Dutch cave tour guide looking for ‘Gimpy Joe’
Who was “Gimpy Joe”? Walther Odekerken wants to find out and figures someone in Pittsburgh knows.
Mr. Odekerken lives in the town of Valkenburg in the Netherlands, famous for its network of centuries-old caves used by the Germans in World War II and later visited by Allied soldiers after they liberated the town in 1944.
He leads historical tours through one of those caves and recently discovered an inscription carved into the stone from the war years.
It says “Gimpy Joe” and has an arrow pointing downward to the name “Wm. Thompson.” Below that it says “Pgh, Pa.” and the date: 9-17-44.
Mr. Odekerken is hoping that someone still remembers who Gimpy Joe — or William Thompson — was and will contact him.
His goal is to honor the man during his tours.
“I would love to trace family members of William Thompson to inform them of part of their history but also to get a picture of him as a soldier so I can make a portrait of him next to his name,” he said in an email last week.
Mr. Odekerken figures William Thompson was likely a member of the U.S. Army’s 30th Infantry Division, the “Old Hickory Division,” which liberated Valkenburg in September 1944 after fierce combat.
The young soldier, presumably from Pittsburgh, must have toured the caves as did many U.S. soldiers at the time and left his mark for posterity.
Mr. Odekerken, 53, is an actor by trade who since 2001 has rented a cave called Roebroekgrove for theatrical tours and team-building exercises. COVID-19 put an end to those excursions, but he was able to switch to guiding tourists through the cave. He said Europeans aren’t traveling abroad as much as they did before, so
Valkenburg’s caves are proving to be popular.
The town has some 250 miles of caves created by the excavation of yellow marlstone used for building material dating to 1150.
The caves tell the tale of the town’s history. Over the centuries, they were used in times of peril as a refuge.
Medieval knights drove villages underground for shelter, priests created underground churches in the time of French occupation at the end of the 18th century, and in World War II, residents found shelter there from the fighting, Mr. Odekerken said.
In 1943, he said, the Germans were looking for places to build underground factories for their war machine. They chose some of the Valkenburg caves for making airplane parts, shoring up the cave floors and walls with concrete for added strength.
The Roebroekgrove cave was used as a storage facility for the factories. But as the 30th Infantry closed in on Valkenburg, the Germans fled the caves with as much material as they could take.
The Americans liberated the town after a four-day battle Sept. 13-17, 1944.
Mr. Odekerken said during all of his years of leading group activities in the cave, he had never really considered their historical value.
But now that he’s doing tours, he said, “The history of all the aspects of the cave is growing more important to me.”
After the fighting, he said, the Americans used a giant monastery in Valkenburg as a hospital. Many U.S. soldiers then visited the caves, leaving behind names and dates as soldiers have done through the ages. But in Mr. Odekerken’s cave, there is only one American name: Gimpy Joe.
That fact only adds to the mystery.
“Was he guarding the storage?” Mr. Odekerken said. “Did he disobey orders and went in even though it was not allowed?”