Saint Martin’s Church Weert Netherlands

Posted on by Thor

With each new town I stop at I go to the downtown market to see which buildings might have been standing in 1945. In Weert Netherlands I decided to sketch Saint Martin’s Church built starting in 1456. Construction lasted for more than 100 years. The tall church tower was completed in 1887. The church was badly damaged in an Allied bombing raid in October 1944. The tall church tower remained standing, The Germans used the surviving tower as an  observation post.

The tower collapsed after a second WWII Allied bombing and damaged the nave below. It took years of hard restoration work to bring the building back to its former glory.

The 75th Infantry Command Post was in Weert as troops were assembled in the Netherlands. If 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken reported here before joining his C-Company he would have seen the highly damaged Church.

As I was doing this sketch I noticed a young man watching me from one of the tables at the left of my sketch. When I finished, he came over and let me know that he was sketching me at work. unfortunately I finished my sketch before he could complete his sketch. He could speak English rather well and invited me for a bite at the restaurant he was sitting in front of.

That restaurant, which is just out of view in my sketch, was MacDonalds. He told me it is the most  American of restaurants. So, I had a Big Mac, Coke and fries in Weert. Actually fries are very popular in every European country I have gone to. My goal now it to find restaurants that to not show fries on their online menus. I went to an Indian restaurant today just to avoid French Fries.

The young artist showed me his sketchbook and he had a wonderful sketch of the Saint Martin’s Church. He managed to catch all the horizontal variegated brick work which I had ignored in my rush to complete my sketch. We became instagram buddies. He had to help me locate a couple of the buttons on my iPhone needed to complete the task. Though my focus is in trying to unearth some of the history from 80 years ago, people keep introducing themselves to remind me that looking towards the future is just as important.

Of  course the artist asked me about the current United States president. I explained that having a wanna be dictator in the White House is part of the reason I am looking at the World War II past. Someone else told me that America has no history compared to Europe.

“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” –Winston  Churchhill

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce”. –Karl Marx

Windmill near Weert Netherlands

Posted on by Thor

Weert Netherlands was a command post and headquarters for the American 75th Infantry Division after the Battles of the Colmar Pocket in South West France. It is possible that 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken could have reported here before joining his C-Company troops in Panningen Netherlands. The 75th Infantry was to set up- a defensive line along the West Bank of the Maas River. German troops were on the East bank of the river and the 75th needed to keep them from advancing back into the Netherlands. The Netherlands surrendered to Germany in May 15, 1940, after a five day invasion. The entire country of the Netherlands was liberated by Allied forces by May 5, 1945.

1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken would have arrived 9n the Netherlands shortly after February 17, 1945. That means German forces still occupied some areas of the country. Weert managed to escape-e major bombing destruction, although areas around the city were a battlefield. The most fighting the 75th saw in the Netherlands was in Roermond.

I like that in the Netherlands they train trees to grow only in tight horizontal Boxes. It started to rain very lightly as I sketched. I leaned over the drawing and waited for the rain to stop.  A fellow walking his dog stopped to see how the sketch was going. He asked if he could take a picture of me holding the sketch and l was happy to pose. This particular windmill has been around for 150 years, so it would have been here in 1945.

I walked towards the entrance of the mill, but it was not open. A pear tree had dropped ripe fruit next to the mill. The tree was on a neighbors property, but the fruit had dropped over a fence by the mill. I picked up a few pears since Seacoast Bank was still denying me access to the finds I had put aside for this trip.

when I went back to my car, I was about to get in and the fellow who had been walking his dog waved and called my name. I had parked right in fr0nt of his home. He invited me into the back yard for a coffee and we talked politics and about his job selling medical equipment. His home was lovely and they had a gorgeous garden. That is true of most homes in the a Netherlands, they love have lush gardens.

It is hard to imagine that this was a war torn country back in 1945.