The Day the Thunderbird Cried

On April 29, 1945, in the dying days of World War II, soldiers of the U.S. Army’s 45th Infantry Division — the proud "Thunderbirds" — reached the gates of Dachau Concentration Camp in Bavaria, Germany.

These men had fought across a brutal path of fire and blood — from the beaches of Sicily, through the Anzio beachhead, across southern France, and into the heart of Germany itself. The 45th Infantry Division, composed largely of National Guardsmen from Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, carried with them the fierce symbol of the golden Thunderbird, drawn from Native American legend to represent power, strength, and protection.

But even after 500 days of frontline combat, nothing could prepare them for what they found inside Dachau.

Beyond the electrified barbed wire and guard towers lay scenes of unimaginable horror. Thousands of prisoners — skeletal, broken, barely alive — stumbled forward to greet their liberators. In the corners and alleys of the camp, bodies were stacked like firewood, victims of starvation, disease, and systematic cruelty. The stench of death clung to the ground and fouled the air.

Leading one of the first elements into the camp was Lieutenant Colonel Felix L. Sparks of the 157th Infantry Regiment. Sparks and his men quickly moved to secure the facility, rounding up SS guards who had not fled. Some attempted to surrender peacefully. Others resisted. Many were hunted down across the surrounding countryside.

Among those who surrendered was SS Lieutenant Heinrich Wicker, a young officer who had assumed command of Dachau only days before the Americans arrived. Accounts differ on Wicker’s final moments, but it is widely believed he was executed without formal trial, shot by American soldiers overwhelmed by what they had just witnessed.

Later that same day, tensions reached a boiling point in the camp's coal yard. There, Sparks’ men had assembled more than 50 captured SS guards. At some point, after guards reportedly made sudden or threatening movements, American soldiers opened fire. Between 12 and 30 SS men were killed in the shooting before Sparks intervened, discharging his pistol into the air and ordering an immediate ceasefire. This incident, later known as the Dachau Massacre, would be investigated but ultimately resulted in no official punishment for the soldiers involved. Few in the chain of command were eager to weigh the grim justice that unfolded against the atrocities they had just uncovered.

For the men of the 45th Infantry Division, the liberation of Dachau was not a victory in the traditional sense. It was a searing, lifelong wound. In letters home and later memoirs, many described that day not with triumph, but with sorrow and horror.

The golden Thunderbird patch — once a symbol of pride, soaring with strength across battlefield after battlefield — now carried an unbearable weight. The Thunderbirds had fought against tyranny, but at Dachau, they came face to face with the bottomless depths of human cruelty.