Hero of the Month
Published in Britain at War - July 2025
Sergeant Arthur Banks GC
Sergeant Arthur Banks was a hugely courageous airman who, after being shot down and eventually captured by the enemy, was subjected to the most appalling torture before being murdered in cold blood. As a result of his inhumane treatment and after the full story of his brutal death emerged, he was eventually awarded the George Cross, Britain and the Commonwealth’s most prestigious gallantry award for courage that is not in the presence of the enemy. I recently took the opportunity to visit Banks’ grave in northern Italy to pay my respects to this brave young man just over 80 years after his death.
Arthur Banks was born in Llandullas, Abergele, Denbighshire, Wales, on October 6 1923. He was the son of Captain Charles Banks and his wife Harriet (née Phibbs). His father had served in the Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner to the RAF, during World War One when he had become a fighter “ace” with No. 43 Squadron, destroying at least six enemy aircraft and being decorated for his bravery.
Some reports say he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), other indicate it was the Military Cross (MC). Sadly, Arthur Banks’ mother, who was originally from Cheltenham, died when he was just six years old. In fact, Charles Banks then married his late wife’s sister, Charlotte, and the couple went on to have a daughter, Margaret, which had been the second name of Arthur’s mother.
Charles Banks ran a school at Arnold House in Llanddulas, which had previously been operated by his own father. The novelist Evelyn Waugh studied for a time at Arnold House when he was a schoolboy. Arthur, too, was educated at Arnold House before attending St Edward’s School, Oxford, where he became head boy of Apsley House.
When World War Two broke out in early September 1939, Banks was only 15 years old and still at school. At Arnold House, Banks was nicknamed “Sausages”, or “Sausages Banks”, because of his penchant for eating them at every opportunity even during rationing. This was partly possible because his great friend at school, Edward Walker, lived on a farm and his parents seemed to conjure up sausages for their son and his best friend.
However, in June 1942, and by this time 18 years old, Banks enlisted into the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. Over the next year, he underwent training as an aircrafthand/pilot/observer in London, Shropshire and Cornwall before, in May 1943, he was sent to South Africa for further training as a fighter pilot.
In due course, he served with No 112 (Shark Squadron), Desert Air Force, in North Africa in 1944 before being transferred with them to Italy. The first Allied landings on mainland Italy – a nation that had initially been an ally of Germany – took place in early September 1943.
Even after Italy changed sides in the war later the same month, it then took the Allies many months gradually to push the German forces back towards the north of the country.
After the loss of central Italy, the Germans had withdrawn to the Gothic – or Green – Line. In the east, this reached the Adriatic coast at Pesaro. On August 25 1944, the British 8th Army launched an attack on the eastern section of this defensive line but they encountered fierce German resistance.
Banks, by this point promoted in the rank of Sergeant, and his fellow pilots were flying North American Mustang fighter-bombers in direct support of Army operations. On August 29, he took part in an attack on the Ravenna and Ferrara areas. During his sortie, his aircraft was damaged by ant-aircraft fire but he was able to radio that he had been hit.
He flew as far south as possible, hoping eventually to land in an Allied-controlled area of Italy but he was unable to make it that far in his damaged aircraft. Eventually, he was forced to make a crash landing in enemy-held territory but a fellow airman watching from the skies saw him land safely.
His aircraft had been destroyed in the crash-landing so Banks resolved to reach Allied lines on foot. However, after he made contact with a group of Italian partisans, he decided to help them fight the Germans. It was not long before he was regarded by the partisans as a heroic figure for the advice, encouragement and knowledge that he was able to impart.
The lengthy citation for Banks eventual award of the GC takes up the story: “Early in December, 1944, an attempt at crossing into allied territory by boat was planned. Sergeant Banks and a number of partizans assembled at the allotted place, but the whole party was surrounded and captured. Sergeant Banks was handed over to the German commander of the district, who presided at his interrogation. During the questioning, Sergeant Banks was cruelly tortured. At one stage, he succeeded in getting hold of a light machine gun, with which he might have killed most of his captors, had not one of the partizans, fearing more severe torture, intervened and pinned his arms to his sides. Sergeant Banks was badly knocked about before he was taken to another prison.
