Norwood DuBose HATFIELD^[1]

1922 - 2013  (91 years)

• Name	Norwood DuBose HATFIELD  [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
  Birth	1922	Lee County, South Carolina   [3, 4]
  Gender	Male
  HIST	of Bishopville, South Carolina Norwood D. Hatfield BISHOPVILLE — Norwood DuBose Hatfield, 91, of Lee County, died Saturday, Nov. 16, 2013, at his home. Born in Lee County, he was a son of the late Richard Wiley Hatfield and Bertha Marion Barnes. He was the husband of the late Elga Rhea Hatfield. He grew up in Lee County and attended the schools of Lee County. After graduation from Elliott High School, Mr. Hatfield served his country in the U.S. Army 83rd Infantry Division during World War ll in the European theater of operations. He proudly served his country from 1942 to 1945 and was awarded a Purple Heart and four Bronze Service Stars. Upon returning to the United States, Mr. Hatfield resumed his family farm operations near Elliott and worked at Reeves Brothers in Bishopville for 45 years. He was a member of Bethlehem United Methodist Church and the American Legion Post No. 29. His life was devoted to serving his country, serving his family, and serving the athletic community in Lee County. He was the proud recipient of the Distinguished Cavalier Award in 2006 in honor of his dedication and devotion to Robert E. Lee Academy. He was deeply committed to his family, loved every sport, and had a wonderful sense of humor. Mr. Hatfield is survived by his only child, a daughter, Tandra Hatfield Alderman of Sumter, to whom his life was devoted. He is also survived by his grandchildren whom he adored, Logan Lee Alderman and Emily DuBose Alderman. Mr. Hatfield is also survived by sisters, Lois Anderson of Columbia, Mary Lou Atkinson of Sumter and Louise Fanning of Florence; a brother-in-law, Ray Kelley of Bishopville; and many nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by a sister, Vera Hatfield; and two brothers, Oris Hatfield and Hugh Hatfield. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Bethlehem United Methodist Church with the Rev. Larry Watson and Chaplain Mark Bredholt of Hospice Care of Tri-County officiating. Burial will be in Bethlehem Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Hancock-Elmore-Hill Funeral Home and other times at the home of his daughter, 830 Andiron Drive, Sumter. The family would like to express special thanks to Hospice Care of Tri-County along with Alisa Morris, Rita Hampton, Lucille March, Emma Lonan, Rena Caldwell, Ariel Johnson, Sheritta Dixon and Ernestine Hickmon. Memorials may be made to Bethlehem United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 167, Bishopville, SC 291010 or to Robert E. Lee Academy, 630 Cousar St., Bishopville, SC 29150. Hancock-Elmore-Hill Funeral Home of Bishopville is in charge of the arrangements.   Posted in Obituaries on Tuesday, November 19, 2013  [2, 5, 7, 8]
  MILI	He served his country in the U.S. Army 83rd Infantry Division during World War ll in the European theater of operations. He proudly served his country from 1942 to 1945 and was awarded a Purple Heart and four Bronze Service Stars. Date Published: May 31, 2009 'Gunfire so bad birds couldn't fly' As D-Day anniversary nears, vet recalls harrowing experiences Photo provided Lee County native Norwood Hatfield has a Purple Heart, four battle stars and numerous citations for bravery for the years he served the Army during World War II. By RANDY BURNS Item Staff Writer rburns@theitem.com Lee County native Norwood Hatfield, 86, is reminded every day of the three years he served in the Army during World War II. There are his Purple Heart, his four battle stars and the numerous citations for bravery. And his feet always hurt. All of his toenails are missing. Hatfield blames the problems on spending days and nights in 16 below zero temperatures in the snow in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge. And then there are the bad dreams. He knows he killed in the line of duty, but he doesn't know how many. And he doesn't want to know. There is one particular dream that haunts him. "We were in a town in Belgium and we were being fired on from a cellar," he said. "I went over to it and dropped a hand grenade in it." Hatfield was certain that several German soldiers died as a result of that action. It wasn't until later, though, that he found out that civilians - women and children - were in the cellar. "I always regretted doing that," Hatfield said. "But I know I did what I had to do. In time of war, it is kill or be killed. But that always bothered me. And I still have dreams about it." As a 20-year-old serviceman from Lee County, Hatfield said he was focused upon survival. "I didn't think about the importance of what we were doing," he said. "I was trying to get through one day at a time. I had a job to do and I tried to do it the best I could. But I was proud to serve my country." Hatfield said he asked to serve in artillery rather than infantry because it was safer. Instead, Hatfield, a platoon sergeant, was responsible for a battalion of 12 to 15 men assigned to patrol. For six months from June 26, 1944, to late January 1945, Hatfield had almost daily contact with the enemy. "Our job was looking for Germans, dead or