April 19, 1945: Iserlohn Germany

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On April 19, 1945, my father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken and his C-Company of the 75th Infantry Division were relieved by elements of the 313th Infantry Division. The 75th was then trucked to several locations in the Ruhr Valley for reassembly, and then sent to Iserlohn Germany. The town east of Iserlohn was Hemer which was the site of Stalag VIA, a large POW Camp. Rather than fighting a battle after the successful capture of the Industrial Ruhr Pocket, the 75th was now tasked with occupation duty.

On the evening of 13 April 1945, the United States Army began bombing the city of Iserlohn Germany. The bombing continued for three days. The bombardment lasted nearly three days but caused only minor damage.

The events of WWII are indelibly etched in the minds of the residents of Iserlohn who lived through the years of the Nazi inhuman racial ideology. The Nazi drive for conquest and annihilation cost countless lives. The exact number of Iserlohn residents who lost their lives due to Nazi doctrine are unknown. Municipal statistics report 776 fallen soldiers and 137 civilians killed by air raids and artillery fire. These numbers do not account for those who died in captivity, nor the number of Jewish residents who were deported from Iserlohn and murdered in concentration camps.

A synagogue was built in Iserlohn in 1829. It was destroyed on the Night of Broken Glass November 9, 1938. The building had to be demolished. The first Jewish deportation began on October 28, 1938. In 1941 the Jewish community that remained was moved to Kluse 18 and deported from there to to the industrial extermination camps of Auschwitz and Theresienstadt Germany.

Because of its metal industry, Iserlohn produced war-relevant products, including brass components, specialized light metal castings for ammunition, and hardware for Stick hand grenades. With every industrial building converted for armaments production. The town was a prime target for Allied bombing.

Iserlohn was therefore a prime target of Allied Air Strikes. The need to take protective measures for the population became apparent by 1943. Construction of the air-raid shelter tunnel under the Supreme City Church began at the end of 1943. This church is an emblem of the city of Iserlohn and also part of its coat of arms. The Supreme City Church in Iserlohn, which dates back to roughly 1350, survived the destruction of World War II.

With an originally planned length of 500 to 550 meters, the air raid shelter was supposed to be able to accommodate up to 6,600 people. By the end of the war, the tunnel had only reached a length of around 200 meters offering refuge for 2,000 residents.
Iserlohn was home to 5 military barracks and other military installations. The old style half-timbered homes were particularly vulnerable to Allied incendiary bombings. The town had 46,000 residents in 1943.

Prisoners of war from Stalag VI-A in Hemer Germany were used for construction. These same workers were not allowed to enter the tunnel during the Allied air raid attacks. Jews were also prohibited from entering the shelter. The Forced Laborers, many of them Russian and Polish, were literally worked to death. The forced laborers were expected to drill and chisel into the rock for 5 meters a week. Drilling operations had to stop due to the appearance of fissures and cracks in the clay. The loose clay and slate offered  unreliable protection against bombings. With only room for one third of the residents, fights broke out for the right to enter the tunnels, resulting in overcrowding.

At midday on April 16, 1945, in Iserlohn, a Jagdtiger Tank Battalion led by Wehrmacht commander Albert Ernst, assembled for its final roll call before surrender to the U.S. 99th Infantry Division. American Major Boyd McCune lead the negotiations, which were eased by the fact that Ernst spoke English   . The Germans lay all their weapons on the pavement of the Iserlohn city market square as the Americans watched.

The air raid shelter construction ended on April 16, 1945 when American forces occupied the city.

April 7-10 1945: Kirchlinde Germany

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In Kirchlinde Germany,  I decided to sketch the Zeche Zollern I/III coal mine which was functioning to fuel the German war machine in 1945. It was closed and empty when I sketched it. Many of the windows were broken. I sat in a German grocery store parking lot to get the sketch. A cemetery was across the street behind me.

Kirchlinde Germany and the surrounding communities north west of Dortmund were critical for final Allied combat operations in the Western Theater of WWII from April 7th to 10th, 1945. It was hit hard by 75th Infantry Division artillery essentially flattening the city. The 290th Infantry Division captured the city and cleared it. My father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken was leading C-Company in the 75th Infantry Division during the attack. My father lost 12 men under his command in the attack on Dortmund. Around April 7-10, 1945, US forces faced, among others, the German 2nd Parachute Division, which conducted counterattacks in the area.

