The Approach to Dorsten Germany

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The 9th army XVICorps which included the 75th Infantry Division were my father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken was leading C-Company swept around Dorsten Germany on their drive towards Berlin Germany. The 9th Army Group General William H. Simpson wanted to avoid Dorsten in the rush to reach Berlin. After passing Dorsten he got a direct order to take the city of Dorsten. Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower had decided at about this time to abandon the rush towards Berlin. He decided t let the Soviets take Berlin and instead the American troops would get the task of crippling the industrial Ruhr Pocket of Germany.

On the evening March 29, 1945 the 75th Infantry Division was south west of Dorsten Germany. The order came to backtrack and take the city of Dorsten. It is hard to advance through enemy territory in day light, it is even harder to advance at night.  The unit headed straight west until they found the railroad lines that would lead straight up towards the city. At daylight the 75th Infantry moved north towards Dorsten with heavy resistance.

Miscellaneous German artillery battalions, engineer battalions, and Anti Artilery units, in short, every available German soldier who was not manning an Anti Tank gun, or who was not already a part of the 180 Infantry Division or 116 Panzer Division was thrown into the battle line to bolster the weakening enemy forces. During the night of March 28-29 1945, Dorsten was attacked. The Germans used railroad flat cars to transport thru large weapons.

This city offered good bridging sites over the Lippe Canal which were desired by Ninth US Army. By noon ofMarch 29, 1945, Dorsten had been cleared but only after the enemy had defended it in severe house to house fighting, employing, 88mm Flak guns, and “Vengeance Weapons” (V-Waffen), primarily the V-1 flying bomb, a feared, versatile anti-aircraft cannon used as a tank killer, mortar and heavy caliber artillery fire.

After Dorsten was secured, the XVICorps established bridgeheads over the Lippe Canal to protect engineers building a crossing, facing sniper fire and enemy artillery, with some units clearing blocks house-to-house before the division moved on.

 

 

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.

Margraten Netherlands: American Cemetery

Posted on by Thor

I decided I should look up a soldier who died under the command of my father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken. The first soldier on the list was Private Dean Bergeron from Rhode Island. He died March 29, 1945 which is shortly after C-Company of the 75th Infantry Division had crossed the Rhine River into Germany. They had been assigned to clear the area between the Lippe River and the Lippe Canal. The 75th was in a battle to take Dorsten Germany in the north of the Ruhr Pocket. They would have had to cross the Lippe Canal to enter the city of Dorsten.  The straight, man made canal, is wide enough for two large barges to pass one another going east and west. The Germans blew a bridge to further slow the advance towards Dorsten.

The 75th Infantry was bogged down on the approach to Dorsten Germany. There were many Enemy Anti Aircraft gun encampments that were well dug in and well defended.  Each had to be aken out with infantry action.  That would mean running straight into German small arms fire or machine gun fire.

Fighting was house to house south west of Dorsten. The Intense enemy fire was worst at night, and caused an M7 Priest to ignite. The M7 carried a 105 mm Howitzer. The British gave it the Priest nickname because of the pulpit like machine gun ring. The fire from that ignited vehicle made the other vehicles easily visible to the Germans.  The fire had to be put out to allow for some camouflage that night. Somewhere in the chaos of this fight, Dean Bergeron lost his life.

Dorsten was needed to bridge the Lippe River and supply armor northward. Troops north of the Lippe River were working on sweeping around the Ruhr Pocket to the north to encircle it.

Dean Bergeron was born 13 February 1920, in Quebec, Canada. He was the son of Antoine Joseph Bergeron and Lydia Laprade. He emigrated to the United States to Vermont under the name of Aldille Joseph Dean Bergeron on 6 October 1920. He later settled in the area of Providence, Rhode Island and enlisted in the US Army on 31 July 1944 at Fort McClellan in Alabama. My father was born in 1920 so he and Dean were very close in age.