alive," he said. "And I was scared." Photo provided Hatfield remembers an incident that took place soon after he arrived in France. "I was in the bushes and Germans walked right next to me," he said. "I was so scared I couldn't hold a pencil. I thought they could hear my heart beat." Hatfield also has vivid recollections of a night he was on patrol during the Battle of the Bulge, when a German soldier was able to surprise him. "When the German pointed the gun at my head, I screamed," Hatfield said. "Well, I guess I scared him as much as he was scaring me. He dropped his gun. I picked it up and captured him." A day doesn't go by without Hatfield having his own Memorial Day, thinking of fellow soldiers who were killed in action. The constant presence of death deeply affected everyone, he said. "It got to the point where you didn't want to know the names of the soldiers fighting next to you," he said. "It was easier to lose somebody if you didn't know their name." Hatfield's best friend in the company was one of the first to be killed on D-Day, June 6, 1944. "They needed some men to fill out the holes, and they chose about 26 men from our company," he said. Hatfield and his company participated in the Normandy Invasion as part of what is known as D-Day plus 10. Hatfield said his company arrived off the Normandy coast about a week before they made land in France on June 26, 1944. "We were just sitting off the coast of France because of a storm," he said. "On D-Day, we were training in Wales." Hatfield said he can remember the sounds of war as they waited for their orders. "We couldn't see anything," he said. "But we could hear gunfire all the time. It got on my nerves." Of the 1,100 soldiers in Company C who landed off the Normandy coast in June 1944, Hatfield said he is the only one he knows who made it home. "I guess you can say I am the lone star that made it," he said. "Now, we had many to come as replacements and some of them made it." The most intense fighting Hatfield experienced took place around Christmas 1944, soon after the Germans launched what has become known as the Battle of the Bulge. The German assault came as a surprise to the Allies, Hatfield said. History records that the Allies were successful in building a wedge into the German assault line and splitting the German forces. More than 20,000 Germans were captured by the Allied forces, Hatfield said. Photo provided He has firsthand knowledge of what happened. American tanks opened fire on German forces just before they appeared to be ready to surrender, Hatfield said. He and his platoon were separated from the Allied forces. "We had to fight our way back out through 600 Germans," he said. In January, Hatfield returned to England on a stretcher, his feet frozen. Vietnam Veteran Ronnie Williams, a former director of the Lee County Chamber of Commerce and Bishopville fire chief, called Hatfield a true American hero. "Here's a man who believed in the cause he was fighting for," Williams said. "His story is really amazing. Norwood Hatfield is a patriot, an American patriot." Hatfield has been told he saved some of his buddies from certain death. A few days before Memorial Day, Hatfield received a phone call from one of three men in his company he knows is still living. "He lives in New Jersey," Hatfield said. "He tells me that I saved his life. I don't know. Some mortar shells hit his leg and I pulled him away to safety. He gave me praise. I remember the gunfire was so bad that birds couldn't fly. "God spoke to me," Hatfield said. "That's a fact. He would tell me 'you better move, you better not stay there, move.' So many times, I would move and sure enough, I would have been killed if I had stayed where I was." Hatfield said he doesn't know why God chose to spare him, but he is "very thankful. I've been blessed," he said. "I've been married to the same woman for 59 years. I've got good children. God gave me my life." And there's the pride Hatfield has for his country. Looking back, he said he believes the United States and the Allies were on the side of good and the Germans and Japanese on the side of evil. "We saved the world," Hatfield said. "I really believe that." Information obtained by The Item in a May 21, 2009, interview with Hatfield in his home, and Library of Congress videos of a 2001 interview conducted by officials with the South Carolina Cotton Museum. Contact Staff Writer Randy Burns at rburns@theitem.com or (803) 491-4533. Area veterans recall D-Day Print Posted: Sunday, June 6, 2010 6:00 am | Updated: 8:49 pm, Mon Jun 7, 2010. BY RANDY BURNS rburns@theitem.com More than 425,000 Allied and German troops died during the Battle of Normandy, which began with the Allied invasion of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944, commonly known as D-Day. The term "D-Day" is used to simply note the actual beginning of the operation. It was the largest amphibious war operation ever undertaken. On that first day, there were 160,000 Allied troops, 5,000 naval and merchant vessels, in addition to hundreds of bomber and fighter aircraft. The assault phase of the Normandy invasion continued until June 30, 1944. The Normandy landings were the first successful opposed landings across the English Channel in more than