All aboard!
Elsie ItemJune 2019 (No. 105)LCI 232

Not All LCI Casualties Occurred During the Landings

When you are doing research, something on a page may jump out and seize your attention. This was the case when I was reviewing the WWII Missing in Action files of U.S. Navy Personnel. On this list was a sailor from LCI 232, missing near Iceland during July 1944.

The name was unique, Norvie Blaine Tinney RM1. As far as I could determine there was only one individual of that name that served in the U.S. Armed forces in WWII. This made searches for additional information much easier, which produced this newspaper column (right)

Norvie B. Tinney was assigned to the LCI(L) 232 at the Amphibious Training Base at Bizete, Tunisia. He was aboard during the invasions of Sicily and later in Italy, before the LCI(L) 232 was transferred to England as part of Flotilla 2 which was to participate in landings on Normandy’s Utah Beach. The details of the LCI(L) 232 of Flotilla 2 is covered in detail by the excellent article by LCI Association’s European Historian John France in his May 2011 Elise Item 75 story titled “They Gave Their All: The Loss of LCIs 232 and 219”.

Norvie Tinney was not included on the list of men killed during the sinking of LCI(L) 232, on June 6, 1944, from the mine explosion. He was only listed as wounded because he had been transferred to an evacuation hospital.

His wounds were serious. On July 26, 1944 he was put aboard an aircraft for the evacuation flight back to the U.S. via Scotland, Iceland and Newfoundland. The last radio contact with the plane was 3 hours after their departure from Iceland. All aboard the plane are still considered Missing in Action.

The casualty rate of enlisted men on the LCI(L) 232 was 96%, Killed, Wounded or Missing in Action.

2 comments
  1. Cindy McClendon Smigliani

    My Father’s records say he was aboard LCI 319, LCI 89 and LCI 189. He was trained as a radio operator. Enlisted 3/17/1942. Think he was on LCI(L)-319 during Normandy, also appears he was on the USS General Weigel from 1942 to 1945. His name was Richard William McClendon. He passed away in 2003. Buried at the Bourne National cemetery, in Massachusetts. Have copies of his military records, only still trying to find out more information.

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