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Edward Norton attended college for two years.

He volunteered for the Air Corps of the Army of the United States at Fort Bragg, North Carolina on 2 January 1942.

The field order for the mission called for 12 aircraft, off which six would break off the formation and bomb the generation station and gas works at Haarlem, when they would reach the coast and the other six would continue their route to bomb the power plant of IJmuiden. However, only eleven planes were serviceable, because many were still under flak damage repair from the mission the day before. Every crew knew this mission would be one they would not survive. After taking off, they soon nosed over to 50 feet to get under the German radar. A little later, approximately 30 miles from the Dutch coast, one of the aircraft experienced electrical problems and headed back to England. When they turned, they climbed to 1,000 feet what would be considered common sense with a lame aircraft. However, by climbing, the aircraft placed itself within German radar coverage thus alerting German defenses. As the remaining aircraft approached the coast, several sea vessels appeared ahaed in the flight path. The formation changed course to avoid surface fire from these vessels, with the result they reached the coast at a point with one of the most heavily defended areas in the Netherlands. In very little time, five aircraft were shot down. The remaining aircraft believed they were close to there targets but they were still miles away. After 10 minutes without recognizing any landmarks, they thought they saw the Haarlem works, but it was a gas holder on the west side of Amsterdam. They dropped their bombs but all bombs fell short and caused no damage. Unknown to the crews, the heading taken from this target headed them directly for the heavily defended port area near IJmuiden. The aircraft 41-18090 of Lt Norton was hit by flak and crashed into the sea. Also all remaining aircraft were shot down.
The aircraft was flown by the twin brothers Norton. The pilot, 1st Lt. Edward Norton, was never found and is listed on the Walls of the Missing at Margraten. His brother James was washed ashore by the Zuiderzee on 25 July 1943 and is buried at Margraten.

Of this crew, five men were killed and one man survived and was taken prisoner.