Tor to the Rhine

Posted on by Thor

In Orsoy Germany just south of Rhineberg Germany, I was walking back from sketching the ferry across the Rhine  River and decided to sketch the city gate. Orsoy used to be a walled in medieval fortress town. This gate or Tor in German faces west towards the Rhine. Steel doors have been added which can be shut if the river floods and gets to the city gate, or Tor in German.

My Air B&B host told me that the other gates to the city had to be demolished by the American troops because the American Sherman tanks could not fit through them.  This gate is larger than the rest and therefore survived the war. By March 31, 1945 there were 3 Treadway Bridges, 2 Bailey Bridges and a Heavy Pontoon Bridge built across the Rhine. No bridge was build at Orsoy, so I don’t think the 75th Infantry would have crossed there. I also know that the 75th crossed before the first of the bridges was built, they went across with landing craft.

The 79th Infantry Division likely did cross the Rhine on a treadway bridge north or Orsoy Germany  as they invaded Dinslaken Germany. A  Treadway Bridge was built by the 17th Armored Engineer Battalion, The M2 Steel Treadway Bridge, is a modular floating bridge system used by the U.S. Army to cross rivers with heavy vehicles, . had over 1152 feet of  steel runway treads and 93 pneumatic floats. The project required just six hours and fifteen minutes to complete, setting a record for the size of the bridge. The Treadway Bridge was the fasted to build. The Bailey Bridges built were much sturdier.

Regardless of the bridge crossing sites, I believe the 75th Infantry Division, C-Company, lead by my father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken  would have crossed much further to the north. They would have crossed just south of Wesel Germany and then crossed the Lippe Canal to clear the area between the Canal and the Lippe River. I thought the canal locks likely were used to make their way north across the canal, but the German military destroyed bridges over the Lippe Canal near places like Hunxe as Allied forces pushed into Germany in 1944 and 1945. It only makes sense for the 75th Infantry to cross the Rhine right where the Lippe Canal and the Lippe River empty onto the Rhine. That small strip of land they would mean they crossed at or just south of Buderich Germany. So you can see that knowing exact;y where the troops were is a bit of a guessing game, but new facts help to zone in on the truth.

 

Crossing the Rhine River

Posted on by Thor

It turned out there was a very simple route to get to the Rhine River from Rheinberg Germany. Just south of Rheinberg is the town of Orsoy which has a ferry that crosses cars over the River. Since this is a narrow crossing site, my Air B&B host was convinced this is where my father would have crossed the Rhine. However I have a detailed military map that shows three crossing sites further north. I am convinced the 75th Infantry division would have crossed at the northern most crossing sites since records show that they were the northern most troops along the western edge of the Rhine. To the north of the 75th Infantry Division, Montgomery’s British Infantry Divisions began.

I stayed at an Air B&B in Alpen Germany and according to the military map I have that town was the division line between the British troops and the American Troops. I actually returned to Alpen Germany a second time when I realized the 75th Infantry had been just south of the town and very likely in the town.

I hiked to the ferry south of Orsoy Germany. A motorcyclist was the first to arrive to wait for the ferry. He waited a while for another motorcyclist and they compared their tricked out bikes.  Several cars lined up and then the ferry arrived from the western shore of the Rhine. The ferry kept sailing back and forth as long as cars lined up at the docking points. I considered sketching on the ferry but realized the trip would not have allowed enough time to get a sketch. The biggest landmark at the crossing site was a huge nuclear reactor on the western shore. That was certainly not at the river’s edge in 1945.

The 75th Infantry Division was in position on the western shore of the Rhine by March 13, 1945 in Rheinberg and Buderich Germany. Since the 75th Infantry Division was tasked with clearing the area between the Lippe River and the Lippe Canal, I decided that the most likely crossing sites would be at Buderich Germany. Buderich is famous for being the site where General Montgomery showed Winston Churchill  how the Rhine River crossings were proceeding. This  happened on March 25, 1945 one day after the 75th Infantry Division had already made the crossing.

On the day that the 75th Infantry Division made their crossing, a pontoon bridge was under construction near Wallach Germany where American heavy artillery was stationed. That bridge was completed at 4pm and it would have been the first bridge across the Rhine but a landing craft got swept up in the river’s current and it crashed into the structure, dismantling it. The 75th didn’t have the luxury of a bridge, they had to make the crossings in small landing craft.

On the 1945 Military map there is a place called Milchplatz. It isn’t a town, but rather a gravel mining company that is still in operation today. I found this out the hard way on one of my hikes east from Rhineberg Germany to get to the Ruhr River. I was making good progress when the Milchplatz mining facility blocked my movement east. Closed metal gates blocked the path east. Since it is private property, I abandoned the hike to the Rhine. If I was tenacious, I probably could have hiked around the large mining facility, but I didn’t want to hike off trail to accomplish that task. I just satisfied myself that I got very close to the southern most crossing site of the three in the 75th Infantry Division’s area of operations. I am convince that would have crossed further north.

The 75th on the military map was identified as a covering force. A covering force operates in conjunction with a larger force with the role of providing a strong outpost line, in this case to the north. The covering force is capable of operating independently of the main force. A covering force usually operated forward of the main force in offense or defense.