eight centuries. Historians believe the invasion of Allied forces at Normandy represented a major breakthrough and played a key role in the Allies' eventual victory over Germany. ON THE FIRING LINE Sumter native Charles Jenkins, now 85, is a 1942 graduate of Edmunds High School. He was 19 and serving in the Navy when he helped steer the Landing Ship Tanker (LST) 282 to Normandy and unloaded American soldiers and tankers on D-Day. Jenkins said he knew it was an important initiative, but he said he failed to understand its overall significance. "I was 19 years old," he said. "I was just doing my job. We didn't think much about why we were doing it." It wasn't until later when Jenkins realized that the Normandy invasion was essential if Hitler and Germany were to be stopped from "taking over the world." "Looking back, it was one of the most important things that has ever happened," he said. On that first day, Jenkins said, the noises of war were deafening from his vantage point on the ship. "And we could see the fighter planes flying over us," he said. Jenkins never left the ship and later that day, Jenkins and the crew were on their way back to England to gather additional Allied forces and equipment. In the next two to three weeks, Jenkins made three trips to Normandy. The signs of war were less noticeable on each of the returning trips, he said. During the next couple of months, Jenkins stayed busy carrying out his responsibilities as a crew member of a huge Navy ship. "You were kept so busy that you didn't have time to be afraid," he said. Sixty-six years later, his most vivid memories focus upon the events of Aug. 15, 1944. "We were just off the coast of southern France," Jenkins said. "We had a shipload of men and equipment and were just about to unload them when the German bombers struck." Jenkins' Navy LST ship was destroyed by German Radio Patrol Bombs. Of the 300 men on board the LST 282, 200 were killed. "I was up on the bow of the ship when the Germans struck," he said. "I was blown off the deck and into the water." Jenkins said he spent about two hours in the water before he was rescued by an Allied boat. Even though his injuries were not life-threatening, he spent a month in a hospital in Italy before returning to Norfolk, Va. He never returned to military action. At 85 years old, he still receives treatment for the physical and emotional scars he suffered when the ship he was on was destroyed. "I still take pills to calm me down," he said. "And that's because of what happened on that day." Jenkins said the Navy LST 282 was specifically targeted by the Germans. "We were the only ship they struck," he said. "We had a couple of high-ranking officers on ship, and they knew that." Jenkins said he has talked very little about his war experiences and particularly the events of that fateful day in August. "It's a little easier talking about it now," he said. "But I only talk about it when somebody asks me questions about it." Harold Kirk, 85, was also 19 when the Allied forces began the Normandy invasion on June 4, 1944. "I was in England, and I remember listening to the radio and hearing about it," he said. It would be almost three weeks later before Kirk and his Army 771st Tank Destroyer Battalion would join the invasion. At that time, Kirk was one of six men assigned to a destroyer tank. "My responsibility was security," he said. Kirk said his unit met very little resistance in France, but the soldiers could see plenty of evidence of the destruction that took place before they arrived. "Our mission was to seek, strike and destroy," he said. "I guess you could call it a mop-up operation in France because we didn't see too much evidence of the Germans." The action heated up later that year for Kirk in Holland and Germany. Ten of the company's 12 tanks were destroyed, and more than 100 men were killed or injured. Kirk said he didn't receive the first scratch. "I figure the good Lord was watching over me," he said. He had "several close calls," however. "One time I was walking around my tank when I stopped to light a cigarette," he said. "I was still smoking back then. And about the time I stopped, I saw a puff of smoke right in front of me. If I hadn't stopped to light that cigarette, he would have gotten me." There was another time when Kirk's company was in a heated exchange of gunfire with the Germans. About 6 inches of Kirk's Garand semiautomatic rifle was sheared off just above the stacking shivel, he said. "I was without a gun for about 24 hours," he said. Kirk said he fired many shots at the Germans in Holland and Germany, but he doesn't know if any proved fatal. "You would fire and move on," he said. "You didn't have time to check to see what happened. And really, you didn't want to know you were responsible for killing another human being. You didn't want to, but you did it if you had to." Lee County native Norwood Hatfield, 87, looked back on his time as an Army soldier during World War II with The Item a year ago at his home near Wisacky. Hatfield and about 1,100 soldiers in Company C were part of what is known as "D-Day plus 10." Hatfield said his company arrived off the Normandy coast about a week before landing in France on June 26, 1944. "We were just sitting off