March 26, 1945: Gahlen Germany

Posted on by Thor

After crossing the Rhine River, and expanding the bridgehead on the opposite side of the river, American forces  including the 75th Infantry Division, crossed the Lippe Canal around March 30th, leading to rapid advances eastwards as German defenses crumbled.

Gahlen Germany is between Hünxe and Dorsten Germany on the Lippe Canal. My father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken advanced with his C-Company, in the 75th Infantry Division through this small hamlet. German troops were offering stiff resistance to slow the advance into Dorsten.

On the push to Dorsten, , the Americans encountered resistance from the remnants of German 116th Panzer-Division and 15th Panzer Grenadier-Division. The US troops of XVICorps, including the 75th Infantry Division, the 30th Infantry Division and 8th Armored Division forced the units of German 116th Panzer-Division to withdraw to Gahlen, east of Hünxe, on March 26, 1945.

On March 27, 1945 the bridgehead on the opposite side of the Rhine River had been expanded and the crossing site sectors had been united. This site became a safe zone where command posts could plan the advance into Germany and supplies could be moved east for the advancing army.

Gahlen was heavily bombed and suffered greatly from the heavy fighting at the end of March 1945. An air raid siren sounded and all the residents of Gahlen rushed to bomb shelters. School children ran from their school to join their parents in the shelters.

While I was sketching, school children were wandering the street in groups. I think they were searching for items in a scavenger hunt. There was plenty of laughter as they searched. One boy shouted for joy when he found me sketching. I don’t know everything he said. But I said “Danke” and gave him a thumbs up. He shouted to his teacher to take a look. At another moment, a little girl and her mom wanted to see what I was doing. The little girl said something in German and I said “Danke.” As she was leaning forward, she dropped a small glass bead into my art bag by mistake. She was afraid to take it out. I reached in and found it and gave it back. Her mom smiled, and they walked away, happy to have seen an artist at work.

In 1945 the residents of a Gahlen huddled in the dark listening to the explosions above. Then it grew quiet. The air raid siren cut off and people slowly emerged from their shelter. Many of the children wandered back to school. They found an UXB (unexploded American artillery shell) stuck in the ground in front of the school. Curious, the children slowly got closer to see the dud. It glinted in the sun. One student backed away and then ran. At that moment, the shell blew up killing several of the children.

March 27, 1945: Gahlen Germany

Posted on by Thor

 

Gahlen Germany is half way between the Rhine River and Dorsten Germany. Gahlen was a scene of fierce fighting as Allied forces, particularly the XVICorps advanced across the Rhine River to the west and Lippe river to the north, with troops moving through Gahlen under heavy artillery and air attack, from German Messerschmitt Bf 109s. The German troops put up intense resistance resulting in heavy destruction typical of the final weeks of the war in the region.

On March 28, 1945 the Americans encountered resistance from the remnants of German 116th Panzer-Division and 15th Panzer Grenadier-Division. The XVICorps included the 290th Infantry, of which the 75th Infantry Division was a part along with the 30th Infantry Division and the 8th Armored Division (The Thundering Herd).

On March 28, 1945 the XVICorps attacked East along the Lippe River and Lippe Canal. On the push to Dorsten, the Americans encountered resistance from the remnants of German 116th Panzer-Division and 15th Panzer Grenadier-Division. 30 Mar 1945,

After crossing the Rhine River, the first goal of the XVICorps was to push west towards Berlin Germany. General William H. Simpson was leading the American 9th Army as they pushed east. Prior to this push he had worked under the British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. The British forces lacked the fire power to make the push on their own, so the American 9th Army assisted.

The Ruhr Pocket was encircled on April 1, 1945 trapping more than 300,000 German soldiers. Once trapped, they became more desperate as the pocket was tightened from the Americans attacking from the north. Old men and children were given weapons and told to fight for their fatherland.

Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower abandoned the idea of pushing to Berlin Germany on April 2, 1945. He decided to leave that prize to the Soviets since the Potsdam agreement had already established how the conquered German territories would be divided.

After Berlin was abandoned by the Americans, the goal became to sweep south right through the center of the Ruhr and crush the industrial area. This would involve prolonged and intense house to house combat in the industrial cities. Eisenhower thought that pushing to Berlin would have to high a price on American casualties, but the Ruhr Pocket was also a highly defended meat grinder.

The overall; movement of the Corps was from West to East along the Lippe Canal which runs West to East. After reaching Dorsten the XVI Corps then moved south, to seize and hold crossings over Rhein-Herne Canal at the junction with the Lippe River, and then continue south to the Ruhr River.

The Gahlen Memorial that I sketched was inaugurated on September 10, 1922. Six marble plaques are inset into the walls of the memorial containing the names of German soldiers who died in World War II. The massive obelisk in the center contains the names of soldiers who died in World War I. These names became severely weathered making them hard to read. In 2004 the weathered plaques were replaced with bronze plaques. The entire monument underwent a full restoration in 2022.

March 26, 1945: Lippe Canal

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My father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken was leading the 75th Infantry Division, 1st Platoon, C-Company after crossing the Rhine River as they cleared the gap between the Lippe Canal and the Lippe River. The Lippe Canal is a made waterway with long straight stretches which is ideal for large barges to transport coal and other war time materials. The more natural winding Lippe River runs just to the north of the canal. I decided my first task should be to sketch the canal. I had already drawn the canal when I drew the Frederichfeld Lock, but I wanted to see what the distance was like between the canal and the river, so I decided to sketch each on the same day.

I am certain that this bridge near Gahlen Germany, southeast of Wesel,  had been destroyed by the retreating Germans. At some point as my father’s Division got closer to Dorsten Germany, moving east between the Lippe C1anal and River they would have appreciated having a bridge to get south across the canal. The water is certainly too deep to fjord across while holding a rifle over your head.

The Lippe Canal, was a significant barrier and objective for the advancing Allied forces in March of 1945. The 9th Army was moving east on the south of the Lippe a river while the British forces were advancing to the north of the Lippe River as part of OPERATION PLUNDER and OPERATION VARSITY.  Swift construction of temporary bridges both Bailey & Tread way by engineers was needed to overcome the destroyed German bridges, allowing a rapid advance into Germany.

Operation Plunder had allied forces including my fathers 75th Infantry Division crossing the  River in landing craft as well as temporary bridges build by engineers. Operation Varsity involved more than 16,000 paratroopers and several thousand aircraft, it is the largest airborne operation ever conducted on a single day and in one location. The parachute forces dropped north of Wesel on the eastern side of the Rhine River. They attacked south into the demolished city of Wesel and met up with the British forces crossing the Rhine in landing craft and then bridges.

Ninty seven percent of Wesel buildings were destroyed by Alied bombings and artillery fire. Despite this, German forces cut down the paratroopers who were dropped in broad daylight as part of Operation Varsity. The 6th Airborne Division had suffered around 1,400 casualties killed, wounded or missing in action out of the 7,220 personnel who were landed in the operation. The 17th Airborne Division suffered a similar casualty rate, reporting around 1,300 casualties out of 9,650 personnel who took part in the operation between March 24th and 29th. 56 aircraft were lost on March 24, 1945.