Pfc Anton J. Elvesæter (37049004)

Anton Elvesæter was the first of the squadron to be killed in action. He was part of the detachment from reconnaissance Troop B, tasked with the special mission to secure the Île du Large, just off the Utah Beach landing site two hours before the landings began. He was therefore among the very first allied soldiers to begin the liberation of France. Anton was one of nine Troop B casualties on D Day, from landmines and booby traps, and the only fatality recorded in the After Action Report for June 1944.

Anton was born November 24 1906 in Agdenes municipality, in Sør-Trøndelag County, Norway and grew up in Fenes, Imsterfjorden. One of seven children, he emigrated in 1931 to live with his uncle in South Dakota with whom he worked drilling for water at Presho, Lyman County and as a gas station attendant. He also adopted the anglicised name of ‘Tony Sather’.

Having served in a signals unit, near Trondheim, for compulsory Norwegian military service before emigrating, Anton immediately enlisted in the US when his mother country was invaded in 1940. In a poignant detail recounted for a 1941 newspaper interview, while training in the cavalry, he said that he had received no letters from his parents since the day of the invasion.

Little more is known of Anton’s life or service in the 24th Cav Recon. His nephew Ragnar says: “I don’t have very much information about Anton. All his siblings are dead. But according to Reidar, Anton’s brother and my father, Anton was a steady and respected young man. Never heard anything negative about him.”

But he is not forgotten. Ragnar sent this image of the certificates commemorating Anton’s service displayed in his family home today.

Today Anton rests among 9,388 comrades in the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, overlooking Omaha Beach. I was granted permission to take this photograph for his family in February 2026.

In his mother country Anton is remembered on this memorial stone, in Agdenes, where he served in the local signalavdeling.

Ragnar also provided these photographs featuring Anton.

With thanks to Torgeir Iversen, who kindly liaised with Ragnar to help create this memorial page.

Anton Johnsen Elvesæter was born November 24 1906 in in Sør-Trøndelag County, Norway. He died June 6 1944, on the Îles Saint-Marcouf, Normandy, France.