Grandpa Bob was a modest hero, part of the Greatest Generation who helped defeat the Nazi war machine during World War II.
Our Robert McKellogg served in the Army's 45th Infantry Division, also known as the Thunderbirds. He did his Basic Training in Texas. He fought in Italy, France, and Germany as part of the Thunderbird's 180th Regiment.
Grandpa Bob was deployed to Italy in August of 1944. He was trained as a demolitions expert, seeing his first combat in the Rome-Arno Campaign. He and his unit were part of the fierce fighting against the Nazis in France in winter of 1944, known as the Rhineland Campaign. His L Company was the first Thunderbird unit to enter Germany early in 1945. They fought village by village, city by city, until they surrounded and captured Nuremberg, the Nazi heartland.
On April, 29, 1945, Grandpa Bob and his Division entered the Dachau Concentration Camp, liberating over 30,000 prisoners from the SS guards. “Hell on earth,” was how he described entering the camp.
After the Allied victory in Europe, Grandpa Bob returned home in the fall of 1945. He received a number of military citations for his service, including the Bronze Star Medal.
In addition, the Thunderbirds were honored for their role in the liberation of Dachau by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1986.
We owe a great debt to our humble hero!
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You can click on the scanned images below to see memorabilia from Robert McKellogg’s WW II scrapbook.
