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1Lt Norman Ernest Gross Veteran
Cenotaph
1923 – 1944 Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial
- Birth
-
Sewickley, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA
- Death
- 6 Jun 1944 (aged 20)
At Sea
- Cenotaph
-
Coton, South Cambridgeshire District, Cambridgeshire, England Add to Map
- Plot
- Wall of the Missing
- Memorial ID
- 56290287 View Source
First Lieutenant Norman Ernest Gross, Army serial number O-807422, was born in the Ohio River Valley at Sewickley, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania on August 23, 1923. He was the eldest of seven children of Ernest J. Gross (21 Apr 1900 – Mar 1981), who was born at Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania; and Mae Louella (Earle) Gross (abt 1901 – unk), who was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents married about 1922. His father was a machinist and millwright in a steel fabrication plant. By 1935 the family lived at 900 Second Avenue, Conway, Beaver County, Pennsylvania.
He graduated from Ambridge High School in Ambridge, Beaver County, Pennsylvania in 1941. His photo in the senior class yearbook is accompanied by this entry:
------------
NORMAN GROSS
Academic
Hobby Club, Refreshment Committee, Dramatics,
Intramurals, College Research Club, Silhouette,
Homeroom Officer, Assembly Committee, Yearbook
Staff, Senior Class Vice-President, Savings Fund
Committee, Senior Forum
------------
He registered for the draft at Baden, Beaver County, Pennsylvania on June 30, 1942. He was 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighed 142 pounds, and had blue eyes and brown hair. At that time he lived with his parents and worked with his father at National Supply, a steel fabrication company in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. He worked in a semiskilled occupation in the fabrication of metal products, and was single when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 20, 1942. He married after enlisting.
He completed Army Air Forces pilot training in Class 43-G, and received his wings and commission as a Second Lieutenant on July 28, 1943. He went on to a period of Transition training in the B-24 'Liberator' heavy bomber in order to qualify as pilot in command for that aircraft type. He was assigned a crew, and by December 1943 began B-24 crew training at Davis-Monthan Field near Tucson, Arizona.
In January 1944 the Gross crew was assigned to the 838th Bomb Squadron of the 487th Bomb Group at Alamogordo Army Air Base, New Mexico. There they completed B-24 crew training, and deployed with the Group to England in March 1944. They flew B-24H 42-52629 'Sweatin' It Out' from Alamogordo, New Mexico to Lavenham, England via the southern Atlantic ferry route—a journey of about 10,000 miles—and arrived at Lavenham by mid-April 1944. There is a photo of the Gross crew, taken at Herington, Kansas during the deployment to England, that is posted on the 487th Bomb Group website. The 487th Bomb Group was based at Army Air Forces Station 137 near Lavenham, Suffolk, England, and was part of the 8th U.S. Army Air Force in Europe. Here is the roster of the Gross crew on June 6, 1944:
B-24H 42-52629 – 838th Bomb Squadron
• Gross, Norman E – 1/Lt – Pilot – MIA
• Haskell, Willard D – 2/Lt – Copilot – MIA
• Moke, Francis E – 2/Lt – Navigator – MIA
• Levine, Milton – F/O – Bombardier – Buried at Sea
• Huebel Jr, Benjamin A – S/Sgt – Engineer – MIA
• Markowitz, Max I – S/Sgt – Radio Operator – MIA
• McWilliams, Charles A – Sgt – Nose Gunner – MIA
• Benson, Stanley J – Sgt – Top Gunner – MIA
• Allensworth, Harold O – Sgt – Ball Gunner – MIA
• Westhoff Jr, Henry B – S/Sgt – Tail Gunner – MIA
In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, the 487th Bomb Group dispatched two Squadrons on the first of three missions that the Group flew on D-Day. The Gross crew flew B-24H 42-52629 'Sweatin' It Out' on this mission. The 487th Bomb Group was assigned to bomb a choke point—a road junction—in Caen, France to disrupt German transportation. The Group's assembly in the dark over England took five hours, much longer than planned. Then a complete undercast prevented the crews from bombing the target. On the return, the entire heavy bomber force was routed away from the Allied shipping area, to the west of the Channel Islands Jersey and Guernsey. Lt Gross and his nine crewmates went missing in action when their aircraft ran out of fuel and went down in the English Channel. A station at Saffron Walden, England received a distress call from the crew at 0842, which indicated that the aircraft was about 35 miles northwest of the Cherbourg Peninsula, and all four engines were dead. The aircraft's last reported position was 49°52'N, 02°38'W, some 20 to 25 miles northwest of the Channel Island Alderney. Other crews almost ran out of fuel before landing at bases near the English coast.
