Attack of the Roer River Line

Attack of the Roer River Line. A fog smoke-pot throws up a smoke screen along a road in Germany, to conceal the crossing of the Roer River by troops of the 3rd Chemical Co., 30th Inf. Div., XIX Corps, Ninth Army, along a road from Pier to Schophoven. This was in the zone of the 120th IR and this photo also appears in the 120th history book, page 163.

Series of photos of the Feb. 24th, 1944 Stars and Stripes....Attack Across the Roer River:

POWs taken by the 30th during the Roer River crossing. 30th men are from the 2nd Battalion, 120th IR near Krauthausen, Germany on the afternoon of Feb. 23rd, 1945. This same photo is found on page 58 of the 117th history book.

T/Sgt. Freeman V. Horner 119th IR, magazine add for U.S. Army Recruiting. The citation reads: "By his extraordinary courage, Sergeant Horner braved intense enemy fire to destroy three enemy machine guns, killed or captured seven enemy and cleared the path for his company's successful assault on Wurselen." What made him do it?? Says Sgt. Horner, "Something happened inside of me. I knew, suddenly, that wiping out those machine guns was the most important job in the world. And, somehow, I knew it was my turn to do so." Details of then Pvt. Horner are found in the official 119th history book, pages 77-8:

November 16th, 1944, Attack of Second Platoon, K Company from east of Wurselen;

Lead scouts of the Second Platoon of K Company were pinned down 100 yards from the first houses by machine gun fire. The platoon, in the open field, was subjected to severe artillery and mortar fire, and suffered a good many casualties. Pfc. Freeman V. Horner rose up in the face of the fire and dashed across 100 yards of the field. A machine gun from the second story of one of the houses opened up, barely missing him. He fired his tommy gun, and his first burst killed both men at the machine gun. He rushed two more enemy machine guns positions 50 yards from him, dodging and firing. The enemy, unable to hit him, abandoned the two guns as Private First Class Horner broke into the house. As he came into the kitchen he saw one of them disappearing into the cellar and followed him with one grenade and then another, calling to the enemy to surrender. Four of them came out of the cellar with their hands on their heads. When he had made certain that the three enemy guns were of action, he signalled the platoon to come up.

Group of photos: Memorial Plaques and Monuments of which Arno Lasoe, Heerlen, The Netherlands has been involved in the last few years. The 30th thanks Arno for his tremendous effort to preserve the memory of the 30th and US units in the liberation of the Netherlands.

Honoring T/4 Jurgen G. Krohnke, 125th Cav Rec Sq, from Schleswig, Iowa... KIA Sept. 20th, 1944 in the small Dutch border village of Bocholtz.

Honoring Pvt. William Greentree, 247th Engr. C Bn. KIA Sept. 14th, 1944 in Maastricht. On Sept. 14th the HQs of the 1104th Engineer Combat Group set up a forward CP in an old hotel at Maastricht that had been abandoned by the Germans. The hotel formerly had been a sort of "rest home" for the German troops stationed in Maastricht and seemed to be just the thing for a CP. The building was checked for booby traps by two separate parties, but in spite of their best efforts, about 2000 hours that evening a time bomb went off just over the main dining room of the hotel, killing private William Greentree and wounding two others.

Honoring Tec. 5 Robert W. Schultz, 172nd Engr. C Bn, KIA Oct. 15th, 1944 in the village of Vaals
Tec.5 Schultz was killed while out on night reconnaissance on the outskirts of Vaals, Holland.

Honoring Tec. 5 Ed G. Erickson, 120th IR, KIA Sept. 18th, 1944 in the village of Simpelveld.
Circumstances of the death of Tec. Erickson: In the night of 17-18 Sept., the village of Simpelveld, Holland was the traget of the German 674.Eisenbahn Artillerie-Batterie (674th Railway Artillery Battery), between 2200 hours Sept 17th) until 0135 hours (Sept. 18th) the 280cm heavy railway gun fired 12 shells on Simpelveld. Lucky for newly liberated inhabitants and the American Liberators of this small Dutch/German border village, shell number 13 had probably a manufactory failure and exploded in the huge gun barrel as it was being fired. During the bombardment of Simpelveld one shell landed 50 yards to the rear of the Command Post of the 120th Infantry Regiment. Almost all the windows in the building were shattered. Two more shells landed in houses nearby, demolishing them. Technician 4th grade Erickson who was on guard duty was killed and two other men in his unit were wounded. In one of the nearby houses two civilians (father and son) were killed and one civilian seriously wounded.

