Located in Bedford, the National D-Day Memorial commemorates the heroic sacrifice of 19 Virginia National Guardsmen who perished on D-Day at Omaha Beach. These men, known as the Bedford Boys, were in Company A and experienced some of the worst per capita losses on that first day.
Visitors can tour the site at their own pace or participate in a guided tour. The site features three principal areas, each set at a different elevation. You can return to our home page.
Overlord Arch
Located at 816 Burks Hill Rd, Bedford VA, the Memorial is privately funded & receives no federal money. Charles Schulz, the creator of America’s beloved Peanuts & Saving Private Ryan director Steven Spielberg were among the early donors whose star power helped raise funds.
Entering through the Robey W Estes Plaza, you can’t miss the massive 44-foot tall Overlord Arch, named for its code name and also for the year 1944. On either side of the arch are 12 flags representing the countries that were part of the Allied Expeditionary Force.
The plaza is a reminder of the Allied victory. Nearby, a group of sculptures scale the 100-foot beach cliffs of Pointe du Hoc in homage to those who broke through Hitler’s “impregnable fortress Europe.” Teak benches allow families to share their reactions privately. Across the plaza, the Necrology Wall puts the names of every soldier lost in the invasion at your fingertips: 4,413, including 19 members of Company A from Bedford and soldiers from other Allied nations.
English Garden
A somber walk through a larger-than-life depiction of the D-Day landings will remind visitors that freedom isn’t cheap. And it wasn’t easy to win either. The National D-Day Memorial is a powerful stop in Virginia’s Blue Ridge that illustrates the high price of liberty. Open daily from 10 am to 5 pm (ticket sales end at 4:30 pm).
One of the first stops is a plaza representing five divisions of the beaches stormed on June 6. A massive arch, codenamed “Overlord,” frames the scene, and bronze tablets list the names of all American and Allied service members killed that day.
A memorial dedicated to Bedford’s “sons of D-Day,” explains that the community suffered more casualties per capita than any other town in America. Nearby is Green’s Drugstore, where local families gathered to receive Western Union telegrams informing them of their lost loved ones. A paved walking trail has been a long-time project and will be ready for the 79th anniversary of D-Day’s landing, according to Lynch. More places to also visit by clicking here.
Reflecting Pool
The 88-acre memorial’s most poignant feature is the Reflecting Pool, where spurting water recreates the effect of gunfire. This pool symbolizes the Allied soldiers’ struggle to take Normandy from Germany on June 6, 1944.
The sculptures lining the pool are evocative of their feelings at that moment: angst, fear and determination. They’re a reminder that the Allied troops weren’t just defending their country; they were trying to break through Hitler’s “impregnable fortress.”
Bedford was chosen for this National D-Day Memorial because the community about four hours southwest of Washington suffered one of the highest per-capita losses on the initial assault on the beaches of Normandy. The town lost nineteen of the men who made up the first company to land on Omaha Beach.
Bob Slaughter, the founder of the National D-Day Memorial Foundation, was inspired to create this memorial after visiting Normandy and seeing the Allied troops’ efforts there. His vision was to commemorate those who sacrificed to liberate Europe.
Sculptures
The centerpiece of the memorial is a large, beach-like plaza with three bronze statues showing soldiers in the water and on the beach. The soldiers represent valor, fidelity, and sacrifice. In the background are a model of the Higgins landing craft and sporadic jets of water that represent German gunfire.
The plaza also features a wall inscribed with the names of all the Allied troops who died on D-Day, including Bedford’s men, who were known as “the Bedford Boys.” Two life-size GIs scale the wall to reach the top of the arch.
The statues were sculpted by Jim Brothers, who was a commercial artist and high school art teacher before becoming an accomplished sculpturer. He fought cancer in his final years, even as he directed assistants to complete a new sculpture for the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford. He was 72 when he died in 2008. The foundation that runs the memorial was created in his name. Check Out This Info.
Driving directions from Pure Vue Window Cleaning to National D-Day Memorial
Driving directions from National D-Day Memorial to Bedford Area Welcome Center