Plettenberg Germany, Böhler Cemetery

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Cross shaped headstones for German soldiers were right behind me as I sketched the Böhler Church in Plettenberg Germany. It seems any time I sketch in a cemetery there is a small army of lawn mowers buzzing between the headstones or it is raining. The lawn care guy mowing near me got closer and closer. I shouted out, “Do you need me to move!” in German. He shouted back “Nein!” After he was done, he looked over my shoulder, probably to see how long I had drawn the grass. After I sketched the church, I considered leaving since it was rather cold, but I could not resist and I turned around and sketched the headstones.

In Plettenberg, the first Allied artillery shell landed just beyond the Böhler Cemetery. Between 10 and 11 a.m. that Friday, the American troops advanced again in skirmish formation, coming down Grafweg, into the Plettenberg town center.

Manfred Rettig recounted: “…My father, Walter Rettig, owned the Wilhelm Schade factory canteen during the war. In 1945, my father had to provide the mess hall for a Wehrmacht unit. Some soldiers from this unit had entrenched themselves above the former collection pond at the Schade company. There was a tank barrier in the valley. As far as I know, these soldiers were killed by the Americans. We children, (about 10 years old) could still see the blood in the ditch for a long time afterward. A few days after the war ended, a friend of mine was killed by a rifle grenade that was found…”

There are over 50 soldiers’ graves in the Böhler cemetery, including 9 graves of Hitler Youth who died during clean-up work in Dortmund Germany. According to a census from January 1951, there are 159 war graves in Plettenberg; a total of 40 foreigners (30 Russians, 2 Poles, 8 Italians) who were prisoners of war, or forced laborers in Plettenberg were buried here; during World War II, 111 German soldiers were buried in Plettenberg. The total number of victims of the Second World War can only be estimated. Estimates range up to 80 million war dead.

After the war in 1949, demolition experts were clearing ammunition near Plettenberg, when an anti aircraft shell exploded. Police Sargent Bruno, was killed and a bomb disposal expert was seriously injured. A 17 hear old farm hand who was showing them the duds, miraculously was not injured. The bomb disposal expert was quickly rushed to the hospital, and doctors tried to keep him alive.

On April 15, 1945, the 75th Infantry Division located possible camp sites for Displaced Persons, and checked road and bridge conditions in the area south of Dortmund Germany. On April 22, 1945 the 75th was given the task of placing road guides on the approach to Plettenberg. The troops then assembled in Plettenberg at 11:30am. On April 23, 1945 the first platoon including my father 1st lieutenant Arthur Thorsecken’s C-Company, set up an Observation Post (OP) on the main North West road into Plettenberg. An OP is a position used by soldiers to monitor enemy movements, warn of approach, or direct fire. On the 24th they were relived of OP duty and assigned the mission of reconnoitering in the area South of Plettenberg, Germany in the Division area to look for road blocks, road and bridge conditions, and ammunition dumps. On April 26, 1945, the 3rd and 1st platoons continued reconnaissance of area South of Plettenberg, Germany in the Division area. The 2nd platoon set up OP at the Division Headquarters in Plettenberg, Germany. The 1st platoon was alerted. On April 27th to 30th, the Division set up Ops at the Plettenberg Hospital and Radio Station.

After the German surrender on May 8, 1945, the 75th Division was tasked with securing the Westphalia region, including Iserlohn and Plettenberg. The division’s duties included managing displaced persons, securing the area, and caring for Allied prisoners of war.

April 14, 1945: Herdecke Germany, Ruhr River Viaduct

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The Ruhr River-Viaduct was opened in 1879 as part of the Düsseldorf-Derendorf–Dortmund South Railway, In May 1943, it was damaged by a flood wave following Operation Chastise (Dambusters Raid ). 19 British Lancaster bombers from Royal Air Force 617 Squadron aimed to destroy the Möhne, Eder, and Sorpe dams using “Upkeep” bombs, designed to skip across water and sink against the dam wall. The Möhne and Eder dams were breached, releasing massive floods. The Sorpe dam sustained little damage.

The devastating floodwaters traveled down the Ruhr river, impacting several towns and villages downstream in the Ruhr Valley, including the area surrounding Herdecke Germany, which is situated on the Ruhr between the Sorpe dam and the Rhine. The flood wave swept away a pillar of the viaduct, narrowly missing an approaching train. The destruction caused massive, though temporary, damage to water, power, and industrial infrastructure in the region. Over 1,600 people died in the flooding, a significant portion being allied prisoners of war and forced laborers.

