A dawn attack on April 8, 1945 resulted in the 75th Infantry Division capturing Kirchlinde and Marten Germany, cutting the rail lines leading into Dortmund, thus effectively isolating the city from the west. Marten is a district in western Dortmund, Germany, It is directly south of Kirchlinde.
Marten was part of a major industrial hub heavily targeted during WWII. As part of the Ruhr region, the area suffered severe destruction, with up to 98% of the inner city was destroyed by March 1945. Local, industrial sites, in Marten, were key targets for Allied bombing.
I found a location near the railway lines to sketch. The neighborhood where I sketched had industrial buildings along the railroad tracks and row houses across the street. This street is right next to the railway lines and an 8 foot high wall obstructed any view of the rails. I could hear the trains roaring by once in a while as I sketched. This building which resembles the bow of a ship on a triangular block in the city. Much of Marten had been flattened by the 75th Infantry artillery before troops did the hard work of mopping up any isolated enemy resistance.
The Germania coal mine (Zeche Germania) was an industrial coal mine located in the Marten district of Dortmund, Germany. It operating from 1854 until its closure in 1930. It therefor wasn’t feeding the German war efforts in 1945. I decided not to sketch Germania.
The 75th Infantry Division freed thousands of Forced Laborers from Nazi Camps. Once freed, the laborers became known as displaced persons and it fell on the 75th Infantry Division to feed and care for them. If they fed the starving inmates too fast they would die. They then needed to send the displaced persons back east where they had been abducted and sent to German forced labor camps. The problem is that the displaced persons would be seen as traitors once they were sent back to Russia or Poland. Many would face certain death back east, or they would be treated as pariahs for the rest of their lives.
1st Lieutenant Joe Colcord of the 75th Infantry Division related the following. “We captured several small un-named cities in the Ruhr Pocket and my only horrible recollection is in the liberation of a displaced person’s camp. Some poor souls were wandering weakly around in near death as the German guards had wisely left. Some were lying in stacked beds too weak to walk and all were in effect skeletons. They almost seemed non-human. I suspect this was a work camp like that of Schindler’s List depiction except the actors in the movie were far too fat by comparison. I cannot recall the name of the place but the inhumanity of this treatment lingers on in my mind. we had a strange task that I have brooded about for years. There were many Displaced Persons (DP’s) that apparently, by treaty, were to be shipped home by the easiest rail line. I, of course, would have given my eyeteeth to be sent home and 50 was thus very perplexed as many of these people did not want to go “east”. In fact, we had to nail the doors shut in the 40-8’s to keep them on board at least until they left the marshaling yard. I now realize that for many there was no “home” and that this act that I considered a good deal was often really a potential death sentence. I can still see the sad faces as they were boxed up to go “home”.
Since Joe served in the same outfit as my father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken, I have to wonder if my father lived with the horror of such memories for the rest of his life. If he did , he never spoke about them.
The attack continued through April 9th and 10th, 1945. The 2nd Battalion advanced south, and southeast of Marten Germany.
Frohlinde means Joyful in German. The plague cross, known locally as the Bookenkreuz, dates back to the time of the Thirty Years’ War, when the plague raged (1618 and 1648). The farming communities of Frohlind95h e, Obercastrop, and Rauxel, as well as other surrounding villages, erected plague crosses and obligated themselves to hold annual processions to these crosses and distribute alms, bread, money, and other donations to the local poor.
The overall objective of General Ray Porter’s 9th Army Group was to drive east after crossing the Rhine River, and then attack south to defeat the estimated 370,000 German defenders trapped in the Ruhr Pocket. Dortmund Germany was the largest industrial City in the area of attack and Frolinde was on the north West outskirts of Dortmund.
Near each coal mining town in Germany there is a halde which means dump in German. These man made mountains are built up from all the stone that comes to the surface that is not coal. It was extremely windy up there. I had a great overview of Castrop-Rauxel and the Erin Shaft 7. On the distant hill, Erin Shaft 3 can be seen along with several wind turbines. Clean energy is slowly replacing dirty carbon energy.
