Raymond Samuel HOBACK

Map of Normandy American Cemetery

In the city of Bedford, Virginia, on Sunday, June 11, 1944, 14-year-old Lucille Hoback was preparing to go to Mass with the family.

"We then received the first telegram announcing that my brother Bedford had been killed.On Monday 12 we received the second telegram announcing that Raymond was missing, and a month later a package arrived from" somewhere in France ". a soldier told us that he had found Raymond's Bible on the beach, with name and address.

He said he did not know if Raymond was dead or alive, but anyway his family would like to get his Bible back.

On this Bible, you could see the mark of the bag strap. The book was not wet or deteriorated; he was probably wrapped in plastic. Someone told us that he had been injured, placed with others on the beach waiting to be evacuated on a ship, but that the tide might have covered them up and drowned.Raymond was pronounced dead 1 year later and his body was never found. Harold Baumgarten, who later became a doctor, told us that he had seen a bullet hit Bedford and then ricocheted him, injuring him.

Bedford Hoback, sick, to whom the military doctors offered to be repatriated to America, did not want to abandon his younger brother Raymond. He also embarks on the evening of June 4 for Omaha Beach with the others, a lifejacket around his neck, and with a life insurance

Some of those present knew little more than families. Roy Stevens was never able to find his twin brother Ray.

"I asked many of those who were next to him, I was told to go to the cemetery.

I knew then that Ray was dead.

Telegram announcing the death of Raymond received some time after the visit of the Sheriff of Bedford announcing the death of his brother

Brother's Raymond

Bedford Turner HOBACK  Fiche

Company A   -  1^st Battalion

116^thInfantry Regiment  -  29^th Infantry Division

Company A of the 116th Infantry Regiment 29th Infantry Division

The 75 men of Company A from the 116th Regiment 29th Division posing for this picture come from the same American village of Bedford, Virginia.
Three men, extras among the missing, will be absent when this photo was taken.
19 of them, 4.23% of the population of this village, will die during the first minutes of the assault in front of Vierville-sur-mer.

TRIBUTE TO THE AMERICAN CEMETERY of NORMANDY