The remains of Flight Officer Levine, the bombardier, were found by the crew of the British ship HSL 192 (High Speed Launch 192) and were buried at sea, in the English Channel, on July 3, 1944. None of the other crew members was ever found.
Lt Gross and the other officers on the crew are memorialized on the Wall of the Missing at Cambridge American Cemetery. The enlisted men are memorialized on the Wall of the Missing at Normandy American Cemetery.
Lt Gross is also memorialized on the Conway Borough War Memorial in his hometown of Conway, Pennsylvania. One of his brothers, Private First Class Myron Earl 'Bluey' Gross, is also honored there. PFC Gross was captured and went missing in action during the Korean War.
Sources:
1. 487th Bomb Group Association
2. 1940 US Census; Pennsylvania; Beaver County; Conway; 900 2nd Avenue. Gross, Earnest J [sic]. 5 Apr 1940 (Ernest J. Gross, his father)
3. American Battle Monuments Commission
4. Conway War Memorial Park, 3rd Avenue & 11th Street, Conway, PA 15027
5. de Jong, Ivo. The History of the 487th Bomb Group (H). Paducah KY: Turner Publishing, Oct 2004
6. Enlistment Record of Norman E. Gross
7. HQ, 359th Combat Crew Training School, Alamogordo Army Air Base, New Mexico. Special Orders Number 71. 11 March 1944 (487th Bomb Group flight echelon orders to proceed from Alamogordo, New Mexico, to Herington, Kansas, during the deployment to England)
8. HQ, Davis-Monthan Field, Tucson, Arizona. Special Orders Number 1. 1 January 1944 (transfer of fifty heavy bomber combat crews, less navigators, from Davis-Monthan Field, Tucson, Arizona, to the 487th Bomb Group at Alamogordo Army Air Base, New Mexico)
9. HQ, U.S. Army Air Forces. Sunday Punch in Normandy: The Tactical Use of Heavy Bombardment in the Normandy Invasion (new imprint by the Center for Air Force History Wings at War Series, No. 2. Washington, D.C. 1992)
10. Obituary of Donald E. Gross (15 Jan 1928 – 18 Mar 2009), his brother
11. Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette. Monument puts names, faces to fallen veterans. 17 Nov 2005 (story about the veterans monument in Conway, Beaver County, Pennsylvania)
12. Social Security Death Index
13. U.S. Army Air Forces Missing Air Crew Report 5484
14. U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). Service Personnel Not Recovered Following World War II (see Our Missing – World War II – World War II Summary)
15. U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). Service Personnel Unaccounted For In Korean War (Myron Earl Gross, his brother)
16. U.S. Department of the Army, Adjutant General Office, Technical Records Section. Individual Deceased Personnel File of Milton Levine, T-123014 (his crewmate)
17. U.S. School Yearbooks, 1900–1999 (ancestry.com): Ambridge High School. Bridger [yearbook]. Ambridge PA, 1941 (his photo on page 27)
18. U.S. War Department. World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing Army and Army Air Forces Personnel. Washington, D.C., June 1946
19. U.S. World War II Draft Cards, Young Men, 1940–1947 (ancestry.com)
Research by:
Find A Grave member ID 47577572
Added bio 4 Apr 2012
Last edited 23 Oct 2020
First Lieutenant Norman Ernest Gross, Army serial number O-807422, was born in the Ohio River Valley at Sewickley, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania on August 23, 1923. He was the eldest of seven children of Ernest J. Gross (21 Apr 1900 – Mar 1981), who was born at Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania; and Mae Louella (Earle) Gross (abt 1901 – unk), who was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents married about 1922. His father was a machinist and millwright in a steel fabrication plant. By 1935 the family lived at 900 Second Avenue, Conway, Beaver County, Pennsylvania.
