.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:35</time>
But I think even George Bush's quote that when he was dedicating it, the quote that we put on there was, this is.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:45</time>
I'm summarizing because I don't remember word by word, but this is the correct place to have a moral like this.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:26:51</time>
It's not in a large city, but in an average rural Virginia town where people from everywhere, just like here, were sacrificing that day.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:04</time>
The weapon into the ground with the helmet and the dog tags is called a battlefield cross.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:11</time>
And so I explained what that is on Instagram.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:16</time>
But most people who serve alongside someone else who is killed will make a makeshift memorial to them.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:25</time>
Because most of the times we can't go back to funerals, we can't honor them.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:29</time>
We have to keep fighting.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:30</time>
We're there in theater.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:32</time>
And so when you lose someone in arms, those are the memorials that we make back at either our headquarters or where we're stationed or where we're barracks, and helps us have a way to honor that loss.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:47</time>
Because again, very rarely are you going to be able to make it back to a funeral when you lose somebody in combat.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:27:53</time>
So it's their weapon shoved into the ground, muzzle first, and then you, you drape their dog tags over it and you put the helmet on top.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:01</time>
And it's called the battlefield cross.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:02</time>
Yeah, yeah.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:03</time>
Again, if you want to.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:05</time>
To visit this, there's not too much around in that area.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:10</time>
However, if you want to combine it, if you're going out to see Appomattox Courthouse, you know, the Appomattox Courthouse at Appomattox Courthouse.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:18</time>
If you had listened to past episodes, we actually have a past podcast and past video about Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:25</time>
It's kind of along that same road.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:27</time>
So again, an hour west of Appomattox Courthouse is where essentially where Bedford is.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:33</time>
The National D Day Memorial.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:34</time>
Yes.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:35</time>
So it's.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:35</time>
If you want to combine it with something else, I highly encourage you guys.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:39</time>
Appomattox is of course super cool Civil War stuff and then you get out to somewhere for some World War II history.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:44</time>
So what history fan is not going to enjoy that trip?
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:48</time>
It's incredible.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:49</time>
Exactly.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:50</time>
Thank you.
<cite>Speaker B</cite>
<time>00:28:50</time>
And we want to say Happy Veterans Day.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:52</time>
Yes, Happy Veterans Day.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:28:53</time>
This podcast is being released on Veterans Day, so this is in honor of all those veterans that have served before us.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:29:08</time>
I hope you enjoyed that look back at one of my favorite podcast episodes.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:29:12</time>
This one surprised me after I published it because we had more people reach out specifically to tell us how much they were moved by it, enjoyed it, and more.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:29:22</time>
If you have a favorite episode you think deserves a revisit, let us know.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:29:28</time>
This has been Walk With History production.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:29:30</time>
Talk With History is created and hosted by me, Scott Benny.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:29:34</time>
Episode researched by Jennifer Benny.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:29:36</time>
Check out the show notes for links and references mentioned in this episode.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:29:39</time>
Talk With History is supported by our [email protected] our eternal thanks go out to those providing funding to help keep us going.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:29:49</time>
Thank you to Doug McLiverty, Larry Myers, Patrick Benny, Gale Cooper, Christy Coates, and Calvin Gifford.
<cite>Speaker A</cite>
<time>00:29:56</time>
Make sure you hit that follow button in that podcast player and we'll talk to you next time.

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