Forced labor was used to reconstruct the arch destroyed in the floodwaters of the Dambusters Raid, but then in 1945, the Wehrmacht demolished two of the Viaduct’s arches to hinder Allied advances.

The three battalions of the 75th Infantry Division continued to press south towards the Ruhr River. Every yard was bitterly contested by the German enemy whose freedom of movement was limited and compressed on all sides. German troops were hopelessly trapped and were being fired upon by artillery from all sides. The American foot troops continued to press forward three abreast. The Germans were attempting to prevent the Americans from capturing a main road that could offer an escape route across the Ruhr River.

The 2nd Battalion found resistance weakening, and they took advantage of this to drive south through to the Ruhr River. E- Company of the 2nd Battalion wrestled their objective from the enemy. My father 1st Lieutenant Arthur Thorspecken was in the 1st Battalion which found it’s sector crumbling and they reached the Ruhr without major difficulty.

The 3rd Battalion encountered stiff resistance from Germans who had entrenched themselves on the opposite slope of a hill slightly north of the river with the intention of defending that high ground at all cost. As elements of the 3rd Battalion advanced toward the hilltop, F-Company of the 289th Infantry Division, pushed through on the enemy right flank, catching the enemy in a deadly cross fire.

The German positions collapsed and the advance continued to Herdecke with the enemy fighting a delaying action as they retreated. An airstrike was made on the town of Herdecke, and the city was offered an opportunity to surrender by L-Company. The offer was accepted and K and L Companies crossed the Ruhr River on the south side of the town.

The 290th Infantry Division was relieved on April 14, 1945 by elements of the 313th and 314th Infantry in what would prove to be the final battle action in the European Campaign.

Lünen Germany

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Lünen  is just a half hour drive north of Dortmund Germany. My father, 1st Leutenant Arthur Thorspecken in the 75th Infantry Division would have passed just west of this village as the 75th pushed south towards Dortmund.

Lünen was crucial for Germany’s war effort in WWII, supplying coal and steel. The city had steel production, copper refineries, and a large electric power station. Manufactures include machinery, electronic products, cement structures, glass, and shoes.

In Lünen I sketched the Miner’s Housing Museum. The museum is located in the colony of the former Minister Achenbach Coal Mine. The interior rooms are quaintly decorated to recreate what the place might have looked like in the 1920s and 30s, with a tin stove and tea cups on a manicured tablecloth.  The forced laborers would not have had such luxuries.

Lünen, Germany, was a location where forced labor was extensively used during World War II, which was a common practice throughout the Third Reich’s economy. Forced laborers would have had to work deep in the coal mines. Millions of people from across occupied Europe, particularly Eastern Europe, were deported to Germany to work in various industries and agriculture to support the war effort.

The majority of forced laborers were Poles, Slavs, and Soviet prisoners of war, who faced brutal and discriminatory treatment, including inadequate rations, poor sanitation, and constant surveillance. These individuals were forced to work in key war-related industries, such as coal mines (Lünen is in the heart of the Ruhr coal-mining region), steel plants, chemical plants, and armament factories.

Laborers were housed in cramped, unhygienic barracks and often worked to the point of exhaustion or death. The majority of camps in Lünen were civilian forced labor camps, which were widespread across Germany and numbered over 30,000 in total. These typically consisted of basic barracks or converted buildings. The conditions in these camps were generally catastrophic, involving long hours of hard physical labor, minimal food rations, inadequate sanitation, and constant abuse from guards. The Nazi regime implemented a policy of “extermination through labor,” where workers were intentionally worked to death.

Once liberated by the Allies, the Forced Laborers became known as Displaced Persons. It became the allies responsibility to feed and try and return displaced persons back east to their homes. Back in Russia, these displaced persons would be seen as traitors and they would be treated as the enemy.

Numerous German companies profited from this system, including major corporations like Krupp, Thyssen, and Siemens, as well as smaller local firms.

The city faced significant damage from Allied bombings.

On April 7, 1945, a train carrying around 400 German concentration camp prisoners from the Wilhelmshaven satellite camp who were “unable to march” was attacked by Allied bombers at the Lüneburg railway station. At least 256 concentration camp prisoners died in the attack. The survivors were rounded up in a field. The next day, the SS took around 140 of them to Bergen-Belsen. The remaining 60 to 80 prisoners, some of whom were injured, were murdered on 11 April 1945 in in the Tiergarten Forest near Lüneburg by the Wehrmacht soldiers who were guarding them and the single remaining SS officer, Gustav Alfred Jepsen.