Liberation of Belgium

Map of the Attack of the 117th and 119th against the Siegfried Line...Oct. 1944. Rimburg was located between the BLUE line attack zones of the Regiments. The RED line indicates the Dutch/German border. The Square black + red is the location of below monument. The numbers are the pillbox numbers according to German records.

Remains of Siegfried Line pillbox located 500 yards southwest of Rimburg Castle. It was destroyed by US Engineers.

Remains of a former German pillbox, part of the West Wall, near Hofstadt, Germany.

Remains of Westwall Pillbox along railroad between Bocholtz, Netherlands and Aachen, Germany

Westwall anti-tank wall near Schneeberg, Germany east of Aachen, this hill is located east of Aachen along the Dutch/German border opposite the Dutch villages of Bocholtz and Vaals.

M8 armored car of Troop C, 113th Cav Rcn Sq, attached to 30th Sept. 1944 (Signal Corps)

A 117th Co. K Rifleman, Sgt. James Smith with Belgium FFI and civilians, Sept. 1944. (S.C.)

Members of Co. F, 117th Inf. Rgt. are recrossing the Meuse River at Maastricht over an almost complete heavy pontoon bridge. Bridge was constructed by the 247th Engr C. Bn of the 1104th Engineer Combat Group. Since the 120th Inf Rgt. was not downtown Maasticht and the 117th was recrossing the Meuse, only members of the 1104th Eng. C Gp would have been in the city center of Maasticht on the evening of Sept. 14th, 1944. The next day the 120th cleared the Maastricht island.

German 88mm PAK 43/41 L71 left behind by the Germans in 1945 in the Dutch village of Susteren.

Monument in Mopertingen, Belgium for it's liberation on Sept. 7th, 1944 by members of the 113th Cavalry Group. The 113th was spearheading the 30th division through Belgium. The stone monument was realized in 1994 and the Sherman tank in 2004. The folks of Mopertingen had no information about their real liberators so they mistakenly attributed it to the 2nd Armored Division. The Sherman tank was recovered from some training grounds of the Belgian Army. The Sherman would have been originally used by the British Army in WWII and then sold to the Belgian Army.

Unknown British Sergeant of the RAF;
On May 14th, 1943 a Short Stirling MK 1 of No. 214 Squadron (RAF) was shot down above Heerlen by the German Lt. Schon (later killed on Nov. 20th, 1943) in a ME 110 of 3./NJG 1 stationed at the German airbase near Venlo, Holland. Huge parts of the British Short Stirling crashed into the house of the Gilissen family. Three family members died of the wounds the next day. The crew of the British Short Stirling were; Sgt. R. Gibbney (MIA), Sgt. R. Gullick (POW), Sgt. L. Leake (MIA), P/O A. Minton (POW), Sgt. F. Stannard (MIA), W/O L. Sutcliffe (POW), and Sgt. S. Tinkler (MIA). The remains of either Sgt. Gibbney, Sgt. Leake, Sgt. Stannard, or Sgt. Tinkler are buried in the grave below:

Photos of the Belgium/Dutch border crossing monument in Mesch (municipality Eijsden), Holland

Translation: World War 1940-1945 Here in Mesch municipality Eijsden began the liberations of the Netherlands by the Allies. Members of the 30th American Infantry Division nickname Old Hickory crossed near this memorial tablet on Sept. 12th, 1944 at 10:00 hours the Dutch/Belgium border. They are therefore the first Allies whom set foot on Dutch Soil.

A few hundred meters from the above memorial tablet realized by the municipality of Eijsden a new street in the village of Mesch, which they named after the 113th Cavalry Group for its involvement in the liberation of the present municipality of Eijsden.

Photos of the monument for the liberation of the village of Sint Geertuid (municipality Margraten), Holland. Words on plaque read: Sint Geertuid Liberated, 12-13 September 1944 by 117th Regt 30th USA Inf Div.

Plaque of the 30th Inf Div Association, presented 1974, Vrijthof, Maastricht, Holland

3 pictures of an small German anti-tank weapon which is displayed at the Tapijn Kazerne in Maastricht. This weapon was left behind by the Germans in the area of the former Dutch village of Heer which now is part of the municipality of Maastricht.

Note: Text on sign (picture 3) would be:

Raketenwerfer Puppchen

In September 1944 German soldiers left this gun behind in the former municipality of Heer. It is an light anti-tank weapon which was developed in 1944 and came not further then an experimental stage. At the end of the war (1940 – 1945) about hundred would have been used. With this weapon an rocket of caliber 8.8 cm would been fired.

The gun is property of the municipality of Maastricht and part of the collection of Sitichting Maastricht vestingstad. (Foundation Maastricht Fortified City)

Additional detail info about the 8,8 cm Raketenwerfer 43 Puppchen:

Production was stopped in February 1944 at the end of the war 1.649 would have been used or build by the Germans.

Two photos of the monument/plaque for Major Leland Lambe (120th Inf Rgt) KIA on 10 September 1944 by German artillery fire which landed near the entrance of Fort Eben Emael, Belgium.

Note: On the plaque they have mentioned the date of 11 September 1944 this date is not correct since major Lambe was killed on 10 September 1944.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Several pictures of the plaque for Pvt Peter Spoganetz (119th Inf Rgt) who was killed in action in the Dutch hamlet of Koulen.

The plaque is placed (rightside of the front door) on a house in the Dutch hamlet of Koulen which is part of municipality of Voerendaal.

Words on the plaque are:

P. Spogenets U.S.A.

Killed 17 September 1944

As friend and hero for god and fatherland.

Note: instead of P. Spoganetz they engraved P. Spogenets.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pictures of the Old Hickory square (Old Hickoryplein) in the city of Maastricht, Holland

_____________________________________________________________________________

8 Inch Howitzer U.S. Field Artillery gun given to the City of Hasselt, Belgium in 1988

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pictures of the LVT that was recovered from the Meuse river along the Dutch/Belgium border.

The tank sunk on 5 March 1945 and was discovered on 5 June 1977.

__________________________________________________________________________

Aubel, Belgium Tribute

A tribute to the GIs of the 1st, 30th and 99th Infantry Division of the 1st US Army whom on 11 September 1944 liberated our region and participated in the battle of the Ardennes 1944 – 1945.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Sherman Tank at Thimister-Clermont, Belgium

____________________________

Fosse (Temporary) Cemetery

American Military Cemetery Nr 1 of Belgium

8 September 1944 - 12 July 1948

Temporary cemetery Fosse (2199 US and 1600 German burials) was located near
in the Belgium village of FOSSE-LA-VILLE. The village Fosses-la-Ville can
be found some 11 miles Southwest of the Belgium city of Namur.

In proud Memory of the 2199 American Soldiers here buried with 96^th Allied Brothers in Arms.

They gave their lives to set free our country in the fights of fall 1944

and in the Battle of the Bulge.

in 1940's

__________________________________________________________________________

BAUGNEZ MEMORIAL

_____________________________________________________________________________

The area of the Belgium villge of Zutendaal was liberated by elements of the 2nd Armd Div in Sept 1944.
A local WWII vehicle club realized with the help of the Belgium army an small monument and placed an 1950 tank (M41 Walker Bulldog) next to it.