Norman Ellison

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(aged 89)
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Norman Ellison (March 18, 1925 - October 12, 2014) was a United States Army Private First Class later Corporal who served in the US 2nd Armored Division during final days of World War II. He was best known for being the only American survivor of the Battle of Hagenohsen on April 25, 1945.

## Biography

### Early life

Norman Ellison was born on March 18, 1925, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania having a birth shroud around his head since he was a baby. During his youth, Ellison sometimes see things that will happen in future such as confessions and things that are really bad, but he was to it. He learned to play the piano and to type before being drafted in the United States Army in 1944. During World War II, He was initially assigned as a clerk typist for the US III Corps during operations. His first glimpse of war when he was one of the clerk typist on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944. After D-Day, he was ordered to type in the front lines and after nine months of intense fighting and typing, he was relieved to go back to III Corps HQ. However, he was transferred to the US 2nd Armored Division at the last minute, as the bow gunner for the tank *Fury* had been killed during the drive into Nazi Germany in April 1945.

### The recruit

Ellison had served in the army for just a year and a half, lying about being in the Army for eight weeks, as he had never seen the inside of a tank before. He was hazed and harassed by his crew mates, including his commanding officer, Donald Collier. Ellison spotted a German soldier hiding in the woods, as he was going to shoot this soldier, he saw a sacred 11-year-old scared Hitler Youth causing him froze up in fear. He was berated for not shooting Hitler Youth soldiers because of their youth; those same soldiers took out the lead tank in the American platoon, however, it was also Collier's fault for telling him not to fire anything without being told. As the crew of love 1-6 was preparing to advance on Kirchohsen. Ellison along with Trini Garcia, Boyd Swan, and a Black Truck Driver were having a conversation about going to see action, Ellison admitted that he is scared shitless and asked Garcia how it actually feels to kill a man after a battle. Due to both men being city kids, the difference is that he only saw a cat getting hit by an ice wagon and used to help with his father's stationary store prior to his enlistment nothing bled or screamed. When the tank crew of love 1-6 were attacking a beet field filled with German resistance, Ellison was firing his machine gun as his stream of 30 caliber tracers cut into a group of trees and spotted a .75 anti-tank cannon before being again berated for refusing to shoot at dead soldiers to ensure that they were truly dead. As a result, Collier had Ellison shoot a captured German soldier for wearing an American jacket, as it violated the Geneva Convention granted the fact he knew it was hypocritical shooting a German soldier for having American stuff as for the US soldiers doing the exact same thing. So he Collier to go to hell for that. This cause Collier forces the gun into his hand and makes him execute the prisoner. Leaving Ellison once again in horror, Swan kindly helps the kid and later Norman calls Sgt. Collier "The biggest asshole I have ever meet". Ellison was repeatedly traumatized in an attempt to harden him, but he came to "like" killing during the Battle of Kirchohsen, when he killed several Waffen-SS soldiers after seeing several children who were hanged by the hands of the SS.

### Romance in war

During his time in the town, Ellison started a brief romance with a young German girl named Emma, at whose house the squad was staying. Collier told Ellison to take her into the bedroom before he did, as Emma had come to like Ellison for his piano skills and his youth. The two made love, and the boorish soldier Grady Travis would bully Ellison and Emma upon entering the kitchen, where they were eating breakfast with Collier and Emma's older cousin. After a tense breakfast filled with arguments, Travis shoved Ellison out of the house as he bade Emma farewell, and Ellison was traumatized after seeing that Emma was among the dead of an artillery bombardment just minutes after leaving. He saw the brutality of the Nazis, so he became an adept member of the squad, earning the nickname of "Machine" and finally hardening into a fine soldier

### Final stand

In the end, he volunteered to assist the squad when they made their last stand against an SS battalion by themselves, and he survived after Collier told him to hide in a crater under the tank. Ellison was spotted by a Waffen-SS soldier, but the soldier spared him, as both of them were young men who were fighting in wars that were not theirs, and because Ellison was defenseless.

### Rescue and later life

The next day, US Army medical units discover Ellison, who nearly killed one of his rescuers with Collier's M1917 revolver and trench knife, and it is inveighed to Norman that the German offensive failed because of the crew's last stand. As Ellison, now forever changed, is being transported to safety, a medic tells him he's a hero, he looks back at the carnage of the many dozens of dead German SS troops surrounding the remains of the destroyed Fury. He finally returned to the III Corps HQ to tell them about their sacrifice and everything Ellison had been through. Norman was promoted to the rank of Corporal and was awarded the D-Day Commemorative Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Bronze Star and the Silver Star. After the war, he returned to Pittsburgh and told his family and friends the story of the *Fury* and the sacrifice they all made. Ellison eventually married an unknown woman and had three sons, continuing to be a typist until his death in 2014. He died peacefully during his sleep.