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.
Plaque honoring 125th Calvary,
"Red Horse" and 3rd Battalion 120th.
Honoring 30th, Municipality of
Simpelveld
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
PHOTOS of Stoumont, Belgium taken by Hans Weber.
Entering Stoumont looking south.
Leaving Stoumont headed to Stoumont Station.
Stoumont Station looking West.
The Bend...where Pieper stopped...two KOed Panthers.
Same shot as vintage photo above today.
PHOTO North of LaGleize, Belgium Taken by Hans Weber
La Rosiere looking South towards Andrimont
La Rosiere looking west towards Cour
Margraten Cemetery, Margraten, The Netherlands
Photos taken by Paul Geilenkirchen
OLD HICKORY Monument in Valkenburg, The Netherlands
OLD HICKORY SQUARE in Kerkrade, The Netherlands
Photos from Feb. 25th, 1945 dedication...Hobbs and Mayor Habets.
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!)
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:
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