Norman Ernest Gross was born in the Ohio River Valley at Sewickley, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania on August 23, 1923. He was the oldest 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.
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.
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 of 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 of 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.
Source of information: www.findagrave.com