March 3, 1945: Westerbroek Germany

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The 290th Infantry, 75th Infantry Division Combat Diary written and edited by Technician 4th Grade Cecil J. Bond is a primary source of information for the World War II cities I made every effort to sketch. He noted that on March 3, 1945 the regiment moved to an assembly area near Venlo Netherlands where the battalions were almost immediately alerted to a further move to the forward division assembly area near Westerbrock Germany. This was the first time the 75th would be advancing into Germany. They were advancing to relive elements of the 291st Infantry.

As I sat at dinner at Gasthause Luthermuhle, I was searching for Westerbrock Germany on Google Maps on my phone. For the life of me, I could not find the town. There was a Westerbrock Netherlands far to the north which was the site of a major Nazi transit camp, it served as a gathering point for over 100,000 Jews, Sinti, and Roma before their deportation to concentration and extermination camps in German-occupied Poland and Germany. That town was way too far north, so that could not be the assembly area I was looking for. I assumed it had to be pretty close to where I was, but there was no Westerbrock Germany.
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March 7, 1945: Heidhausen Germany

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On March 7, 1945bas part of OPERATION GRENADE, the 1st Battalion of the 75th Infantry Division assembled in Heidhausen Germany, south of Venlo Netherlands. The 2nd Battalion assembled in Bruch Germany and the 3rd a battalion assembled in Hulst Germany. I kept my focus on 1st Battalion since my father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thospecken was in charge of C-Company in the 1st Battalion. They were assembling to prepare to clear Venlo, Roermund and Leutherheide Germany.

OPERATION GRENADE involved crossing the flooded Roer River and driving the Germans back across the Rhine River to the east. The Rhine River was the last natural barrier keeping American troops from sweeping towards Berlin Germany.Rhine

Troops were billeted in the finest homes in town. For 3 days they screened the surrounding towns for prisoners of war, weapons and to clear any remaining pill boxes. Once this area was cleared they would push east to the Rhine River.

Today, Heidhausen is very much a small rural community. I parked the rental car on a small suburban street and then hiked out onto the long expanses of farming dirt roads. The community church in Bruch Germany can be seen in the distance.

March 7, 1945: Leutherheide Germany

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The 75th Infantry Division Command Post was in Leutherheide Germany on March 7, 1945. The troops were in Kaldenkirchen Germany a 10 minute drive to the west. During World War II Kaldenkirchen was located near the Siegfried line which was a critical German defensive position along the Western front. Allied forces encountered the Siegfried line in the final months of the war. The Rhineland campaign which involved allies clearing the area west of the Rhine and then crossing the Rhine River involved significant fighting in this area.

About 65 German soldiers marched into Leutherheide Germany. An allied patrol spotted the troops and reported their position back to the 135th Infantry Division headquarters. A convoy was assembles of anti tank guns, assorted vehicles and 7 jeeps carrying troops from Company’s K and L. When the American troops rolled into town the German troops were completely surprised. About 40 surrendered and the others fled. There were no casualties.

The saying on the large headstone with the German helmet on top, translated says…”We remember our hero’s.”

What I sketched was the Peter and Paul German War Graves in Leutherheide Germany. After completing the sketch I was getting back in the rental car when an old woman drive her motorized scooter up to my drivers door window. She asked me a question in German and I didn’t understand. She sounded upset or annoyed, soI decided to just show her my sketch. Then she pointed at the gate to the cemetery and I understood enough words to realize she wanted me to let her into the cemetery. I flipped open the squeaky iron latch and swung the gate open for her. She thanked me and motored inside. When I left the gate swung closed. Now I am wondering how she got back out of the cemetery. If she couldn’t open the gate going in, then she wouldn’t be able to open the gate to get back out.

 

March 1945: Kaldenkirchen Germany

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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.

 

March 8, 1945: Kaldenkirchen Germany

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The 8th Armored Division passing through Kaldenkirchen Germany on March 3rd with little resistance. March 6, 1945 the 75th Infantry was ordered to move to an assembly area south of Kaldenkirchen Germany. That troop movement was completed by March 7, 1945. On March 7th there was small arms fire near the 75th Infantry Command Post. The Headquarters and Service Companies were alerted but no enemy troops were found in the area.

On March 9, 1945, a jeep patrol from the 75th Infantry division hit an anti-tank mine just east of Kaldenkirchen in farm country, resulting in several casualties, including one killed in action. The night of 10 March 1945, the 75th Infantry Division relieved Task Force Murray of the 35th Infantry Division working with the 8th Armored Division. The bridges to Wesel across the Rhine River had been blown by retreating Germans and the movement across the Rhine, halted.