Lieutenant Allen and several other soldiers were separated from the Company and found themselves behind enemy lines. They made their way back towards the road block. Along the way they found two wounded men. It was difficult to get to the men since enemy automatic weapons fire would blast in all directions any time they got close. On the second attempt the wounded men were recovered. They managed to get the wounded men through a basement window of a German duplex.
On April 7, 1945, the 291st Infantry of the 75th Infantry Division faced increasing fire from snipers and 120mm mortars. I have come to the conclusion that my father’s 290th Infantry Division didn’t enter Castrop-Rauxel because they were busy liberating the towns of Frohlinde and Kirchlinde Germany. The battle faced by the 291st Infantry is however right in line with what my father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken might have faced in the Ruhr.
Erin Shaft 7 is located right outside of downtown Castrop-Rauxel Germany. Next to this are several new office buildings that have a very modern steel beam grid on the facades that blend well with the industrial look of the mine. The Erin Schacht shaft was sink in 1951, so it is a post World War II coal mine shaft. 68-meter-high Dörnen-type head frame became a landmark of Castrop-Rauxel and was preserved as an industrial monument after the mine’s closure in 1983.
Castrop-Rauxel was an important Coal mining town North West of Dortmnd Germany. Castrop-Rauxel is near the Rhine-Herne Canal, in the eastern part of the Ruhr industrial district. The 75th Infantry Division, which included my father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken’s C-Company would have entered the city on April 6, 1945.
Dingen Germany is a tiny one road town in the North West suburbs of Dortmund. Since this is such a small suburb, I decided to just park the car and walk the streets until I found a view to sketch. I decided this small wood framework house was a good enough subject.
On April 6, 1945, German troops desperately defensed against overwhelming Allied advances, the 75th Infantry’s 1st Battalion which included my fathers C-Company, moved into a new area to establish defensive positions despite heavy enemy small arms fire. The 3rd battalion passed through elements of the 289th but made very slight progress before encountering stiff enemy resistance. Supporting tanks were called upon to break the back of this German defensive position and succeeded in doing so. The attacking fores were then free to move against Dingen and Bodelschwingh Germany.
My father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken was approaching Dortmund with his C-Company in the 75th Infantry Division. They were clearing the approaches to Dortmund which was being heavily defended. Casualties were high.
Despite the Allied bombing campaign which leveled 66% of Dortmund’s homes and 98% of the inner city. Workers kept rebuilding the factories. It therefore made perfect sense that Dortmund would not surrender easily. Even after a heavy bombing raid on March 6, 1945, it become clear that the soldiers in Dortmund was determined to fight to the bitter end. Dortmund and the surrounding towns suffered immense destruction from Allied bombing. Unexploded bomb ordnance, especially near sites like the stadium, remain to this day.
Bodelschwingh is just a 7 minute drive south of Mengede, on the North West outskirts of Dortmund Germany. My father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken was leading C-Company in the 1st Platoon of the 75th Infantry Division. Their goal was to secure and cut off the western approaches to the city of Dortmund.
By May 1939, only 1.444 Jews remained in Dortmund. Some escaped Germany shortly after the start of WWII, leaving only 1,222 Jewish Dortmund residents by June 1940. They were not allowed to use public facilities such as bomb shelters or use radios or televisions. Eventually the Jews were confined to “Jewish Houses”. This made it easy for the Nazis when they began the Final Solution.
I thought that the villages in the Ruhr Pocket of Germany would all be industrial wastelands. I was quite mistaken. Mengede is the picture-perfect German village. German architecture is famous for its timber beams, primarily in the traditional Fachwerk (half-timbered) style, using exposed oak beams forming geometric patterns with infill of plaster, creating iconic, fairy tale-like buildings.
I have to wonder where church leadership stood on the question of the final solution. Generally, the leadership of both Protestant and Catholic churches in Germany adopted a cautious approach, during World War II. They often tried to compromise with the Nazi state or avoided confrontation to prevent internal division or antagonizing authorities. Historically the German Evangelical Church viewed itself as one of the pillars of German culture and society, with a theologically grounded tradition of loyalty to the state.