Major Ellis Banister's WWII Service

ELLIS LAWSON BANISTER, 1919–1988
Active Duty U.S. Army 1940-1961
Fought in 8 European campaigns over two years:
Sicily, Salerno-Anzio, Rome-Arno, Naples-Foggia,
Southern France, Ardennes-Alsace, Rhineland & Central Europe
Participated in liberation of Dachau on April 29, 1945

Ellis Banister enrolled in Magnum (Oklahoma) Junior College as a freshman in 1939, and joined the Oklahoma National Guard as a means of paying some of his college expenses. However, in September 1940, he and most of the rest of the men in the Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona National Guard units were called up for active duty in the Army. This newly created 45th Division was named the Thunderbird Division, after the huge, eagle-like bird capable of producing thunder, lightning, and rain in Native American mythology.
The 45th Division landed in Oran, Algeria, on June 22, 1943, to prepare for the Sicilian invasion, which took place July 10. Sergeant Ellis Banister was assigned to the Third Battalion of the 179th Infantry Regiment. The Thunderbirds fought for 22 straight days in Sicily, suffering 500 men killed and 3,500 wounded. After liberating Sicily, the Division moved on to establish a beachhead at Salerno on the Italian mainland on September 9, 1943, an operation that required 20 days of continuous fighting. Between October 19, 1943, and January 9, 1944, the Division took Piedimonte and Benevento, as well as the mountainous regions near Venafro and the Volturno River. The Division fought for 84 straight days, and was later awarded the “Croix de Guerre” by General DeGaulle of the Provisional French Government, whose troops fought alongside the Thunderbirds.
After regrouping near Naples for the next two weeks, the Thunderbirds prepared for what was to become the most brutal campaign of the entire 511 days of fighting in Europe -- establishing a beachhead at Anzio and then breaking through the Nazi lines in order to take Rome. Of the 20 divisions the Nazis had in Italy, they threw 10 at the Anzio beachhead in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the Allies from taking Italy. The vast majority of casualties suffered by the 45th in Italy (3,700 killed and 31,000 wounded) occurred while breaking through the Nazi perimeter around Anzio. That break-through occurred on May 22-26, 1944, after successfully resisting assaults by German forces at Spaccasassi and Cassino. The 45th Division joined up with units of the 5th Army, and the relatively easy march to Rome began.
Rome fell to the Allies on June 4, 1944, and all of Italy soon followed. After Italy’s liberation with the help of the Thunderbird Division, the remainder of their European campaigns in France and Germany took place between August 15, 1944, and May 7, 1945, when the Germans surrendered. The most satisfying emotional highlight (other than the German surrender) had to be the liberation of the 32,000 captives in the Dachau Concentration Camp on April 29, 1945. The Division captured Munich during the next two days, and on the eve of V-E Day, began operating “Radio Station Thunderbird.” During the next month, the Division occupied Munich and set up collection points and camps for the massive numbers of surrendering troops of the Axis armies. The number of POWs taken by the 45th Division during its almost two years of fighting totaled 124,840.
The Division returned to New York in early June, 1945, and from there went to Camp Bowie, Texas. On December 7, 1945, the Division was deactivated and its members reassigned to other Army units.

Michael Ellis Banister