Battle of the Bulge – Analog Artist Digital World

just to the south east of Roermond Netherlands, across the border is Heinsberg Germany. This memorial was placed in a quiet park setting next to a busy intersection. When I started to sketch, school children were making their way home from school, shouting and playing along the fence that borders the memorial space. The memorial was placed in honor of the Jewish citizens of Heinsberg who are victims of the holocaust.

When Hitler came into power, the Jewish citizens of Heinsberg Germany suffered. Anti Jewish leaflets circulated in the town stated: “Whoever still has honor and pride, does not buy from Jews”. All Jewish goods were boycotted. A tannery in Heisenberg was used to supply food to Jewish residents after krystalnacht (night of broken glass), when Jewish businesses had store windows broken and stores destroyed. The Heisenberg Synagogue was burned on krystalnacht. The Jewish cemetery was desecrated and destroyed. It is not possible to establish how many Heisenberg citizens helped Jews escape across the border into the Netherlands. One midwife paid for her efforts to help with her life. Despite a few citizens trying to help, the Jews were deported east where they disappeared. Few Jewish residents ever returned home.

Heinsberg was heavily damaged during World War II particularly during the Battle of the Bulge and then OPERATION BLACKCOCK, which cleared Germans from the area around the Netherlands border. The fighting involved fierce combat between German and British troops. The 75th Infantry Division was not involved in these battles but did operate along the Rhine River near the area in February-March 1945 after crossing from the west bank. The division’s combat actions included a patrol of the Rhine from Wesel to Homburg, a rest period in Luneville, and then moving to patrol a defensive front along the Maas River near Roermond, Netherlands, which was just west of the German border.

While I was in Belgium, I took a slight detour off or the 75th Infantry WWII route to go to a museum dedicated to relics from the Battle of the Bulge. The 75th Infantry had served in the Battle of the Bulge but that was in the Winter of 1944, almost a year before my father 1st lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken got to Europe.

The Museum Winter 1944 is in Gingelom Belgium. When I drove into the little rural town I was a bit annoyed because the road leading to the museum was closed. I drove around the block and found a church to park next to. Then I hiked the rest of the way to the museum. As I got closer, it started to feel like a Twilight Zone episode. A nurse walked by but her outfit didn’t feel modern.

The I rounded the corner and found a phalanx of American soldiers standing around and chatting near a Sherman tank. I wasn’t expecting this. The sketchbook immediately came out of my art bag. There were dozens of vintage American WWII vehicles parked in the street. Before I started sketching I walked up to the solders and asked what was going on. Thankfully one spoke in broken English. He explained that there was going to be a battle in a couple of hours. The Germans had a camp set up an camp outside of town in a field and the Americans were planning an attack.

Though I wanted to go in the museum, it would have to wait, since history was coming alive right in front of me. I did go into the museum after the battle was over. I loved that there was an artists watercolor kit which is almost identical to what I use.

One vehicle had a loud speaker that was playing tunes from the 1940s. Once in a while a solder would look over my shoulder as I was documenting the scene and say “zeer” or “leuk.” I repeated the one phrase I had learned best in Belgium which is “bedankt.” Which means thank you, in Dutch. Some solders also spoke in French, but I didn’t pick up any loud boisterous American slang being thrown around.

As I was finishing up this sketch, all the American Army trucks fired up their engines and they drove off. I was told they were parading the vehicles around the town. When they were gone, I walked up to the one vehicle that did not drive off, which was the Sherman Tank. An American flag fluttered above the tank harkening back to a time when the Stars and Stripes truly represented well ingrained patriotic ideals.