After assembling in Panningen Netherlands, the 75th Infantry troops were then transported to Helden Netherlands, near the Maas River. Translated, Helden means “Hero’s”. The 75th took up defensive positions on the Maas River to keep the Germans from crossing over. The 75th was under the command of the British Second Army’s VIII Corps, 21st Army group under Field Marshall Montgomery.
1st Lieutenant Dick Sassin outlined the situation, “We wound up in Holland right next to the British. There was harassing mortar fire and artillery from across the river. There was intensive training on assault boat techniques. C-Company was again at full strength due to replacements and returns from hospital stays.” 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken was one of the replacements Sassin was referring I sketched the Peel and Maas Museum since it had an exhibit on World War II. The building was constructed in 1929 as a Roman Catholic a parish of Saint Lambertus Helden. It was built for the sisters of Divine Providence who settled in Helden in 1879. The building would have been here when the 75th Infantry was assigned to defend the country.
After the invasion of Normandy, on June 6, 1944, people in the Netherlands hoped that freedom would come in a matter of weeks. They would have to endure 5 more months before complete liberation. On October 8, 1944, a month before liberation, the Germans captured 2000 men and boys on the West Bank of the Maas during Sunday services. Men tried to hide in between the pipes of the organ. During the following week, another 1000 were captured. Of these ca-turned men 836 were from Peel and Mass. In the years 1940 to 1945, 299 residents of Peel and Maas lost their lives due to the war, and the bombing destruction that accompanied the war.
Frits Bruijnen remembered… “It’s foggy at Christmas. We are on the train going towards Watenstedt and the Herman Goring Works. At factory Aktion 88 I usually at night had to stack shells on train wagons without rest. So we stack hundreds every night. The shells were likely fired at Limburg our home Provence. In Watenstadt there was little to live for. Every week we got 1200 grams of bread that needed to last the week. After being liberated, I walked home. My mother asked ‘who are you?’ She didn’t recognize me.”