the coast of France because of a storm," he said. "On D-Day, we were training in Wales." Twenty-six soldiers in Hatfield's company were pulled out to join the D-Day invasion, he said. "They needed some men to fill out the holes," he said. Hatfield believes all of those soldiers were killed, including one who had become his best friend. Of the 1,100 soldiers in Company C, Hatfield said he is the only one he knows who made it back home. "I don't know of any others," he said. "I guess you can say I am the lone star that made it. Now we had many to come as replacements and some of them made it." The constant presence of death deeply affected everyone, Hatfield said. It got to the point where you didn't want to know the names of the soldiers fighting next to you, he said. "It was easier to lose somebody if you didn't know their name," he said. LOOKING BACK WITH PRIDE Today, Hatfield said, he is filled with pride when he reflects upon World War II. Looking back, he said he believes the Allies were on the side of Good and the Axis powers were Evil. "We saved the world," Hatfield said. "I really believe that." As a 20-year-old serviceman from Lee County, Hatfield said he was focused upon survival. "I didn't think about the importance of what we were doing," he said. "I was trying to get through one day at a time. I had a job to do, and I tried to do it the best I could. But I was proud to serve my country." Jenkins said he is proud to have played a "small role in the Allied victory over Germany." "I thank the Lord every day that I made it back," he said. "And I think a lot of the ones who didn't make it." Jenkins has no doubt World War II was necessary. "Germany had about all of Europe," he said. "Hitler was going to take over the world." Kirk said 19-year-old soldiers didn't spend time thinking about reasons for war. "You did what you were told to do," he said. "You didn't question it. You didn't worry about why you were doing something." By April 1945, Kirk said, he and his fellow soldiers began to realize the importance of the Normandy invasion. "That was the turning point of the war," he said. "We (Allies) had lost everything. Germany had control of Europe, but Normandy put the Germans on the defensive. And by April 1945, we were able to recover Europe to its rightful governments." Kirk said he still looks back with pride on what the Allied forces were able to accomplish. "We have a responsibility to protect the right for countries to choose their governments," he said. "Countries should be able to choose for themselves." Hatfield, Jenkins and Kirk recognize that all military jobs are important. They, however, are particularly proud of their individual roles. Almost 10 years ago, Jenkins received a small booklet from a daughter of one of the men who lost their lives on Aug. 15, 1944, on the LST 282. "She sent this book to the survivors," he said. The booklet is actually a compilation of stories she found on the Internet about the LST 282's involvement in the Normandy invasion and World War II. "I've read it several times," Jenkins said. "And I'm going to read it again. It's been awhile. I don't think we should forget." Jenkins said he wishes schools would spend more time teaching our youngsters about the Normandy invasion and World War II. "It's our history," he said. "I don't think we should forget it." Kirk's grandson helped him buy a World War II-era Garand semiautomatic rifle on the Internet several years ago. Kirk also has a book about World War II destroyer tanks and toy miniature destroyer tank that he pulls out from time to time. "I get a good feeling when I get these things out," he said. "I feel like we accomplished something very important. The destroyer tankers supported the infantry." Kirk and the others will never forget the people. "We had this special comradeship," he said. "It's hard to explain. We were like a family. That's the best way to describe it. We were a family." Reach Randy Burns at (803) 491-4533.   Posted in Local news, News on Sunday, June 6, 2010  [3, 4, 7]
  _UID	F75AFFFEF17D43BDAB5C1C0470EEB0A697A4
  Death	16 Nov 2013	at his home, (Bishopville, South Carolina)
  Burial	20 Nov 2013	Bethlehem Cemetery   [7]
  	Hancock-Elmore-Hill Funeral Home, Bishopville, South Carolina
  Person ID	I74617	Singleton and Related Families
  Last Modified	2 Jun 2020

  
  

  Father	Richard Wiley HATFIELD,   b. 9 Jul 1878   d. 21 Jun 1949 (Age 70 years)
  Mother	Bertha Marian BARNES,   b. 24 Oct 1896/5   d. 13 Aug 1952 (Age 46 years)
  _UID	795EFA54AEAD4F2086093F0C3F74B12D5ADB
  _UID	795EFA54AEAD4F2086093F0C3F74B12D5ADB
  Family ID	F51820	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Elga Rhea KELLEY,   b. 1928, Lee County, South Carolina d. 19 Mar 2011, at her home (Age 83 years)
  Marriage	1950  [3]
  _UID	D83467BD37734C758DC1B69BBED704643744
  _UID	D83467BD37734C758DC1B69BBED704643744
  Children	1. Tandra Lee HATFIELD
  Family ID	F51853	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	31 May 2009

  
  

• Sources

  [S27739] Mary Lou Hatfield Atkinson. [S1275] Teresa Smith. [S12302] ‘Gunfire so bad birds couldn’t fly’. [S14909] Area veterans recall D-Day. [S15835] Wilma L. Kelley. [S15870] Elga Rhea Hatfield. [S20130] Norwood D. Hatfield. [S1787] Riva l. Kelley.