Original German WWII U.S. 80th & 90th Infantry Divisions Battle of Normandy Captured German Banner with 21 Signatures & Stitched Patches - 45" x 107”
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Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. This is a very lovely & overly large German banner captured by men of the 80th & 90th Infantry Divisions. It is signed by 21 soldiers with their hometowns, and we have researched a few of them. There are patches for the 80th & 90th IDs as well as two Technician, 5th Grade rank patches and three overseas stripes. The banner measures roughly 45 x 107”.
There were a few instances where the 80th & 90th Divisions were either next to each other & established contact during the Battle of Normandy. From a 90th ID history website we found that on August 13th, 1944, the 80th was on their right, on August 17th they were together under V Corps of the 1st Army to attack & secure the line Northeast of CHAMBOIS to ARGENTAN. There are a few other instances, making for a good long research project, and it’s safe to say that this banner was likely captured during the Battle of Normandy.
The flag is heavily worn on the opposite side of the signatures. In researching the flag we figured the signatures would be of men from the 80th & 90th IDs. Due to the difficulty of researching WWII soldiers, we could only identify the unit of a few of the men, almost entirely based off of newspaper articles we found online:
- Earl E. Ginter of Hanover, PA served with Company L, 318th Infantry Regiment, 80th Infantry Division.
- James Gerrard of Plymouth, Indiana served with the 317th Infantry Regiment, 80th Infantry Division.
- Jack Denton of Lancaster, Ohio was likewise in the 80th Infantry Division.
- Calvin Ritchie of Titusville, Pennsylvania served with the 317th Infantry Regiment, 80th Infantry Division and was wounded in action.
- Melvin Christman of Allentown, Pennsylvania served with the 80th Infantry Division and was declared missing in action from October 8th, 1944, but was eventually found and returned home alright.
- Gilbert H. Quinones of Houston, Texas was likely in the 90th Infantry Division, but we couldn’t find any article to confirm this.
- Ellis R. Belcher of Grundy, Virginia likely served with the 90th Infantry Division as he’s mentioned as serving with the 1st Army. He was wounded by a German sniper.
We have already provided a great deal of research on some of these men, leaving more than enough work to try and attribute the flag to D-Day / Operation Overlord.
A fantastic example, ready for further research and display.
- This product is available for international shipping. Shipping not available to: Australia, France, or Germany
- Not eligible for payment with Paypal or Amazon
- Due to legal restrictions this item cannot be shipped to Australia, France or Germany. This is not a comprehensive list and other countries may be added in the future.
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