Kirchlinde (a western district of Dortmund, Germany) was the site of  intense fighting during the final stages of the Ruhr Pocket battle. American forces, including field artillery units, encountered enemy machine gun fire in the area, resulting in casualties while pushing through the region. Forward Allied observation units directed the Allied artillery fire.

The Zeche Zollern Mine founded in 1873, used forced labor from Russia and Poland as well as Allied Prisoners of War. Forced laborers were starved and literally worked to death. During World War II, the German war economy, including the mining industry, relied heavily on forced labor to replace conscripted German soldiers. By 1944, over 40% of the Ruhr mining workforce consisted of forced laborers, totaling around 163,000 people.

Over 12 million people were brought to Germany as forced laborers in the course of World War II. In the summer  of 1944 alone, in addition to six million civilian laborers, two million prisoners of war and over half a million concentration camp prisoners were forced to work in the German Reich. Many were forced into the depths of the earth to mine coal to fuel the German war effort.

Also in the occupied territories, millions of men, women and children were forced to work for the enemy. It was the forced laborers who kept the agricultural supply and arms production going. The industry profited from the expansion of production. German employees advanced to supervisor positions, until the 75th Infantry Division captured the mine and liberated the forced laborers. All these displaced persons became a logistical nightmare to feed and house.

Other C-Company soldiers who died on the approach to Dortmund Germany…

John Romero (Private First Class), From Las Animas County, Colorado died in the Dortmund area.

Harold E. Rosen (Private First Class), Died near Dortmund Germany.

Richard C. Ruggles (Private), From Orleans County, New York died  April 7, 1945 in the Dortmund Germany area.

John R. Sockich (Private First Class), From Riverside County, California died in the Dortmund area.

On On January 24, 2026, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old American intensive care nurse for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, was executed by multiple masked ICE agents in Minneapolis Minnesota USA. I was in Europe documenting the final stages of America defeating the Nazi fascist regime, but Nazism seems very much in force in America with brutal misconduct of ICE agents on the streets of my fatherland.

April 6, 1945: Castrop-Rauxel Germany

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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.

The city faced heavy Allied bombing, suffering significant destruction (around 24-26% of all buildings) and was the site of fierce fighting as U.S. forces entered the Ruhr Pocket in April 1945.

The 75th Infantry Division liberated slave laborers and encountered German resistance in its coal mines and synthetic oil plants, which were strategic targets. The fighting involved intense urban combat as American troops pushed through the industrial heartland, leaving a legacy of damaged infrastructure and the complex task of dealing with Displaced Persons.

The 75th Infantry Division held a line from the Zweg Canal on their Western flank east just south of Ickern and Brambauer Germany. The 2nd Battalion of the 291st Infantry Division was given the task of attacking south into Castrop-Rauxel. Company G and F moved into the city with a selection of machine guns, 81mm mortars and a platoon of tanks. Elements of the German Parachute Division lay ahead and heavy resistance was expected. A captured German soldier confirmed the reports.

At 4:30AM on April 6, 1945, G Company soldiers were fed a hot meal from the company kitchen truck which had arrived during the night. The kitchen was set up in a German home and the men ate silently. By 6:45 AM troops were in position and ready to begin the attack.

Half of the homes in Castrop-Rauxel were two story homes build to wood and stucco. The other half of the city consisted of small industrial factories. Partially destroyed buildings offered good cover for enemy snipers. The German 40mm Anti tank guns were being used to fire on American troops with lethal efficiency. Being hit by one of these large shells would literally cause a soldier to explode.

Many of the homes flew white flags, but the citizens had been recruited as a make shift army known as the Volksstrom. The citizen army would fight fanatically and then surrender in droves. They did not have uniforms and they would surrender in civilian clothes. The Volksstrum did have the assistance of well-trained German officers.

The 75th Infantry faced increasing fire from snipers and 120mm mortars. The first German captured was a Volksstrom and he stepped out waving a white flag. He was shot from behind in the hip, by a soldier from the German 2nd Parachute division. The parachute division had been given orders to fight to the last man.

Coal, known as “Black Gold”, was the life blood of the German war machine. The Germans developed a method of converting coal into a cheap diesel fuel that could be used to power the Panzer tanks and other machines of death. Knowing coal was so important, I decided to go to the Zeche Zollern Coal mine, which is now a museum. The site is famous for its light and airy Art Nouveau style architecture. Miraculously this mine went largely undamaged by Allied bombings. The mine used prisoners of war and forced laborers who suffered immensely under horrific conditions.

