Artillery Overloon Netherlands

Posted on by Thor

I could have sketched for weeks in the Oorlags Military Museum in Overloon Netherlands and never run out of interesting subjects. I paused in an aisle full of military vehicles and looked d over my shoulder to see an average everyday scene of Americans firing artillery at the enemy.

The 75th Infantry had an artillery unit and 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken was well trained in how to use artillery. That wasn’t his job however, his job was boots on the ground using men to shut down enemy artillery installations and strongholds.

In the woods outside the Overloon Military Museum is a sign that says, “Stand still for a moment. Consider that the ground you stand on was once one of the most fiercely contested sectors of the Overloon Battlefield. Bitterly fought here in hand to hand combat, many young lives that survived the battlefields of Nettuno and Normandy found their end under these trees.

So what were they fighting for? Germans were persecuting people based on their race and ethnicity. The weak and infirm were euthanized. Mass extermination camps were designed and built to murder large groups of people. Auchwitz in Poland is the most well known, but there were many others such as Sobibor and Treblinka. Upon arrival a selection process would take place based on actors like age and physical condition. The weak elderly and children went straight to the gas chambers. A small group of able bodied men and women were assigned to work. Some had to assist with the gas chambers and crematoriums. As the Allied forces approached the Germans forced the prisoners to leave the camp on foot trying to get to a camp further from the front lines. Many people died from exhaustion, frostbite or they were shot. Only 5,000 Dutch Jews returned from the camps alive. I have had friends in America tell me it could never happen again. But once a leader convinces followers to persecutes others based on their race, then history has a nasty habit of repeating  itself. Europeans have a very hard time believing what they are seeing happening in America right now.

 

American Sherman Mine Sweeper Tank

Posted on by Thor

At the Overloon Oorlogs Military Museum, a curator came to meet me in the lobby. She walked me to this viscous looking Sherman Tank that sported huge thick chains on a giant spinning drum that was positioned out in front of the vehicle. She told me that my father, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken likely walked behind one of these beasts while he was in the Netherlands. The Germans would position many mines as they retreated from the advancing Allied army.

The name of this tank is the Sherman Crab MK1. It is a flail tank with the rotating roll, that hits round bullets with a force of more than 330,000 pounds on the ground  causing the mines to explode in front of the tank. It is a way to created a safe passageway for troops to move forward. The tank would have a crew of 5 men and could reach a top speed of 25 miles per hour. It has a 75mm cannon and 2 machine guns.

Besides all the armament, there were sections of the museum which told the more personal side of having to be in an occupied country. Helene Egger was 10 years old when the Netherlands became occupied by the Germans. She was Jewish. Her parents were divorced. She lived with her 2 older brothers in her grandmothers house in Amsterdam. Her mother  developed a brain tumor and died in 1941.  Helena was devastated.

Less than 6 months later her oldest brother went to a work camp. He was actually sent to Westerbroek Jewish transit camp in Drenthe. Shortly after, her other brother went to the work camp voluntarily. He was bored of living at his grandparents home and missed his brother.

The Westerbork transit camp became a gathering place for Jews before they  were transported to labor camps in Germany. Approximately 107,ooo Jews and 245 Sinai and Roma were deported to Westerbork  and then “to the east”. They were transported in freight cars without food or water. Most were sent to extermination camps like Auchwitz and Sobibor, while other went to concentration camps like Bergen Belsen and Theresienstadt.

Her brothers ultimately were sent to Auchwitz concentration camp where they were murdered. Her father as well was later rounded up by the Nazis and murdered in a concentration camp. Ultimately Helene lost everyone in her immediate family, but her grandparents, Aunt and Uncle kept her safely hidden in the country. Helene lived to be 94 years old.

Overloon Netherlands: Russian Tank

Posted on by Thor

The Russian tanks in WWII never went as far west as Overloon Netherlands. The Russians stopped when they got to Berlin Germany. I was advised by the director of Museum44 in Overloon Netherlands to go to the  Oorlags Museum of Overloon. This Russian tank was parked in the woods leading to the museum.

The Battle of Overloon was fought in the Second World War between Allied forces and the German Army which took place in and around the village of Overloon in the south-east of the Netherlands between 30 September and 18 October 1944. The battle was an Allied victory, after the Allies launched Operation Aintree. Signs in the wooded area leading up to the museum reminded visitors that much of the fighting happened right in this wooded area

This tank is the T-34 with an 85 mm cannon. It weighs 35 tons. It was a notorious tank because it had firepower, solid armor and was very mobile. It’s designed allowed for mass production. About nine times more T-34s left the factory than German Panzer tanks. Since these tanks were fighting on Germany’s eastern front, 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken probably never saw a T-34. He most certainly would have seen German Panzer tanks.

The director of Museum44 was kind enough to call someone he knew at the Oorlags Museum so that a curator could show me items in the museum that tied in directly to the period I was researching which was in late February and early March of 1945.

The Oorlags museum is cavernous with hundreds of military vehicles on display. Having the curator walk me directly to several American Sherman tanks made my life so much easier since I am no expert on makes and models of military hardware.

One entire area of the museum is devolved just to displaying the thousands of different types of shells that were in use to kill the enemy. War is a crazy vicious business. As I was doing this sketch it started to rain. Those are the explosions you see all over the page.