Mr. Lasoe is now working on a Purple Heart memorial plaque for Lt. Charles H. Bernard, Jr. 117th IR KIA Sept. 17th, 1944. He was killed while clearing a mine field. He was the platoon leader of A & P Platoon HQ 1st Battalion, 117th. His remains could not be recovered (blown up by the mines). His name is mentioned at the Wall of Missing ABMC cemetery in the Netherlands.

PHOTOS of the Memorial to the 30th Division for the Liberation of Maastricht, Holland

Margraten Cemetery, Margraten, The Netherlands
Photos taken by Paul Geilenkirchen

Old Hickory monument ( E Company, 117th ) in the village of Heer (located south of Maastricht)

The translation of the Dutch words are: Daniel Albert Whitcher, Staff Sergeant of C Company, 120th Inf Rgt, 30th Inf. Div. Old Hickory. Killed Oct. 2, 1944 in the garden of Saint Elisabeth Stift (name of Monastery) during the liberation of Kerkrade.

Monument on the east side (German) of the Wurm River bridge near the Rimburg Castle. Close and translation of plaque is below. ( Special Thanks to Arno Lasoe for taking photos!)

On 2 October 1944 American troops breached on this spot the Westwall.

German Propaganda leaflet...late October, 1944

Stars and Stripes photo Friday Oct. 20th, 1944. 30th Division and 2nd AD took Ubach.

Stars and Stripes...April 19th, 1945....Magdeburg and Erie Pyle death articles:

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Cornelis de Klein (known as 'Cor') was a Dutch volunteer who served with the 30th Division when South Holland was liberated. He told us his commander was a Major McCoy. He enlisted with eight other local Dutch men and only he survived to return home. His US Army serial number was 2040. Only with his photo is his vaccination record. He told us he ended up in Berlin where a wire was strung to separate the US and Russian sections. Cornelis came from the town of Elsloo in the province of Limburg. If anyone has any information about Dutch volunteers please send to this website.
Interesting story to go along with the de Klein story above:
You will remember we sent some information over Cor de Klein, well here is another story with also a photograph.
My wife's Mother was living with her Mother in the village of Urmond which is in the province of Limburg, southern part of the Netherlands. The village was liberated by the advancing American troops and after a while my wife's Mother became friendly with Sergeant Andrew C. Moore. He wanted her to return to the USA with him, but she was reluctant to leave her Mother. They corresponded for a while and Andrew sent some photographs showing himself his brother and a snowy landscape. We assume he came from one of the northern states in USA. Eventually, my wife's Mother met Cor when he was demobilized and after a while, they married. However, my wife's Mother always had a soft spot in her heart for Andrew and kept his photograph. I scanned the photo and send as attachment, its yours, however if you ever did have any information about Andrew, who would be about 84/85 by now it would be interesting for us. We know his unit was in Urmond in the autumn of 1944 but no details about which unit.

More information on de Klein provided by Arno Lasoe:

Dear Warren,

It seems that Cornelius (Cor) De Klein was a member of 2nd Battalion, Royal Dutch Stormtroopers (A Dutch Army unit formed in Southern Holland arround October 1944). In general they served at the beginning with elements of the 113th Cavalry Group and the 29th Infantry Division. Army number 2040 would not have been an US Army serial number but an Dutch Army serial number.

Arno

Another Dutch Stormtrooper:

Hallo Warren,

In may pictures I found this.

My father was by the Dutch Stootroepen, you see.

It is my mother (died in 1967) my sister Agnes and my father Lou Schoenmaekers (died in 1995), and me.
Photo and description from Wim Schoenmaekers Email: wimschoenmaekers@home.nl

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From Des Moines Register Newspaper.

Closing of the Aachen Gap. Stars and Stripes