“On 8th December, 1944, Sergeant Banks was taken, with a number of partizans, to a prison at Adria. He remained there until 19th December, 1944, when he was handed over to the commander of a detachment of the “Black Brigade”. He was then transferred to another prison at Ariano Polesine. Here, in the presence of Italian Fascists, he was stripped of his clothing and again tortured. Sergeant Banks was eventually bound and thrown into the River Po. Despite his wounds, even at this stage, he succeeded in reaching the river bank. The Fascists then took him back to the prison, where he was shot through the head. At the time of his capture, Sergeant Banks was endeavouring to return to the Allied lines, so that he might arrange for further supplies to the partizans. He endured much suffering with stoicism, withholding information which would have been of vital interest to the enemy. His courage and endurance were such that they impressed even his captors. Sergeant Banks’ conduct was, at all times, in keeping with the highest traditions of the Service, even in the face of most brutal and inhuman treatment.”
Banks had died on December 20 1944 at Ariano nel Polesine, Italy, aged just 21. His GC was announced on November 5 1946, more than a year after the end of World War Two. His sister received his posthumous GC from King Geroge VI in an investiture at Buckingham Palace on December 3 1946.
Later more details emerged about Bank’s horrific treatment as a POW. In August 1946, the trial began in Naples of ten Italians, including two women, relating to Banks’ death. Two Germans were also accused of complicity in relation to his treatment. The court heard that after refusing to betray those who had assisted him, Banks was repeatedly struck by fists, kicked and subsequently whipped, being hung up by his wrists which were bound with thin wire which cut deeply into his flesh whilst he was again lashed with a whip.
Banks was then burned with red hot irons but still he refused to provide any valuable information. Next, his German captors then handed him over to Fascist Security Officers. A Lieutenant Rinaldi renewed the whipping and torture with red hot irons. Then two women Fascist officers tortured him further in what was described as an “unspeakable fashion”.
Next, they threw Banks on his back, poured petrol on his chest and set light to him. Finally, they dragged the body of the badly-injured airman to a bridge over the River Po, tied a large stone to his feet and dropped him into the river. In a final effort, Banks miraculously managed to free himself and struggled to the bank, but he was seen by his two women torturers. Having then been dragged back to prison, Lieutenant Rinaldi then shot him through the back of the head with a pistol. Banks’ body was then discarded, apparently on a dung heap.
The court heard that the facts of the case are “in truth so revolting as to make my task a most unpleasant and unsavoury one.” In all 32 people came under investigation from the Italian and British authorities who were determined that this vile war crime should not go unpunished.
After a hearing lasting a month, Banks’ main torturers, Anna Paola Cattanio and Olimpio Ferracini, were each found guilty and sent to prison for 20 years. Three others were also convicted of involvement in his torture and they received shorter prison sentences of between five and eight years respectively. Six others were acquitted.
Shortly after the end of the war, Banks’ remains were reinterred at the Argenta Gap War Cemetery in northern Italy and it was here that I paid my respects to him earlier this year. His grave is inscribed, “The righteous are in the hands of God and there shall no torment touch them.”
I discovered that at this immaculately-kept Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery, Banks is in very good company. Also buried at the cemetery is Corporal Thomas Hunter VC, who died aged just 21 in a diversionary raid on nearby Lake Comacchio.
Hunter, a Royal Marine, was awarded a posthumous VC for his outstanding bravery, the only one to the Royal Marines during the Second World War. In an incredible act of self-sacrifice, Hunter, who was in charge of a Bren gun section, had offered himself as a target to save his troop. The citation for his decoration ended: “Throughout the operation his magnificent courage, leadership and cheerfulness had been an inspiration to his comrades.”
Furthermore, the graveyard is also the final resting places of Major Anders Lasen VC, MC & two Bars, who was killed, aged 24, leading another diversionary raid near Lake Comacchio. To this day Lassen, a Dane, remains the only member of the SAS to have been awarded the VC in the regiment’s glittering 84-year history. Lassen’s citation ended: “The high sense of devotion to duty and the esteem in which he was held by the men he led, added to his own magnificent courage, enabled Major Lassen to carry out all the tasks he had been given with complete success.:
Banks’ name is on a headstone at the Wart Memorial, Llanddulas, where he lived as a boy. Similarly, his name is on a memorial board at St Edward’s School Chapel, Oxford, which he attended as a schoolboy. Because of his mother’s links to Cheltenham, Banks is commemorated on Cheltenham Borough War Memorial and on a plaque at St Mark’s Parish Church, Cheltenham.
The war artist Robert Swan also painted an impressive painting of him. For many years after his death at Ariano nel Polesine, Banks was known simply, with great affection by local Italians as “the Englishman”, a very courageous Englishman for sure.