This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Shaun Thomas (Underdog), OSC
to remember
Ives, Norman Seaton, CAPT.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Galesburg
Last Address 30 Georges Terrace, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Casualty Date Aug 02, 1944
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Gun, Small Arms Fire
Location France
Conflict World War II
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
I was one of approximately 60 U.S. Navy men in a reconnaissance party under the command of Capt. Norman S. Ives. We left Cherbourg, France, on Aug. 1, 1944, and spent the night in Granville. We were en route to St. Malo, a port reportedly captured from the Germans by U.S. armed forces.
Leaving Granville on the morning of Aug. 2, we were soon passing elements of Gen. Patton’s armored units. Later in the morning we encountered German units near the small town of Dol-en-Bretagne. In the course of a two-hour firefight, before the army came to rescue us, we lost about 20 killed and wounded, including Capt. Ives. Among the army rescuers was a Sherman tank named “Dingbat II.” Never were we so happy to see the army!
All our dozen or so vehicles were lost to the Germans for several days before the army recaptured them and returned them to us in Cherbourg. We then learned we had been 17 miles in front of the army!
I would be interested in hearing from any members of this navy group. My address is 1508 Hinman Ave, #6D, Evanston, IL 60201, and my e-mail is Walcat@core.com.
Evanston, Ill.
Walter N. Dreyfus
Comments/Citation:
Circumstances Killed when the car in which he was traveling was ambushed by Germans.
Remarks Norman was born in Galesburg, Illinois. He was formerly the Commander of Submarine Squadron Fifty in Scotland.
Normandy Campaign (1944)/Operation Overlord
From Month/Year
June / 1944
To Month/Year
June / 1944
Description The Normandy landings (codenamed Operation Neptune) were the landing operations on 6 June 1944 (termed D-Day) of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. The largest seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the invasion of German-occupied western Europe, led to the restoration of the French Republic, and contributed to an Allied victory in the war.
Planning for the operation began in 1943. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, codenamed Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. The weather on D-Day was far from ideal, but postponing would have meant a delay of at least two weeks, as the invasion planners had requirements for the phase of the moon, the tides, and the time of day that meant only a few days in each month were deemed suitable. Hitler placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in command of German forces and of developing fortifications along the Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an Allied invasion.
The amphibious landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval bombardment and an airborne assault—the landing of 24,000 British, US, and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight. Allied infantry and armoured divisions began landing on the coast of France starting at 06:30. The target 50-mile (80 km) stretch of the Normandy coast was divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword Beach. Strong winds blew the landing craft east of their intended positions, particularly at Utah and Omaha. The men landed under heavy fire from gun emplacements overlooking the beaches, and the shore was mined and covered with obstacles such as wooden stakes, metal tripods, and barbed wire, making the work of the beach clearing teams difficult and dangerous. Casualties were heaviest at Omaha, with its high cliffs. At Gold, Juno, and Sword, several fortified towns were cleared in house-to-house fighting, and two major gun emplacements at Gold were disabled using specialised tanks.
The Allies failed to achieve all of their goals on the first day. Carentan, St. Lô, and Bayeux remained in German hands, and Caen, a major objective, was not captured until 21 July. Only two of the beaches (Juno and Gold) were linked on the first day, and all five bridgeheads were not connected until 12 June. However, the operation gained a foothold that the Allies gradually expanded over the coming months. German casualties on D-Day were around 1,000 men. Allied casualties were at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead. Museums, memorials, and war cemeteries in the area host many visitors each year.
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings (Operation Neptune, commonly known as D-Day). A 1,200-plane airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault involving more than 5,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on 6 June, and more than three million allied troops were in France by the end of August.
The decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion in 1944 was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed commander of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), and General Bernard Montgomery was named as commander of the 21st Army Group, which comprised all the land forces involved in the invasion. The Normandy coast was chosen as the site of the invasion, with the Americans assigned to land at Utah and Omaha Beaches, the British at Sword and Gold Beaches, and Canadians at Juno Beach. To meet the conditions expected on the Normandy beachhead, special technology was developed, including two artificial ports called Mulberry harbours and an array of specialised tanks nicknamed Hobart's Funnies. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, Operation Bodyguard, using both electronic and visual misinformation. This misled the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. Hitler placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in charge of developing fortifications all along the Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an invasion.
The Allies failed to reach their goals for the first day, but gained a tenuous foothold that they gradually expanded as they captured the port at Cherbourg on 26 June and the city of Caen on 21 July. A failed counterattack by German forces on 8 August led to 50,000 soldiers of the German 7th Army being trapped in the Falaise pocket. The Allies launched an invasion of southern France (Operation Dragoon) on 15 August, and the Liberation of Paris followed on 25 August. German forces retreated across the Seine on 30 August 1944, marking the close of Operation Overlord.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
June / 1944
To Month/Year
June / 1944
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories Final years (June 1943 â?? May 1945) Desperate to get back into the battle, Germany made several attempts to bolster the obsolescent U-boat force, while awaiting the next generation of U-boat designs (the Walter and the Elektroboot types).
Notable among these attempts were the fitting of massively improved anti-aircraft defences, radar detectors, torpedoes, and finally the addition of the Schnorchel (snorkel) device to allow U-boats to run underwater off their diesel engines to avoid radar.
By September 1943 Donitz was ready to restart the offensive on the North Atlantic route. The return to the offensive in the North Atlantic saw initial success, with an attack on ONS 18 and ON 202; but a series of battles saw less success and more losses for UbW. After 4 months BdU again called off the offensive; 8 ships of 56,000 tons, and 6 warships had been sunk in the North Atlantic for the loss of 39 U-boats, a catastrophic loss ratio.
The Luftwaffe also introduced the long-range He 177 bombers, and the Henschel Hs 293 guided glider bomb, which claimed a number of successes, but Allied air superiority prevented them being a major threat to the Royal Navy.