Overloon Netherlands: Museum44

Posted on by Thor

Overloon is the town just west of Born, Netherlands where the 290th Infantry, 75th Infantry division was stationed for a short time in the Netherlands. Overloon was the site of a large tank battle back in 1944. A lot of stuff from that battle was left behind. Overloon was liberated on the 18th of September and the 19th of September 1944. The River Maas is right next to the museum. A small battle group of about 80 German soldiers made it across the river to the Belgian side at night. The Americans decided to fall back to avoid casualties that night. The Air Force was useless at night, the same with artillery and tanks, they could not fight an enemy they could not see.  There is a bridge less than a quarter mile north of Overloon which I had driven by when trying to get to the museum. That bridge was there in 1945 and the Germans wanted to keep it open for an attack west towards the Netherlands.

The next morning there was light and good weather conditions. The Americans moved back forward into Overloon, but the Germans had already retreated back across the river. So the town was liberated twice. There was a German anti tank gun next to the chapel in Overloon. It knocked out 2 or 3 Sherman tanks. The crews survived. The curator recovered some of the Sherman tracks a few yards from the museum. The were less than a foot under ground.

The museum building was occupied by Germans. The tall chimney of the building has bricks which allow footholds for a cleaner to climb inside. Wedged in the top of the chimney was a bottom plate of a German trench periscope. A German must have been sitting in the chimney to watch the surrounding landscape. Rather than take it down, it is still wedged in the chimney. It is part of the museum’s history.

The British who had liberated Overloon halted their advance. Because of this stall, the Germans were able to dig in. They also placed a large amount of land mines. There were more land mines placed north east of Overloon than 0n the beaches of a Normandy.

The 75th Infantry Division had a field artillery battalion with them, the 75th Field Artillery Brigade. They fired from Overloon. The Americans could not advance but they could offer support. The 75th was stationed in tents but if a private residence was made available it was a priority. The museum director’s grand parents hosted some British soldiers in the attic. One soldier got a serious fever. The grandmother told home to come downstairs to sleep on a proper bed instead of the hay upstairs. A British office found out and said there was no need for the soldiers to sleep in the bed. Grandma held her ground saying it was her house, so the soldier stayed in bed. She overruled the officer.

Cases of foot powder were left behind for the American soldiers feet. They had the same socks for over 4 months and their socks got crusty and wet, which would cause trench foot, which would result in bleeding blisters. Once a soldier got trench foot they could not fight. On my trek to sketch the 75th Infantry division I am having to find ways to dry my sock each night.

All the American soldiers were volunteers. There was no draft at the time. People back then were most concerned about what they could do for the country. Now Americans are more self centered. The only/ concern is what is in it for me? That is part of the reason I went on this trip to focus on a time when Americans had different ideals. Today there is no space for dialogue, only fighting. When I look at Social media on X, I turn it off any time I see someone throwing a sucker punch. I tend to not look at social media as much because of this refusal to watch senseless violence.

 

 

Overloon Netherlands: Museum 44

Posted on by Thor

In the town right next to Born Netherlands where the 75th Infantry was stationed is Overloon Netherlands. Although not a town 1st Leutenant Arthur Thorspecken would have been to, it had a World War II museum that I could not resist seeing. I called a head of time but didn’t get through to anyone directly. I decided to go, in the rare hope that messages had been checked and they might be expecting me.

The big blue wooden front doors were locked. There was no answer. To keep the morning from being a complete loss. I set up across the street and drew the building, called Grevenbicht, which was once a corn mill. The water from the Meuse River still flows under the building for powering the grist mill stone.

Demolition was happening on the building across from the museum. Young men would come down periodically and throw cinder blocks and other building materials in the dumpster. A Virgin Mary had her own little diorama box on Grevenbicht. Grape vines were hanging on to the gutters and building facade. The tall industrial chimney often had pigeons. At the base of the chimney were some tank treads. The director of the museum is an avid collector of WWII memorabilia and he often scours the countryside with a metal detector finding such things as the abandoned tank treads, butter shells, buttons and coins.

After my sketch was done I started to pack up. I gave the front door one more try, but no luck. Then a woman looking over a fence introduced herself. I let her know I was hoping to get into the museum and it turned out she is the wife of the museum director. He was away at a collectors convention of some kind, looking for more items for the museum, I am sure.

I showed her the sketch I had done, and she was delighted. She invited me into the back yard for a coffee. They have a beautiful garden in back and she had been working on it all morning. She called her husband and we arranged to meet at the museum the next day.

The Battle of Overloon happened between September 30 and October 18th of 1944, before the 75th Infantry Division was in the area in early March 1945. The primary American army unit that took place in the battle of Overloon was the 7th Armored Division. On the flank was the 29th Infantry Division, but most of the fighting was carried out by the 7th Armored.

Over coffee I learned quite a bit about the museum but we needed a translator. The woman’s son spoke English quite well, to be honest, so did she. The son said he should be allowed to give tours of the museum, but his dad hadn’t approved the idea yet. I was given advice to sketch a memorial just past the river going back towards Born Netherlands. She even gave me a dive on where to park. I had another sketch opportunity and the next day I could see the museum.