From March 8-11 1945 the 75th Infantry Division was involved in clearing the area around Kaldenkirchen Germany as well as Venlo and Roermund Netherlands. The 35th Infantry Division had accomplished a breakthrough in this area but did not have time to completely eliminate all the enemy installations in the area. It fell to the 75th Infantry Division to take out each installation one at a time. German prisoners were taken, suspected were processed, mine fields were marked to keep troops from injury and for future clearing and large quantities of weapons and ammunition were confiscated.

From March 13 to March 23, the 75th patrolled a sector along the west bank of the Rhine from Wesel to Homburg.

 

Kaldenkirchen Germany: Cross and Mary Garden

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Kaldenkirchen Germany is just a little bit south east of Venlo Netherlands. The 75th Infantry Division was in Kaldenkirchen Germany from March 7 to the 11th of March 1945. The were involved in clearing Venlo Netherlands and the surrounding area including Kaldenkirchen, of remaining German resistance. Kaldenkirchen was close to the Geilenkirchen salient, a German defensive position within the Siegfried line. The salient restricted Allied movement and therefore became a target of the Allied offensive.

The city was evacuated in the final weeks of a World War II before more heavy fighting occurred. The Cross and Mary garden I sketched was built on the ruins of the German Westwall. A pastor discovered a blasted bunker and in 1947 decided to convert it into a garden. On Pentecost, the townspeople come here to honor the people lost in World War II.

As I walked through the garden, I noticed that a farmer was plowing his fields right behind the lush landscape. The Cross and Mary Garden uses a bunker complex built by the Germans as the foundation for building a tiered garden. On the path that winds around the edge of the garden are 12 sculptures that depict the 12 stations of Christ carrying the cross. In a central area there is a deep pit that is surrounded by stone work. There is then a flat elk aged staging area that is probably used for a pulpit during outdoor sermons.

I sketched a bust of Christ inset on a brick column. On each of the faces of the column there were metal plaques with names of fallen Herman soldiers. The saying 0n the fr0nt face of the column translates to… “Good peace and freedom against forgetting.”. There were some really amazing relief sculptures with height contrast of white figures against  dark ground. There was one in the distance behind the Christ bust I sketched and another under the elevated staging area.

Locals seem to use the garden to walk their dogs. One woman was walking her tiny fluffy pup. Then a man was on the garden with his hunting dog. The hunting dog was not on a leash. As I was finishing my sketch, I noticed the dog run past the bust of Christ with something in its mouth that was moving. It was a dove. The dog stopped and shook its head violently until the dove stopped struggling. Then the dog disappeared onto the woods with the prize on its mouth. The man wanted to leave so he shouted for the dog to come. It returned to the man but the dove must have been left behind on the woods.

 

Büderick Germany: Wacht am Rhine

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I am convinced that this is the spot that my father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken along with the men of C–Company who he was leading, would have crossed the Rhine River which was the biggest obstacle keeping allies from driving into the heart of Germany.

On March 24, 1945, the 75th Infantry Division crossed the Rhine, this hotel which I am sure is close to their crossing site, became the site of a famous photo shoot. On 25 March, 1945 Prime Minister Winston Churchill first attended a church service that morning at the English headquarters in a village on the west side of the Lower Rhine. He then drove with his chief of staff, and a few war correspondents in armored vehicles to the American headquarters in Rheinberg Germany.

At the American Headquarters, Supreme Commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower, told Churchill about a hotel called Wacht am Rhine, about 10 miles away in Büderich Germany, which offered a good view of the Rhine and the town of Wesel on the opposite bank. Accompanied by a large security force, Churchill, Eisenhower, Montgomery and the journalists were driven to the house. Translated Wacht am Rhine means Watch on the Rhine.

From the balcony on top of the the hotel restaurant they had a beautiful view of the river Rhine and the land behind it. After the men have been extensively filmed and photographed, Eisenhower returned to his headquarters, while Churchill suggested to Montgomery to cross the Rhine in a landing craft.

I considered staying in the hotel but unfortunately they were fully booked. The river runs only 50 yards in front of the hotel and at this point the river is about 2 football fields wide. A small peninsula juts out into the river. A fisherman was using the peninsula to catch fish as I sketched. As I finished sketching he packed up his fishing gear, so I hiked down to where he had been. 1st Lieutenant Joe Colcord of the 75th Infantry Division 3rd Platoon said that there was a tradition among the men that they had to pee onto the Rhine. Now I am not saying I did that but this peninsula was the perfect spot to make that happen.