He graduated from Ambridge High School in Ambridge, Beaver County, Pennsylvania in 1941. His photo in the senior class yearbook is accompanied by this entry:
------------
NORMAN GROSS
Academic
Hobby Club, Refreshment Committee, Dramatics,
Intramurals, College Research Club, Silhouette,
Homeroom Officer, Assembly Committee, Yearbook
Staff, Senior Class Vice-President, Savings Fund
Committee, Senior Forum
------------
He registered for the draft at Baden, Beaver County, Pennsylvania on June 30, 1942. He was 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighed 142 pounds, and had blue eyes and brown hair. At that time he lived with his parents and worked with his father at National Supply, a steel fabrication company in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. He worked in a semiskilled occupation in the fabrication of metal products, and was single when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 20, 1942. He married after enlisting.
He completed Army Air Forces pilot training in Class 43-G, and received his wings and commission as a Second Lieutenant on July 28, 1943. He went on to a period of Transition training in the B-24 'Liberator' heavy bomber in order to qualify as pilot in command for that aircraft type. He was assigned a crew, and by December 1943 began B-24 crew training at Davis-Monthan Field near Tucson, Arizona.
In January 1944 the Gross crew was assigned to the 838th Bomb Squadron of the 487th Bomb Group at Alamogordo Army Air Base, New Mexico. There they completed B-24 crew training, and deployed with the Group to England in March 1944. They flew B-24H 42-52629 'Sweatin' It Out' from Alamogordo, New Mexico to Lavenham, England via the southern Atlantic ferry route—a journey of about 10,000 miles—and arrived at Lavenham by mid-April 1944. There is a photo of the Gross crew, taken at Herington, Kansas during the deployment to England, that is posted on the 487th Bomb Group website. The 487th Bomb Group was based at Army Air Forces Station 137 near Lavenham, Suffolk, England, and was part of the 8th U.S. Army Air Force in Europe. Here is the roster of the Gross crew on June 6, 1944:
B-24H 42-52629 – 838th Bomb Squadron
• Gross, Norman E – 1/Lt – Pilot – MIA
• Haskell, Willard D – 2/Lt – Copilot – MIA
• Moke, Francis E – 2/Lt – Navigator – MIA
• Levine, Milton – F/O – Bombardier – Buried at Sea
• Huebel Jr, Benjamin A – S/Sgt – Engineer – MIA
• Markowitz, Max I – S/Sgt – Radio Operator – MIA
• McWilliams, Charles A – Sgt – Nose Gunner – MIA
• Benson, Stanley J – Sgt – Top Gunner – MIA
• Allensworth, Harold O – Sgt – Ball Gunner – MIA
• Westhoff Jr, Henry B – S/Sgt – Tail Gunner – MIA
In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, the 487th Bomb Group dispatched two Squadrons on the first of three missions that the Group flew on D-Day. The Gross crew flew B-24H 42-52629 'Sweatin' It Out' on this mission. The 487th Bomb Group was assigned to bomb a choke point—a road junction—in Caen, France to disrupt German transportation. The Group's assembly in the dark over England took five hours, much longer than planned. Then a complete undercast prevented the crews from bombing the target. On the return, the entire heavy bomber force was routed away from the Allied shipping area, to the west of the Channel Islands Jersey and Guernsey. Lt Gross and his nine crewmates went missing in action when their aircraft ran out of fuel and went down in the English Channel. A station at Saffron Walden, England received a distress call from the crew at 0842, which indicated that the aircraft was about 35 miles northwest of the Cherbourg Peninsula, and all four engines were dead. The aircraft's last reported position was 49°52'N, 02°38'W, some 20 to 25 miles northwest of the Channel Island Alderney. Other crews almost ran out of fuel before landing at bases near the English coast.
