Cathedral Notre Dame in Le Havre, France suffered minor damage from WWII bombings. It is the oldest of the very few buildings in central Le Havre to have survived the devastation of World War II. While 82% of the city was destroyed by Allied bombing raids in the space of 5 days, the cathedral walls remained standing. Arthur Thorspecken arrived in the port about February 17, 1945.
The church was built in the 16th and 17th centuries. The bell tower dates from 1520 and there are some impact scars from the bombings to this day. It is a Roman Catholic Church. My father was raised Roman Catholic but was excommunicated when he married my mother, Elvira Corr who was Methodist. They were married while my father was still in Military training in North Carolina. My oldest sister, names after Shirley Temple was born in 1943 while Arthur was in training.
As I was doing this sketch, a sea gull waked right up to me and sat down at my feet. I don’t think he was begging for food, he was just curious as to why a human was sitting still for so long. The street I was sitting at was under construction so several cars turned in and realized they had to back out and turn around. As they did their 5 point turns the tires got close to the seagull and he was ready to move but sat still when he know they tires would not hit him. I respected his bold tenacity.
From this port city, Arthur would have likely been transported with other replacements, by truck to one of several 75th infantry headquarters that were set up as the 75th Infantry troops moved north by train to Panningen Netherlands.They had just finished operations in the Colmar Pocket where they pushed the Germans out of France.At first I thought Arthur Thorspecken might have been involved in the fighting in Colmar, but the timing was not right.
In early February 1945, he 75th infantry headquarters were in headquarters were in Charleville-Mézières France, Charleroi Belgium, Namur Belgium, Tongeren-Borgloon Belgium, and Weert Netherlands, before arriving in Penningen Netherlands. I decided to stop in each of these cities since Arthur probably would have reported to a command post before joining the troops assembling in Panningen Netherlands.
On February 17, 1945 the 75th Infantry was assigned to the Ninth Army, 12th Army Group, atta hed to the British Second Army for operations. Arthur’s first experiences in battle would have been on the west bank of the Maas River. Allied troops held the west bank while the Nazis held the east bank. The Germans would constantly fire mortars at the allies. The unit history I have seemed to paint the Netherlands defensive position as an easy assignment. But as I was looking to learn more online, I found one question on Reddit that wanted to know how his father might have died in the Netherlands. His father served in the 75th infantry as well. There were endless dangers. Had my father not survived, I would not be here.