The Bedford Boys: One American Town's Ultimate D-day Sacrifice Read Online Free

He was one of the very lucky. He had “million-dollar” wounds serious enough to put him out of the war but not life-threatening.
    “Good luck,” said the navy medic.
    Then he was gone. Wounded men around Nance hadn’t seen him: Nance was delirious—the man was a figment of his imagination. But Nance knew he was real. He just knew it. Heaven-sent, the medic had saved him and moved on. Only God knew where. 10
    Nance looked around, the morphine starting to kick in. He saw two dead men lying face up. He recognized both. One was an officer from D Company. Suddenly, he was aware of another man beside him: Cecil Breeden.
    Breeden checked Nance’s dressings and said he had seen the bodies of Captain Fellers, John Schenk, and John Wilkes. All of them had probably been killed by machine-gun fire within minutes of arriving on the beach. 11 As far as Breeden knew, Nance was the only living officer from Company A and therefore in command of what was left of it.
    Meanwhile, Cota and Canham were moving from one group of men to another, urging them to arm themselves with whatever weapons they could scavenge and then get up and off the beach. Suddenly, Canham was shot through the left wrist. He continued along the beach, toting a Colt .45 in his good hand, blood gushing from his wound.
    “Medic!”
    Cecil Breeden arrived, wrapped a bandage around Canham’s wrist and then quickly moved on. Cota suggested Canham be evacuated. Canham refused and set off along the sea wall, looking for a gully, a weak point, anywhere to get up to the bluffs. His bodyguard followed closely behind, reloading Canham’s Colt .45 every few minutes.
    Behind the sea wall at the base of the D-1 draw, Hal Baumgarten looked east and saw a figure, back straight, walking along the beach, “an angel of mercy,” 12 bending down here and there to comfort the dying and patch up others. . . . When Cecil Breeden finally got to Baumgarten, he handed him twelve sulfa tablets and told him to drink some water. He was badly dehydrated. Shells and mortar rounds began to land all around them. Breeden leaned over, seemingly oblivious to the heavy fire, and put a pressure bandage on Baumgarten’s face.
    Baumgarten tried to pull Breeden down, out of the line of fire, but he slapped his hand away.
    “You’re hurt now,” said Breeden. “When I get it, you can take care of me.” 13
    In Baumgarten’s eyes, Breeden was “probably the single greatest hero of D-Day.” 14 Breeden would survive the war, accompanying Company A all the way to Germany, and would not receive a scratch. Despite long and concerted efforts by many survivors, notably Baumgarten, Breeden died without receiving a military honor in recognition of his heroism on Omaha Beach—a heroism that sustained hope among those who were a breath from dying.
    According to a subsequent report by the United States Army Medical Department, because of the “actions and example of men like the medic Breeden, [Company A] survivors found the will to rescue many of the wounded from the advancing tide and move off the beach to a sheltered position where the remnants of the company rallied. Were it not for Breeden all of them might well have died on the beach.” 15
    “Every man was a hero, [I] never saw a coward,” Breeden later said with typical self-effacement. “When I found Baumgarten, he had his cheek about over his ear. I patched him up and went on my way. I glanced now and then at the boys trying to take that damned pillbox [at the base of the draw]. As I remember, it took six or more to do it. As far as I know, none of them lived. I couldn’t tell you who any of them were. I was just too busy to know what was going on around me.” 16
    Breeden left Baumgarten at about 8:15 A.M. All along Dog Green, men were starting to organize, terror and determination on their faces. They included “Big Bill” Presley, Master Sergeant of B Company. 17 Bree-den saw Presley walking along the beach, seemingly oblivious to the