The remains of Flight Officer Levine, the bombardier, were found by the crew of the British ship HSL 192 (High Speed Launch 192) and were buried at sea, in the English Channel, on July 3, 1944. None of the other crew members was ever found.
Lt Gross and the other officers on the crew are memorialized on the Wall of the Missing at Cambridge American Cemetery. The enlisted men are memorialized on the Wall of the Missing at Normandy American Cemetery.
Lt Gross is also memorialized on the Conway Borough War Memorial in his hometown of Conway, Pennsylvania. One of his brothers, Private First Class Myron Earl 'Bluey' Gross, is also honored there. PFC Gross was captured and went missing in action during the Korean War.
Sources:
1. 487th Bomb Group Association
2. 1940 US Census; Pennsylvania; Beaver County; Conway; 900 2nd Avenue. Gross, Earnest J [sic]. 5 Apr 1940 (Ernest J. Gross, his father)
3. American Battle Monuments Commission
4. Conway War Memorial Park, 3rd Avenue & 11th Street, Conway, PA 15027
5. de Jong, Ivo. The History of the 487th Bomb Group (H). Paducah KY: Turner Publishing, Oct 2004
6. Enlistment Record of Norman E. Gross
7. HQ, 359th Combat Crew Training School, Alamogordo Army Air Base, New Mexico. Special Orders Number 71. 11 March 1944 (487th Bomb Group flight echelon orders to proceed from Alamogordo, New Mexico, to Herington, Kansas, during the deployment to England)
8. HQ, Davis-Monthan Field, Tucson, Arizona. Special Orders Number 1. 1 January 1944 (transfer of fifty heavy bomber combat crews, less navigators, from Davis-Monthan Field, Tucson, Arizona, to the 487th Bomb Group at Alamogordo Army Air Base, New Mexico)
9. HQ, U.S. Army Air Forces. Sunday Punch in Normandy: The Tactical Use of Heavy Bombardment in the Normandy Invasion (new imprint by the Center for Air Force History Wings at War Series, No. 2. Washington, D.C. 1992)
10. Obituary of Donald E. Gross (15 Jan 1928 – 18 Mar 2009), his brother
11. Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette. Monument puts names, faces to fallen veterans. 17 Nov 2005 (story about the veterans monument in Conway, Beaver County, Pennsylvania)
12. Social Security Death Index
13. U.S. Army Air Forces Missing Air Crew Report 5484
14. U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). Service Personnel Not Recovered Following World War II (see Our Missing – World War II – World War II Summary)
15. U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). Service Personnel Unaccounted For In Korean War (Myron Earl Gross, his brother)
16. U.S. Department of the Army, Adjutant General Office, Technical Records Section. Individual Deceased Personnel File of Milton Levine, T-123014 (his crewmate)
17. U.S. School Yearbooks, 1900–1999 (ancestry.com): Ambridge High School. Bridger [yearbook]. Ambridge PA, 1941 (his photo on page 27)
18. U.S. War Department. World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing Army and Army Air Forces Personnel. Washington, D.C., June 1946
19. U.S. World War II Draft Cards, Young Men, 1940–1947 (ancestry.com)
Research by:
Find A Grave member ID 47577572
Added bio 4 Apr 2012
Last edited 23 Oct 2020
Inscription
Wall of the Missing:
GROSS NORMAN E • 1 LT • 838 BOMB SQ 487 BOMB GP(H) • PENNSYLVANIA
Gravesite Details
Entered the service from Pennsylvania.
Other Records
- Maintained by: Paul Webber
- Originally Created by: War Graves
- Added: Aug 6, 2010
- Find a Grave Memorial ID:
-
Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56290287/norman_ernest-gross: accessed ), memorial page for 1Lt Norman Ernest Gross (23 Aug 1923–6 Jun 1944), Find a Grave Memorial ID 56290287, citing Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial, Coton, South Cambridgeshire District, Cambridgeshire, England; Maintained by Paul Webber (contributor 47577572).