Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is
Donald Banks. He is a veteran of the US Army's eighty second Airborne Division
in World War Two, serving with the Field Artillery Paratroopers. He is a
recipient of the Purple Heart. And mister Banks, thank you very much for
being with us. Thank you. When and where were you born? Sir?
Born in Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia in nineteen twenty five, maybe sixteenth.
You were born in Canada, so this might be a different type of question.
Was there a history of military service in your family, either in the
US or Canada or anywhere else? My brother and did he served in World
War two as well? Yea? And what branch of service was he in?
He was a medic in the army. Were you drafted or did you
enlist? I enlisted through the draft board when I wanted to go in,
but all the enlistment officers were closed because they were drafting. So I volunteered
in the draft board. And so did you choose the airborne or did the
airborne choose you? No? Airborne was strictly voluntary. The whole thing pretty
tough. Training from what I've read, So what was it like for you?
Top? It was nine mile run? Was normal? Were you ready
for that type of training when you first got there? Well? Yes,
because I've been working at CAP and to work with my father for a couple
of years off and on, so I was in pretty good shape. Now,
when most people think of paratroopers, they think of jumping out of planes
and ready to fight once they hit the ground. They might not imagine field
artillery playing what paratroopers and field artillery do together. I knew that would throw
you. I don't know myself, to be honest with you, because obviously
you can't jump with a howitzer or under your arm. So we jumped in
and then part of out the eighty second was what we call straight legs.
They were glider riders and they brought the guns in glider or by truck.
And what kind of guns were they? Seventy five millimeters? What was the
training like to get good at shooting those? Well? I trained on one
oh five in Fort Bragg, North Carolina when I first went into the service.
And so if you can handle the one oh fives, you can handle
the seventy fives, right, Yes, I finished seventeen weeks of basic training
and then they shipped to Sova. Where did they ship you too, Let's
see, we landed in Scotland. Then they sent us on the train down
to Wales and we went into Wales in a what we called a repo depot,
which was replacement depot, and that's where they came and they were recruiting
the paratroopers and I signed up for the paratroopers there and then they shipped us
to England. I took my training in England for paratroopers school. And what
was that training like, Well, it was real rough training. When they
shook us out of our bum we did a run. We ran for a
couple three miles. Then we come back and we had our breakfast and then
we did the calisthenics and a good part of the day was spent on cob
strictly calisthenics, and every once in a while we would go on a run.
So it was it was tough training. I remember after the third day
of it, I couldn't get out of bed in the morning, and neither
could buy Buddy, and we were so lame and stiff from exercise. So
then they had to they had to help us out of bed, but we
went right back to the training. It was there was no let up.
What kind of calisthenics did they have you doing that had you so sorry?
Boy? You name it? Push ups, duck walk, every kind of
exercise you can imagine. The duck walk used to be the toughest one.
Did they let you jump once in a while? No? No, we
didn't jump until we finished all our calisthenics. And then we went to what
we referred to as jump school. Jump schooled you learned about your parachute and
how to use it and so forth and so on, and then how to
land and what we call tumble, and you learn how to tumble so you
didn't hurt yourself, and also if there was a breeze blowing, how to
collapse your shoot after you were on the ground. What was it like that
first time you got to jump? First time we got to jump? We're
all so mad at at our instructors because they were so rough one on us.
They really showed you no mercy, believe me, And so it wasn't
tough at all because we were sayingxious to get away from the instructors that we
went out to out the door without even the second thought. However, after
we get out the tool, we were wondering what the hell we were doing
out there? So landing, how was that something you got pretty quickly because
of the training that you had, Or was was that I learned to skill?
Well? It was. It was all different conditions that we landed and
you know, the wind was blown or the wind was not blown. It
was water conditions, trees conditions, things like that, and we learned how
to avoid trees and water and if we could or if we couldn't, then
how we were going to land in them. When were you finally deployed to
fight D Day? Well, tell me about that. How did that start?
How did that day start for you? I'm has tempt to talk much
about that at all, to be honest with you, it's too gruesome.
I I'd rather avoid that. Well, can you tell me what you're overall
mission was that day? Yeah, to Saint Mary g Lease for a French
town that was liberated. And so can you tell me about the jump?
No, I don't. I don't want to talk about that either. Where
were you at the end of the day someplace in Normandy? I don't know
where did you go back to England. After that did you move forward?
Where did you go? After a D day? Karat Troopers had what we
called a mission, and after we finished the mission, we usually went back
to base camp. And base camp was at that point was in England.
And our mission when we went into Normandy was to take Sherburg, and which
was a considerable distance away from Normandy. And when we took that and we
were relieved. And the biggest thing I remember about that was that we had
bought our way all the way to Sherburg and then I could get how many
miles it was, But I remember we had to walk back to Normandy to
get the ships take us back to England, and I remember walking day and
night. That was I don't know which was worse. Going to comment,
After you walked back from Sharbourg to Normandy, what happened next, Well,
they took us back on LSTs. They took us back to England and then
we got re equipped in England and waited for the next mission, which happened
to be If my memory serves me right, I believe it was Holland so
Operation Market Garden. Yes that's correct. Okay, tell me about getting ready
for that? How did you prepare for that mission. I didn't jump into
that mission. We would invite truck. About half division jumped in and the
other half went in by truck. And where along that series of bridges did
you drive to Nimegan? Our mission was to take the bridge in Nimegen,
which the bridge went from Nimegen to Germany. And what did you discover once
you got to Nimegan? What was the situation there? Well, it was
held by the Germans, so we had to take it, and then we
had to take the bridge. The Germans were going to blow up all the
bridges that went across the river there, and we had to stop them from
blowing them because we knew that Patton would need them taking his tanks over.
