Gasthause Luthemuhle was the Inn I stayed in as I explored and sketched Kaldenkirchen Germany. It was a really nice place right on a lake and there were two horses who grazed right outside my window as the sun set. It was a quiet peaceful retreat which is the polar opposite of the 80 year old war zone I was trying to find evidence of.
The quick sketch is of the dining room. The Inn was far from the town of Kaldenkirchen, so I at here several times.
There was little resistance when 8th Armored Division first took Kaldenkirchen on March 1, 1945. My father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken and the men of C-Company of the 75th Infantry Division were in this area from March 8th to March 11, 1945 clearing isolated pockets of German resistance. They did the same in Venlo Netherlands and Roermund Netherlands which are both close to Kaldenkirchen Germany.
XVI Corps command post, was located in Kaldenkirchen Germany in early March 1945. The 75th Infantry Division was assigned to the XVI Corps for OPERATION GRENADE. That Operation had the troops advancing across the Ruhr River which had been flooded by the retreating Germans, to the western side of the Rhine River. The British and Canadians were to the north as the troops advanced towards the Rhine River.