The crossings at Rees, Bislich, Wesel and Dinslaken were all part of OPERATION PLUNDER.

The hotel Wacht am Rhine was built in 1888 and has been family owned ever since. The day Winston Churchill , Montgomery and Eisenhower over looked the Rhine they also took a trip to see the destroyed Reinbaben Bridge. Churchill also insisted on crossing the river himself although there were still enemy shells being fired in the area. These photos circulated around the world to show that Germany’s impassible Rhine had been breached.

Tor to the Rhine

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In Orsoy Germany just south of Rhineberg Germany, I was walking back from sketching the ferry across the Rhine  River and decided to sketch the city gate. Orsoy used to be a walled in medieval fortress town. This gate or Tor in German faces west towards the Rhine. Steel doors have been added which can be shut if the river floods and gets to the city gate, or Tor in German.

My Air B&B host told me that the other gates to the city had to be demolished by the American troops because the American Sherman tanks could not fit through them.  This gate is larger than the rest and therefore survived the war. By March 31, 1945 there were 3 Treadway Bridges, 2 Bailey Bridges and a Heavy Pontoon Bridge built across the Rhine. No bridge was build at Orsoy, so I don’t think the 75th Infantry would have crossed there. I also know that the 75th crossed before the first of the bridges was built, they went across with landing craft.

The 79th Infantry Division likely did cross the Rhine on a treadway bridge north or Orsoy Germany  as they invaded Dinslaken Germany. A  Treadway Bridge was built by the 17th Armored Engineer Battalion, The M2 Steel Treadway Bridge, is a modular floating bridge system used by the U.S. Army to cross rivers with heavy vehicles, . had over 1152 feet of  steel runway treads and 93 pneumatic floats. The project required just six hours and fifteen minutes to complete, setting a record for the size of the bridge. The Treadway Bridge was the fasted to build. The Bailey Bridges built were much sturdier.

Regardless of the bridge crossing sites, I believe the 75th Infantry Division, C-Company, lead by my father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken  would have crossed much further to the north. They would have crossed just south of Wesel Germany and then crossed the Lippe Canal to clear the area between the Canal and the Lippe River. I thought the canal locks likely were used to make their way north across the canal, but the German military destroyed bridges over the Lippe Canal near places like Hunxe as Allied forces pushed into Germany in 1944 and 1945. It only makes sense for the 75th Infantry to cross the Rhine right where the Lippe Canal and the Lippe River empty onto the Rhine. That small strip of land they would mean they crossed at or just south of Buderich Germany. So you can see that knowing exact;y where the troops were is a bit of a guessing game, but new facts help to zone in on the truth.

 

The Rhine Crossing near Rhineberg Germany

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After visiting my distant cousins Nini Thorspecken in Koblenz Germany, I drove back up to the Rhineberg Germany area to get a sketch of the Rhine River where my father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken might have crossed the river in March of 1945. I found a parking spot at the trailhead of a long hiking trail that followed the river northwards. The first mile of so of the trail the river wasn’t visible but then the trail went up a steep hill which might be man made to keep the floodwaters from getting to the fields and the town.

I was dreading the crossing. I imagined the industrial Ruhr area to be a wasteland of endless factories. When I stopped to  sketch that dread was reinforced. The nuclear facility I had sketched down river was still visible and surrounding it were a vast cluster of smoke stacks and cranes. There were train tracks right near the river’s edge and the cars were covered in graffiti. I noticed on the drive down to Koblenz Germany that graffiti is predominant along the autobahn. Rather than accepting the graffiti as a sign of artistic expression, I saw it as a song of cultural decay.

I am satisfied that this sketch site is straight west of Rheinberg Germany. I could have done another sketch further north along this trail, but there was a huge heard of sheep grazing and I decided I would not scatter the herd so I turned around. This sketch represents what might be the southern most of the three sites that the 75th Infantry Division might have crossed the river at. The middle site would have looked quite similar to this, so I was fine with focusing my attention on reaching the northern most site which was Buderich Germany.

As part of OPERATION PLUNDER, the 75th Infantry crossed the Rhine river between March 26th and March 31, 1945 under the cover of engineering smoke. The 75th was assigned to work along side the 8th Armored Division which was the first armored unit over the Rhine in the 9th Army sector. The crossings were proceeded with a huge artillery bombardment. 1st Lieutenant Dick Sassin said this of the crossing of the Rhine, “We were involved in a major attack across the Rhine, but the bridge at Remagen had been found intact, so troops could move across. It must have been hell to be on the receiving end as the concussion on our side was so great that it would lift the roof tiles  and they would fall back with a clatter of tiles that did not reconnect.”

