Castrop from a Hilltop

Posted on by Thor

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

Posted on by Thor

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.