The mine became known as the “Castle of Work.” The mine was central to Germany’s war effort, with production focused on supporting military needs. The shaft hall was the link between the working worlds above and below ground. This is where the miners climbed into the cage that took them underground. The work in the shaft hall was considered particularly monotonous and was not very popular. Around 60 miners worked here in noise and dust, unloading the wagons and sorting the waste material. It was loud and stuffy at the sorting belt, unbearably hot in summer and freezing cold in winter – an unpopular place to work.

Oestrich Germany: Row Houses

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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.

Besides a hatred for Jews, the factory and mine owners of Dortmund liked the industrialized principles of the Nazi Party and they profited from the forced labor used to fuel the German war machine. Dortmund and the surrounding communities (like Oestrich Germany) worked at full to keep Hitler’s war machine running.

During WWII, Dortmund-Oestrich, like much of industrial Germany, relied heavily on forced laborers (Zwangsarbeiter) from occupied territories for its war effort, especially in its mines and factories. Forced laborers faced horrific conditions, malnutrition, and mistreatment, with many dying from abuse or bombings. Forced laborers made up a significant portion of Germany’s workforce by war’s end, a vast human tragedy involving millions across Europe.

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.

Some of the Soldiers of C-Company who died on the approach to Dortmund Germany.
Edward H. Cockrell (Pvt.), Died April 1945, Dortmund Area Germany
Walter A. Jarosz (Pfc.), Died near Dortmund Germany
James A. Kukalis (Sgt.), Died near Dortmund Germany
Noah L. Laswell (Pfc.), From Perry County, Indiana died near Dortmund Germany

Lünen Germany

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Lünen  is just a half hour drive north of Dortmund Germany. My father, 1st Leutenant Arthur Thorspecken in the 75th Infantry Division would have passed just west of this village as the 75th pushed south towards Dortmund.

Lünen was crucial for Germany’s war effort in WWII, supplying coal and steel. The city had steel production, copper refineries, and a large electric power station. Manufactures include machinery, electronic products, cement structures, glass, and shoes.

In Lünen I sketched the Miner’s Housing Museum. The museum is located in the colony of the former Minister Achenbach Coal Mine. The interior rooms are quaintly decorated to recreate what the place might have looked like in the 1920s and 30s, with a tin stove and tea cups on a manicured tablecloth.  The forced laborers would not have had such luxuries.

Lünen, Germany, was a location where forced labor was extensively used during World War II, which was a common practice throughout the Third Reich’s economy. Forced laborers would have had to work deep in the coal mines. Millions of people from across occupied Europe, particularly Eastern Europe, were deported to Germany to work in various industries and agriculture to support the war effort.

The majority of forced laborers were Poles, Slavs, and Soviet prisoners of war, who faced brutal and discriminatory treatment, including inadequate rations, poor sanitation, and constant surveillance. These individuals were forced to work in key war-related industries, such as coal mines (Lünen is in the heart of the Ruhr coal-mining region), steel plants, chemical plants, and armament factories.

Laborers were housed in cramped, unhygienic barracks and often worked to the point of exhaustion or death. The majority of camps in Lünen were civilian forced labor camps, which were widespread across Germany and numbered over 30,000 in total. These typically consisted of basic barracks or converted buildings. The conditions in these camps were generally catastrophic, involving long hours of hard physical labor, minimal food rations, inadequate sanitation, and constant abuse from guards. The Nazi regime implemented a policy of “extermination through labor,” where workers were intentionally worked to death.

Once liberated by the Allies, the Forced Laborers became known as Displaced Persons. It became the allies responsibility to feed and try and return displaced persons back east to their homes. Back in Russia, these displaced persons would be seen as traitors and they would be treated as the enemy.

Numerous German companies profited from this system, including major corporations like Krupp, Thyssen, and Siemens, as well as smaller local firms.

The city faced significant damage from Allied bombings.

On April 7, 1945, a train carrying around 400 German concentration camp prisoners from the Wilhelmshaven satellite camp who were “unable to march” was attacked by Allied bombers at the Lüneburg railway station. At least 256 concentration camp prisoners died in the attack. The survivors were rounded up in a field. The next day, the SS took around 140 of them to Bergen-Belsen. The remaining 60 to 80 prisoners, some of whom were injured, were murdered on 11 April 1945 in in the Tiergarten Forest near Lüneburg by the Wehrmacht soldiers who were guarding them and the single remaining SS officer, Gustav Alfred Jepsen.