Page 70 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2024 - Online Magazine

ceLeBratinG 10 YearS
Garland Ellis
rivate Ellis stopped in a
doorway to have a much-
Pneeded smoke. His unit,
the 10 Armored Infantry, part
th
of the 4 Armored Division, had
th
been fighting their way across
France since the early months of
WWII from town to town, street
by street and house by house. The
men were looking for German
soldiers left behind to slow
up the advancing Americans.
Oftentimes, it turned deadly.
There always seemed to be a
sniper lurking around, up high,
in the shadows. As Ellis bent
down to light his cigarette, a shot
rang out. Remembering the event
This article (from 2019) is the sixth of ten
articles we are reprinting to celebrate Senior
Link's decade of honoring area veterans.
70 Lubbock Senior Link
The 4th Armored Division—
“Name Enough”
by Larry A. Williams
Veterans Liasion Co-Chair
Texas South Plains Honor Flight
vividly, he recalled, “The shot
hit the window frame only a foot
from my head.” That was warfare
in the closing months and days of
WWII in Europe. The race to the
Rhine was on, and Private Ellis
was in the middle of it all.
Garland D. Ellis was born August
2, 1926 at home near Dalhart,
Texas to W.C. and Myrtle Ellis.
He had one brother. The Ellis
family moved to Ralls, Texas
when Garland was only four
years old. His dad was a farmer
and a carpenter, and most of the
boys’ days were spent working on
the farm. Garland played football
in school and said, “staying in
trouble” was his favorite subject.
In those days, school was over in
th
the 11 grade, and Garland made
th
it through part of the 11 grade.
He married his high school
sweetheart, Dorothy Dillard in
January 1944 and was drafted
into the Army on October 4, 1944.
Ellis recalled, “I was inducted
in Lubbock with some other
guys in the area. We were sent
to Camp Wolters near Mineral
Wells, Texas.” At one time, it was
the largest infantry replacement
training center in the United
States. Ellis added that “Infantry
training was supposed to be 17
weeks,
but we
finished
in 12. I
met Lon
Colvin
(from
Lockney,
Texas) there.” After the
abbreviated basic training, Ellis
and other replacements were sent
to Camp Shanks in Orangetown,
New York. The camp was the
largest U.S. Army embarkation
camp used during WWII, sending
some 1.3 million troops to the
European Theatre.
Ellis and around 15,000 other
replacement troops sailed
for Scotland. Continuing, he
recounted, “We boarded the
Queen Elizabeth and zig-zagged
our way all the way there. We
had no destroyer escort. After
we landed in Scotland, we
took a train to Southampton,
England and then a boat over
to Le Havre, France. We were
assigned as replacements for
th
th
the 10 Armored Infantry, 4
Armored Division and rushed
to join up with them. I spent the
first night on the front lines in a
schoolhouse. The next morning,
the guys were talking about the
mortar attack during the night.
I was so tired, I must have slept
right through it! We were broken
down into companies. Lon Colvin
and some of my buddies went to
A Company. I was assigned to
B Company. I used to catch up
with them going through other
towns.” Unlike other armored
divisions, the 4 Armored didn’t
th
have a nickname, but the highly
decorated unit spent 230 days in
combat, from July 17,1944 (six
weeks after D-Day) until the end
of the war in May 1945. The unit
suffered over 10,000 casualties,