So what was the key to stopping them at Nimegan? How are you successful
there? Just? Fight like hell? How would you describe the German as
a fighter? He was a good fighter. He had an excellent howitzer,
the eighty eight, and they used the same gun brawl there. How its
or were any aircraft? So for all the same gun, the eighty eight,
which was an excellent gun. So how did you get around that?
How were you able to succeed? Despite how effective they were with the eighty
eights, Well, perseverance. I guess was there any particular strategy, you
know, how troops were moved around or how you I assume you were shooting
your seventy fives, Adam, Right, by that time we had one all
fives in back of us. So and so was it a matter of greater
firepower eventually? Well, I guess it always comes down to that in the
final phase of it. And so what did you do after the battle at
Nimeagen. Well, then we were relieved, only we didn't go back to
England. Then we went to my memories to me right, we went back
the Reems, France, where we again got re equipped and waited for our
next mission. And I really can't remember what was next. Now, you
were successful in holding the bridge at Nimeghan, but ultimately that mission became known
as the Bridge too Far because the Allies did not take the bridge at Arnhem
across the Rhine. What was your reaction to knowing that ultimately the effort to
cross the Rhine had not been successful that time? That bridge rover Ernaheim was
the English were supposed to take it, but they had impossible odds. There
was no way that he ever could have taken it. And so you mentioned
that you went for recovery to Reems. Was your next engage agement at the
Battle of the Bulge. I'm not sure. Battle of the Boat came along
there someplace, Yes, but I don't think that it was quite at that
time. I'm not I'm really not sure. Did you fight at the Battle
of the Bulge? Yes? And what do you remember about that buck to
your backside? And bitter coal? Yeah? How did you deal with the
coal? That's the temperatures and the wind were just unreasonable at that time.
We they we had to rush up to the bulge when they broke through,
and we went without any overcoats or gloves so forth. We didn't have a
mission to us until long after we got there. However, we had a
shelter have and blankets and so forth. So we fashioned them into the craziest
looking overcoat you ever saw. We cut holes in the in the top of
it to put our arms through, and we cut holes in the bottom to
put our legs through. And it was the laugh at like hell at each
other. We looked like they you panded Arabs. However, they are effective.
Do you still suffer any frostbite or other effects from being there. Oh,
yeah, my ears that I had to be very careful now with my
ear as they got frozen about six times up there? Where was your unit?
Where was the eighty second along the line at the bulge? We moved
around so much, I don't know. And what do you remember about the
combat there? Oh? It was tree to tree? I remember. It's
more like I guess we're the old fashioned Indian fighting. You mentioned moving around
a lot. How quickly could you pick up those guns and move them around?
We only had the seventy fives at that point, and they were very
versatiles. We h half a dozen guys could pick up one of them,
put them in the back of the truck if he had problems, or they
told him with jeeps. So forth there was There wasn't much problem with the
guns. And obviously that was Hitler's big attempt to redefine the Western front.
So what was what was your reaction when the battle was over and you had
held the line and he had failed. Our reaction was same as any of
the actions after we took fight through. We won our fight, and we
just quietly went to the next battle. I know that you, as we
said at the beginning, you received a purple heart. Do you remember where
you were wounded and how that happened? Yes, but I was wounded in
Holland, in uh a little town of Grossbeck, I believe it was.
I was wounded in the right elbow, in the hand, and they sent
me back to Eventually I wound up back in Oxford, England, where I
got healed, and they sent me back in back to combat. After I
was healed and I was I know I was laid up for quite a while,
but I don't remember how law Where were you when the war ended?
I don't know. I remember an ending. I seems to me we were
back in France, resting or something. I can't really we were back in
France or Belgium, I can't remember just which one. Was there a pretty
big party when the news came down. No, very very quiet, not
a sound he pin drop. Well, we weren't interested in Patty Ands who
were just interested and was in deep thought of okay, now what? And
there was some talk that they were going to send us to the Pacific,
and we didn't care much for that, but it had to go where you
were told. But anyway, Fortunately we didn't have to go to the Pacific.
They sent us home. And what did you do after the war?
While I was in the car, I was a carpenter apprentice when I went
into the service, and when I came back home, I just took up
to where I left off. And so was that your business for the rest
of your professional life? Well, not really. I worked for my father.
I learned the business from my father. When I come back home,
I went back to work. And only at this point I had enough time
in that I was a foreman and one of his crews. And then I
believe I was forty years old when he died, and I took over his
business from there, and because my mother was still alive and I was actually
running it for my mother. And then later on I went in a business
for myself, and then I stayed in business for a while, I don't
remember how long. And then I had the opportunity to go to work for
a good size outfit and with a pension and so forth. So I took
that and closed up my own business. And sir, what are you most
proud of from your service to our country? Just being a soldier in the
eighty second air one. Talk about that a little more. Why was that
such an honor for you to be part of the eighty second. Well,
at that point we were known as the elite division. Every soldier in the
eighty second was he was an excellent soldier. He had to be a para.
Never got too much recognition. We were always told that, well,
that was what was expected of us. And believe me, it worked because
every one of us were extremely proud of our division and we still are.
And a battle cry was Geronimo, which that was developed years and years ago.
And I want to remind you that York was a soldier in the eighty
second at that point. They were not I one though, obviously, but
if somebody sarcastically used to say Geronimo, that was and they were sarcastic about
it. That was fighting talk. Mister Banks. I thank you very much
for your time today, and most of all, I thank you very very
much for your service to our country, which really appreciate it. Thank you
there. Donald Banks is a US Army veteran serving in the eighty second Airborne
Division in World War Two. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
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