Plague Cross of Frohlinde Germany

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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.

While the 291st Infantry Division was attacking Castrop-Rauxel Germany, my father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken, was leading his C-Company of the 290th Infantry, 75th Infantry Division, into Frohlinde. Heavy 75th Infantry artillery and air bombing was aimed at the city before the attack, effectively leveling the city.

All Allied units had been ordered by XVI Corps to attack south to the Ruhr River as quickly as possible. What resulted was that all the allied units raced against one another in their dash to the objective. This race to the objective resulted in some chaos as units surged forward without being aware of the progress of units to their left and right. The result could be units separated and isolated behind enemy lines.

On entering a city and seeing the type of fighting needed, the Company Commander should have given his platoons very definite zones of operation. That platoon zone should have then been broken down into individual squad areas. Only then could mopping up operations be successful in a Company zone. In the heat of battle, however, such strategic planning can fall apart.

A definite front line can evaporate, with some units pushing forward quickly while others might be stopped or delayed by heavy enemy resistance. Communication between companies could be problematic, with radios down or a messenger delayed in delivering a message.

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.

According to the XVICorps estimate, the 75th Infantry would face the veteran 116th Panzer Division’s 16th Panzer Grenadier Regiment. The Germans could convert the villages, cities, and industrial plants into strong points to delay the advance.

Useful information was gained from prisoner of war interrogations. Interrogation teams faced a torrent of German prisoners with more than 3,600 passing through the division’s cages. From this flow came a large amount of all kinds of information, including the insight that the Germans planned to continue delaying actions, withdrawing after the first significant contact.

Major General John B. Anderson, the XVI Corps commander, commended the 75th Infantry Division for its “aggressive patrolling, constant observation, and the activities of [its] intelligence agencies.”

Castrop from a Hilltop

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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.

On April 7, 1945, 291st Infantry Division, G-Company Troops finished eating K rations at about 1PM. The main railroad tracks to the front had a series of boxcars and the majority of them held coal and gravel. They stretched from highway 2 on the company’s left for 200 yards to the right. As scouts tried to crawl through the obstacle, they were fired upon. The scouts withdrew and the advance was help up for half an hour until Private First Class Ferrel picked off the enemy gunners from a position in a railroad control tower.

The platoons then surged forward and house to house fighting resumed. The situation was chaotic as men searched for snipers in each building. By 5PM the outskirts of the town had been reached. Contact was made with C-Company on the left. F-Company was meeting stiff resistance from a castle like building 1,000 yards to the right. Lieutenant Craig had been killed by a sniper. Another man was wounded in the neck, and another killed when they ran into an enemy ambush while pursuing a sniper.

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.

German civilians were discovered as the main floor was searched. They were so scared that they just froze and stared. Blankets were found for the wounded men. The men then moved back to the basement after hearing German voices and boots thumping in the upper floors of the house. Twice Lieutenant Allen and one soldier crept back to the former front line at a road block, to find the command post or an aid station. They were unsuccessful.

A patrol of 5 men was formed to find the missing men. They returned instead with two German prisoners instead. From behind enemy lines, Lieutenant Allen made contact with his Company using a SRC 536 walkie talkie with the antenna protruding from the basement window. It was dark in the basement and outside, and German voices could be heard giving orders. German troops were milling about outside for what might be an attack or a withdrawal. Via the radio, range was established for American artillery fire, which was dialed in on the German troops thanks to the basement coordinates. If the enemy had been planning an attack, the artillery fire changed their plans.

The next morning, a battalion medical jeep dashed into Castrop and picked up Lieutenant Allen and the wounded men that had been in the basement of the German home. The jeep managed to drive back to the American lines after being fired on several times by enemy snipers. No one was hit.

Erin Shaft 7: Castrop-Rauxel Germany

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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.

The first German captured in Castrop-Rauxel was a citizen soldier, 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.

White phosphorous grenades thrown into buildings by Americans helped encourage the Germans to surrender. Groups of 2 or 3 American soldiers would dash into each building in pursuit of snipers. Enemy fire seemed to come from every direction. The front line was undefinable, and the situation was extremely fluid.

It was discovered that the best way to move forward down city streets was to use windows and side doors. Moving directly down a street would produce a hail of sniper fire. By 5PM the southern edge of the city had been reached.

The move forward was uneventful until the two companies came to a road block that funneled traffic. It was dark. Then all hell broke loose. Three or four German automatic weapons spat death from the front and sides. The German Panzer Faust anti tank guns hit the road block and Americans scurried for cover in the ditches on the sides of the road. The Americans tried to retreat in the ditches, but a parachute flair was shot into the air illuminating the attack. Americans froze and hugged the earth. Those who moved, were fired upon.

C- Company soldiers fired upon the soldiers crawling back from the roadblock in the ditch. Luckily this friendly fire missed it’s marks and the men finally got back to safely. A reinforced squad of Germans from the 2nd Parachute Division made their way back into Castrop-Rauzel after dark and they captured 2 platoons of American soldiers. It was decided by the 75th Infantry Division that the attack would be held off until the following morning.

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, like many German industrial towns, heavily relied on forced labor, using millions of foreign civilians and POWs (especially from Eastern Poland and Russia) for mining, munitions, and infrastructure. Germans considered Soviets and Poles to be sub human. The forced laborers suffered in horrific conditions, starvation, abuse, and often died from overwork.  They were not permitted to use the air raid shelters so many died in Allied bombings. Nazi Germany depended on slave labor for its war machine.

April 7, 1945: Castrop-Rauxel Germany

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The 291st Infantry Division attack on Castrop-Rauxel Germany resumed on April 7, 1945. Two squads of the 1st Platoon of G-Company rode into Castrop on two lead tanks, followed by a tank destroyer. The two other tanks found positions on the outskirts of town and supported the attack with fire. Machine guns were set up in the upper stories of two houses to support the attack.

At 7AM C-Company moved into the city on the left on foot. Three tanks drove at full speed down Highway 2 with the soldiers hanging on for dear life. As they cleared a road block, they were hit with a hail of German small arms fire. American troops jumped down and sought cover in houses on either side of the street. A moment later the tank destroyer took a direct hit and burst into flames. Three men who had jumped off the lead tank ran to the back of a house, and surprised a German crew of six who were about to fire a 120-mm mortar. The Germans were killed and a thermite grenade was dropped into the barrel of the mortar.

C-Company continued to move into town from the left killing Germans who were trying to escape. About 15 Germans ran towards the woods on the opposite side of town and they were in the sights of one of the machine gunners. He didn’t fire because he wasn’t sure if they were Americans or Germans.

The 1st and 2nd Platoons found one another in town. A captured German soldier told the interrogator that the town was swarming with parachutists. Because it was getting dark, and the 3rd Platoon could not be located, it was decided to hold off further attacks until morning.

C-Company of the 1st Platoon had received orders to push through Castrop-Rauxel and continue mopping up operations to the south. Mopping up operations continued through April 8 and 9th 1945.

When to run up the white flag and surrender to the Americans became a crucial question for German civilians. Doing so too early meant falling afoul of the Nazi authorities who were demanding a fight to the finish; doing so too late could mean a violent introduction to the American way of war. All too often, the local Nazi bigwig called upon his townsmen to fight to the death, then fled just before the Americans attacked.

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.