Koblinz Germany: The Patron Saint of Artillerymen

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This sketch marked a deviation from the military route of the 75th Infantry Division. I drove several hour south to Koblenz Germany to visit with my very distant cousin Nini Thorspecken-Friebe. To help cut the weight of my travels at the start, I shipped 6 empty sketchbooks to Nini from America. That saved considerably on the weight I would have to carry when I flew into Europe. Since I decided that a car rental was the only way to accomplish this sketch project, I could pick up the six sketchbooks and keep them in the trunk of the car.

On day one of this trip I had my identity stolen with someone trying to buy a plane ticket to Amsterdam using my credit card information. I had to cut the credit card in half and Seacoast Bank refused to work out a way that I could access the money I had saved for travel expenses. The only way the bank would allow expenses is if I had the new credit card they were sending out. The problem of course was that I was constantly on the move in Europe. I had that card shipped to my brother in Connecticut and then he sent it to Nini where I picked it up on September 28. I had to be clandestine about the process since the bank was treating me as if I was a criminal. That first month of travel was rough, but I always found something to eat. Apples and and pears were plentiful in the Netherlands. I would always throw fruit in my art bag if I saw them roadside.  The first month was certainly a lesson in keeping expenses low. The habit persists. If a breakfast buffet has apples in a bowl, one will always leave with me.

In Koblenz, I stayed in an Air B&B which was in the old city. Built in the 1600s the place was constructed in the traditional style with large wooden beams and stucco. The top floor room I had wasn’t build for someone who is six foot two. I bumped my head a few times and started to walk hunched over. A block away was Mozart’s childhood home. There was so much history in such a small cramped area.

The Barbara Monument is only a block or so from where Nini and her husband Raoul live in Koblenz. The Barbara-Monument features the central figure of Saint Barbara holding a gun barrel and palm branch, flanked by two allegorical figures representing War and Peace. Saint Barbara is the patron saint of artillerymen. I didn’t realize there was a patron saint of artillerymen. Besides being a monument it also functions as a fountain, although the water feature was off when I did the sketch.

Nini and Raul treated me to a very traditional German breakfast. Small breads rolls are called brötchen in German. There were meats and cheeses, jams and Nutella, and locks. The royal touch is a hard boiled egg prepared just right so the yoke is semi solid but a bit runny. The egg top is cut off and a tiny spoon is used to scoop out the egg white and yoke. I made it a point to try and find places that offered such a delicious spread to start the day.

Raoul really seemed to appreciate my project. He is in the German military as a medic. He is an anesthesiologist. He showed me his military backpack which I absolutely envied. I asked him about where he thought I might see the dragons teeth which were set up on the western front before World War II to stop an allied advance into Germany. He had plenty of suggestions. When he saw my sketch of the Sherman tank decked out as a mine sweeper, he pulled up YouTube videos that showed the vehicle in action. When Raoul saw sketches of beautiful Belgian cities with historic buildings surrounding a large square, he lamented that Germany once had such beautiful city centers before World War II saw them all destroyed.

He and Nini are world travelers. They have a map in their apartment that shows all the countries they have been to. It is an impressive display. I should set up a color coded map some day. Nini took me up in a lift which went across the Rhein River to the Koblenz Ehrenbreistein, which is a huge fort that acted as a military barracks. I had a-ent many days looking for a route across the Rhine River and now I found myself floating over the river on a lift.

Koblenz is on the confluence of the Moselle and the Rhine River so it is importantly militarily. That evening after the sun set, I walked a long path down from the fort, not exactly sure where the path would lead me to. Descending that dark path as the sun set behind the Koblenz skyline on the opposite shore of the Rhine, I felt this really was an adventure. I was hoping to resolve the tech issue with my laptop refusing to power up, and the financial problems of dealing with SeaCoast Bank. I couldn’t solve everything in the one weekend but at least the wheels were in motion. For this one moment, walking in the dark, I felt at peace.

During World War II Koblenz hosted the command of German Army Group B and, like many German cities, was heavily bombed and rebuilt afterwards. From March 16-19, 1945, it was the scene of heavy fighting by the U.S. 87th Infantry Division in support of Operation Lumberjack. The 75th Infantry Division was much further north fighting in the Ruhr pocket of Germany at the time.

The sketch opportunities in Koblenz were endless, but I needed to get back north and on the trail of the 75th Infantry Division’s movements into the heart of Germany.